hey guys I am working on a 2000 Maxima with a hard/no start. The car has 95k and is auto. This car came in on friday I went out to try to start it and alls I got was crank, crank, crank, crank. So I went in and got my consult, checked dtcs, (there was one for tcs/circ p1212 I think), so I turned the key and it started. At this point I figured cool this should be easy......nope, not that easy, shut it off and did it again. So I checked
-every fuse
-has new battery
-swapped the ECM relay
-pulled the plugs and they are new
-checked for vacuum leaks
-good fuel pressure
-new starter
-swapped in known good crank sensors(both)
-cleaned negative to body ground and negative to enigine ground
-so I cleaned acouple grounds on and around the engine bay and it starts every time now, but it has a 1-2-miss style crank. It will crank, crank, crank slow, crank crank start. Almost every time it starts this way. Now by crank slow I mean it cranks as if the battery is about to die then crank, crank start.
My POS count fluctuates quite a bit and sometimes does not even reach 180 and it also seems that before that stumble I dont have spark at the coils. I hooked up an inline spark tester to verify this. Once the car is started it runs excellent with no issues.
Someone help me out this car is kicking my ***. Thanks

 

possibly alternator or starter. I'm leaning twords alternator being that it has a new starter

 

alternator? Mind if I ask why you think so?

 

Im having this same issue with start ups. Sometimes in the morning it will fire right up, other times (say 1 out of every 5 starts) it will Crank 3 or 4 times, and then finally turn over.

Not sure what it could be, but the Alternator is brand new, the starter is less than a year old, and the battery has tested out good.

My next step was going to be to change the two crank sensors, and see if that helped...but you've already done that so....im kind of at a loss as well...

My only other guess is that I have a voltage drain somewhere, but wouldnt that be consistent with every start up, and not 1 in every 5 (approximately)?

 

Was the tranny recently out? If so, this one bit my *** as well:

http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...verything.html

 

when they start to act up they don't give the correct power to the vehicle components whcih makes them act funny. could be the case

however if you had your tranny out check that thread above it sounds promising.

 

+1 for the ground strap. Ran a 2 awg cable with 2 eyelets from the 17mm bolt on the starter(lower bolt) to the negative battery terminal. Ground strap was purchased premade 36" long for $35 from Napa. Had to open the hole on one of the eyelets for the 17mm bolt to fit threw but it fits excellent and the car starts great.