Hey guys

When I turn the ignition, and after the car starts up, sometimes it makes an odd noise, kind of like "erroooo". It only does it at start-up and even then its not a consistent occurance.

I let my brother hear it and he said to him it sounded like "the starter is free rolling after its got the car started" but he then continued "it could be a belt rubbin somewhere"

Does anyone have an idea? The car is runnin on the original battery, so maybe the starter could be trying harder to draw the necessary power from the battery that it may no longer have?

just throwing out ideas, any help is greatly appreciated. I am stopping by my mechanic tomorrow morning, but I just want some idea before I go in.

Thanks guys

 

do you mean right after you start the car up it sounds like it revvs higher and then goes to normal?

 

no, its not the car revin, it happens as the car revs up, this sound completely drounds out the rev.

If you have the car on, and then turn the ignition again, you will hear a static noise, followed by the noise I am describing....but Like I said this happens at start up, and only started bout 2 or so weeks ago

 

never experienced that, wish i could help. if there is some way for you to get a sound clip that will help the more experienced maxima owners diagnose it

 

I can't get a sound clip, sorry. But like I said, I am stopping by my mechanic tomorrow morning, just wanted to see if anyone else has heard of this problem or had it themsevles, it doesn't seem to be affecting the car and it only happened after i tried to give some hippy and his old *** VW jetta a jump, which is why I think it may be the starter tryin to draw power from a battery that can't supply enough anymore

thanks though

 

if you think it might be the battery take it to autozone and they will check it for free. becuase if its your battery its a simple fix and your mechanic might charge you for his time to tell you something that autozone tells you for free in 5 minutes

 

True about autozone.

But my mech has been a family friend for bout 15 years now, he wont hesitate to give it a free look, he will only charge me if he has to do some extensive work to diagnose the problem.....

But If he can't help, I'll try the autozone on my way home from work tomorrow, because by the time I get out of work today (on my way in as a matter of fact) it will be closed...

If anyone else has any ideas, let me know

 

yours might do what mine does...apparently the starter selenoid doesn't disengage soon enough after the cars already started...so the starter over-revs or doesn't disengage from the ring gear on the flywheel...

some other guys on the forums here...just opened up their starters and re-greased...it worked for all of them...I haven't done it yet cause I'm lazy...

 

hey mine does it too, i think i might know what your talking about although yours seems louder than mine... it only does it when its really cold, it could be the transmission.. i have a 5 speed too and i noticed it the other day, it went away when i pushed in the clutch, but only before it was warmed up. soon as i started it it went "errrrrrrrr" but i dunno. oh i work at autozone, have them do a battery test with it on the car- they can also check the starter and the solenoid and seeif the gear extends but you have to take it off and bring it in. does it go away when it warms up? or just after every time you start?

 

well it does it when it's cold...since the grease in the starter is settled and harder...mine goes away after about one or even a half a second after start up...the sound never happens with the car running...

 

yea it only occurs when the car starts in the cold, and 2 weeks ago is when it started getting really cold around here, mine is a five speed also....Better safe than sorry, i will ask my mech anyway....

Thanks for all of your help guys!

 

Mine's been doing it too!!

Best way i came iup to explain the noise: run ur car...... and now try to "run it again" while running (starter will make the exactly same noise)


So basically i feel like the starter is "over cranking" the engine.


How bad that is?? anything to avoid this from happening?

BB

 

sounds like it!!!

and it does happen ONLY when COLD and mostly the first start up of the day.



Any big issues here????

 

it is overcranking the engine...the selenoid isn't disengaging...I did some research on the forums a while back and it seems a lot of 5th gen's have this problem....

heck, I only have 40K miles or so...and mine has been doing it for the last few months...I think it needs to be taken apart and regreased/rebuilt maybe...

according to other guys who have had this same problem did that and it worked like a charm!

 

regrease the starter? Mine did the same thing. Now it stopped for some ghostly reason...

 

Too cold to work on the car... did u read anything about NOT fixing and driving like it is till spring comes???!!

 

I experienced the exact symptoms. In particular, I noticed that cold starts and colder weather exacerbated the problem. I pulled the starter and regreased it. The starter did not squeal for a week or so, and then started again. I elected to wait it out and see if the starter would continue to work even with the sound.

I got my answer on an out of town trip. I think the change of seasons finally hammered the last nail in the coffin. To make a long story short, my wife and I were stranded 150 miles from home. Driving this long on a tow strap is NOT fun.

One final note. I clocked about 5,000 miles on my odometer from the onset of the noise to failure of the starter. I wouldn't wait any longer.

 

I dont know If you just had bad luck there dude but mine made that exact sound that everyone is talking about here all last winter. I took the starter off and regreased it once it got warmer out. As you can imagine to my great surprise the sound has started once again about 2 or 3 weeeks now (since it has gotten cold out again).
If you can live with the sound I say why change the starter. My car atleast starts up perfect, it does sound strange and is kind of embarrasing but it works. I will wait till it gives out before I change it.

