nismo_s13

well... heres the story, right now its probably close to -45 celcius outside here in canada, i dont have a block heater in the car ( never came with one, and have yet to install one ) and i dont have a garage for her to stay warm. Well just last month i've been having battery troubles so i had one "new" one given to me by a mechanic friend... works good up until it REALLY started to get cold, so i went out and baught a Motomaster 875CCA 1000CA 125min reserve capacity Battery to help her through this winter. Now she wont start relly at all, u could hear her turn once but still cant start. Now this morning i tried to start her and gauges ( digital ) would go totally black, u would hear a sort of thump from the engine ( possibly starter?? ) and the clock would be reset to 12:00... im sure its not the alternator because i would be able to drive fine before the new battery. Im really leaning towards replacing the starter.. would that be the fix? Any input would be appreciated, thx!

-Gerald

DA-MAX

iTrader: (10)

you just bought this battery the other day?? sounds like alternator maybe, when the starter goes you usually don't get any noise it just doesn't start...the thump to me seems like the power is just drained and not enough to turn the car on

the gauges just might be dead...the digitals are notorious for that

Bill Brasky

iTrader: (2)

the battery's main enemy is cold. When it's freaking -45c outside, your batt approximately puts out about 4 odd volts. What i suggest (might seem like a pain) is to remove your battery every cold, cold night and take it inside with you. Keep that batt warm!

As for the gauges, the main enemy of a LCD is cold. The matrix inside can't move when it's that cold outside so it looks like they are dead. Good thing they arent . Let em warm up and everything will be hunky-dory!

MaDMaX024

i'd say pull the battery out when it gets cold, like anton said, or get a drop light and put it in the engine bay next to the battery, make some wind screen type thing so there is some semblence of insulation..its up to you, get yourself a block heater definately, your motor cant like oil that cold..its gotta take forever for it to make its way to the upper part of the motor/heads.

-shock211-

iTrader: (1)

dude! get a block heater asap!
i doubt your starter is dead...it's just too god damn cold for anything to work properly.

btw
check out 8ride on here, he's another 3rd gen owner located in winnipeg. his 3rd gen has some really, really cool bodywork done to it.

nismo_s13

isnt 8ride from sask? not wpg.. .his page looks like its from sask

nismo_s13

oops.. didn't mean "page" looks like its from sask. i meant to say "plates"

nubiannupe

iTrader: (9)

I was gonna say the same thing... I could've sworn I saw that he was from sask. Oh, and hey Gerald. You're only a couple hours from me, IIRC!

MrGone

iTrader: (30)

Gerald,
My Dad's Durango has been doing the same thing, except for the ground terminal is bad (well not bad, but just doesnt fit anymore ). Anyway right now its just a matter of going out and wiggleing it so it's tight, then has enough contact to start, but otherwise it just makes a clicking noise then it everything shuts off.

I think yours is just a matter of the battery not having enough power. Do you have a multimeter?

Another thing, sometimes the stores have bad batteries. We went to buy a new one for my Dad's Maxima, got it home, hooked it up and nothing. Tried it on the Durango and nothing, hooked up a volt meter to it and it was dead.
Returned it for a refund and I just told him to use his old battery.

-shock211-

iTrader: (1)

yep you're right...

MaximamixaM

1) block heater
2) battery heater or blanket
3) synthetic motor oil
check your wires for corrision. Maybe you have aging wires or starter that need lots of AMPs, but, i bet the problems is the extreme cold.
try a jump start?

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

Complete death like that is only 1 of 2 things
1. battery is toast
2. bad connection (more likely)

lophix

iTrader: (3)

corrosion/ connections. happened to me sometime last year.

shavedmax

iTrader: (6)

ummmmmmmmm -45 celcuis is -113 farenheit. you're supposed to be dead if you even tried to walk to your car, let alone start it.

lophix

iTrader: (3)

actually, that's -45 farenheit.

shavedmax

iTrader: (6)

im just quoting the man. american folk only use farenheit. i think the metric system is much easier, but thats off topic


even at -45 c engine oil will turn to molases not letting the engine turn over, causing the power to surge and kill power to all the other components(probably not the correct way to describe that, and internetautomar will try to chew my a$$ out) but im sure that thats what the real problem is. maybe a bad starter, because i had a similar situation with my century, but i knew it was going.

