to make the long story short.... at 10:45pm I decided to take a break from studying for my test and get some gas for my car. I get in, the baby starts right up, come to the gas station, fill a full tank with 91 ( $2.83 a gallon... ouch!!!) close the tank... and she never started again... Called AAA and in 22 minutes the guy informs me that my starter went on a permanent vacation (well, i already knew that)... this was a 2nd time i had to tow my max, but today she pissed me off pretty bad... a blown starter at 62,320 miles?!?!?!? I am reconsidering my marriage vows...

 

That sux a big one man. Did you have the updated coils and a good maf etc. and it still kicked the bucket all of a sudden like that?

Good luck getting back on the road...gg Nissan

 

no, all my parts... coils, MAF, etc... are all original, had no problems with them... but my damn starter... grr

 

As a consolation to you, it's an easy fix if you can do it yourself. Things do break at some point and you just gotta deal with it.

 

look at it this way: you have 62k miles on your car and its all the original parts still, youve been lucky

 

Yeah i know you were mad at that moment, but i could have been a lot worse. At least you know what the problem is and replacing the starter shouldn't that tough to replace.

 

fixed under warranty?

 

if so, thats a long *** warranty (60k+ miles, 5 1/2 years old))

mines 5 years 70k, so hes cutting it close if its under warranty (figures)

 

not a bad reason to be mad though

 

word. ive gotten pissed for lesser car problems than this

 

its not that bad. could have been worse. well know you will replace it and wont have to worry about it again.

 

You shoulda gotten out a tire wrench from the trunk- opened the hood and smacked the starter with it a few times- it almost always does the trick on a VQ. Make sure you don't get some POS starter from Napa or AutoZone, try to source one from Nissan or you will be doing another one later. My starter was starting to act up around 100K miles and I threw in a Optima battery and it never since gave me issues. My starter would turn over but then it would cut out for a second and come back to life again, it wasn't really my battery, but Optima has soooo much power it takes literally half a second or less of holding the key to fire up the engine- she fires up with authority every time, better than when she was new !

 

yeah, the AAA dude who came to my rescue beat the bejesus out of my starter with a lug wrench, but the thing did not start again. I removed the starter form the car already, and it shows on signs of life...

 

yeah i give a thumbs up on the optima red top batteries. i just picked one up from costco for $100. the car fires up better then it did with the oem battery and plus the optima you dont have to service.

 

$100 for a battery?!?!? isn't that a little too much?

 

The Optimas have a gel composition, not a liquid that's affected by heat or vibration as much. I paid around $160 a few years ago, for my Yellow Top deep cycle as I have a serious system. The Optimas are worth every dollar.

 

You know... you didn't have to call AAA All you need was a screw driver and a ground wire and by pass the soleniod and start the sucker up. But sorry to hear about the starter man. 62k seems too little... unless you start it up alot in the past. Which I highly doubt.

 

can anyone please expand on this? how exactly is this done..? never heard of that...

 

My starter is on its way out. It didn't want to start the other day and after 3rd try, it started right up. Plus the mech. told me that i should replace the starter as soon as possible.

ps- don't divorce your maxima, just cheat on the max a couple of times, it'll straighten her out.

 

back in the day (2000) i had a corolla. i gave somebody a jump, then i drive home and take the key out and the engine was still running. i went inside to call AAA,looked out the window, and under the hood was on fire. at least there was no fire wit you