Ok so 3 days ago my 93 Nissan maxima acted very strange. I drove to work everything was working fine. When I got out of work I started my car and noticed all my gauges were jumping up and down and my stereo and the clok display would dim intermittently. I started driving home, when I hit my breaks everything electrical would die. Or if I used a blinker everything electrical would die. Later that day I started my car and nothing is working, no windows, locks, lights, horn, blinkers, climate control etc... I'm thinking a ground somewhere I've checked grounds from chassis to battery and from starter. Also I'd like to add the headlights work. The dash has the battery indicator light on that the only thing that lights up.

What I've checked/ done thus far:
-Tested and manually checked every fuse, this was peculiar because when tested only a few fuses showed they were getting juice. I checked all the fuses and none are blown their simply not receiving power(possible ground issue?)

-I checked the fuseable link it didn't look bad but I replaced it anyway, no change.

-took under steering colum dash apart and dropped fuse box, no burnt or corroded wires to be seen.

- checked rear tail light sockets no corrosion and bulbs all good.

- tested my ignition wires the 2 pos were getting power.

-checked battery terminals and grounds on battery and starter, tightened all connections.

-had altenator and battery tested at VIP they said the charging system and battery were fine.

- Things to note, my car runs and drives perfectly, both high and low headlights work, the person I bought the car off of put in an aftermarket stereo which would randomly lose all power while driving, shut down for a few seconds then turn back on, maybe it has to do with that? I am at a loss of answers anything would help thank you very much.

 

I suspect you are grounding out somewhere, does not take much...

Any lose and or corroded cable connection or breaks on, near or around the alternator and or battery???

With engine on, test current capacity on alternator and battery, turn engine off then trace all wire visually from end to end.

 

Any ideas on where it might be grounding out to effect every electrical system besides starter and headlights?

 

check your accessory relays. Page EL-167 http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Maxima/1994/el.pdf

Things required to run the engine run off the "ignition" relay. The headlights and other primary exterior lights (except fog lights) run without a relay at all (just fused circuits directly to the battery).

 

also there is a "circuit breaker" on that page...

and which fusible link(s) were you looking at? the main one on the battery cable? Or the other ones in the relay/fuse box under the hood?

 

For example, your brake lights do not work. But your ECCS (ecu stuff) does.

http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Maxima/1994/el.pdf

On EL-8 you see that the "ECCS" traces back to the W/R wire going directly to the fusible link box. Meaning all the stuff coming out of the W/R wires on the fusible link box *probably* works.

But as for all the "W" stuff coming out of the fusible link box, that's all the stuff that goes through the MAIN fusible link which is on the positive battery cable (labelled "GY" in that diagram). I'm assuming your 93 is a GXE by the way - if it's an SE then look at EL-10 instead (there are 2 separate fusible link boxes in a 92-94 SE)

 

I replaced the 100 amp fuseable link in the fuse box located next to the battery

 

And yes it's an se

 

also "not receiving power" is not a "ground issue". Ground is the negative battery terminal... receiving power is the positive battery terminal.

 

Do you get battery voltage on either side of the 100A fusible link (i don't know which pin is actually the input, and which is the output)? The wire labelled "E22" (page EL-10) going from the positive connector to that fusible link box could maybe be your problem, if you aren't even getting 12v @ the 'input' side of the 100A fusible link.

 

I tested and both sides of the 100 amp main fuse are receiving power, but for some reason their is no power running to most the fuses in the fuse box, the fuses aren't blown, the reason I was thinking ground is I have the Nissan 3rd gen repair guide and when going through the troubleshooting of the electrical it all seemed related to a wire grounding out somewhere. I also thought maybe Nissan put a safety on the fuse box that if something were grounding it would cut power off or something like that. I'm not to savy with these electrical issues

 

Another thing I noticed is I believe the previous owner hooked up aftermarket fog lights ( I may be wrong) but the fog lights do not work either.

