Recently just bought an 01 Maxima a month ago. When it was a bit warmer out (40-50 degrees), it started pretty good, turned over after a couple cranks. Now, it's extremely cold (-10 is the low so far) and it struggles to start. Sometimes it'll act like it'll start, RPMs go up to 1k then after a couple seconds it dies. Immediately after I try to restart it and it restarts fine (normal idle is around 1500). My initial thought was maybe a battery or alternator, but both have been replaced a year ago by the previous owner. I'm thinking maybe the battery is keeping a low voltage.

 

sounds like dirty throttle body, if you give it gas when it jumps down does it continue to run fin?


i had same exact symptoms, and am pretty sure it was dirty throttle body that just needs a cleaning, try searching for those threads it may be what you are looking for.

 

Also a good idea to check the coolant temp sensor this time of year + with those symptoms.

 

+1 nice point. very common also.

 

Bad fuel (add a de-icer/stablizer to it), coolant temp sensor, and a dirty throttle body and/or insufficient throttle body coolant flow (to warm the incoming air to ease start-up) are the 3 things that come to mind.