I am having issues starting my 2000 Maxima SE on the cold -20 celcius days. I do not have a block heater, and am going to put one in soon, but it will still start without it. The engine turns over fine, and fires right up, but then it sputters a bit, and dies. It will always fire right back up, but does the same thing. Sometimes it will run for 10 seconds or more before it happens, sometimes it happens right away. I can hear something clicking as it is sputtering or dying that sounds like a solonoid. Any ideas what this could be, or will a block heater just clear this up? It never does this on warmer days.

 

Mine has done this for the past few years. I always just give it a quick rev imediately after startup. Keep my foot on the gas enough to keep my RPMs at about 1250 for about 10 seconds and then it's good to go.

 

check out TSB NTB00-008B, there is re-programming that can be done but most likely that's not the case at all. I had a similar issue with temperatures under 40F. I couldn't figure it out until intake manifold was removed. The problem was with clogged up EGR Valve tube. What happens is exhaust gases are pumped back into the manifold by design to lower combustion temperature and if the tube is clogged then this process doesn't work and causes issue. I have no idea why it becomes apparent in the cold only but that was the problem.