Nestor, thank for your reply. Like I said above I'm not sure where to get the fuel filter. Would you have any info on that?

 

I got mine from ebay ,nissan oem filter.

 

This is the fuel filter Autozone (and some sellers on eBay) have....



Now I have no idea if this is even for my car or where it might be if it is. I'm assuming this isn't the fuel filter you guys are talking about, but the one in the gas tank, right?

 

Slamrod,
Your statements apply to the 4th gen Maxima. Per schedule one maintenance, the fuel filter never needs replacement, per schedule 2 it's changed every 30,000 after the 60k mark. As for installation, again, I think you're thinking of the 4th gen Maxima where the fuel filter is easy to get to and is located on the firewall. In his 2000 I30t, the fuel filter is in the gas tank and for both Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 maintenance, the fuel filter is a maintenance free item (See page 9-7 and 9-8 of the 2000 owners manual). I wouldn't call going into the gas tank and changing the filter an easy job for anyone not familiar with working on cars.

Desktop,
If you still which to pursue the fuel filter, get it from your nearest dealer or from courtesy parts or the like - click me or here click me (item 18)

The picture you're showing is what the 95-99 Maxima fuel filter looks like.

I'd start by cleaning the throttle body to see if this helps your slightly hard starting condition. It will cost you under $10 and is pretty easy to do. With your mileage, I bet there is quit a bit of gunk build up inside the chamber and especially right behind the butterfly throttle plate.
I bet the back of your throttle body looks like this:


Here's the product to buy at Autozone should you decide to try this


Then I'd move on to the other things discussed in this thread.

 

YIKES. I just assumed that the fuel filter would be in a similar location since both cars use 3.0s and have a good number of common parts. I stand corrected. Ive had my fair share of repair jobs and i wouldnt want to touch that so i wouldnt recomend desktop try to tackle it either :P

 

Well, I took everything off to get to the TB and it looks clean as a whistle....



The chamber with the MAF looks really clean, too......



Obviously I don't need to clean anything so I'm putting it all back together. What should I check next?

 

The gunk that likes to make your throttle body, well, gunked, tends to be on the back side of the TB. If you look carefully you can see in the picture you posted a lot of black residue all along the edge of the valve where it mates with the wall of the TB, especially on the bottom. The back side of that valve is probably completely caked with residue. A fully cleaned TB should have that valve looking nice and shiny like a brand new penny.

You might be able to peek in there and see without taking the TB by operating the throttle bracket to open the valve, but either way the thing needs to come off the engine in order to get it nice and shiny.

As for the MAF i wouldnt worry about that for the time being.

 

Exactly. That's why I said and posted a picture of the back of the TB. I see quit a bit a build up lurking behind the throttle plate there Mr. desktop.

You don't need to remove the TB from the vehicle. Simply unbolting it and pulling it away from the intake as much as everything will allow is all the space you need to clean it from behind. You'll either need to temporarily disconnect the throttle and cruise control cables, or disconnect any bracket that's securing said cables. Put a rag at one end, open the valve, then start spraying a cleaning with an old toothbrush/clean rag. Repeat on other side.

 

Ugh....ok then, I'll do that today. Thanks.

 

New development this morning. Aside from having to crank the key about five times suddenly all the lights on the dash went out and I got nothing. I meticulously hooked everything back up yesterday when I tore all that stuff out and I know my battery is brand new and the terminals are clean.

It only did it twice, then after waiting a bit I turned the key again and it fired right up. This is really starting to annoy me. If it keeps going like this I'm afraid the stress will do something to my starter. I hope not.

 

Well something definitely happened, because now the dash lights go out almost every time I turn the key and when it does try to turn over the starter is making this slow grunting sound. I have no idea......

 

Well damn, just add it to the list of things you'll get from the donor car

Check your fuses and all harness you messed with while cleaning the tb.

 

Well since I had to take all that crap off again I just went ahead and removed the starter. Taking it to Autozone now to have them test it—if it fails he has one in stock for $113. It was actually pretty easy to get off. I didn't even need a swivel socket or long extensions.

More to come......lol

 

Out if curiosity i did a little poking around in the search bar. This is a 100% shot in the dark so please do not take action on this post alone; perhaps this could be an "ignition slop" issue?

