My son is having difficulties with his car; every so often it will not start. Today he went to the bank, and when he came out, it woudn’t start. He called Triple A and waited, then while he was waiting he tried the car again and it started.
He says it sounds like it wants to start but won’t turn over, it just peters out. He has lights so I assume it isn’t the battery. It is a Nissan Maxima, not sure of the year but probably a '05 or '06.
I am afraid this is going to cost a fortune to fix. Any ideas of what it might be? I appreciate any tips from car-loving Dopers!
Get it running and head to Autozone, Advance Auto Parts, O’reilly Auto Parts or similar.
They will test the battery, alternator, and starter for free. Until then, check the battery terminals for corrosion. Clean and re-connect them and see what happens. That may be the only problem.
Other possibilities in order of likelihood:
Bad ground or damaged battery cable
Bad battery
Bad alternator not charging the battery
Starter internally grounded, killing the battery
Other unknown parasitic drain
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Could be bad spark plug wires or something else in the ignition system that’s getting wet and causing a bad spark.
Click and Clack would recommend you replace the wires and possibly the distributor cap.
I had a similar problem in my truck. It was the starter. I have a F250, so my cost isn’t likely to be the same as your cost. But all total (tow to the shop, new starter) was under $300. (The guys at the shop were surprised at the high cost of the starter until they saw what a big honking thingy it was)
Will never own a Dodge vehicle because I had a Dodge that would strand me in the rain all the time. It had a ceramic thingy that was easily splashed in puddles, so often cracked from cold water hitting hot ceramic thingy. I’d also look for cracked wires that might be getting shorted in wet conditions.
the only “ceramic thingy” I can think of in Chrysler cars was a ballast resistor, which they haven’t used since the late '70s. I can’t imagine what other personal grudges you’re carrying.
if, when he goes to start it, the starter does it’s usual thing but the engine doesn’t run, well there’s a laundry list of things it can be. And unless there’s a common failure with Nissans of that vintage, I don’t think any of us can do anything better than guess. And engine that cranks but won’t start could be experiencing:
lack of fuel pressure due to a failed fuel pump
lack of fuel pressure due to no power getting to the fuel pump
lack of fuel pressure due to a blocked fuel filter
lack of spark due to loss of crank/cam position sensor signal
lack of spark due to bad ignition coil(s)
lack of spark due to water getting into places it doesn’t belong
failed timing belt/chain
and some other things I couldn’t think of on short notice. he needs to get the car to someone who knows how to diagnose it.
My current car that I’ve had for 5 years will sometimes not start unless I give it a little gas when turning the key. I thought that trick only worked with older cars, but it works 100% of the time for my car (a 2000 Ford).
He thinks the battery is around 3 years old. His father (my ex) is telling him it is the weather??? but he knows nothing at all about cars. I can’t let my son go back to college with a car that may strand him somewhere with no warning, so I’m going to have to bite the bullet and get it checked out.
Thank you for all the suggestions. I made an appointment for him to take it in to my mechanic on Thursday for an evaluation; I’ll let you know what it turns out to be!
A good friend of mine bought a used AMC car that turned out to have actually been a French-built Renault. It notoriously would not start in the mornings. Somehow he got the idea that hitting the starter motor with a hammer would work (I don’t know if he was just pissed off or if someone recommended that to him).
It worked. He carried a ball-peen hammer in the car at all times, and every time he wanted to start the car, he’d pop the hood, walk around and whack the engine with the hammer! When he got back in, the car would start.
This got him a lot of funny looks, but it worked. People would ask, “What’s wrong with your car?” and he’d shrug and reply, “It’s French.”
(I’m not recommending your son beat on his car’s engine with a hammer, just providing an example of a weird car starter problem.)
If it is vapor lock, the chances are that the electric fuel pump is about shot. Modern fuel injection systems use much higher pressures making vapor lock mostly a thing of the past. About the only other thing that would cause vapor lock is someone moved the exhaust system too close to a fuel line or a fuel line too close to the exhaust system.
I wouldn’t make this assumption. Both times I’ve been stuck with a car that won’t start it still had lights, radio, etc. and it ended up being that the battery was on its way out.
My car is currently doing pretty much the exact same thing. I am about 95% certain that the fuel filter needs to be replaced. Prior to this issue, I wasn’t aware that they needed to be replaced about every 50,000 miles and, so, haven’t replaced it since I got the car in 2008.
or a bad connection. Once spent the afternoon changing out a difficult starter only to find out it was the cable connection that needed to be cleaned and tightened.