Car engine cranks but refuses to start !

[hellmet]

Since a couple of weeks, my car 2002 Sentra GXE 1.8L has been having rough idle and a couple of times flashed the SES pointing to misfires in cylinder#3 and #4 once and just #3 once.

A week ago when returning from work, my car just refused to start. It cranked and cranked but no life. After a few tries, I tried starting it by completely pushing down on my gas pedal and then after a few cranks the engine came to life.

This happened two more times, and the second time (now) the engine never came to life. I've tried and tried to the point of the battery getting weak. Also tried jump-starting though I know it won't help. I live in a town with no public-trans and thus heavily depended on this vehicle.

I'd appreciate any help. Thanks!
Modified by hellmet at 1:34 PM 12/18/2008

[RED_DET]

What kind of car would be nice to know.

[hellmet]

Its a 2002 Nissan Sentra 1.8L GXE.Btw, i sent the car to the dealer and he says its a blown head gasket. He's given me a quote of $1000!!!Please let me know if this can be done by myself or atleast cheaper elsewhere.

[nametakennow]

If you have a decent amount of experience, a headgasket isn't too tough, particularly with the aid of the factory service manual.

You most likely could find another mechanic who could do it for cheaper if you went that route.

[hellmet]

Okay.. so I got the gasket changed for a grand.

Now, the car seems to be doing other things. At around 50-65 mph speeds, sometimes when I try to increase speed, the car starts juddering like hell, and then there is a weird smell coming into the cabin - very strong.

The dealer says I've a bad MAF sensor, but I recently changed it so that must not be a problem. So, yesterday I cleaned my older MAF using a MAF cleaner by CRC and guess what, the old MAF seems to run great!

Now I take the car for a drive, and when I reach that magical 50-65 mph mark, I see white smoke coming out of the exhaust. I get off and smell the exhaust and its got a strange smell - not oil/not fuel , something else. And the juddering still exists, though lesser.

I suspect the dealer didn't do a good job of sealing the head gasket or something.

One more thing : When stopping from speeds above 40, I see that the revs go up and then down once just before complete stop, like it were changing gears or something -- 1K rpm to arnd 1.3K rpm.

ANother thing : I just checked oil and its below the LO on the dipstick. The dealer mentioned that he'd changed oil. Is the car burning oil?

Please advice.
Modified by hellmet at 4:47 PM 12/27/2008

[nametakennow]

White smoke = coolant, usually. Take it back and they should redo the headgasket. Is the smell sort of sweet? That would be another indicator of burning coolant.

If the smoke is bluish-white, then it's oil, so the dealer needs to deal with that. Tell the dealer about your dipstick measurement, they need to top it off too.

Sounds like they're just flat out shoddy.

[hellmet]

Looks like we are right. I topped off the oil yesterday and drove the car for more than 10 miles. Not even a fraction of oil seems to be used up. I guess the mech. just forgot to top it off. And today, he tells me that I should have brought the car with the low oil, so he'd see for himself. Does he want me to screw up my car? The dealer has only one answer to everything : Mass Air Flow SensorCar juddering at around 55-60mph - MAFSmell coming into cabin - MAF screwing up CAT converterWhite smoke - no answerLow oil - no answer

Weird people, really!

[nametakennow]

MAF wouldn't do squat to the CAT. If the MAF was off enough to cause that much of an A/F ratio imbalance, the car stall.

They're giving you the run around. Take it somewhere else.

[Passt]

MAF wouldn't do squat to the CAT. If the MAF was off enough to cause that much of an A/F ratio imbalance, the car stall.

They're giving you the run around. Take it somewhere else.

Agreed. Head gasket sounds like the correct diagnosis. Everything else they've told you sounds like utter bs. I know it sucks, but take your car somewhere else from no on.

What I used to do was take my car to different shops frequently, for little **** that I could diagnose myself. Based on what they'd tell me, and how much they tried to charge, that's how I found a shop that I really feel comfortable with.

[hellmet]

Okay, so I drove the car 180 miles to a city(San Antonio) I was waiting to go since like forever. The car's oil pressure light showed up about 30 miles from the destination. I checked the oil and it didn't even register on the dipstick. I called my friend from the city, added two quarts and reached home.

Next day, after adding another quart, I went to a dealer nearby and explained the situation. The dealer told me that there was something wrong with the timing and this made that happen. Today, the dealer called and told me they fixed the timing to their best, and that the car had a couple more problems - MAF and the ECM!God, I had changed the ECM just a few months ago for a whopping $250. I am planning to sell off the car coz :1. Damage that might have been done due to lack of oil for around 80-100 miles.2. Repeat repairs of the same areas - MAF, ECM3. Car's got 118K4. More problems that it might throw at me in due time.What do you say?

Thanks to those following this thread, and I appreciate your time.

[Sonofasailor]

I am not a mechanic however I do know that when coolant leaks into your oil (head gasket issue) the oil becomes contaminated and breaksdown quickly. The breakdown in oil causes it to burn and not provide as much protection against friction damage. I think you cooked something. With no warranty I would dump this car like a hot potato to the first unsuspecting car lot.

[nametakennow]

Honestly it sounds like they're just reading right out of the book and assuming what the problem is, rather than assessing it by the symptoms.

It makes zero sense for the timing, MAF, or even the ECU to cause you to burn oil like that. Something else must be screwy.

I apologize for the late response. I'm not sure how this thread fell by the wayside like it did. Did you already go through the timing/MAF/ECU work? Sell the car?

Premature headgasket failure in 1.8s was fairly common, unfortunately.

[ser-steve]

now its just my opinion but since when did the maf and not the oil pump cause a loss in pressure?

your definatly burning oil, check your coolant maybe that too

this sounds like a really fouled gasket job they did for you, idiots not compression checking it and what not

if they say they did ask what were the values for each cylinder

they did this to me once with a honda and spit out 6 #'s and i was like hey bunghole i only have a 4 banger....