hi i picked up a 2000 maxima yesterday it has 155000 miles 5 speed. When i picked it up, the car had a bad starter so i pushed start it and it ran fine.The drive home was about 45 min,today i woke up and picked up a starter and changed the oil. I put about 5 gallons of 89 gas from shell,had the starter changed and also did the oil. At first the car had trouble starting but it started after that i turned it off few times to see if everything is ok.The car started with no problem, one houer passes by i go back in the car i turn the key the car cranks and no start i hear the fuel pump working and it looks like i have no spark basically am stuck dont know what to do

 

Any check engine lights?

 

Yes there was a check engine light, but when I was changing the starter I disconnected the battery,plus I know that the car was sitting for about 5 months before I bought it

 

Does it have a brand new clutch?

 

Scan for any potential engine codes with an OBD II reader.

I suspect it may be a bad crankshaft position sensor (you have two). Pull them both and inspect them. If they are chipped then they'll need to be replaced. You can also test them to make sure they are working properly. If you find them to be working OK you may need to add a ground cable from your tranny to the negative battery terminal.

I had the same exact issue and after changing out a number of parts, the ground cable was the one that finally fixed it. Heck, it may be worth a shot to do the ground cable first as it is only about $10 in parts (two connections points, three feet of 2-gauge wiring, and a bolt for your transmission).

There is another recent thread here about "hard-starting" which is worth a check.

 

Am goin to try to scan it tomorrow, but when I did the starter I disconnected the battery are the codes still going to show?

 

No It does not I know the car was sitting for about 5 monthes before I picked it up.

 

Not likely.

 

4 Things you need to start a car: spark, fuel, air, and compression

 

Today I scanned the car for codes, I didnt get anything because the battery was disconnected when I did the starter. I know that am getting fuel and spark for sure. I bought a crank shaft censor that goes by the oil filter,and the cam sensor that goes by head on the right side I didn't get to put them in because my garage has no light and it's dark now.Is there anything else am missing?

 

Check/Add grounds. If you have a bad ground you'll get crank no start.

If the grounds are good then it's "likely" a position sensor.

Strip this saying from your repetoire. I hear this all the time. The fact is, it's not that black and white, especially these days with complex electronic controls and fuel injection. Back in the day when this saying came about, it was fairly accurate. Unfortunately, your great great grandfathers passed down knowledge about car's doesnt cut it anymore.

There's also a lot of cars out there now that require a very precise cranking RPM anything outside of that narrow range and it won't run. You can have air/spark/fuel/compression/eggs/milk, whatever the fuak.

Not picking on you specifically, just pointing out that this saying has become somewhat useless.

 

Ok I changed both crank sensors, and the camshaft censor.The car starts better then before for instance I stalled the car on purpose and start it right away the car will fire up,if I let the car sit longer I have to wait for it to cool down then it will start.one more thing I notice when the car reaches operating temperature it will idle low and stall am not getting any check engine lights

 

Did you entertain my advice about adding/checking grounds?

Also, on the 4th gen (almost the same engine), the Coolant Temp Sensor used to cause some funny no-start/hard-start issues.
I assume this is not a problem on the 5th gen, I'd assume this was fixed by Nissan alongside a few other 4th gen issues.

Just something that comes to mind.


Either way, grounds is something I'd be crossing off your list FIRST.

 

Cars disintegrate when they sit. What about the ground? Try checking for a vacuum leak (starting fluid works for me) under idle for any changes in rpm. Next if you have a multimeter check the TPS at both sensor and switch. The Haynes manual has a simple and straight forward approach at section 6-10 to diagnose function. Or the FSM at EC116. Pull the sensor harness and select Ohms test pins 1 & 2 for a resistance test you will see something like .5 closed throttle and 4k WOT. Next check the switch at pins 5/6 and open and close the throttle and the result should be continuity with closed throttle (like 40-50 ohms) and no continuity (1 or infinity)when the throttle is open. This all works best if the car is warmed up. Good Luck

 

Update today in the morning I went,and started the car and it started right away went for a drive the check engine went on and it started to flash drove the car for 40min I parked the car then went back to see if Its going to start and it did not

 

Read the codes, they'll be stored.
Flashing CEL is almost always a misfire problem.

 

I went to mechanic and he scan the car for me I got p0105 map/baro sensor circuit problem, and p0305 misfire cyl# 5 would those code be the reason for my starting problems?

 

finally found out why my maxima had a starting problem,it was a blown head gasket,and low compression on all the cylinders. The old engine is out of the maxima and a newer engine is getting put in,it looks like its from infiniti with 70k miles plus am getting a 6 month warranty so we see how its going to be on friday.

 

did you have a chance to inspect the battery? that happened to me once, it was weird, couldn't figure it out for the longest time.. i was changing batteries and they were dying on me.. and it wouldn't crank at all.. key turned, lights on no crank... turn out to be a bad connection on the positive (red) terminal. so i changed the terminal on my 98 max... she purred like a walrus. :P

 

i found the problem read my last post

 

$150 tow and it kept stating no code??? what could be the problem???

 

Did you figure this out?