Hi,

this is my first posting, and I don't own a Maxima myself. A friend of mine has a 91, 3l V6, which he used to drive for several years.

Since a while the car simply doesn't start, although the battery is in good shape and the engine turns over. I did an extensive search in the forum but didn't find anything that addresses this symptom.

Here's what we checked last weekend:
o compression about 110psi on all 6 cylinders;
o sparks at each plug while cranking;
o fuel injectors seem to be clicking;
o idle and full throttle switch ok;
o no error codes stored ("55");

Fuel injectors had been taken out and tested; the owners swears that he put everything back together correctly (he had done this before, years ago).

Since we didn't want to flood the engine, we remove the fuel pump fuse and turned the engine over for maybe half a minute. While doing so, occasionally a cylinder seemed to fire! Does that mean that the engine gets way to much gas (with the fuel pump fuse in place)?

Is the engine maybe shot? The compression seems to be somewhat low. Or maybe the timing is way off?

Any ideas are highly appreciated.

Cheers,

Kai

 

How long has it been since the engine was running, and what caused it to stop? Did your friend just come out one day to start it, and it didn't start, or did something happen while driving(strange noise, etc) and then it stopped?
I heard what you said about the fuel pump fuse, but since it is an electric pump, you shouldn't get any gas at all with the fuse out. I wouldn't worry too much about flooding it. If it's going to start, it should start without having to crank it a bunch of times.
If you are getting spark and fuel, then it could be timing, but that would probably mean a broken belt, and I've never heard of that happening without knowing about it. Is it a VG or VE engine?

 

The engine has no turbo, is that the VE?

Apparently he had injector issues in the past. The engine started running very rough, like not all cylinders were properly firing. I think he messed around with the fuel injectors, but seems to know what he's doing. At the shop they told him the compression was low (around 60psi or so) and that he needed a new engine for $4,000.

If the timing belt had snapped, the compression would be very low on most cylinders, right? So, I think it's either injector or timing related. I think he tried a timing light while someone else was turning the engine over. Not sure, if that's a reliable measurement.

Can someone comment on the 110psi compression ratio? Seems somewhat low to me, but should not prevent the engine from (maybe poorly) running... Again, what threw me is the fact that it never seemed to fire on any cylinder with the fuel pump connected... I'm stuck.

Cheers,

Kai

 

how long has it been sitting? have you made sure the fuel pump works?

stock compression is something like 114 or something dumb like that on a VG.

I know it sounds dumb, but check the gas in the tank and make sure it's still good...or just make sure you have gas in the tank.

someone on here forgot to plug in the injector harness after taking the rails out. make sure everything's plugged in.

if your timing belt broke, there would have been a horrendous *BLAM,CLUNK,BLAM!!!* as the valves smashed into the pistons and bent all to hell, so I think your safe there unless that did happen...

 

Here are a few things to check:

1. Check the fuses for any blown fuses. Always a good place to start.

2. Check the timing belt, make sure that all marks line up, that it hasn't skipped a tooth.

3. Was the spark at the plugs good and strong? If they are weak, check for rotor burn through (common problem on Hondas), also check the ignition coil.

4. Are you sure you are getting good fuel flow? (fuel filter, pump) The injectors will still pulse without fuel.