My terminology might be a little off, but basically the ignition module/switch that you insert your key into develops a very slight gap between itself and the cylinder it sits in and interacts with. People resolve this problem by putting in a shim to eliminate that gap and make the ignition module snug again, using electrical tape or a tiny strip of an aluminum can.

You can test this theory by putting a small bit of "outward" pressure on the key as you turn it - as in towards one of the sides of the circle that is the ignition. Doing so would manually restore the snugness and allow your ignition to properly interact with the cylinder as long as that pressure is being applied. Obviously youd want to exert this pressure gentle and firm and so that the "blade" of the key is applying the force, rather than the flat side, so no chance of bending the key can occur.

I really dont know if this would cause your dash to go out, but since they use the same mechanism i thought its a good possibility to try in the very least - apparently this is a problem with a good number of maxima owners. Try starting the car as normal and if you have problems, try the method i described.

**Again** this is a poorly educated guess - so while its a good possibility to explore and test, i wouldnt take any action based on the results until a more knowledgable member can share their input.

 

Well I took the starter to AZ and they put it on their tester. The dang thing passed...three times. Then I asked him to try it one more time and it made the same noise it did in my car and started to die. I described to the manager what has been happening with my car and he said it sounded like there may be a parasitical drain on my battery. I told him I just bought a new battery from them about a month or so ago, then I brought the car into AZ last week and one of the guys put a tester on the battery and he said both the battery and the alternator passed; the starter however was alternating between PASS and FAIL.

I bought the new starter while I was there and he told me to charge the battery overnight before putting it back in the car. A friend of mine is charging the battery at her house and I'll put it all back together again this morning. I'm hoping it will fire right up and I'll be done with this headache.

Slam, thanks for the info. In all my searching on the Org I recall reading a thread that talked about what you described. I'm hoping the new starter and charged battery will solve this problem, but I will keep what you said in mind just in case. The AZ guy said to bring the car into the store and they would test the battery and alternator for me again—just to make sure they're both working good.

Thanks for your help everyone. I'll report back ....

 

I took the air duct off then I sprayed some PB Blast into the clip holding the top harness and slowly pried that off, then I tied it with a rope to get it out of the way. I couldn't get the clip off the lower battery harness so I just pried the clamp open and cut the tape that was wrapped around it so I could move that aside. I wrapped plastic bags around both battery clamps just in case. With everything out of the way I didn't need to use a long extension or swivel socket to remove the 2 starter bolts. Just a regular 1/4" ratchet and a short extension did the trick.





Now that the sun is warming everything up it's time to put it back together.....

 

Yeeeeee-haaaaaaawww! Fired right up. Ha ha! Praise the Lord

 

See there if this indeed was your problem the whole time,makes the title of the thread laughable knocksensor/starter

 

Well at first I thought the KS was causing the problem. I don't know anything about these newfangled computerized cars with all their sensors and circuits. I wasn't even thinking of changing the starter until I had to tear it all apart the second time to get to the TB. Once I had all that stuff out again I thought what the heck and pulled the starter.

Good thing I did, because now it doesn't have any starting issues. So "thank you" to everyone in this thread who took the time to post helpful advice and photos.

Much appreciated...

 

Great to hear! So, did the TB get cleaned, or no?

 

No...I didn't feel confident enough to unhook all that stuff on the TB in order to pull it out of there. I did open the flap and look back in there with a flashlight and except for being a little discolored there wasn't any build up or gunk.

 

Don't be discouraged you just needed two more plugs and four screws and the coolant lines,if you indeed got down to the starter! Shoot take off the egr and clean it too...

 

Ooops, Now I see the starting issue is solved!!!
I recently got my 96 Gen 4 (178K miles) and in doing general maintenance I had the injectors cleaned when changing transmission fluid and oil. Doing that cleared a code for "multi cylinder misfire", a general code with several possible causes from my understanding. The car was sluggish before, it made a huge difference in the way mine runs, better acceleration and smoother. I didn't have a starting problem, but it's good maintenance anyway and once learned , not hard to do. Anyway I haven't noticed anyone mentioning cleaning injectors as a possible cause to a hard starting problem, but I could have missed it if posted. I still have 2 codes; exhaust O2 and Knock Sensor so I'm glad I found the thread., I'll slow down and try some things before tackling the sensors themselves.