A quick note out there to all 4th gen owners who have hard start problems. The hose clamps that Nissan used on the fuel pump assembly have a tendency to leak some fuel out because they are not that tight as they should be. I noticed this one morning as my car cranked excessively before starting and I knew that there was nothing else that could have caused it besides the fuel pump because all the injectors have brand new pintle caps, a brand new oem fuel filter that was tightened fully and checked for leaks, a brand new oem fuel pressure regulator and brand new oem crank and camshaft sensors also a brand new oem maf from Nissan and lastly brand new coolant temperature sensor. After all that, this had led me to the fuel pump and upon dissembling it I noticed that there was barely any fuel pressure being hold by it. Now the fuel pump showed no signs of being bad. So I decided to crank the car and then see if there was any fuel leakage and immediately I noticed that the hose that connect to the fuel pump assembly was leaking fuel due to the hose clamp installed by Nissan not being tight enough to stop and hold the pressure. So I went to home depot and bought these clamps instead and since then it has showed signs of stronger starts and fast cranks. The first big picture clamps are the oem Nissan ones that were installed and the second ones were the ones I installed myself.

 

Good research on figuring this out. And, I guess after 18 years, the OEM hose clamps were done anyways

 

Yes they were. After having fixed that problem the car runs much smoother and sounds like its not running at all. It has made a vast improvement in engine sound and operation.

 

OEM clamps>cheap worm clamps all day long. Now if you get decent worm clamps, I'd say they're equal to OEM or better. I bet your OEM clamps were stretched out/touched sometime during it's life; hence the problem.

So do you still feel Z32 fuel filters are bad for our cars?
Maybe the fact that you were losing fuel/pressure was the real reason with your hesitation

 

Fuel injection clamps work quite nicely in fuel injection system applications.

 

^winner winner chicken dinner

 

Did you have this hard start issue consistently it was it noticeably worse when your fuel level was low? That's the only time I have hard starting issues.

 

I once had hard start issues when my fuel pressure was low but it turned out to be a bad fuel pump and since then even if my needle is close to empty it will start on the first try. I had gone to pick n pull and had gotten a used original oem fuel pump from a 1999 Nissan Maxima which came with newer and updated pumps. The old ones from 95-98 were made by unisia Jecs and the new ones in the 99 models were made by Paraut. But you can take out the fuel pump assembly and switch out the clamps and see if that makes a difference.

 

Are you saying that the 95-98 fuel pumps had some sort of fault? If anything, I think they are just old. Any moving part wears out over time.

Also, with the 99 Fuel pump, it is very apparent that since the 4th gen was in its last model year, Nissan engineers started experimenting with new parts/systems on the 99s in preparation for the "new" 2000 Maxima.

 

No I'm just saying that the 99 pumps might be a little better since there newer and updated part if anybody wants to buy a pump. But if you are having cranking issues when the car is low on fuel or when it's at a quarter tank it's most likely the pump as it's not being able to build up pressure as it used to.

 

Strange, none of the clamps on the fuel system in my 99 looked like that, they were all screw tight design.