Ok so my buddy has a 95 maxima like mine, 5 spd etc...he recently got some tranny work done, car came back and was starting really hard like the engine was coughing and shuddering before starting; it does this most of the time but sometimes really noticeably. His CEL came on and we took it to the stealership, they replaced the CPS, mechanic showed it to us and said that somehow some oil/fluid got into it, that was friday. The car threw the CEL again today...for guess what....yup...CPS?

Mechanic said it could be a bad camshaft or the timing belt needs adjustment...said it would cost like $400 just to find out the problem. any suggestions?...any help?...we'd much rather take this one on ourselves so the help would be great guys.

 

I'd check to see if any oil leaks are causing the CPS's wiring to short circuit or not get a signal to the ECU.

Never seen a camshaft replaced on these motors (if you needed that...then just buy a cheap junkyard motor)...or the timing belt needing adjusting. We don't have a timing belt on these motors, they are chains...and if you skipped a tooth...you'd noticed more than this.

I'd check the wiring first...see if your "mechanic" is right in that oil or fluid is getting on the wiring.
Other than that...free bump.

 

I had a cam position sensor failure on my 97 maxima and my car was having problems starting sometimes so I bought a new cam position sensor for $100 and put it in and no more problems.

 

where can i buy one from, and does anyone have any directions on how to replace it step by step

 

Yeah, I would make sure the wiring/harness is not the culprit. Also, like someone else mentioned, there is no adjustment to the timing belt since our cars, fortunately, have a timing chain. Make sure you know whether it's the Camshaft Pos Sensor or the Crankshaft Pos Sensor. There are two crankshaft posistion sensors - make sure you check the right one. To do that, use the ECU fault diagnoses sticky at the top of the 4th gen forums to retrieve the code yourself. Good luck.

 

I am having the same problem on my car. I just replaced the battery and starter. The car starts now.... most of the time, but will still give me that clicking sound when it doesn't. Is it the sensors?? I'm not getting any CEL's popping up though.

 

I had a bad crankshaft sensor code on my car. So i replaced that and now I get a bad camshaft sensor. God damn it. My car is still hard to start to. I'll replace the camshaft sensor as soon as I get money.Hope that will fix it