Motor wont start!!! Help please

I have a customer who owns a 95' nissan sentra 1.6L
The tranny is slipping, so she parked it. it sat for about 2 weeks.
I went out and turned it over. it started up, puttered, then died. it turns over but wont start. its getting fire, the cams are turning, and its getting fuel...any suggestions?

no one has any ideas???

fuel pump

or a loose ecu cable

Nah, just sat for too long.
Floor the gas pedal while turnning it over. At some point you will hear it start to catch. You can then let off the key, but keep it floored. As the engine starts to rev, let up on the gas a bit. Keep the RPM around 2000 or so for a bit.
Not sure why you have to do this, but I have had this happen to me on a 97 with the same engine more than once, and this let me start it again.
It will take a few tries, and you will be cranking it over for close to 1 min each time, so make sure you have a good charge.

and thats going to be a long term fix how?

dont do what andrew said. its not going to fix it. id think if your sure the fuel is still good then listen for the fuel pump. if that still works, try swapping the ECU for a known good one. sentras have always had wierd ECU problems. less common in the GA16 but still happens

If it is only because it sat, this will get it started. IF there is another problem, then you are right, it won't do a thing.
My point is, my car has sat for a couple of weeks, and it would not start. Had fuel, cranked over, and had spark.
Just happened to try cranking for a while with my foot down and heard it try to catch. Kept cranking till the engine came up to speed and it caught.
Done this 3 times since I owned the car, and it runs fine otherwise.

No big deal if you really have a problem. Doesn't hurt anything if I am right. If I am wrong, it still won't stay running, and again no big deal, start replacing parts.

Also, I don't believe that just sitting makes the fuel pump go bad.
If you read the first post the car ran fine except the transmission. They owner parked it, now it doesn't start.
Really weird to have both go out all of a sudden, with no other symptoms?

Sorry, if you see hoof prints look for a horse, not a zebra.

hmmm except cranking a motor over for minutes at a time is definitely NOT good for it.

compression check, fuel pressure check, oil pressure check, make sure its getting spark at EACH cylinder, not just from the coil.

and sitting a car for 2 weeks is not going to make the fuel go bad. ive had a car sit for 9 months with 1/4 tank in it and it started just fine. if anything, the fuel pump was already on its way out and just wont start the car any more.

sitting out in the heat and not moving for two weeks could cause a fuel pump to go out, electronics hate heat, same for the ecu

Sorry, doesn't make any sense for the fuel pump to go out. What is the difference between it sitting for 2 weeks and being driven, just parked outside for 2 weeks?
Fuel flowing through the pump may cool it a bit, but it still sits outside during the hottest part of the day.

As for cranking for a few min, maybe, not all at once, but total might burn out the starter sooner, but otherwise I see no problems doing it. Everything is turning like it is supposed to. Oil is being pumped, what other damage are you doing?

Again, I find it hard to believe that suddenly after sitting all these possible things could crap out.

sitting out in the heat and not moving for two weeks could cause a fuel pump to go out, electronics hate heat, same for the ecu

uh huh. thats why i left my car sitting IN the garage. an insulated garage.

Sorry, doesn't make any sense for the fuel pump to go out. What is the difference between it sitting for 2 weeks and being driven, just parked outside for 2 weeks?
Fuel flowing through the pump may cool it a bit, but it still sits outside during the hottest part of the day.

As for cranking for a few min, maybe, not all at once, but total might burn out the starter sooner, but otherwise I see no problems doing it. Everything is turning like it is supposed to. Oil is being pumped, what other damage are you doing?

Again, I find it hard to believe that suddenly after sitting all these possible things could crap out.


If were going by that theory then there should be no reason why any build up of any kind should cause the car to need to be started for minutes on end, when you dont have combustion you dont have any heat to warm the oil, cold oil doesnt lubricate as well as oil that is at temp, causing metal on metal contact and premature wear, the reason why a fuel pump would go out from sitting is there are moving parts in it, after they get very old if you just let them sit there not moving for a long time, then they may not end up wanting to move at a later date, ie sand and contaminate build up in the working parts of the fuel pump that solidify when they are allowed to cake up on the moving internals of the pump, when you go to start it the build up keeps the pump from pumping fuel or pumps an insufficient amount of fuel to sustain combustion, remember that even if its flowing fuel it may not be keeping pressure high enough to run the car, dont open your mouth unless youve got a point andrew, false information is a car enthusiasts worst enemy

Wow, and telling people to replace parts doesn't help either.
I do not pretend to be able to explain why what I did works.
Could be a lot of things. Injector bleed down, debris in an injector causing a flooded condition, so flooring it prevents extra fuel from being pumped in.
Who knows.
I hope you don't have sand in your fuel system, but hey, I don't know what you do with your cars.

