Dead car

[cookfamily23]

Hi All,

New to this forum, I've had a read through some issues but don't seem to have found mine. I'll tell the full story.

About 6 months ago I had a problem where the car wasn't starting and had to get a jump start a few times. I replaced the battery even though I had several people on the telephone telling me I didn't need to I took it to an electrical auto motor shop and he tested the battery and said I needed a new one. Hey presto everything was going smoothly until a few weeks ago.

It started with an intermittent fault when driving where it seemed that the steering would just die on me for a few seconds. Had it back to the garage and they kept if for 3 days and no surprise the fault didn't happen again and they couldn't find the issue. Then about 2 weeks ago, when I was getting in the car, the mileage and clock and radio were all reset to 0.00 and then after driving for about 5 minutes it would update. Fast forward to the last few days, the car is absolutely dead when I try and open it. No central locking, no lights on the dash no radio, absolutely nothing. Then out of nowhere the wing mirrors opened so I pressed the start button and everything come to life. Clock and radio set to 0.00 again but all working.

I've had a vault meter on the battery which is reading 14.2V

I've plugged in a fault code reader, no fault codes.

Nissan want £150 per hour to look at the car and will still charge me even if they can't find anything so thought I would try and do some research first as my usual garage can't book me in for 3 weeks.

Any help or suggestions welcome.

thanks very much

[gloucester]

Welcome to this forum.

It would be useful for this and future queries if you updated your bottom signature with the car details.

Have you checked for a corroded battery earthing strap/connection?

[calnorth]

You seem to suffer both intermittent and full loss of power. Thats a difficult diagnose at first.

Battery was the 1st place to go and apart from wiring and connections related the main distribution of power is via the IDPM. It'll need diagrams to follow up through that unit and elsewhere.

Don't think we have ever seen that problem and as such needs some careful electrical examination.

[cookfamily23]

Hi both, thank you for your fast replies, will try and have a look at the earthing strap/connection for now and then try and have a look at what wiring we can see ourselves.

other point to note, now that it's fired up, I've drove it, parked it up for 10 minutes then went back to it and it opened and started but again with the problem of the clocks resetting for a short while.

thanks I'll keep this updated.

Hopefully I've also attached my car to my signature too fingers crossed!

[cookfamily23]

**UPDATE**

Car opened this morning with central locking fine. All lights came on dashboard but then car didn't start. After a while it eventually did start and hubby took it out for a drive. The stop / start was kicking in and working fine then after 20 minutes he stopped at lights, the stop / start kicked in and now it won't start again. It has said no key ID. I took the spare key down to him, changed both batteries with brand new duracell batteries and still the same. Currently waiting for breakdown recovery.

[calnorth]

If its not a simple 12v car battery and/or related wiring/cabling then it needs a closer look at by an auto electrician. Probably at a Nissan dealer.

The NATS (Key Fob/Security system) is very strict as regards recognising correct codes both within the Key Fob itself and the Car related electronics. Its difficult at distance to diagnose such a problem where both Keys fail to operate the car. It indicates a problem within the car as regards decoding the Key transmitted code. Might be fairly simple?

[cookfamily23]

Just found a loose connection wire on the battery after a bit of you tubing. Thought that was the issue, took some spanners to him, he tightened it up and still nothing.

Could that loose wire have caused the issue with the car not recognising the key even though now the connection has been tightened has it lost its memory or something?

Can't get the car in to a garage for nearly 3 weeks. Good job we are on lockdown and can't go anywhere!

[cookfamily23]

OK, the recovery brought us back home then on the way home was chatting to the hubby. Then said I wonder if we try this. He disconnected the battery, left it for 5 minutes then reconnected it. Hey presto the car started!!!! Have to see how it goes over the next few days but we think the connection must have been getting looser and looser since the battery was replaced and then a simple reset and tighten might hopefully fix the issue!! worth bearing in mind for similar electrical issues in the future.

I'll post back in a few days and let you know if it solved the issue. thank you for your input

[calnorth]

OK, the recovery brought us back home then on the way home was chatting to the hubby. Then said I wonder if we try this. He disconnected the battery, left it for 5 minutes then reconnected it. Hey presto the car started!!!! Have to see how it goes over the next few days but we think the connection must have been getting looser and looser since the battery was replaced and then a simple reset and tighten might hopefully fix the issue!! worth bearing in mind for similar electrical issues in the future.

I'll post back in a few days and let you know if it solved the issue. thank you for your input

Ok..please let us know

[gloucester]

Now why didn't we think of that!