Hi

I just joined maxima.org, but I've been lurking for a while now. I'd like some opinions on a problem I've developed in my Y2k SE.

Over the past couple of weeks it's had times when it's difficult to start. Cold starts are usually fine. But say I drive 25 minutes to Home Depot and spend 15 minutes in there, the car will be very hard to crank when I come out. It's almost like a "flooded" carburated engine. Usually it will crank after 10 min. or so, but the other day my wife couldn't get it started and killed the battery. I eventually got it cranked but does anyone know what the problem could be?

Thanks
Brad

 

question 1) does the starter turn over quickly? if no the starter is getting two hot & that slows it down (my 71 olds has that problem starter is 2 close to the starter) if so did you change your exhaust (put heat wrap on the starter)
2) starter cranks as fast as normal the problem is spark or fuel to check spark pull off a spark plug wire put a old sparl plug in put the plug very close to the block & crank the motor of you see spark ypu have a fuel problem no spark & I cant tell you far to much high tech stuff for me.

 

If it’s hard to start after short trips it could well be that your battery is on its way out. How many miles do you have on it? Traded my 2k this past May with 36k miles and never had a problem. Perhaps I traded just in time before the minor problems, but still have the '91 Max in the family and did have a similar experience with it once like you've described but it turned out to be the battery. It would run fine on longer trips when it had time to charge, but on very short trips it was a guarantee not to start if I shut it off. I'd check the battery first.

 

It is not clear if you are saying it is struggling to crank or it cranks fine but just hard to start.

If it is the latter, have you tried 1/4-1/2 throttle. Not supposed to be needed I know on an injected engine. But it worked on my old 01.

 

The car cranks strong but it just won't start right off. It always starts eventually though. It's really frustrating b/c my wife won't get off my back about it.

A local mechanic had the car for the last few days and could only reproduce the condition once, but the car began starting before he could diagnose the problem. He said something about an injector "pulse" missing. I got the car back for the weekend. I'll let him have it again next week.

It's definately not the battery or starter. Car has 60k miles.

Thanks guys for the replies.

 

same problem just happened to me. it's never done this before (2k GLE with 70k miles)

the started would turn over, but it wouldn't crank. i did the trick to put it in N and start like that and it did.

 

Finally took it to the dealership.

The problem was the electronic key. The mechanic said when it wouldn't start, he could bang the key on his hand and it would crank. New key = problem solved. By the way, when I bought the car used I only got one key.

Total cost, parts & labor = right at $150. That sux for just a key but it could have been a lot worse I guess.

Anyway, have any others had this problem?

Maybe others will consider this when their Max mysteriously won't start randomly.

Thanks for the replies,
Brad