my 95 nissan altima is a lemon. Help!?

Question

Hi all,

You may have read my previous question about my car but I am growing desperate. Here is the situation - The car hasnt started for more than a month now. The engine is fine (compression / valves / fuel injectors), the starter is fine. The fuel pump works, the distributer / alternator works. The computer diagnosis says the catalytic converter is bad, he tried disconnecting it and starting. no avail. My remote starter was disconnected, so that it is not the problem. The engine makes the cranking sound but doesnt start. My mechanic has tried everything. Nissan experts please help. one more question - what if my car doesnt ever start? can i sell it for parts? The sad part is that I am paying a high interest loan for it and also have comprehensive insurance. I am paying a huge amount of money every month for a car that doesnt work.

would it be too much to ask you how to test the fuel injectors? Ofcourse my mechanic may know thi0s, but i want to check my mechanic's procedure ;-)

thanks all of you guys.... yes, i shall pass all these comments to my mechanic, you guys are all great!!

Answer 1

Dude, you need a new mechanic. I owned a '93 Altima and sold it with over 180k miles. The only time it EVER failed was due to a faulty dist. assy. A good mechanic will make any vehicle run if it has compression, fire, fuel and timing. Get out the yellow pages...

Answer 2

I'm very sorry to hear that you're making payments on this car, but they haven't tried everything or it would have got started. Did you check the ignition wires? What about the timing chain (or belt), even if the compression is fine, it could have jumped a tooth and screwed up your valve timing. You'll never get the money out of it if you sell it for parts. Scrapyard only pay $20 to $50 for a non-running car.

Answer 3

i own a repair shop,and the one thing that you really need to check is the timing on it,,it doesn't matter if all the other stuff works good or not,,if its not right in time,,its not going to start ,i don't know how your mechanic checked the injectors,,but id turn the key on,and see if i had pressure up to them,you can do this by opening the bleeder valve while the pump is on..it should spray gas out of it,,if it has gas there its has to be getting it to the injectors..i have had similar cars like yours that were hard to get going,,most of the time it turned out to be out of time ,id check this really good,,try this,and then ask the question again ,,if you narrow all this down,you will get it going again,,good luck,hope this help,s.,,have a good x-mas.

Answer 4

I know you've said that your mechanic and Nissan dealer have checked everything. Have they checked : (1) the battery--the date doesn't always mean anything as far as whether the battery is good. (2) The spark plugs--have they ever been changed since you've had the car? They are esential to help a car start and run correctly. I'm not being a smart a**, but your Nissan dealer and mechanic need to "bone up" on something: because of EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) guidelines, catalytic converters, especially if they are already on the car, are a requirement to pass state inspection / emmission / environmental protection rules in your state. Have one of them change it for you. I'm no Nissan expert--I learned all of this from listening to "shop talk" from my Dad and he teaching me things, for whatever it's worth.

Answer 5

Simply you break the car into 2 parts that will start the car.... fuel and spark. If you have spark then move onto the fuel section. Fuel pump, fuel pressure sensor, fuel filter, fuel injectors...... It's in the fuel section. Take it to another mechanic and have him go over the fuel injectors, pressure...ect.... it's either the fuel pump or pressure regulator.

Answer 6

Did you change the fuel filter? Or even test the injectors? Could even be the computer had crapped out too. Just a few more idears. Good luck. I know what you mean about wasting money on something that don't work.

Answer 7

I am not a nissan expert but i will say that the problem pretty much has to be electrical. Sometimes parts can test good and still be bad such as the ignition coil,igniton module,and the computer. Many times these repair shops have to change many parts to find a fix as these electrical problems can be hard to troubleshoot. If you haven't changed the coil try that first i have had a simular problem before mazda.

Answer 8

All these guesses and all the "mechaniks" and not one mention of crank/cam position sensor or if there is any spark. Either one of these will shut down the engine. The crank/cam sensor will stop the spark as will the distributor pickup assembly. I think you have over looked the obvious. By the way there is no way to test a cat. unless the engine is running. If I am wrong i want to know the method.

Answer 9

Interesting, the only thing that was not mentioned in the diagnosis was if there was any fuel/flow. Check this out and get back to us!

Answer 10

having a good fuel pump isn't enough. you need 30-40 psi of pressure at the fuel rail. if the fuel pressure regulator's not holding pressure the car won't start.