So ever since i've drove the max cross country (from daytona to san diego) Its been having a problem thats been getting progressively worse. Here are the simptoms. The car is very hard to start when it is cold (temperature of engine). I mean some days it takes me 10-15 minutes of cranking. Thats like 30-50 cranks at 3-8 seconds apiece. It'll just crank and crank. Then when it finally does start. It stalls. It'll crank sometimes (after trying awhile) and idle fine, but as soon as i put it in gear and try to move it stalls. BUT once the car warms up to normal operating temp. It stops stalling all together, and if i turn it off and restart it, it'll start up first try with no problems everytime as long as the engine has been warmed up and the temp. is close to normal operating temp. This happens EVERYDAY. And its taking long and long to get it to turn over the first time.

Now i've searched this and i found a few threads that said to check the cam shaft pos. sensor, and i did. Weird thing is, i took it out, cleaned it and checked the wires, plugged it back in, and my car started absolutely fine and ran fine (when cold) for one day. The next day same exact problem. Tried disconnecting the sensor and plugging it in again to no avail. Same problem. Sometimes (and this only works sometimes) if i reset the ecu, the car will turn over right away. But then it will still stall until its warm.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm pretty baffled. Its really an issue and i know my neighbors hate me cause i'll be sitting out front of the apartment and cranking my car for 15 min. everyday. I know for a fact cause one of them has come out and said something about it (and this was at 2 in the afternoon) luckily i haven't had to go anywhere early in the morning lately.

So with that said, i need some help. What should i check, what should i change? Any ideas. I'm quite handy and i have a multimeter if i need to check voltage or anything....

Thanx in advance.

 

Have you checked all of the appropriate threads from here? http://forums.maxima.org/search.php?searchid=86861

 

Yeah i have and i'm still not getting anywhere. Oh and i have another simptom to add. The car will Buck HARD sometimes if you try to drive before its warmed up. The RPM guage will jump all over the place and the car will surge. If you push the clutch in and rev it, it'll usually even out (And you have to cause the surge is pretty violent). With that extra simptom in mind, could any of the problems in the threads you've mentioned still be it?

 

Have you checked for vacuum leaks?

 

No how would i go about doing that? Are you talkin about from the cylinders? Cause if that was the case it wouldn't just happen when cold. Also i just noticed that when you turn the key to "on" without starting the car. The check engine light Does NOT come on. Shouldn't it always come on when the key is in on position codes or no codes?

 

yes it should always come on before the ignition is fully turned. someone has tampered with it or it has blown out (unlikely).

 

yeah i've personally checked my codes hundreds of times, so i know it worked at one point and nobody but me touches my car. And i can't get it to throw codes at all now i just tried. Like 2 days ago it was throwing a code occasionally. It would throw one, then it would just go off by itself the next time i started the car. Now nothing... Maybe it did burn out <shrug>... that bites

 

from what i understand its not very hard to replace. youve donated so search for it and im sure ull get a writeup. i saw one a couple of months ago.

 

No no - i mean around the intake tubing - eg check all the vacuum tube clamps etc.

 

Check the engine coolant temp sensor. Make sure it's resistance is within spec when it's cold. A good cleaning of your throttlebody helps with start ups as well, but I don't think thats your main issue.

 

Maybe your CPS is going bad? You said you would unplug and replug. Think about replacing?

 

Today the car officially gave up. It won't start at all now it seems. Or at least i cranked it until i drained the battery and couldn't crank it anymore. So i've removed the IACV and i'm cleaning it right now. I checked the resistance on the Cam shaft pos. sensor and it read between spec (1500 ohm) I'm guess its a hitatchi model cause there are two models but the cd manual doesn't say how to tell them apart except for the resistances they are supposed to read. Next i'll check the intake coolant temp sensor. Although its a cold start problem so i don't think thats it either. Hopefully cleaning the iacv will work.

 

I think i finally figured it out. I got a new crank shaft position sensor form a junkyard today and ever since theres been no hard start problems whether the cars been cold or warm, so i think its fixed. The reason i didn't think it was the crank shaft pos. sensor is because i took it to pepboys (When it left me stranded one night i got it towed there) and i told them specifically that i think the Crank shaft pos. sensor is bad, the car won't start so check it for me. And they called me the next day and told me that there was no power going to the CPS (crank pos. sensor) because of a short in my wiring harness, and they fixed the short and everything was fine (they told me) so i payed them for 2 hours labor (what they said it took to find the short) and the next morning when the car was cold again, it wouldn't start. So needless to say i was pissed. I checked my wiring harness and i couldn't find any splices or anything to indicate that they'd one ANYTHING at pepboys. So today i replaced the CSPS on my own and the cars been fine ever since. So i went to pepboys to flip out but i was told that the mechanics who worked on my car weren't there and that they'd be back tomorrow. So tomorrow i'm gonna go in there and pitch a full on ***** because i can't see how they charged me $200 dollars in labor (2 hours at 89.99 apiece) and they didn't even check the part i told them to check. When i pulled out the CSPS it was covered in metal shavings (its a magnite). So i could tell they didn't even pull it out to check it even though its only one bolt to get out and it took me 3 minutes to pull out on my own. I'm gonna go in there to pepboys tomorrow and make them show me what they did in the 2 hours they charged me for and they better have a damn good reason for charging me 2 hours labor or i'm gonna ***** and ***** till they refund my money or satify me in some other way. I'll keep you all posted....

 

I am having the exact same problem (down to the killing of the battery trying to crank!). I have replaced this sensor once before to resolve this problem. I'm guessing it's dead again.

I am going to pull it and test it out today. Any places I can get one quick for cheap? Autozone and Advance both want 55 for it...

 

I had the same problem. It cost $500 to me. The shop charged $125 for sensor and $35 labor to be replaced even though the job was only for 3 min.

 

So I pulled the sensor by the oil filter and it spec'd out fine. It was a bit oily so I cleaned it.

I pulled the other crank sensor and it had a good amount of metal shavings on it. So I removed the shavings.

I reinstalled the sensors after their cleaning and she's starting good now.

 

how does $125 + $35 = $500

this defy logic.