98 Nissan Maxima starter

[Tom7227]

My son lives in NY City and his girlfriend is in DC. He is headed her way in his Maxima that has 248,000 miles on it. The starter has not kicked in but has responded to a tap about 4 times. He called asking what to do. He has the tools and is capable of replacing the unit if needed.

Back 1,000 years ago you used to be able to flip a copper washer around and be good to go. I have no clue what the situation is these days. Is there a simple no big deal fix? A new starter and solenoid is something around $140 and a junkyard is whatever it is.

Any idea how long you can rely on the tap?

The bottom line is that he is likely going to dump the car soon. He wants to go on a trip to Vermont in two weeks and beyond that he sort of doesn't care if he has a car or not. To top it off he had a blowout on the way to DC and ended up dumping $140 on a tire and a bit on a crummy hotel room.

As always, your advice is appreciated and thanks for your time.

Tom

[Eric Wettschreck]

Sounds a lot like a typical older chevy truck. The needed tap (often referred to as the Chevy tap) is prolly due to a flat spot on the armature of the starter motor. The starter will survive as long as it survives, meaning it may go another year and it may die tomorrow.

The best advice I can give ya is.......If it were mine I'd replace it with a salvage yard starter, especially since the plan is to dump the car in the near future. I just checked a local salvage yard on-line and they list a starter for this car at 40 bucks, and is warranted for 30 days.

[Tom7227]

Eric,

The salvage yard quoted $45 on the phone but demanded $85 when he got there. Went to Autozone and bought a new one after the tap didn't work. Changed it out in the lot and broke some cheapo tools he had while working on it. I just told him that it was time to get rid of it as it costs a fortune for insurance in NYC.

Thanks for your advice.

Tom

[Scott K]

Honestly, I would have told him to keep the car, and move out of New York. It isnt that I like Nissan's, I just dont like NY

[Tom7227]

He will be out of NYC within a few months. Unfortunately he is most likely headed to the San Francisco area. The allure of a good looking woman can overcome an awful lot of common sense.

[Scott K]

SanFran is also known to have big gay crowd as well

Sorry, just had to throw that out there

[delcecchi]

And public nudity is legal.

[Whoaru99]

Well, at least somewhat related to the car, I had a 2012 Maxima for a rental car while on vacation last week. I thought it was a pretty nice car. Had good pep too with almost 300hp on tap from that 3.5L V6.