1997 200sx ser (starting problems, replaced starter engine turn but doesn't catc

[b14ser]

Hi all, I've searched the sr20forums website extensively to solve my starting problem but I have yet to find a solution. Basically it all started around a few months ago the car have a funny grinding sound when I would start the car, especially in the morning during cold starts. Going through the sr forum told me that I had the notorious Hitatchi starter that is known to make those annoying grinding, squealing type noise. The car has around 125,000 miles, so I decided it was time to replace it with a used one with warranty. So today I replaced the starter with the new one and to my dismay the car would still not start. The starter cranks without the grinding noise and the engine tries to crank but the car just doesn't want to start. I can definately smell fuel coming from the engine so I don't think its fuel related yet. Just to let you know, I bought one of those cheap ebay type intakes that doesn't come with a intake air temperature sensor fittings so I just left it outside next to the air filter instead of inside the tube. Wow..this post is getting a bit too long now so I think I'll stop here but I would really appreciate it if you guys can help me out, thanks a bunch. Fellow ser driver.

[b14ser]

Oh yeah just to let you know, I did replace the battery with a new one a few weeks ago and that helped a lot for the cold starts. Before it would turn very slowly before the engine started. I also have replaced within the last 12,000 miles the cap, rotor, spark plugs, wires, o2 sensor, pcv valve and recently did an oil change. Thanks again.

[NISTECH]

sounds like its flooded. hold your foot to the floor and crank it see if it will fire up. If it does you may need a base idle adjustment or a good induction flush to clean the carbon deposits from the intake manifold passages.

[b14ser]

Thanks Nistech for the speedy reply. I'm gonna go ahead and try that. I remember last night when I attempted to get it started after replacing the starter, I tried starting it with the gas pedal pushed all the way down and half way down. I think on the third try I had a fighting chance where the car seemed to almost start as the rpm's were struggling to fight its way north of 500 rpm. But it just kept on sputtering and eventually died down no matter how long I cranked it. I think that was where I got most of my progress though with the gas pedal down. I remember reading it once on the 240sx.org forum where some guy took off his spark plugs and ran a strong carb cleaner thown his spark plug holes and let it sit over night. The next day he said it started like a charm where previously he thought his car was no good. There's also a couple of things that may have contributed to my starting problem but I'm not sure because it ran fine for 12,000 miles. When I purchased an aftermarket header, I couldn't get the egr pipe to line up to the bung so I decided to close up the bung and cut the pipe of the egr and stuck a tiny air filter on it. After a few hundred miles the air filter came off but I figured it would be fine because no hot exhaust air was forcing its way through the pipe. Thanks for your help again, Paul.

[b14ser]

Wow... I can't believe my car actually started. Here's what I did: First off I tried the same method that I did last night by starting the car while pushing down on the gas pedal. It struggled to start from the beginning but I can tell the engine wanted to start. After pushing it down for which seemed like an eternity, 15 seconds the engine finally caught on and idled on its own. The whole time while trying to get it to start the engine was sputtering and erratic and I can tell if I let go of the gas pedal it would've just simply died. Here's the thing though, not only did I push down on the gas pedal to get it to start, one of a fellow sr20forum member told me to check the engine control fuse located just beneath the hood on the right side of the engine bay. As I was looking at the diagram of the black fuse box cover, there were two possible fuses for the engine control. I open up the box and see that the one located on the top when facing the engine bay straight in front of the bumper, that engine control fuse is there but the one below it more towards the middle is missing. I'm not sure if this is normal. So I decided to take out the anti theft fuse which is rated at the same 7.5 amp and stick it in the missing engine control fuse socket. These are the only changes that I made when starting up the engine this time. So with the power of pushing down on the gas pedal and sticking in a fuse in the missing engine control fuse socket the car started but not with grace. After warming it up for 10 minutes, I decided I have to find out what the root of the problem was. So I took off the fuse from the once missing fuse unit and decided to start her up while this time not pushing down on the gas pedal. Guess what, it started right up without any hesitations. So now I"m confused. Why didn't it start up last night when I stepped on the gas pedal after replacing the starter? I have this sick feeling my car isn't going to start one of these days when I"m far off in the city late at night while raining here in Seattle. I just want my car to be a reliable daily driver with a little bit of kick. Thanks.

[NISTECH]

the car was flooded. by pushing the pedal to the floor you put the system in clear flood condition. Depending on how flooded the car is will matter on how long it cranks. Why you were flooded is still a mystery but cleaning the intake system with something like seafoam and resetting your base idle . You should have the problem resolved.

[b14ser]

I logged on 90 miles today and so far so good. The real test is to see if it'll start right up tomorrow morning, after sitting over night. I think you're right about the engine being flooded nistech although I'm not sure how that happened because I never stepped on the gas pedal prior to it not starting. Do you think the fact that my egr pipe that connects to the header is cut and not plugged properly could've contributed to any of these problems. Here's a pix: I have driven like this from Seattle to Vegas and back to Seattle non-stop and put on 12,000 miles within the last 4 month and didn't have a single problem before. Thanks.

[NISTECH]

The egr tube will have no effect at idle. While driving down the road , if the egr valve opened you would have a huge vaccum leak. I am assuming you have the egr vaccum cut off though right? If so that tube will have no effect on your drivability either. Its possible your car got flooded with the old starter, since when you told the ecm you were cranking the engine by turning the key to the start position, it was pulsing the injectors and pumping fuel into the cyl's even though the starter was turning the engine or turning it fast enough. Then once you got the new starter installed the fuel that was puddled in the cyl kept it from firing while the ecm was continually pumping more fuel in.

[b14ser]

So far so good Nistech. Thanks for all your help. The only thing I noticed was that the gas mileage on my car has gone down ever since I didn't reroute the egr pipe back into the exhaust. I'm not too sure what you meant by having the egr vaccum cut off. I don't remember modifying that part of the egr system after cutting off that tube that leads to the exhaust manifold. Is this why I'm getting poor gas mileage. Not horribly bad but around 350 miles per full tank of gas. Other than that my starting woes are completely gone and you are da Man! Nissans forever.... Paul.