This has been an ongoing problem with my '96 Nissan Maxima. A couple of years ago my car starting acting funny on the startup. I would turn the key sometimes and I would have to hold the key there for a second in order for it to turn over. Sometimes it would start fine and other times I would have to turn the key a few times to get it to start. It progressively got worse until one day it would not start at all. I had the car towed to a repair shop and the next day it started fine for them. Eventually they told me I needed a new starter. This seemed to correct the problem until a few months later it starting doing the same thing as before and eventually would not start again. I had the car towed back to the same repair shop and they told me that Nissan Maxima's were having a problem with some of the aftermarket starters causing this problem and installed a new one that was higher quality. About 8 months later it started acting funny again and took it back to the repair shop and this time they told me it was not a starter problem and they could not detect what the problem was with their computer diagnostics machine. They told me I needed to take the car to a Nissan dealer and have them evaluate the problem. The Nissan people told me that the aftermarket starter that was installed was causing this problem and I needed to install a Nissan starter which was going to be $600 plus the $95 diagnostic fee. Since I had already paid the other people to fix this problem I took the car back to the original repair shop and explained to them what Nissan had told me. They said the starter they had installed was a Hitachi starter who actually makes the starters for Nissan and that this should not be the problem, but they again installed a new Hitachi rebuilt starter. Now about a week later it is acting funny again where I have to hold the key for a second or two before it will turn over. I don't know what I should do now. I have already spent a considerable amount of money on this problem and am reluctant to take it to Nissan and pay them $600 for yet another starter which may or may not correct this problem. Has anyone ever heard of this happening before in a Nissan Maxima or have any idea what might be causing this problem?
- posted
16 years ago