I have a Maxima 1999 SE and there is a problem when I try to start the car. I am 75% sure it's not the battery, spark plugs/wire, altenator, or fuel pump. I just got the car about a week ago so I went to a store to duplicate the car keys. What I found out is that when I try to start with the duplicated key it will not work and sounds like an old car trying to start in a cold winter, but when I use teh original key there is no problems what so ever. Is there a saftey feature I might not know about in Maxima's? Can I not make duplicate key of my original, unless I goto a maxima dealer store or shop? If so where can I get the real keys? Can I just walk into any Maxima dealer shops and ask them to dup. a key for me? Thanks

 

1999 + maxima have the immoblizer system. It's bascially a chip inside your key that's tie to your BCM/ECU. You can not duplicate the key at any hardware store. You have to buy the blanks at Nissan, get it cut and reprogram the ECU. The reprogram cost about $65. I have no idea how much each blank key cost.

 

So will I be able to do all this at any Nissan Dealer location?

 

- My '96 has the same thing. There's a chip inside the key. A new key - which must be done at a Nissan Dealer - will run you about $100.

- Do NOT continue cranking the engine with the hardware store key. If you do it enough, the engine will go into "I'm getting jacked" mode and completely immobilize. You will have to have the car towed in to the dealer and they will have to call Nissan just to get the codes to get it back to normal.

- Read your owner's manual!