Morning to all, I am new here and I am having the biggest problem with my 1995 Maixima. I have replace the crankshaft Position sensors 2 times and the Camshaft position sensor 2 time each. But today as i was testing the car letting it run at idle it shut off when i turned on the radio and then just went blank. The car would not turn over and no electrical item would work as if the battery was dead. I let the car sit for about 5 minutes and everything went back to normal. I then tried to start the car and it was hard starting again turning over and cranking only to die once the rpms kicked in. It then once again while trying to start seem as if the battery was dead(struggled to turn over but had power) and was hard to turn over as if i had no/little battery power. The car is now acting again as if it did with the cam/crankshaft position sensor problem(Hard start starting and dieing on turnover. NO code has been fired. It just keeps having this problem and i have tried and am about ready to trash this car. I just cannot figure why. The hard starting seems to really be bad if the car is warm that is when the battery issue seems to be most prevalent on the car. Turns over struggles to turn over and yes i have replaced the starter.

 

If your battery voltage/condition is good you might want to check on your ignition switch. It is only 8 screws and 2 bolts to get to under the dash, with 2 more screws to remove the switch itself.

 

Agreed. The switch costs 30ish dollars. It's a common problem with these cars. Might as well install a new one. You will need to sooner or later.
Might as well have a known good one in there.

One major clue is that the car dies when you turn the stereo on. It seems to take power away from the ignition system or ecu.

When a contact in the ignition deteriorates, only a limited amount of power gets through. Perhaps enough to run the engine, but not both the stereo and the engine.

You can find instructions regarding how to replace the electrial portion of the ignition switch in the stickies.

It's not difficult. Less than an hour with beverage breaks.

 

To troubleshoot this you'll need to see first of all you have spark (ignition) that cancels out your crank sensor, Check your injectors next...Knoid tester...If you got a knoid light flashing that cancels out your Cam Sensor, too me you sound like you have a fuel pressure/fuel flow issue...Disconnect the hose at the fuel filter outlet and Tee in a wet gauge to test pressure... then you might have a better ideal of whats going on....Make sure you don't have any vacuum leaks as well...

 

I generally like to do the simpler things first.
Our cars have known problems which crop up again and again. I feel that the ignition switch is the most likely suspect. It's relatively cheap and easy to do.

If the problem persists after the switch has been replaced, C maxes suggestions sound like the next logical step. He just taught me a lot.

 

Thanks all. I just went out to crak the car after letting it cool all ay. Tried and it started right up, no issue. Then turned off and got the same problem: turn over, then dies like there is no power, lights on instrument panel dim and act as if drained. Turns key again turned over and cranked rpms go up then die immediately and off. Turn again car cranks after giving gas a little and runs fine. Tries again and car is hard to start, turns over then cranks with gas given.......Any clue?

 

Oh and I did that ignition switch a few months ago on the advice of someone so it has been done in the last six months I know.

 

Let's start with the most basic stuff.

please check your battery teminals. Are they cleat and kinda shiny? Or are they covered with corrosion. Are they the original terminals, or are they replacements. A photo of them would be helpful.

id like you to clean the cable terminals and battery posts.

 

They are clean, one original and one adapter the neg terminal.

 

And for full disclosure. I let the car run at idle for 3 hours today to recharge the battery which had gone dead from sitting and to see if it would cut off. After the Crankshaft position sensor issue it was cutting off after about 20 minutes of run time at idle(when the sensor was bad). It did not do that today after replacing it. Si I had thought the issue was fixed.

 

Ah. So you have an adapter on the negative terminal. How clean is the connection between the cable and the terminal?

The reason I ask is that those are infamous for the kind of problem which you are having. I know this by personal experience.

 

It is clean also so I am not sure why this issue is persisting. After all the Camshaft/crankshaft position sensors I have traded out I am almost ready to give up. I went and bought a new car because this was getting me so frustrated and nobody seems to have a solution. But this car still runs great when running at 350,000 miles. So I just don't want to give up on it. LOL

 

Still sounds like an elextricate issue. Please try to jump start the car from your other car when the problem occurs. Or trade battery from the other car if possible.

This seems to have a simple problem which is very inconvenient. I know how frustrating that can be.

 

Don't have time to play with it tomorrow but will this week and let you know. Thanks all for the help and suggestions.

 

I'm thinking that the battery might be causing your issue. So that's the reason behind the jump start and battery switching.

One of the most frustrating situations is to find that we over looked a small some thing regarding things which we have already done. So we think that the cause couldn't possibly be something, because we had taken care of it.
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Hey fellas here are the cables and just for extra knowledge. I tries to start the car it turned over rpms went high then lo and ered but stayed crunk Tties again after it turned over and gave me that dead drain condition then started..

 

Sorry to repeat but i could not figure the edit button out. Hey fellas here are the cables and just for extra knowledge. I tries to start the car it turned over rpms went high then lowered but stayed crunk. I tried again after it turned over and gave me that dead drain condition then started. Rpm's went up came down very low again but maintained being crunk.

 

That Negative Battery terminal looks loose or like it's not too tight...Change both to new heavy duty battery terminals...
1. Be sure to test battery voltage with the engine not running...
2. Next check your Battery voltage with the engine running...no lights, nothing on but the engine!
3. Next check your battery voltage with the engine running and every load on headlights, foglights, rear defogger, blower fan on full, caution flashers, interior/door courtesy lights, radio, etc...13.0 v-14.5v you're good....anything below 12.5v you got either a dirty ground, loose ground...anything lower than 12.0v your definitely have a defective alternator...

 

Will do will order this week and get back to you to see how it goes. Thanks a lot.

 

You definitely have one loose loose factory connector. You might try wrapping a bit of aluminum foil around the battery terminal to intense it's width. That might help create a tighter connection. This is only a temporary fix until you can fix it right. The clamp on terminal wire does not look good either. Did you remove the clamp from the cable, then sand both the terminals as well as the cable till both are shiny?

That photo is a huge clue abut why your car is acting as it does. Replace the clamp on terminal with something better.

What's happening is that there is not much contact between the battery posts and the metalast in the terminals. So there is not enough room for lots of electricity to flow.

 

I am going to order like I said both and replace them with brand new ones and hope that is the remedy. It may take a few days to get them but I will let you know how it turns out, Thanks again.