Why does a Nissan Altima not start?

Answer 1

If your Altima seems to run fine then all of a sudden fails to start, consider this... If you have recently moved your car a short distance (ex. rearranging cars in a driveway) parked and then tried to restart, it is likely the engine is flooded. The technician that last saw my car for this same issue said there was a design flaw that was never addressed when the cars were under warranty.

To start the car, the fix is: with the car in park, hold the accelerator down (do not pump) and turn the ignition key to start the car. Hold the pedal and the key down, sometimes as long as 20-30 seconds. The engine will continue to try and fire until it purges the excess fuel and eventually starts. If after 30 seconds it hasn't started, do not turn the key completely off or the fuel injector will reengage the next time you try and start the engine. Give the starter a chance to cool down and try again with the pedal all the way to the floor (do not pump) and hold again for 20-30 more seconds, this may take several tries.

To avoid this problem in the future, make sure you let the car run a minimum of 2 minutes before shutting down, this will allow the engine a chance to purge any excess fuel remaining from the initial start-up.

Good luck, this problem has led me to have to have my car towed 4 times before I finally found out what was causing the issue.