This is post-mortem but I wanted to collect some opinions.

• What are the symptoms of a bad fuel pump?
• What are the symptoms of the NATS immobilzer?

Trying to start my 99 Maxima on Sunday it started, stalled, started, stalled and then eternally ran the starter without turning over.

No fuel.

Oddly, I had just pulled the car around the hotel, gone in to check out, and come back outside. The car had gotten us all around Pittsburgh, up and down hills the day before.

It being Sunday we scrambled to get a rental car and found a Firestone to get the car looked at. Had it towed, told the shop that I thought it was the fuel pump and we left for the wedding that we were starting to get late for.

The next morning Firestone calls me to tell me that indeed, it had been the pump and they were waiting for the part. They'd have me back on the road that afternoon & they'd call once it was all done.

They call me about 2 hours later (it's a pretty easy job to swap the pump) and tell me that the "immobilization system" has been activated probably because of the car being towed. The car still won't start.

I get the car towed to the Nissan dealer just down the road, they tell me that the transponder in my key got reset and was preventing the car from starting.

So what happened? The shop tells me that the fuel pump isn't sending gas; I've had some rough starts in the past few months, so I'm not too pissed if they replaced the pump, but I'd have rather done it myself. Every major sub-component in this car has failed in the past 16,000 miles (power steering, alternator, radiator, coils... list goes on)

The guy at the dealer was suspicious that the fuel pump had failed, as am I. A different post on this forum notes just how confusing NATS can be to those who aren't familiar with it.

This car is now 17 years old, but I'd imagine that NATS works the same way in newer cars... Does it cut the fuel and make it seem like a bad pump?

I never noticed a "Theft" light or the security light, but I was a bit frenzied at the time.

 

There are so many people that don't understand how the NATS and the fuel pump work.

To make a quick statement, there is no interrelationship of the NATS and fuel pump. What happens to one of those things has absolutely no affect on the other.

The fuel pump gets blamed for so many no-start situations because the "mechanic" discovers that there is no gas coming the fuel pump when they turn on the ignition switch. That is normal, that is by design. The way the fuel pump system is designed is that when you first turn the ignition key on, the pump runs for a second or 2 and will then shut off unless the engine is started. What is needed to keep the fuel pump running is the signal pulses from the crankshaft sensor.

The NATS system is more complex and therefore even more misunderstood. Because it is an anti-theft system, Nissan has never released very much information on it. The way it works is that if the RFID detected from the key does not match what is stored in the ECU, the engine won't start. The way this is accomplished is that the fuel injectors are turned off and the engine does not get any fuel.

You said that the engine would start and stall. This would not be a NATS problem. At least that's what I think. I'm pretty sure that once the engine starts, NATS is no longer looked at by the ECU.

But the 1999 was the first year of NATS on the Maxima and it appears to have some problems. There have been so many people that say they went to start the car and it wouldn't, only to discover that the care was immobilized by the NATS. Get a locksmith or Nissan to re-program the keys and away you go. The 2000 and after cars don't have this problem.

Was NATS the culprit? I can't say. It would depend on whether the security light to the left of the steering column was on or not.

Do you have the car back and running? What turned out to be the problem?

 

DennisMik,

Thank you for your response! You seem to be the sole guardian of this board these days. You've helped me with a number of problems in the past as well.

Short version: Pump got replaced, transponder key got reprogrammed and we were back on the road.

Long version: The shop that did the pump said that "no gas was getting to the engine". After they replaced the pump they said "now it has gas". The guy at the desk flashed some papers at me to say that they had run diagnostics on it and they were hoping to jumper the security system to get me back on the road. Of course, NATS is more complex than that.

I didn't confirm that the security light was on, quite a blur of activity, but the Nissan dealer said they had to reprogram the transponder and that my spare key will no longer work with the car. I'll have to get that reprogrammed as well. I don't fully understand how the transponder system on the Maxima works, so it seems strange that they could simply reprogram my old key without resetting the entire ECU...

Once the dealer reprogrammed my transponder key the car fired right up and I was back on the road. It's running like a champ today, no long starts.

The shop that replaced the fuel pump blamed the process of towing the car for disabling the ignition; I haven't read about anything like that on these boards. Odd that the transponder would go at *exactly* the same time as the fuel pump.

 

It is unfortunate that you were not able to check the security light when the car didn't start. I bet it was on. It was also unfortunate that the only place available to you to take the car to was a Firestone store. Those guys really stretch the definition of mechanic.

Since you have a drivable car now, check with local locksmiths and see what they charge to program keys. They are usually a lot less than the dealer.

 

From one 99 model owner to another, I've had duplicate chip keys cut and programmed at my local Ace Hardware in the $70 price range. It helps to have a good working spare in the event the primary key fails. I know a lady that paid around $700 in tow and service fees all because she didn't have a working spare chip key.

 

Hello I know this old thread and I am in same boat but I have the old ignition key worn down but I had a spare cut at ace back then .. will ace be able to cut a new ignition key with the chip ? I am afraid of the original key breaking and trying to avoid problems

 

At the time I had mine duplicated, the key cutting and the programming parts were separate operations. It was a conventional key cutter with a chip key programming tool that read the old original key.

 

So do you think ace can program the key too ? Or you had someone else program it .. thanks for the info

 

Ace did it. I understand Home Depot can make and copy chip keys now also.

 

I ran into this same exact problem this week. I had given my daughter my 99 GLE. I was out of town when she called to tell me it would crank but not start. Long story short, her circle of "experts" cost her $300 in parts for a new pump, cam sensor, crank sensor and starter fluid. When I got home I went over to find the security light on solid.
Here is where it gets interesting. According to the lock smith the '99 Maxima has ODBI and ODBII connectors. The ODBII can not be used to match a key to the NATS. Her key was cracked which made me suspect it as the problem. But the lock smith said it was still transponding. I bought a new key anyway and had him reprogram them both. $150.00 and the car is running, and she has a spare key. I think he was confusing the Consult connector with an ODBI connector. But a technician has to use that port to match the keys.
The interesting thing about this is Nissan dealers might be unable to perform this task. They are calling him to come to their service departments because they no longer have the software even though they might have the Consult and appropriate connectors.
I wish I could speak directly to the exact software and key programming hardware he uses but this is probably for a lock smith forum somewhere else on the internet.
He did say it happens frequently on the '99. Cloning a key is a good idea, but you can't wait until the key doesn't work. Then you just have two bad keys.
So if you are in Middle Tennessee and need the service of a pretty sharp lock smith call "A Damn good Lock Smith" (615)838-1535

 

The locksmith guy is incorrect, The 4th gen Maxima (1995 - 1999) does not have an OBD I port. He is confusing the CONSULT port for an OBD I port. The 2 do not even come close to looking alike.

The 99 Max was unique when programming the keys. Since Nissan was redesigning the Maxima for 2000 (the 5th gen) they didn't want to do the full redesign necessary to implement the chipped keys that the government mandated for the 99 models. So they mickey moused it to be programmed through the CONSULT port. So in order to program a key, the person doing this needs a cable that plugs into the CONSULT port. There are a lot of places that A - don't know that and/or B - don't have said cable. The fact that the Nissan dealer doesn't know/have that cable is in violation of their dealership contract. You should report them to the Nissan corporate headquarters in California.

In case you wondered, the 5th gen Maxima does not have a CONSULT port. CONSULT runs through the OBD II port.