Questions and Answers

Nissan Sentra Hard Morning Starting Q. Dear, Vincent I have a 1997 Nissan Sentra GXE 1.6 liter and at one time I have written to you about the same situation about my car giving difficulty starting in the morning. I have tune it up completely; spark plug and cables, distributor cap and rotor, Alternator was just replace this weekend.

A new starter, thermostat, oil and oil filter. Transmission filter, fuel filter, air filter, new battery and even the fuel relay that you recommended me to change it. Yet the car still give me difficulty starting it in the morning.

The luck thing is that after 4 to 5 time trying it get it to turn on it goes on and even after driving it for awhile and parking the same day it turn back on with out any difficulty. But, if I was to turn it off from one day to another and was about to use it the next day that is when the car gives me difficulty turning it back on.

Can you please help me once again to see what advice you can give me on solving this situation? I even had Auto Zone do a diagnostic test with the diagnostic machine and yet it states that nothing is wrong with the car. Yesterday I went to the nearest Advance auto store near my home and even bought a new Intake Air Sensor. Yet the car is still giving me difficulty turning on in the morning. Help Please I'm up to my last wit.

My wife Geo Prizm has never had this problem and I'm the her auto (Home ) repair dealer even though I never went to school to become one. I just went and bought the proper auto repair book for our car and that is the way I repair our cars and have had no problem until now. I even save me some money on the repairs on our cars.

Also, I just had my front and back tires replace and balance and the alignment was done to the two back wheel due to the fact that the front tire wheels were not able to be aligned at all because the guy from Town Tire told me that the front tires weren't able to be aligned at all but they where balanced and yet I'm still feeling a shimmer in the front when I'm driving at the speed of 65 mph and over.

Could this be due to my front tie rods needing to be adjusted??? They even check to see if the rims on my wheels where bent but they weren't. Please help me.

I also have oil leaking into my air filter. Can you explain to me why this happening to me vehicle? This is the second I went to change my air filter and noticed this. What can I do to correct this from happening again? I always change my oil and air filter by the proper mileage as required by my vehicle manual.

A I think you may have me confused with someone else. The symptoms you describe would make me think a problem with the fuel pump. Specifically the fuel pump check valve.

What you can do is when you get in the car in the morning, turn the key ON but do not start it. Listen to the fuel pump and when it shuts off turn the key Off and back on, again not starting it. Do this three or four more times and then try to start it.

If it starts right up, you probably have a bad fuel pump check valve. The fact it starts up fine the rest of the day would make me be inclined to think check valve and not a leaking injector.

I would suggest rotating and balancing all four tires. If the problem goes away, then you're set. If the tires are old and your local roads are a bit on the rough side, you may have a damaged tire.

I would assume the front end was thoroughly checked when they went to do the wheel alignment. If so, they would have found a bad tie rod end. The toe is adjustable on that vehicle and should be adjusted with the tie rods if it is out of specifications.

Even though the front end of that car is not adjustable, the alignment should still be checked to see if it is within specifications. If not, there is something bent and it needs to be determined what is bent and replace the bent component.

The most common reason for oil in the air filter housing is a blocked PCV valve. Pressure will build in the crankcase and push oil back into the air filter housing. So the PCV valve would be the first thing to check and replace.