Jamie West here. A new member of the group and a Canadian from near Toronto. I just ditched my 1989 Ford Probe GT for the reliability of a 2000 Maxima SE. I drove the car and loved it for 8 days. It has 73K KM'S on it. On Thursday evening I left the car parked while I had dinner in a restaurant. Upon my return, I opened my door to the the strong odor of an electrical burn. I then tried to start the car and no she would not go. I had it towed to my local Nissan dealer here and after a few hours in the shop the dealer informed me that the "main brain" or central computer had literally melted down. He showed my the box with all the computer chips in it. It was charred. He said that before they would just put a new box on, that they would like to make sure the problem wasn't caused by some other type of electrical failure or short. Has anybody else heard of this type of problem? How disappointing to see my Maxima on the back of a tow truck after just 8 days. I wonder if its a fluke or a sign that a bad batch of computers found their way into that model year.
Your thoughts?
Thank You.

 

WTF Talk about a fire hazard!

 

Sorry about your problem. Keep us posted about what caused the comp. to get charred after you fix it. Good luck.

 

Sorry to hear about your car. I think you're the first to experience such a tragedy. Please keep us posted on what's the cause of the melt down.

 

I'm inclined to believe since you *just* got the car, it was in an accident or was perhaps flooded. In an accident, you might have harness cutting. Your incident is extremely isolated and rare. I would definately indicate some other problem. In fact, it would almost seem some fuse was circumvented, it shouldnt ever get enough juice to melt before blowing the fuse.

Much of the harness runs along the fenders. An accident in that area and careless rewiring *seems* like it could cause that.

 

Wow. I had my 85 honda accord. WEll she shoked under the passenger side front seat for a good while afte the 2nd month I had her... Well just last year before the head gasket blew and bent the heads on the 4 cyl. I restored the interior to new. Well was I shocked to see that the wiring was completely charred and black and so was the ecu box. I was supprised the car still ran. She was a good honda. I'll have to post some pics of it sometime even though it was in the honda accord

 

Interesting that you would mention the fuse. The service manager at the dealership indicated that the ignition fuse was blown on the vehicle too. I believe he said that discovery is why they're carefully checking the electrical system. The accident theory could be right on. I noticed a distinct shadowing of the paint on the driver's side front fender under certain light and wondered if the car or certain parts had been painted.
Thanks for the reply.

 

Check the VIN code on carfax.com to see if the car was wrecked.