My point was that it is an inexpensive trick to try and get the car started. Rather than pour money into it right off the bat. No reason to ever pour money into a car until you have exhausted all the posibilities that don't cost money, or hurt the vehicle.
Again, just running the starter should not hurt anything. You have not proven otherwise.
Sure that shouldn't solve it, but neither should it have quit just sitting. Do I know why? Nope, but if it works, the guy just saved a few hundred bucks and time pulling a perfectly good fuel pump.
Why fight that? Do you feel you have to be right?
Sorry, I intruded on your little kingdom, I was just trying to help.

Again, just running the starter should not hurt anything. You have not proven otherwise.

"when you dont have combustion you dont have any heat to warm the oil, cold oil doesnt lubricate as well as oil that is at temp, causing metal on metal contact and premature wear"


Point is andrew, if the car isnt starting like it should then there is something wrong with one or more of the components necessary to crank the car, simple and plain, not telling him to go dump 2 grand into the car blindly but when it comes down to it he will be replacing parts to get the car to run properly, if you like to ghetto rig your car to crank up thats just fine, but dont give people advice that can potentially score cylinder walls and seize bearings, replacing them will be a lot more expensive than that fuel pump, or injectors, or both of them together plus labor, thats like using downshifting to slow your car in order to save your brakes, 800 to replace a clutch versus 30 bucks to replace pads

Point is andrew, if the car isnt starting like it should then there is something wrong with one or more of the components necessary to crank the car, simple and plain, not telling him to go dump 2 grand into the car blindly but when it comes down to it he will be replacing parts to get the car to run properly, if you like to ghetto rig your car to crank up thats just fine, but dont give people advice that can potentially score cylinder walls and seize bearings, replacing them will be a lot more expensive than that fuel pump, or injectors, or both of them together plus labor, thats like using downshifting to slow your car in order to save your brakes, 800 to replace a clutch versus 30 bucks to replace pads

You have no idea if any of those things are a real problem. Your suguestion is to replace 800 bucks in parts for 2 min worth of trying something else.

As to scoring anything, sorry, doesn't fly. The engine is just as cold if you were to start it and run as any other time. Your car doesn't instantly warm up just cause it started.
Also, heat is generated by friction as well as combustion. Just check out the air powered cars. Still use oil just like a normal car. No combustion to heat it up. That is also why we use multi-weight oil so it flows when cold.
The oil light goes out which means oil is flowing when you crank it over.
As to ghetto rigging, exactly what did I recommend that was rigged?

Looks like the original poster isn't going to tell us what happend.

You have no idea if any of those things are a real problem. Your suguestion is to replace 800 bucks in parts for 2 min worth of trying something else.

As to scoring anything, sorry, doesn't fly. The engine is just as cold if you were to start it and run as any other time. Your car doesn't instantly warm up just cause it started.
Also, heat is generated by friction as well as combustion. Just check out the air powered cars. Still use oil just like a normal car. No combustion to heat it up. That is also why we use multi-weight oil so it flows when cold.
The oil light goes out which means oil is flowing when you crank it over.
As to ghetto rigging, exactly what did I recommend that was rigged?

Looks like the original poster isn't going to tell us what happend.

my whole problem with your idea (besides the point that dry cranking does in fact hurt your engine) is that even if he goes and does all that and gets his car started, he still has no idea what the problem is. getting a car started is not a diagnosis and it wont help anything. what he should do is find a place with alldata, or a FSM, and buy a DVOM and a pressure guage set, and test according to the manufacturers troubleshooting guides. thats how you really test things without throwing parts at them.

pneumatic devices are lubed with mineral oil, not quaker state, anyone knows that the most damage is done to your engine in the first minutes of operation, ever crank your car and cut it off after a min or two, feel your valve cover and header, the valve cover is hot and you dont want to touch that header bare handed, even low operating time causes the car to heat up, you wanna add the cost of a starter to your "free" fix? those things last for years but only when you crank the car for 5 seconds and it fires, sometimes not even that, say you crank it over for 2 minutes, thats 24 days of startups in one sitting, not to mention the heat buildup in the starter case and potential starter bearing failure, youve made this a crusade to prove to some stranger that simply cranking a car till it starts is a better approach than doing diagnostics then replacing parts, if thats the way the dealer and every mechanic shop on the planet do things, why would marathon cranking the thing be a better idea?