what could it be?

the distributor goes wumpus on these on account of an oil leak near the distributor...had this with MY '94 Altima ran terrible, dead-headin' with the spark, even bent a rod with the misfire before I discovered this hidden treat, after I discovered the problem of the leaking oil above the distributor mended the leak, fitted it with the new one, and it was never the same after that....but ran ok~ look to the distributor says the guru!~

you most assuredly have clean battery terminals and ground connection to the frame...if this hasn't been done and a fresh battery (newer then seven years) I'd wonder, but this needs to be done if we are to get a good take on what just happened here~

hopefully this will not be a distributor out of whack, like on mine-

I'd look at the little grommet above the distributor to see if oil is leaking onto the wires-

Battery terminals and ground connection are good with a brand new battery less than a month old. It sounds like it can't get gas flow to start up when trying to start it. Could the distributor have an affect on that?

as an in-tank pump needs to have gasoline in there to keep it cool. If it was run low=failure.

thank you for your time

no not on yours, besides it's five years after and do suppose this oil leaking into critical components was addressed by '99....sorry for the false alarm, but your fuel pump is a suspect...think on these you can get it without havin' to drop the tank.

you're quite welcome R_P89, have to celebrate this victory as at first came up with the wrong answer based on my since corrected Altima problem. so what's the story, she ran it down so the fuel pump couldn't cool, overheated and put you in the spot you're in now? or simple unexplained failure?~