Hey guys,
I was on my way to lunch from work and when i tried to start my car, IT DID NOT START! I did not hear the engine crank or anything... What is going on? Has anyone had this problem? I tried starting it like 50+ times! I walked away for 30 min. and then it started normally. Also, when it did not start, my radio and all accessories seemed to fuction normally. WHATS GOING ON?

 

i got the same thing . i move the shiftnob a couple of times then it starts . dont whant to take in to the dealer

 

I thought I was the only one out there with this problem. Its my understanding that there is a sensor that lets the computer know that the car is in park before it lets it start (so you don't start the car in gear). That sensor must get loose over time or something. With mine it would happen about twice a week. I would just pull it into gear and put it back in park and it would start fine.

That problem's history now though because I just picked up my 2k2 today!

 

this also happens sometimes if you have an aftermarket alarm on the car. i used to work at a shop and we would get calls all the time from people who are stranded at work b/c their car wont start. in those cases it turned out to be a problem with the toggle switch on the alarms.

 

it seems that the 2k2s are having WAY more problems than the 2k/2k1s.

 

try different key? maybe the car doesnt recognize the chip inside the key?

 

If the chip in the key did not initialize with the system, the car would crank but it would not start. IN MY ISSUE, THE CAR DID NOT CRANK AT ALL!

 

Do you guys think i should notify my nissan dealer about this problem?

 

might as well.

 

If your still under warranty then you probably should. Mine was out of warranty when I started having the problem so I just learned to live with it.

 

I have 54K miles w/ nissan extd. wrntty?

 

Not sure if that would be considered "powertrain" or not. It should be but the dealer might be a pain in the butt about it. Look at the paperwork from your warranty and see if it has specific parts listed somewhere.

 

As much as a pain in the a$$ i am right now at my local nissan dealership, they are gonn flip on this one! haha.

I cant wait to tell them!

 

This should be fairly simple - all they need to do is to adjust switch which prevents starting engine in any position except "P". Mine was done under warranty and never occured again. Before it was driving me nuts since it was impossible to reproduce but happened from time to time anyway and dealers didn't want to spend their valuable time on the switch. Finally, I've developed speial "demonstration" procedure:
1. Start engine.
2. Depress brake and put lever in "D".
3. Shut the engine with lever staing in "D", not paying attention to screaming dealer that "You shouldn't normally do it".
4. Slowly move lever in "P" with engine shut.
5. Try to start it again - mine failed 9 out of 10 in this case. You should see the look at the dealers face, it's where fun comes from ).

Mike.

 

Mike, Thanks alot for this procedure. I will give it a shot as soon as I leave to work... I believe this is a VERY GOOD example!
Thanks Again.

 

Mike, I tried to duplicate the problem this morning with your technique and it did not work. I know that nissan will ask me to duplicate this, what should I do now?

 

Any one on this issue?????

 

sorry Igor....but I think u have to tell the dealer and insist them to belive that the problem does exist.

good luck and keep us upated.

sorry that I couldnt help much.

 

It did work for me, probably just coincedence. I discovered that "procedure" by acsident and wasn't able to reproduce after fix. Before the fix, when car wasn't starting moving shifter toward the front still stayng in "P" immidiately allowed me to start it. The problem was that it happened once out of 20-30 in average, no way to demonstrate it at the dealership. With that "procedure" it happened right away. In case you won't be able to convince dealer to adjust/replace that switch try to determine which movement direction of the shifter allows you to start the car. Then, try to press slightly shifter in opposite direction and start the car - if shifter is in "P" it shouldn't disable engine start, no matter where is lever in it's play zone. In my case I wasn't able to reproduce defect this way but yours can be different. I still don't understand why it happened much more often when I moved shifter from "D" to "P" with engine stopped than when I did the same with engine running. The switch is called "inhibitor switch", BTW. Good luck!

Mike.

 

Thanks alot guys... This problem has happend to me before with this shifter thing and i dont want it to happen anymore. I will definatly take it to the dealer and let them find out what the problem is, and if they cannot figure it out, next time it does not start, I WILL TOW IT TO THEM AT THEIR EXPENCE. Then i am pretty sure they will figure it out.