Good morning team,

I bought a red 1996 Nissan Maxima yesterday as a kick around car and its got some electrical gremlins. When you jump it, the car starts, runs and drives with no problems. However I noticed that after a few hours of getting the car home, the battery drained and the car wouldn't start. The vehicle has a new alternator, a new-ish starter (from what I can see) and a new battery, purchased by the vehicle's previous owner. I thought it had a parasitic drain, however when I hooked up my volt meter to the battery, the drain on the battery when the vehicle is completely off, is only .2-3 mA, which is well within range. The battery light isn't on inside either.

Another example is that I had the car running for a bit, and then turned it off, left it off for about 2 minutes, and then attempted to turn it back on and it would just "click click click click click".

I don't know where else to go from here, and any help would be appreciated.

 

I would get the battery tested. Sounds like it is not holding a charge. Have you verified that the alternator is OK by checking to see if the battery is getting about 14.5 volts to it when the car is running ?

 

I would also check the grounds associated with the “new-ish” starter.

Specifically, the mating surface/interface between the starter housing and the bell-housing ... the engine surface to which the starter bolts to.

Both the bell-housing surface and the starter surface need to be clean and lubricant, coating, paint, powder coat, other free as this is a significant and important ground for our starting systems.

 

I have yet to do that, as I'm not sure how. Is there an easy way to do that?

 

Buy a voltmeter, and set it to the DC-volts scale, and then red lead to positive terminal of battery, and black lead to negative terminal of battery. YouTube will probably have a few hundred videos of the procedure.

 

Well the good news is, it was the battery after all. The battery tested out as bad, so I swapped it out for a new one, and she cranked right up. So that's that. Now onto doing all the other bull**** this car needs

 

It's not bull****. It's proper care and maintenance.

Honestly, of all of the relationships you've developed over the years, is there any one or any thing you truly depend on more than your car?

 

I know, I'm being facetious. The most reliable thing in my life are all my guitars if I'm being honest, and even then, maintenance on 10 of them is pain in the ***.

However this weekend this car is getting some love. I'm gonna be doing all the valve cover gaskets, plugs, knock sensor (while I'm at it) and EGR tube gasket. Since I've never done the job, what are the tools I'm gonna need? I think I just need a 10 and 12 MM sockets and extensions right?

 

Since the upper intake manifold will be removed, you might consider doing some other maintainence work while you are in there.

Specifically the egr tube which looks like a door handle. It tends to clog with carbon deposits.
One removes the tube, pour a solvent like kerosene or carb cleaner in it. Let soak. Scrub inside with a flexible metal brush.

Then there is the matter of the fuel injecters.
They like to leak sooner or later. It's a good idea to install new or rebuilt ones. Only do the ones or the rear bank for now.

You probably don't want to or need to do this right now. Just be aware that you will need to remove the upper intake manifold again in the future.

 

Yeah I'm gonna do the EGR Tube and gasket while i'm in there, I'm also gonna inspect the knock sensor because I know these crack over the years and its a pain in the *** to get in there.

For budgetary reasons I'm gonna leave the fuel injectors alone. They're $50-90 a pop and even if I found a cheap deal online, its already Thursday and I wouldn't be able to get them this weekend. I'll replace them if they fail later.

 

Regarding the injectors......

They can be rebuilt for about 18 dollars each.

I sent mine to RX Injector in the Houston area.

I sent mine through Priority Mail at the Post Office. They send them back the same way.

Their do same day service.

they clean the injector's and flow test them.

Like new performance .

The injector's you have will fail.

Replace all three under the manifold if one of them leaks.

Good luck on your project.

 

Clean every god dam ground lol, if that doesnt work add a ground.

 

Already been fixed, it was just the battery.