It finally hit 50 degrees here (from 115 two weeks ago) and I went out to start my car this evening (I had drove it at lunch). The idle stuck at 1600 and it ran like crap! Seriously, it was missing and vibrating. No engine light.

I thought I had all that behind me a few thousand miles ago (weird starting issues). I'm not going back to the dealer again to hear their bs. It cleared up in 30 secs. Man, I give up...

 

well i would be geussin' it's your ecu. it runs the rpms higher at idle for warm ups.. u know the stuff. but that's alli an think of.

 

this is not what I exactly want to hear Cold weather is due in town this week starting tomorrow...rain and 45-50 degrees...then 50's rest of week. I'm sure the probs you are having now can't be too far down the road for my Max given its history...in fact I stopped by work right now to print out a list of things I want them to fix while I'm having the ECM replaced.

1st I want the rattles dealt with once and for all...there is no ^&^%$ way a car costing over 20,000 should be subject to sounding like a Rattle trap fishing lure....absolutely unacceptable....I'm sure the dealer will sling his usual crap.."Oh its too rainy, we cant hear the rattles...or its the glove box cylinder, we cant fix that" Bull, just do your job. I explain to the m exactly where the noise is coming from especially on the rear deck lid...I know for a fact that the vibe form the lid iscoming from the middle seat belt white box thingy under the deck...stay tuned...

2nd I know they are going to replace the ecm in an effort to get rid of the squeaks from my mounts or wherever they are coming from...call me a pessimest but I see this a plan doomed to fail...how the frig does the ecm have anything to do with noises that are being made physically by the car? Tech turns mounts off, revs engine, no chirp...turns mounts on "chirp" Sorry maybe I am naive but doesnt the ecm just tell the mounts "Hey turn on! Hey turn off! ???

3rd Everytime I bring the car to the dealer it comes back with some sort of ding on it..either on the door or on the rear bumper. I complain and they just say "hey we can't control what goes on in the loT" Bunch of jerks.......

And(I'm on a roll don't stop me)while checking under the hood today I notice this. Imagine the air filter box...trace it back to the front of the engine where air is sucked in...1/2 way between is where the two pices meet, they can be seperated......well the friggin tards who worked on my car last time left these two pieces unattached as in not joined together! No wonder my car has been running like **** for the past 3 weeks...dumb *******s...they must have taken it apart to try to track down the chirp and never put it back together...accident or perhaps done on purpose? Hmmmmmm

4th Steering wheel vibes......perhaps from all the messing around with the mounts and such.....I bet I ask about that and he'll look at me like I ran over his puppy..."What are you questioning my mechanical ability???" Yea moron I am.....

Arrghh so much more.....this is the absolute last trip to the dealer..if probs not resolved tomorrow I'll have to pursue the lemon law......not going to be easy and probably be like pissing in the wind but I've been going bat**** the last few months over the suppossed world class car....

Don't get me wrong.....if they said "Gee Jeff, we are sorry for all th trouble...please pick another out I would in a heartbeat" I definitly got a Monday or a Friday car thats for sure...if the lemon thing gets laughed in my face I guess its the old Classifieds for Larry(My max) the lemon.

Ok I'll stop being a psycho...I want to give up also Tim.....

I am so pissed off at Nissan right now

 

breath in breath out.. ok calm down.. i seriously believe that the lemon laws apply to your car. so start thinkin' what acc u want on it.. possibly the new 20th ae max??

 

We are playing tag on differnt threads...

You're it !

 

It seems like you got a lemon. The lemon law in maryland states that if you take a new car back to the dealer three times for the same problem, the dealer should buy it back. Talk to the better business bureau and your local Nissan headquarters in your state. If the dealer can't fix it, the next logical step is to go to the next level up and see what they can do. Good luck.

 

Massachsetts laws as we speak.....they really seem bent on it being a safety related issue though...hey I have nothing to lose by pursing it a bit. Thanks for the words...


Tim-Sorry man...didn't mean to upstage you by my rants on your thread. I know how you feel

 

damn, you thread hog, this is my turn to b*tch and moan.

My car had some odd problems starting when new (like alot of other 2Ks). I've had it a year now and its been starting fine for 8 months. I failed to mention it took three attempts to start at lunch. I've been on diag twice and they found nothing. They recommend I leave the car there for 48 hours but couldnt give me a loaner/rental.

It's really no big deal. I took it out again an hour ago and it was fine. Next car, I will really have to consider Lexus/Acura even if its more than I care to spend. I dont want a perfect car, I just want some service. In all fairness, I havent asked my newly found 'good' dealer to take a look at it.

 

I said I was sorry!!

