intermittent starting problems 98 Sentra SE

I've certainly heard of other cars having similiar problems after being run cold for only a very short time. The ECU seems to get confused about appropriate mixture during the next start.

I suspect your "flooding" diagnosis is correct. The old technique from the carby days works on most newer cars: when it does this, hold the gas pedal flat to the floor until it starts (it shouldn't take long). If you've already tried that and it didn't work, we'll need to think again.

John

On Fri, 22 Dec 2006 22:41:22 -0700, Jim graced this newsgroup with:

Jim,

This seems to be a fairly common problems with Sentras of that vintage.

We have a 99 Sentra and, no matter what the outside temperature, (we've had it happen in the winter as well as summer), it's had problems turning over after it's sat for more than a couple of weeks without being run.

This is what I've discovered,

1. My local technician said that this most likely is caused by one or more leaky fuel injectors. This isn't a problem if the car is started regularly, but if the car is left to sit, the injector(s), slowly leak fuel into the cylinder heads and, basically, floods the top of the piston head with fuel.

Liquid fuel doesn't burn. Thus the starting problems.

1. When this happens, there's the "easy" way to get the car running, and the "hard" way.

The easy way is to completely floor the gas pedal and do NOT let up while cranking the starter. You may have to run the starter as long as 15 or 20 seconds (or longer) before the car will crank over, but basically, what you're doing is burning/forcing the excess fuel out of the cylinders. The car *will* eventually crank over.

The "hard" way is to remove the spark plugs and let the car sit while the pistons vent the excess fuel out of the plug holes. This can take as much as an hour to make any difference.

Of course, the *best* way to correct this problem is to fix the leaky injector(s) and the problem will go away. However according to my technician, if the injector is only leaking enough to affect the car only after several weeks, it's probably not worth the cost to repair it. He did caution though that if I don't drive the car often, it's better to have it repaired because there's always the possibility that the fuel could leak down the cylinder walls and if the rings are worn enough,, there's the possibility that some fuel could get into the lubrication system.

And of course, that's never a good thing. :-)

Anyways, I've found that as long as I start the car at least once every two weeks, I've never had a repeat of the hard start problem.

Dang, that reminds me, I *have* to get around to putting a for sale sign up on that car. *sigh*

As always, YMMV..etc etc.

cheers

This condition is due it Nissans infinite wisdom and forward thinking... NOT

For some unknown reason , Nissan Decided to only use 2 rings on each piston instead of 3 like most engines do.

99% of most engines use 3 rings, a compression ring, a scraper ring and an oil ring.

Nissan only used 2 rings on the GA series engines used from 95-99 , therein lies the problem.

With only 2 rings per piston/cylinder it becomes quite easy to flood the engine due to "lack of proper compression" at start up, hence the flooding.

this is a VERY common complaint. learn the flooded engine start up method and all will be ok

I'd blame Nissan management. If you remember, Nissan was in a fantastic financial mess around 95 to 99. They were something like 10 billion in debt. Speculation of fault was due to bad management. Management was probably cutting corners everywhere to save a penny here and there while the engineers were screaming "You're screwing up my car!":) My favorite Nissan is the 97-99 Maxima, and when I compare it to my friend's 92 Maxima, I definitely see the drop in quality, materials, and workmanship. The 92 was well put together, had better materials like nicer plastics, seats and such. My 98 wasn't bad, but it could have been at least as good as the 92.

CD