I'm working on my buddy's 2002 Altima. It cranks and acts like it's trying to start but doesn't start. He let triple-a look at it first and they found the valve cover gasket was leaking and one of the coils was a bit oily. That didn't make much sense to me as far as causing it not to start. They wanted to replace the gasket, the oily coil and the plugs. Trouble is one of the plugs got installed too tight and won't come out. Triple a said they have to get it out and wanted permission to try till either it came out or broke. that wsa the only way they would fix it. That would end up costing a fortune. So we got the car back from them. The other plugs looked ok so I didn't really think it was that. He had some old plugs. So we laid all four coils with plugs in them on metal and cranked the car. I got good fat spark on each plug. Next I pulled the fuel line at the engine and put a pressure guage on it. I only have an old-school one that does vacuum one way and pressure the other with the pressure just reading 10psi. (The only engine I work on these days is the chevy 350 in my boat.) But it had no needle stop so I gave it a shot anyway. The gauge completely whipped way past the 10psi mark and fuel started spraying out around where I had the hose connected to the gauge. So it seems like it's got plenty of fuel pressure. It's a single line fuel system with no return. The filter, pump, and regulator all in one unit in the tank. So fuel supply seems to not be the problem.
We did the obd2 thing, borrowed a scanner form autozone. We got two p0300 random multiple misfires and one p0113 intake air temp sensor circuit high. I wouldn't think the intake air temp sensor would keep it from starting at all. What I see on the net about the air temp sensor says that often there will be no symptoms other than the check engine light.
I see on the net the engine has had issues with the crank and cam posiiton sensors. There was a recall and they got replaced on this one quite a few years ago. Best prices I have seen on those is around $25 or $30 each. I hate to troubleshoot by replacing parts and my buddy is between jobs right now as well. Is there anyway to test those sonsors other than replacing them? Anyone know which sensor really controls the spark timing? And is there anything else I ought to be looking at that might be our problem? tia