I think that is the worst part of the Maxima.....you have a problem and it is unpredictable when it will strike again. Nothing worse than going to a dealer and having the flipping thing run like a gem..grrrrrr

Maybe I'm asking too much but I DO want a perfect car. I don't want squeaky engine mounts, I don't want rattletrap city...I don't want the drivers side lower than the passengers side..(Make a fist and place it in the rear wheel well towards the trunk where ther body curves down...I bet depending on you hand size, that it will barely fit on the drivers side but you will be able to clear it with 1/2-1 inch to spare on the passengers side)Why do I mention this? On a flat surface it looks like my Max has a slight cant to the left. Yeah you guessed it..I'm LOOKING for things to ***** about now...its gotten to that point.


So you say it was stuck at idle at 1600? Like if you drove for a bit and came to a light the idle would stay at 1600? Man that does seem sort of high.....and of course it is running fine now right?

Like I've said before...my Celica was a gem to own...no probs at all...maybe I was sheltered from the real car owners world by owning that car and what I am going thru is normal...but I swore i bought a Maxima not a Monte Carlo (broken engine cradle welds ugh...could be worse I guess

 

tim. i have experienced that problem. during real hot days my car does that. it goes crank crank crank thump starts. is this what you are experiencing? what could it be? vapor lock???

oh jnm2kse. now you're it.. let's play tag on the test forum. i think ppl gona get mad.

 

I've had this problem earlier in the car's life. It used to crank and crank. I let it go, crank it again and it starts up. I haven't had this problem for a while.

My theory was that the chip in the key and the starting thingy didn't communicate correctly with each other. ...And I'm still standing by that theory!

 

i think we might have diff starting problems. i never had to let go and re crank. did u timw?

 

Hi, guys seems like you are experiencing hard starting in either cold or hot weather..well there is one section in the manual that says press the gas pedal fully when turning your ignition key to start when the car becomes difficult to start when weather is extreme (cold or hot)!!!!!

Did you guys read that part?????

 

one was just not firing, cranking another time or two then it runs alittle rough for 10-20 secs.

the other was really scary about 4 months ago. I cranked and it almost sounded like the starter was freewheeling. No resistance and a very high pitched noise... but it was cranking over because I could see the oil pressure light go off. Like no compression. finally I got upset/frustrated/pissed and cranked for 15 secs and it fired (still making that sound). that one was really bizarre. Never happened again.

the dealers advice? "Crank it til it starts and we'll buy you a starter if you fry it, we made a note on your file" Not exactly the answer I wanted (or be stranded somewhere). Luckily most of this has gone away. today just brought back bad memories.

 

nope i never touch the gas when i crank. only have a wierd habit of keepin' the brakes depressed. haha probably from drivin' stick, just incase i left the car in gear. i'm also always affraid of the car revin' too high when it's cold. i've never driven the car for the past year without letting it warm up. i know on old carberated cars u tap ont he gas so the throttle plate would click. sometimes it's stuck open or something.

 

I had a similiar problem starting an RX-7, which is related to what you are reporting: turn it over it does not start, do it immediately again and it starts. I always had to turn the key twice to get it to start. Good thing the starter was strong for I always thought I would wear it out.

The initial problem was if you started the car and immediately turned it off, and then tried to refire the car, it would sometimes flood the engine. Yes, it is possible to flood a fuel injected engine.

I later found out there was a known problem on the RX-7s and the ECU.

The dealerships way of fixing, and the only way, was to install a delay on the fuel pump so that when you hit the key the first time, the fuel would be delayed going to the engine. This prevented the ECU from providing too much fuel at startup and thus preventing a flooding scenario. Hitting the key a second time caused the engine to fire immediately as if there was no problem.

Anyway, it sounded similar to the "two turns of the key" problem of getting the car started.

 

man i feel really lucky and i feel bad for you guys at the same time. other than the TCM update for my 2k i have had no problems at all, and at 25k miles it still doesnt have a rattle. and i even get good gas mileage. i got one of the earlier production ones. do you think there is any connection between that? between the fact that mine was early and has been reliable. what i mean is do you think they just payed more attention to detail to the earlier ones so they gave a good impression? i dont know, just a thought. i wonder how far the maxima will slip in the consmuer reports reliability survey after being #1 by the end of the 4th gens' run....this whole situation baffles me....one more question, when the 95's came out, were there a lot of problems with them? is this just a first year thing, or is nissan reliability getting a little suspect?

 

I think you hit the nail squarely on the head. My co-workers 2K Max was built in 07/99 and his car exhibits absolutely nothing that my 04/00 built Max does. Car seems more solid, maybe a few squeaks on the bumpy roads but other than that his car is gold.

Then again I think Tim's GLE is an earlier production Max also so maybe that shoots that theory all to hell

I would not doubt that the new model syndrome may have something to do with it and I also am a firm believer in the built on Friday = POS analogy.