Maxima 97 SE

UPDATE: It was not the fuel pressure regulator, the long crank came back after sitting overnight at only a quarter tank. After everything I tried it finally leaned towards the fuel pump sending unit and put back my original one that I had laying around and Finally and mean FINALLY after all the crap I did and all the time and money wasted it was a piece of crap fuel pump sending unit assembly. I dont know how but it fixed the issue.I let it sit for 7 hours and my fuel needle is a tad bit shy from Empty and it starts on the first crank like I bought it new. Oh also more importantly the engine idles like new and even revs and sound like new. I mean you can hear and feel the difference once I put back my original fuel pump sending unit assembly. I guess nissan had faulty fuel tank sending units. After a few weeks of trying to figure out why the car would crank excessively before starting on a quarter tank the problem was a bad fuel pressure regulator. I had three of them sitting at home that were taken off from used 95-98 maxima's and all three of them were supposedly bad while one being a little better than the rest but still it was bad. One would loose fuel pressure after about 20 minutes or so and the other about an hour and third one would work fine until a quarter tank of gas is left and then it would start loosing fuel pressure after about 30 miutes or so which would cause long crank times. Before buying a new fuel pressure regulator I bought a brand new oem nissan fuel pump from amazon for only 85.00 that also came with a new filter attached to it and that still didnt fix the problem I was having but the car ran so much better with new like it was new and the lost power and acceleration was back. But then i decided to go to picknpull and pull out a new fuel pressure regulator but this time from a 1999 nissan maxima as they had the new updated version of the fuel pressure regulator with the vacuum hose pointing in a different direction and that did the trick and fixed the long cranking issues I had been experiencing. Now even if the car has a quarter tank of gas it now starts right away on the first crank. The problem always went away with old ones if the car was full on gas but now it doesnt matter if the car is full or not as it starts on the first crank every time. If anybody has had issues with long cranking this might help you. Also by the way all sensors were good and new including cam, the two crank sensors, engine coolant temperature sensor, tps sensor and I had even replaced all the fuel injector seals, O-rings and pintle caps with new original ones from the dealers. But in the end it was a bad Fuel Pressure Regulator.

Junebug1701

Thank you for this! How difficult is it to replace the regulator?

The Wizard

iTrader: (43)

No credit should be given to FPR from a 99, it's the fact that you actually put a functioning FPR in there finally....

FPR's are cheap enough, should have gone new OEM.

The Wizard

iTrader: (43)

Easy. 20 to 30 minutes including removing the TB to give yourself some room to work.

Just be sure to loosen those soft brass screws with a good quality phillips bit attached to a ratchet so you can apply force to the head while loosening to prevent stripping.

Maxima 97 SE

A brand new oem fpr was around 100.00 on Amazon and eBay that's why I didn't buy a new one. I just bought a new fuel pump for 100.00 that I had installed and didn't have the money to spend another. But a new one would of been good. But I am just glad that I got a good working one.