No start, but cranks
 

this car is becoming a never ending saga! Went to start the car after 2 days of sitting, no dice, cranks to the moon but no fire. The battery was getting week, so I hooked up a jumper, and boom it fired right up, oh ok. It ran for 5 minutes and then shut off like I hit the ign, but I was outside the car. Now I cannot get it to restart, just cranks. I smell fuel, so I beleive it is getting fuel(I will confirm after work, also will confirm spark after work) a tech a work was with nissan for 10 years, his short list is this:

Camshaft sensor bank 1, said it is a common nissan issue
Crank position sensor
if the timing chain stretched too far he said it would not start, but I doubt it, the car ran fine with no issues when I parked it, no symptoms of a steched chain or codes.

just looking to hear if anyone had similar issues, stuck at work and will be pondering this all day!

GRRRR. yes its boosted, and has been for 2k miles now and is fully tuned.

You can find OBD-to-USB (or Bluetooth) adapters for $20-50 and monitoring software for a Windows computer for free (Torque seems to be popular with the Android crowd, but it's not free). You can use that to monitor/log sensors and variables. Fantastic troubleshooting tool.

I can get an obd2 scanner that reads live data, but without a consult no sure it will pickup the cam and crank sensors...?

Some of the free apps I've found will allow one to set the Mode/PID manually. If you know the "address" of the variable, you can read it. Can't remember off the top of my head if the cam and crank sensor Mode/PIDs are published. They may be part of the standard PIDs, which means you should be able to select them from a list in the app. You may be able to figure it out at the OBD/CAN Wiki in my sig.

Stretched chain is unlikely. How many miles are on it? That is often caused from low oil level and/or excessive heat. A stretched chain will usually not cause a noticeable issue (noise,rough idle), but it WILL throw a timing related code. Also, if it is reading rpm, your crank sensor is fine. Just advice from my knowledge. Hope you figure it out!

Are you UpRev tuned? Did you get the USB cable to run Cipher?

yea you should be able to see everything with that...

I do not have a cable, I was told by uprev they discontiuned cipher...it seems it I might need something however...will the interface cable on uprevs website do the same thing?

I will do everything I know how before I tow it but how do boosted guys with no crash bar tow these cars? Car has 28k.

I will, just all the hits are coming at once, my pressure plate broke a few weeks ago, having a terrible time with my z1 2 piece rotors, and now this, just frustrating, but its the life I chose! will it read rpm if the engine is not running and just cranking? That seems to be the kicker.

Spitballing here- can you switch the camshaft sensors from side to side? If you can and the code moves with it, problem found.

no codes currently, thats part of the problem. Brent said it was always bank 1 sensor for some reason, never replaced a bank 2 haha.

Not even pending codes?

only p0106 map sensor, but that has been an on going battle since I have been boosted, Vince shut the code off with the tune but he said he has run into this before sometimes he has to send the map to uprev and they fix it, but it has not actually set a permenant code since the tune. Im gonna try to run home on my lunch break with the live data scanner and see what it reads.

Huh. That's very odd. It ws running well after the tune until this happened?

If you jumped your car again does it start up? If I didn't overlook anything and you are not pulling codes, it is probably because your alternator is not charging your battery while running, or rather it's not powering your electrical system. So your battery is taking the beating and your car dies as the battery doesn't have enough juice to keep the car running, however, it can still crank the car but not have enough power to start the car.

Could be as simple as that, but dunno. Hope this helps and that it is something as small

Maybe toss a known good battery in? These things get wierd with low batteries. That wouldn't be the main cause, but it would rule something out.

That sounds like something worth pursuing. Put a voltmeter on the battery and make sure it is charged and watch the dash voltmeter to verify alternator is working properly. Might be worthwhile to have the battery tested under load.

An electrical system issue could make sensors read screwy, so it's worth investigating.

yup running 100% fine, the weather was crappy yesterday so I took the civic to work, after work I came home to get the car, it cranked and the battery got weak after about 3 tries so I hooked up the jumper, it fired on the first turn over and ran for 5 minutes and ran fine, and then it just shut off and will not restart since, with the jumper hooked up.

Have you checked the electrolyte level in the battery?

Edit: levels - there are 6 cells in a car battery.

Check to make sure no harness's are melted. Transmission harness is somewhat close to all that exhaust side piping...I think haven't seen a BP kit in person...but I melted mine into a solid mass on the dyno. Anyways make sure nothing is melted...if the transmission position sensors wiring grounds out or anything the car will crank but never start. But with that you should have codes...But my guess is electrical/sensor issue. Check fuses as well.

Your battery could be dead as well. I would take the battery out and take it to a local auto parts store like autozone, oreillys, napa etc and let them do a Battery Stablization test. If it fails to hold a charge then the battery can't maintain its voltage and can no longer be stabilized.

Fuses are a good thing to check first. If the battery ends up being dead, get the new one, put it in, start the car if it starts, or try jumping and check your voltage reading on your instrument panel, it should be around 13-14 volts if the alternator is good. A battery only remains at 12.76 volts -+15.

Agm battery its not cranking slow after I juice the battery it just cranks slow after I tried 10 times ;)

Well, if you're convinced the electrical system is OK the next thing to check is the cam sensor. Do you know someone with a Z who will let you use theirs for a minute to see if that solves it?

BTW, my money still says it's an electrical issue somewhere in there.

I'm sympathetic that your ambitious project car is causing you headaches. I've been there....the reason that both of the 370Z's I've owned have remained entirely stock, and completely headache-free.

Its worth it, trust me everytime the BOV sounds off I smile :: Just glad we recently hired a 10 year Nissan tech...I took him over on our lunch break, he said Nissan ECUs are a PITA with setting codes. We hard reset the ecu, he checked a few things and then we cranked it over and over again, between tries we reset the ecu with the scanner. After the third try it finally frigging coded p0335 crank sensor, it so flipping hard to see from the top we cant tell if I melted the harness or the sensor just went, now I got to find a way to get it over to the shop.

Is it the crank sensor that's the cheaper one of the two?

90 bucks from Nissan, the problem will be installation, I got to find a way to get it over to the shop so I can lift it up to see if I melted the harness or the sensor just pooped out. I wondering it I damaged it or hopnig I did when I put the trans back in, but I drove over 700 miles round trip to get tuned, multiple dyno pulls etc. Just glad it did not die on me somewhere else, gonna have to seriously think about a strategy if the car bones out while I am away from home.

The car's at your house? Is there any way you can just swap the sensor over at home?

I live in an apartment complex and we're not supposed to work on cars, and I see no way from getting it from the top. Also, even from the bottom I forsee at lease the turbo needing to come off, I need a lift for that.

It's at the back of the motor? Ok, that makes sense.

God I so hope that I have the V1.5 IC piping before anything we do involves pull turbo

You get good at it haha, honestly its not a big deal anymore haha. I can physically reach the bolt with my fingers with a contorsionist act...this may be interesting... harness looks fine.

It's not getting it in. It's that damn t-bolt.

I think percision welded the elbows on wrong IMO, mine was angled slighly in as well towards the center of the car, which made the coupler twist a when you bolt the turbo up, if the elbow was welded on a straight 90, I think it would be much easier.

I'm almost positive I'm not completely on it. I just cranked down on it as much as I could. Seriously doubt I'll have issues only running 10psi or whatever the number turns out to be tomorrow.

the FSM has a list of other crap that could trigger the code, but im gonna replace the sensor first, somehow.

Dude you really need to get an UpRev cable

The ecu would need sent in and upgraded from standard to tuner then I could use the new, cable, I think its 200 for the upgrade and 225 for the cable...