Just my .02 cents!!!

 

I noticed my engine over revs when I start it. My guess is becuase its cold. But what makes the engine rev it self so high when its cold, if thats true. One time it got up to about 5k.

 

Are we talkin about that Bzzzt noise after you release the key? Heh mine's done that since I bought it 2 years ago... off and on. I've left it and it's been fine. Hell,it happnens more OFF than on. So I've not been too worried.

 

5k!! Unless your holding down the gas (Your not are you?) then you should start looking for vacuum leaks, what does your car idle at when it is warm and cold? Is it smooth? don't answer in this guys thread either, START A NEW POST!

 

Thanks for the input Eric.

tough call here: to replace or not to replace, thats the question!!


Later guys

 

O-o

Funny to see this tread come up today. I was just surfin the org looking for some info on this It is VERY cold in my area (sub zero) and I get to hear the same noise on the morning start-up. It only does it when it is very cold out. So, it is starter, eh... To replace or not to replace... Considering that the grease thing is only a temprorary fix, I think I will wait for the first signs of mis-starting to replace it... Anyone else has any other experience with this or suggestions?

 

Well guys, I just had mine replaced yesterday, and at the mech is started up beautifully, however this morning when i started the car (with a temperature in philly at a balmy 9 degrees F), the car made the same noise HOWEVER, it was noticeably quieter, and not as pronounced. This leads me to believe two things.

1. Our starters suck in cold weather, and if its a beat up one, it will make that noise louder.

2. a new starter is hit or miss, like I said, it did it 1 out of 4 starts, today, when I leave work, will be 5 starts, and when I leave the gym 6. I will post later tonight my results.

but once again, new starter = considerably less noise and less horrible sounding since I know what the route cause is.

 

BAD BAD NEWS!!!


Damn it!!!



And before you you count how many starts... i thought the noise would occur only in the first start of the day. Anyway... that is BAD news!!!

Later

 

Guys, don't fret.

I just got off the phone with my mech and he told me this

"this is a geared part and it may have a particular sound, and since you were actively listening for it this morning may be why you noticed it in the first place....."

he continued

"it could just be the weather, whenever the weather gets nasty like this and gets this cold, cars will make noises that you wouldn't notice in warmer weather.....and on the orginal starter, it was damaging your fly wheel so that one was definitely going bad, it could also be that your flywheel may be damaged in one spot more than the other which is another possible explanation for the noise.....everything is garuanteed, so keep an eye on it for 2 or so days, and then let me know whats going on and we'll take care of it"

my mech is the ****. always willing to go the extra mile for me.

 

well, glad I read this thread, been wondering what that dang noise was when I started my car in the mornings, I was sure it was the belts, so I bought the belt spray lube or whatever you call it and blasted it....... same noise this morning.... come on here and look and find you guys talking about it....cool....... thanks for the info. I'll not be replacing it till it needs it. just got my p1320 code this week....sigh got my coils on the way...... Merry Christmas to me I guess.......sigh.... lol

but thanks for the info. on the starter, you guys are great!!!!!

 

I had the same noise a few weeks ago until one day my 2000 maxima refused to start. I replaced the starter and the noise never came back!

 

over cranking, rpm rev up bit more after start, fell like restart again......all this syptom I think is starter solenoid issue, happened to me before, I took it apart and regrease it, 3 month since now, work great without problem, temp down here morning approx 15-25 F

 

I had the same problem about 3 years ago on my 2K @ about 50K miles. On another site (no longer on-line), I located a resolution. The fix was to remove the starter, disassemble the engaging mechanism, taking particular care to clean all of the old grease / grime that had accumulated on the head. Once it was clean of all of the old grease, regrease it with white lithiolium grease (sold at Autozone or even WalMart). I did this and it has been working fine. I now have over 100K on the car.

My belief (and as was explained on the other site) is that the old grease with the grime became too solid during the intense cold to let the head disenage properly. That additional 2 seconds led to the high pitch whine that you are hearing on very cold mornings (typically first starts).

I have no idea why one of the earlier posts reported that a new starter had the same problem, unless it had someother problem that kept the head from disengaging or it was a different problem all together.

I know of an individual that has the same problem with his Altima, so I believe it may be related to Nissan around this same era.

Regaring to the explanations posed by other's mechanics, I have had several other vehicles without any such problems and they encounter the same climate as my Max. My other vehicle is a Toyota of greater age and miles and it has never had this problem. I don't think we are just listening for the noise...it's truely there and very distinctive (and embarassing)!

I was glad to be rid of the noise as it was driving me crazy. It does take some time and effort to get to the starter. It is under the air cleaner housing, accessible from the top front of the car.

Good luck. Hope this helps.