hard starting in new england weather
Asked by Jon Feb 23, 2010 at 09:40 AM about the 1997 Nissan Maxima
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
my 97 maxima is giving me hard starts in the morning(eg. motors turning over more than usual) when its cold, but will start normally once its warmed up...any ideas?
Ive tried replacing the fuel pump, new spark plugs, new fuel filter,...nothingseems to work
7 Answers
You could have a poor battery connection maybe. Clean all your ground surfaces and your battery terminals. Make sure you have a solid 12v before cranking the car. Did you gap your plugs when you installed?
i cleaned all the injector grounds...but i do think i may need a new battery. I used NGK spark plugs and they are usually pre gapped anyways
migration_jml12345 answered 14 years ago
if its the battery then do a load test first. theres 2 ways: 1; get a battery tester and put a load on the battery and 2; get a meter and a buddy (youll piss people off doing this but it does the same thing), put the meter on the battery, put the key to run but not start and turn everything on even the horn for 10 - 20 seconds the reading on the meter should drop and then bounce back up to somewhere from 12 - 13 volts, if it dont then its bad.
There should be ground straps from the battery to the body, the engine to the firewall, and etc.. All these should be cleaned to get a solid ground connection. Sparkplugs do not come correctly gapped from the factory and NGK even states this on their website. Your probably going to need to gap them. You can also take your car to a local Autozone or Advance and they should be able to load test your alternator and battery. So you know if it is one of them.
if u used ngk plugs u shouldnt gap them, ngk usually uses platinum tips on there plugs if you try to gap them it will scrape the platinum off and reduce your performance and lifespan to a fraction of what it should be
Yes platinum plugs should never be gapped. However traditional plugs need to be gapped. I assumed being a 1997 model he wouldn't have installed platinum plugs.