Nissan Primera starting woes

You won't be seeing it until you've got your ramps/jack & axle stands out and raised the car sufficiently to crawl right under the engine. It is indeed at the back of the engine and, IIRC, you have to reach over the steering rack to get to it (not that I've ever had to on mine :-) )

It's probably a sticking inertia pinion (the cog on the end of the motor that slides forward). I've fixed one before (on a Rover) by removing the motor and cleaning it.

HTH

Stuart Sharp

Thanks stu, would prefer the ramps except that the valance gets in the way of the ramps and I don't want to do any damage, maybe I'll try 2 planks of wood. It'll be fun getting onto the ramps with no engine. Have to wait until the weekend now so that I can see what I am doing.

Cheers again

Andy Hare

If it's the SR20DE engine, it is *possible* from the top, but not easy. I changed the starter on my Pulsar GTI-R (basically the same SR20DE engine, but with a huge turbo and four throttle bodies) - the

But you have to do it all by feel on that car....

Rich.

Well I got it on the ramps this evening, father in law gave me a tow to jump start it. Drove it up onto the ramps and then switched off. The tried to re-start and the starter motor engaged and it started. Now its on the ramps I will have a look tomorrow in the daylight to see if there is anything to clean or lubricate. At least I know that it probably is only sticking. If it were a ford then it would have had the hammer treatment by now, but I can't reach the damn thing without it being on the ramps. Any way thanks all for the help so far.

Andy Hare

Remember you have to take it off the car first, to get to the part I was talking about.

Stuart Sharp