My son's 2000 Maxima SE was purchased in 2006 and now has 197,000 miles. The car is now used as a back up vehicle, so yes, it sits garaged for several days. I have always done the maintenance on it. Recently it has been hard to start. About 10-12 cranks of the starter. Sometimes you have to touch the gas pedal which seems to help (of course that should not be necessary). No codes showing. Once started it drives fine.
A fuel issue was my first thought. After MUCH research, it seemed like the fuel pressure regulator and/or fuel damper were the culprits. I replaced both, along with the crankshaft and camshaft sensors for good measure. It is still not right and I am absolutely open to further suggestions as I do not know where to turn next. Thank you to anyone reading.

 

Maybe a clogged fuel filter? I’m currently in the same boat with my 2006 maxima. I’ve replaced over 800$ worth trying to eliminate the issue. although mine will stall and cut off! May I ask if you bought either hitachi or oem crank and camshaft sensors and did you change bank 1 and bank 2?

 

I purchased the Standard aftermarket brand through Rockauto. To be honest, I changed camshaft sensor closest to the grille side. I was lead to believe that was the only one on the 2000 model. Uh oh! So much to learn about these engines. And perhaps it is a fuel filter. Was not eager to mess with the gas tank and connections unless truly needed. Thank you for the response.

 

i absolutely love rock auto for just about everything, however Nissans are finicky about after market sensors especially! I did find there are supposedly 2 crank shafts and 1camshaft sensor which is different from mine. However I would try buying the oem or hitachi! And I know what you mean about the fuel tank and all but it’s the only way to get it out, with gas prices too anything affecting fuel economy should be handled to boost it as much as possible also the new crank and cam sensors will help with that

 

 

UPDATE: It is said: "Knowledge is Power." I am one to try the simplest solutions first, so my initial research directed me to change the crankshaft position sensor which I did. When that did not work, I moved on to the other fuel components as noted above. More digging last night revealed that there are TWO crankshaft sensors (front & rear). I did not know this. I had just done the front. And 9mm_mama just pointed out the same in the above post.
Because I was not able to get a rear sensor TODAY, I went to a U Pull It junkyard and removed two rear sensors ($6 each) just in case one was faulty (Murphy's Law, you know) to give that a try. The bottom line is: changing to the used sensor solved the problem. It starts right up normally now. Hurray!!! While I sort of regret having to change the other parts unnecessarily, they were 22 years old. Maybe the new ones will now prevent future headaches, although we'll never really know that for certain. I am just thrilled to have my three week nemesis solved.

 

so glad you got it figured out! Congrats and I hope your maxima serves you well and keeps on behaving 😂

 

And thank you for posting about the two sensors. If I had not found that last night, at least I would have learned it this morning. Appreciate the response. And good luck to you with your Maxima.

 

Just want to add to this thread for future readers - I had a similar problem with a 3.0 motor in my previous maxima years ago that had me ripping my hair out for the longest time. Turned out it was caused by a no name lightweight crank pulley, which the crank sensor was getting improper readings from due to the different metal content and/or shape. Moral of the story is these sensors can be very finicky!

 

Happy to hear the good news. Thanks for sharing!