my sister has a 94 gxe, ~135,000 miles. she has had the starter and alternator replaced within the last 10-12 months or so, and she got a gold 100,000-mile warranty battery from sears about 6 months ago..

..every so often, most noticably 3 days ago, when my sister tries to start the car, nothing happens. no noise, no attempting to turn over, nothing. but the key does turn far enough so that she can work her radio, windows, lights, etc.. which would appear to mean its neither the battery nor the alternator. also, she usually only has to wait about 10 minutes and try it again for the car to start.

well, it didnt end up starting one day last week, and she had to get the car towed from her work, and when our mechanic - who is a respectable, trustworthy guy - looked at the car yesterday, he said he was unable to find anything wrong with it. now i am not exactly sure what he did test on the car, or what he checked in general, but he appears to be genuinely stumped as to what is causing the car to do this.

any suggestions?

 

that 10 min thing...sounds like something that the security system is doing

it makes no sounds because if the security system gets triggered it will not let you start the car....i had problems with that when i first bought my maxima. But after a few weeks it stopped doing that..maybe i just learned how to stop triggering the slient alarm

 

often times shifting it down to neutral and starting from there
or even shifting down to neutral and back up to park

also tell her when it will not start,
to get out and lock and unlock the doors with her keys, sometimes that will clear things

 

the lock thing may work that may rest the alarm. However check you neutral position switch. It only lets the car start in neutral on park. If its faulty it may be tempramental on you. the alarm would be the other cause.

 

Just as a third option, maybe the ingition switch is going out.

 

tell her to push the shifter all the way up as far as it will go to make sure it is in park. sometimes it may appear to be in park, but it is not actually pushed all the way up.