i'm wondering if anyone can shed light on this problem.

history:
my previous starter was making funny noises and giving me a delayed start. i mentioned it to my mechanic a while ago and he said the starter was about to go(a friend of mine also told me this)

i got a replacement starter and had a friend install it. BUT he forgot to remove the cables from the battery and upon lifting the old starter's positive, it slipped and contacted the old starter's housing. i was on the phone at the time but heard the "pop" and saw the smoke. we noticed the insulation from a ground cable had melted so we taped it up and installed the starter.

once the starter was in we tried to start it and got the problem that you see and hear in the videos. at first we thought it might be the new starter but we bench tested it and it worked. funny thing is on a couple of occasions the car started right up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MdzqGYJEzc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOjYEbirRxg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVpz2Or2bsk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPkfD8BVJuM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al2xtIlz400
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzJOTG5qsmc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OH6YcA4VlI


what do you think?

 

I'd start by checking the ground cable that got zapped and the insulation melted.

 

1. well, your airbag light flashes.
2. I agree with The Wizard... probably fried the cable on the inside and messed up the starter relay.
3. my 5th gen has a fuse on the + battery connection... check that too.
4. check the starter fuse in the dash panel

 

That's exactly what my old starter sounded like when it died.
Bench test only proves it spins, obviously when there's a load on it, it's unable to spin correctly.

 

@The Wizard: we checked it as far as we could before we put the starter in. the wire was located with a few more in a harness but the insulation burned only about three inches. the other wires were not damaged. we taped it up.

@00Lightsout: i'll check the fuse and relay

@njmaxseltd: you could be right. i was thinking the same thing

funny thing is once in a blue the car starts normally. last night it started right up, and tonight it started with very litte problem.

thanks guys. i'll check some things this weekend and let you know

 

So I had the same exact problem as you. I had even replaced the starter as a result but it still did the same thing as in your vids only much longer cranking. So you seem to have ignition slop which seems to be a common problem for our gen. This thread does a pretty good job of giving you an overview and what I used to solve the problem: https://maxima.org/forums/4th-genera...tion-slop.html

If your car starts perfectly using a flathead screwdriver then the ignition slop is your issue.

For my fix I cut a piece of a business card to fit the slot and put it all back together(Look at this video to see how to get to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ykT9uCJXSY) since people said that the electrical tape/ducktape method seems to only last temporarily. Now there's no more hard cranking for me and it starts up perfectly 100 percent and it only took about 15 minutes to fix.

 

I had an intermittent hard start & no turnover problem from a parasitic draw. I chased the parasitic draw thru the system and back to the starter... it was intermittently shorting itself out on the inside, & randomly drawing different voltages of power from the Optima over short and long periods of time. Several times per day the it would seem like I had ignition slopp, nope!! needless to say, I had PEPBOYS check my 3rd starter from them, and it EPIC failed. So I replaced the starter AGAIN under lifetime warrantee & got a new battery in it. turns over like a zippo!

prostart starter = no bueno