I own a maxima 2000. I had to go away for 10 days and had my car in my indoor parking. when I came back and tried to start the car I found out the battery is dead. I changed the battery with a new one but now the starter starts but the engine does not. All the lights and devices turn on ok. HEEELP MEEEE!

 

are all the fuse still ok??

when you turn the car to On position, does the check engine light turn on too?

check both fuse boxes inside the car and under the hood.....I would check on those first.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, Yes it actually does. What sort of stuff should I be checking for in the fuse box (other than the obvious burnt fuse) and which fuses should i check? Because I checked them last night and they seemed ok

 

Check your distributor , alternator, and starter.

 

Does his engine have a distributor?

 

Check the fuel pump. Do you smell gas from the exhaust? Do you hear a high pitch sound near the fuel tank when ignition key is turned to on (run)?

 

so you've checked both fuse boxes and all the fuses are fine. Oh~ and there is one more fuse at the battery positive cable. I doubt this is blown becaue you are still getting powre on your devices.

CEL is on, so the ECU is powered.

check your battery again with a multimeter to see there's enough output. If you dont have one, try to start the car again and listen to it. if the battery output is inadaquate, it will sound like it's dying.

have you checked your fuel pump and fuel pump fuse inside the car? you can double checkyour fuel pressure by just trying to pinch the fuel line. If it is soft, there's no fuel pressure. or you can check your fuel pump by putting your ear onto rear driver side passenger seat and ask someone to turn the car the on pisition. You will be able to hear the fuel pump buzzing for a second or 2.


good luck~

 

UPDATE:

I have checked the fuses both inside and outside the car they are all ok. I also checked the battery output which is fine. there is pressure in the fuel line. As for the distributor , alternator, and starter I have no clue whatsoever where the heck any of them are! I am out of ideas and all I know is that I am not sure that my next car would be a Nissan :-( cause I havent been riding her hard at all since I bought it new in June of 2000 (50000 KM)
Thanks so much everybody for the suggestions If you have anymore I would be glad to hear them

 

we dont have distributor - we have an ignition coil for each cylinder.

if your starter is working as you mentioned and if your battery is fully charged....you can start the car without a working alternator.

since you have fuel pressure and all fuses are working....now the only thing that I could think of is the timing. But we have timing chain and I rarely hear about people having problems with them.

you have the car for a while. I am just wondering, when you start the car this time, did you hear anything strange? or there's something that you usually hear but now it is not there.

 

No I did not hear anything out of the ordinary. I finally took the car to the dealer. After couple of hours of labor and about $472 they said it was the security system the one that responds to the chip in the key and they had to replace it Hmmm! and ofcourse it was not covered by Nissan. Does anyone know any address whether in Canada or US that I can contact and complain about?

PS thanks guys for the advice and suggestions

 

Geez, a security system?? Who installed it? Why werent you notified?

I believe this is the right address:

Nissan Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 191
Gardena, CA 90248
(800) NISSAN-1 (or 800-647-7261)
9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Eastern / Central Time
8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time
Monday through Friday

 

it's the stock security system because it only recognizes the keys.

now that's a good lesson for us to learn. I wonder if it is just one key that went bad or the entire security system is screwed up.

 

there is tsb for this
http://maxima.theowensfamily.com/tsb/NTB99-063c.pdf