Hello all. I`m new to the site. Glad to be here.
Here is my issue.. I bought my son a 2000 Maxima. I put a new battery in it and a new starter. For some reason, When it`s really cold outside.. The car won`t start. it cranks but just wont turn completely over. I will jump it with my car and it starts immediately. The car will then start fine for a few days. Then, out of the blue.. it won`t start again.. it starts immediately when I put a jump to it again.. Not sure where to go from here.
Thanks for the help in advance

 

You might want to check the battery cable connectors at the battery. They can start getting corrosion where the wire goes into the connector. I would also get a current draw/load test done on the battery.

 

I have the same problem on my 2000 maxima

 

So i checked the battery connectors and cleaned them.. I also cut the negative cable and gave the connector some new wire. The battery was tested and it tested out fine.
I am still having the same issue. Could it be the alternator that is the problem?

Thanks in advance

 

check the voltage next time you get it started. with a good alternator it should read between 14.1-14.7 V

 

Clearly, your battery is low when the failure occurs. It would help if you could record voltage on your battery in the following states:

• Engine not running: should be ~ 12.5V
• Engine running, battery being charged: ~14.5V as cornholio suggested above
• Cranking, trying to start the engine: at least 10.5V if the car is to start successfully (actually, we want to know that we are getting battery voltage to the starter, and that by the time it gets there, it does not drop below 9-10.5V)

Re. your alternator, the possible issues are:
- Does it charge properly? The answer to the 2nd bullet will answer this question.
- Does it have parasitic drains (or failed diodes, etc.) so that it discharges battery when the engine is not running? On our cars, parasitic/idle state drain should not exceed 75mA; there are posts that describe how to measure it.

 

It sounds like the alternator to me. Do the tests above and if you need to replace your alternator you can follow these tutorials I recently created for a similar issue.