 

I just realized another thing looking at el8 it says the seatbelts windows and electronic trunk open system runs off the same circuit, my button to open my trunk still works if that gives you an idea for something

 

Wait... you said your car is an SE.... SE's don't have an electronic trunk popper. GXE has a button on the door, and the fuel release pulls up. On an SE, the fuel release pushes down, and the trunk release (on the same handle as fuel door) pulls up.

What are you basing your car being an SE off of? If your car has black gauges, keypads on the doors, and chrome trim around the windows/taillights, it's a GXE not an SE. For 92-94 that makes a big difference b/c they came with different engines. So let's be clear, which you actually have...

VG


VE

 

I don't believe both sides of the same fuse should be showing voltage when the fuse is removed..... that would be like having water pressure in your sink drain as well as in your faucet...

 

I believe it is the se is dosnt have any mentioned things above for the hex and it is the 3.0 dual over head cam not the single it does have a trunt button on the driver door, and my engine is the picture labeled ve, I just unbolted the fuseable link and you are correct their is power on the positive only not negative. Also the day it happend it was raining and my car was parked raceing down hill possible chance a wire was exposed? I recall a little smoke but thought it was from water running on the engine block

 

Hmm OK, maybe the 92+ SE's also had a trunk popper. The 89SE that I had did not have one. Or maybe it was always optional and mine just didn't have that option.

 

Any more ideas possibly?

 

remove the fusible links in that same box... test for voltage on those as well. There's got to be a break somwhere. Grounds are generally going to be redundant and therefore even with one bad one, another one on the same harness *should* keep things working. This many dead systems suggests something 'upstream' of the fusebox.

 

Also the "relays" idea kind of goes out the window due to the brake lights not even being a relayed circuit. It's just straight up battery->fusible-linkbox->fusebox->switch->bulb->ground circuit.

 

Do you think possibly the fuse box may be at fault somehow? Even tho some of the fuses are recovering power? And I think I read somewhere on these forums the only thing as far as lights that ran directly off the battery were headlights( not %100 but I think I read that on these forums)

 

the headlights are ran directly off the battery but so is the hazard light system and the brakelights, and parking lights, etc. Also the horn, interior lights, etc should all work without the key in the ignition.

Go back to the diagram tho.... the headlights run off box 1, sourced by the "W/R" wire. But the brake lights and all the other crap connected to the fuse boxes and stuff runs off the second box, off the "W" wire. Fuel pump is ran off the W/R box... ECCS is run off the W/R box... basically everything that operates the actually run/drive of the car, plus headlights, runs off the W/R box. Your issue is with the W box. So you gotta look at the diagram and see what you can start probing in order to see where the break is.

From the looks of it, there is a bus bar in the box that connects the output of the 100A fusible link to the input of the rest of the fusible links in that box.... If that's messed up, then you wouldn't be getting voltage to any of those fusible links that run the accessories and stuff.

I can't say 100% for sure what it should look like b/c i've never had a VE...... or worked on a VE.... I just know how electricity works. So pictures of the stuff you've been messing with would help.

 

another thing that might be helpful (but a bit time consuming) is taking a voltage reading of every single fuse inside the car when the key is turned "on". If i can see everything that doesn't have power (when it should) then I can probably find out what the common power source is for all of those powerless fuses.

My money's on the double white/blue wire connector (2-pin portion of E106, plugs into the rear of the fuse block inside the car i believe) not having power, but can't say for sure without a full list of 'dead' fuse locations

 

fusible link connector F'D up!

 

any luck, OP?

 

i am currently experiencing the same exact issue with my '93 GXE. once i open the ignition i still do not have any power in the interior of the car but once i start the engine then right away everything comes up. everything inside the interior starts to operate but once i press the window switch you can see the interior lights dim down until i let off the switch then it stays lit normally. had alternator tested and it passed all 3 times at autozone, starter motor is a new reman unit and i have a redtop optima battery. car starts up fine and shows no signs of weak battery. but it still has me wondering what it can be? i don't have a meter or test light to check anything. however, i checked all fuses inside the car and they all visually look good and none are blown. but once i take the key out everything is dead, door locks, security light on cluster and trunk switch do not work, but once i close the door and arm my alarm then my parking lights come on after arming my alarm. im at a loss here and don't know what else to look for.