Car will not start

ERIC PIERCE

MEMBER
1999 NISSAN MAXIMA
3.0L
V6
2WD
AUTOMATIC
189,000 MILES

A few months ago it started having issues out of nowhere, I drove into town got gas and went to a friends house, the car sat for maybe 2.5 hours. On the way home it started running really rough, sluggish. Backfiring and blowing white smoke. Wasn't overheated and didn't appear to have any issues. There were codes for EGR and crank position censor. EGR, crank position sensor, spark plugs, fuel pump and filter were all replaced and still nothing. The starter is fine and it is getting fuel but it wont start. It would run after spraying starter fluid for a few seconds. Does anyone have a clue as to what it could be? Is it possible that it jumped time?

1 Reply

SCGRANTURISMO

MECHANIC
4,897 POSTS

Hello,

This could be a problem with your head gasket. Usually when a vehicle is blowing white smoke out of the exhaust, it is a sign that it is burning coolant in the engine's combustion chambers. Here is a link explaining that:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/white-smoke-or-steam-coming-from-the-exhaust-pipe

There are a couple of different ways to check to see if you have a blown head gasket. The first way is to do a sniffer test on the radiator of your vehicle, checking for combustion gasses mixing with the coolant. Here is a link explaining this test:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/head-gasket-blown-test

Finally you can also do a compression test. If your vehicle's head gasket is blown, it will allow the engine's compression to leak out where the head gasket has failed. Here is a link on how to do a compression test:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-test-engine-compression

Please go to the links and go through the guides and get back to us with what you are able to find out. We can go from there.

Thanks,
Alex
2CarPros