97 Altima won't start HELP!!!

General discussion area for the U13-chassis Altima
kc0444
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 11:40 pm
Car: 97 Nissan Altima Bone Stock
Location: Athens, Ga

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I have exausted all of my resources short of going to a shop or the dealer. The engine cranks just fine. Here's a detailed list of what has been going on and what I've done. Got the car with 160k miles on it for $1000 the guys who sold it to me said they had rebuilt the engine (I know they were just trying to sell the car but hey it was $1000 :bs: ). Since then I've replaced the valve cover gasket, transmission pan, filter, and gasket disconnected the egr valve (idling issues), replaced all spark plugs (again idling issues they were fouled to hell and back), new distributor (idling issues), new oil filter and oil sending unit. Now here's where the real problem starts if I would drive the car and it reached operating temp idling at a red light or stop sign became damn near impossible without a two-foot maneuver. :wtf2: So after a while of this (3 maybe 4 weeks) I decided to seafoam the the car. I put some in with the gas, oil and direct fed to the engine through the master cylinder vacuum line I also took off and cleaned the maf, throttle body, and put in a new air filter at that time. :biggrin: The car ran good and strong for 3 days the it cut off on the way home. I got it started again and when I made it back and tried to crank again all the engine does is turn over. Now I replaced the fuel pump and using the fsm checked all of the fuel lines and there is fuel pressure. Next I checked the injectors and the pulse and squirt fuel, but to make sure I replaced the ecu anyway now here we are the car still won't start and the only other thing I can think of that would cause this is the iacv but that requires me to take off the intake manifold buti lack the tools to do so. So what do you guys think? I really want to keep this car because of all of the work I put in on this thing and well I love my Altima ;)


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AZhitman
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Welcome aboard!

Have you checked for spark? Odd that it would just die after running so well, so I'm guessing the issue is unrelated to the work you did.

Did it throw a check engine light? Also, this will sound silly, but check battery voltage and cranking amps.

kc0444
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 11:40 pm
Car: 97 Nissan Altima Bone Stock
Location: Athens, Ga

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Sorry forgot to mention that I also checked for spark and replaced the battery with charged spare. It's a duralast with 680 cold cranking amps.

kc0444
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 11:40 pm
Car: 97 Nissan Altima Bone Stock
Location: Athens, Ga

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AZhitman wrote:Welcome aboard!

Have you checked for spark? Odd that it would just die after running so well, so I'm guessing the issue is unrelated to the work you did.

Did it throw a check engine light? Also, this will sound silly, but check battery voltage and cranking amps.
Ok it looks like I have solved my problem. Apparently my thermostat was giving a reading of -40° and was preventing the car from wanting to idle and also there was not enough gas in the tank to support a wot condition. This should be a lesson to everyone. Always put gas in the tank after changing fuel pump and before testing a no start condition. Although I came out lucky as I was going to replace tho parts anyway (Except the ecu). Now I can continue with my ka-t build :naughty: . Anyway thanks for the help rep to you.


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