93 Sentra Starting Problem

:banghead:
Turn the car on and everything lights up. Turn the key to start and nothing happens except a small click in the relays on the fuse panel over my left knee and the clock light dims

There was an defective aftermarket Viper alarm system and we removed it and put the wires back where they should be. Had this problen last week and we fiddled around checking all the wires etc. The access to the starter itself is almost impossible to get at or even see.

I thought I was pretty good at troubleshooting but this one has me stumped, A bad solonoid or a poor :banghead: connection usualy starts with the solonoid itself clicking, I tried to jump the circuit at the ignition plug on the steering column all to no avail

Please help

Sounds like no power is getting to the starter, do what you can to hook a multimeter up to the small wire on the starter and see if anything is getting there when you try to start the car.

Much easier said then done, the starter is almost invisable, it is under the intake manifold, the oil filter is in the way, it is hidden by a cv joint and a frame member and I can barely get the fingers on one hand to touch it.
Not to mention the oil and grease all over. Since the car will not start I cannot drive it up on work ramps, I have to raise it by using a jack and jackstands and that gives me barely enough room to crawl under.

Is there any simple method to get at that thing???????

take your battery into Autozone and have them test it. it may be as simple as a low or bad battery.

We found the starter behind a heavy triangular shaped bracket directly under the intake manifold. We removed the bracket and could now reach the little wire that activates the solonoid. Did a test with a test light and found we have power to that wire at the plug. My diagnosis is that the solonoid took a dump or the starter is sitting on a dead spot on the commutator. In any event we are off to buy a starter, an oil filter, and some oil. If I gotta pull the filter to remove the starter I might as well change the oil. The starter appears to bolted into the motor with one stud and one bolt and each one is removed from a diff direction and the top one is under the intake manifold and I think if I remove the air intake fiter housing and that big rubber boot attached to it I might have some access to that top bolt.

Has anyone changed a starter on a 93 sentra XE auto tranny before?? They could not have possibly put it in a worse spot.

i think Autozone can also check your starter. it is very easy to check the batt. a whole lot easier than replacing starter.

All FIXED, turned out to be a bad starter. Had to remove and tilt up the whole air intake system to get at the top bolt which also had the negative ground attached to it. Got the starter out and tested it on the floor with a spare battery, the solonoid worked, but it did not work in the car, decided to then see if the starter ran, it ran but made a lot of noise and sounded horrible. Did the same test with the new starter and it was smooth as grease and quiet too. Installed the new starter and it worked perfect. Go figure. hadda take half the car apart. The Haynes manual instructions for removing the starter are, disconnect the negative ground, and remove the starter, those books stink, Cilton is much better if you can find them,

Problem is fixed

Thank's Sunbean2 for posting how you went about installing your new Starter..... Might need to do that change someday.. Just bought a 1993 Nissan Sentra XE a short time ago..Only difference is mine is a 5 speed,don't know if that would make it harder or easy...

One question How long did the job take????? Thank's ...ike

My wife and I spent many hours figuring how to get at the parts and then taking the stuff apart to troubleshoot the problem.
The actual removing and replacing the starter took about an hour, If we had known in advance what we had to take apart just to get at it, we would have saved many hours. Those Haynes books suck.
I am old school guy and I remember the Motors repair manuals, that actually gave step by step instructions and pictures. I have in my colletion the 1978 issue of Motors, never see them around anymore. With those books anyone could fix anything.
Oh well, we live in a brave new world where almost no one fix's their own stuff anymore.

Glad you got it fixed. i replaced a clutch on a 95 altima, which required removing starter to get out xmsn. i got it out from below. car up on jackstands makes it much easier. anyway, happy ending for you.

Yea I'm also a old school backyard mechanic..All my vehicles I have had were rear wheel drive and the engine in there straight....Well my project this weekend will be changing out a blower motor resistor block..My Heater/AC fan switch only work on High.. From my research should be pretty easy ~Will See~..I will let you all know how it goes...

I look at my Chilton's Nissan repair book,I look up replacing Starter. No info either, All it says is Remove battery cable and starter bolts...Wow!!

....ike

Just for fun I pulled out my old 1978 Motor repair manual and looked up starters. WOW about 10 pages of starter info, wire diagrams that you could actually understand, overhaul information, Drawings and photos of all the most popular starters of the time. Any one with basic tools and just a little mechanical knowledge could remove, rebuild and replace a starter or a solonoid with this book. Even a starter almost identical to the one that was in the Sentra was in there.
We have gone from a repair and save society to a replace and throw away the old society. I can remember as a boy changing out the brush's in a starter, Things have really changed.