90SEBlack

"mmmmmmmmm -45 celcuis is -113 farenheit. you're supposed to be dead if you even tried to walk to your car, let alone start it."

LOL Laugh of the day I Love it lol

-shock211-

iTrader: (1)

-45 celcius is -50 faranheit. i'm glad it doesn't get that cold here.
gerald,
i hope that you're talking -45 celcius with windchill.
geez...the homeless ppl in winnipeg must be some tough S.O.B.s'
shaved,
you're hilarious man

shavedmax

iTrader: (6)

lol, its actually -49, but i got ****ed that you would question my searching and finding a conversion calculator and getting the number that i looked again and realized the one i used was f'ed up . either way its friggin cold

lophix

iTrader: (3)

lol my bad shaved....i've been calculating temps all day (it's 6F = -15C here right now.....gonna hit -1 F later tonight...sux majorbalIz) C = (F - 32)/1.8 ownz you!!

-shock211-

iTrader: (1)

now that you guys know some of the metric system, i can finally understand what's goin' on here
i don't know much of the imperial system.

Golden Ice

I have a 1.5 amp battery maintainer that makes a world of difference to keep BOTH of my batteries warm in the winter..

Hm, The only block heaters I've found to fit a Max have been the magnetic type, and I really don't like using those on cars with major computerized components..I tried a freeze plug heater and it was a little too small to seal..I haven't found a decent canister/in-line radiator hose heater that will fit either..anyone have any good sources for them? neither AZ or O'Reilly's carry anything but the magnetic ones (here anyway) and the local place doesn't have freeze plug or canisters that fit our radiator hoses..

nubiannupe

iTrader: (9)

That's ok. We forgive you. Especially considering it's roughly -25 degree Fahrenheit here (equals out to -31 degree Celsius). And that does NOT include wind chill, folks!

So, I don't wanna hear ANYONE complain about cold. Take the battery and put it inside.

Keep hope (and your Maxima) alive!

nismo_s13

sorry i guess i should have mentioned that it was -45 celcius with windchill.. haha could have probably stopped the whole imperial / metric discussion. But a good laugh anyway... im sure the battery isn't dead, its new, first time i got it.. it actually started my car, the morning after it wouldn't start my car. The connections are still in great condition, checked it all before winter came in. So can i not get a block heater? OR is it starter... for sure im going to get a battery blanket though.

nismo_s13

and the battery's been inside since yesterday getting nice and warm

broncoguy

anything with a minus sign in front of it is just too dang cold, C or F...

shavedmax

iTrader: (6)

........................................word

lophix

iTrader: (3)

...i just found a battery warmer if you're interested. It's for the M45. It's $20 and here's the link:
http://www.everythingnissan.com/part...p?PartID=50270

For $20, might as well try it.

nismo_s13

alright.. well to aide in my cold starts i purchased a "freeze plug" which screws into the block core plug, im also considering that oil pan type heater.. although our oil pans arent perfectly flat but have tile shape indents which would make the heater contact surface even smaller, and the crevices could always pick up water/debrit and cause it to fall off? who knows.. not that i think about it, i dont want one of those if anyone wants to see how it looks like, i'll take some pics

Golden Ice

I also looked into some tank-type inline radiator heaters myself..I might have found one locally, but I know they sell them on jcwhitney.com...Those freeze plug heaters work pretty well, I have one on my truck that makes a world of difference with cold starts..

8ride

Hey man, cool to see a fellow .org member so close. I'm from Regina, Saskatchewan and I definatly felt that cold front. It was -49 celsius here with windchill a couple days ago and it hasnt gotten much warmer. I think that around -55 degrees farenheit.

-shock211-

iTrader: (1)

it's recently got pretty damn cold in toronto too!
-35c with wind. the weird part is that it was +11c 6 days ago
can we still blame el nino for the crazy weather? or is it something else messing with our weather now?

nubiannupe

iTrader: (9)

I think El Nino would be running for El Blanketo in this cold weather! DANG!!!

2k3TitaniumSe

iTrader: (3)

I it was your max and not the battery. Nice way to fool us.

Shift_my vq

I had to take my poor third gen up to that horrible part of the world last winter. She had a few problems with that to so I went to racing store and bought a bottle warmer and set the battery on top of it and put bungge cord to keep it around the sides. I know know it's ghetto but It solved all my problems cheap