I can't duplicate this weird thing that happened the other day. A few days ago I went to an automatic car wash ... the kind that pulls the left front wheel along a track through the wash. I haven't driven an automatic in many years and I felt like a deer caught in the headlights when I approached forgetting what to do. Obviously I had to be in gear to get into the pull zone and that wasn't easy to find ... there's about a 20-30 second gap between cars, so I nudged up and put it into neutral for the rest of the "pull. And it did of course engage at which point I decided to turn the engine off, tranny in neutral.

And then the display started to yell at me...bells from dash ringing. Not sure what was wrong. Too much noise from the car wash and I'm in the soap and rollers by now. So I decide to start the engine while still in neutral... and it won't! Or at least it made a feeble attempt and started to sputter as if it wasn't getting fuel or the computer crapped out. I was past the car wash conveyor at this point so no damage due to pushing the car in park. A 2nd then 3rd attempt at starting , this time it started normally, sounded normal, full power etc. as if nothing had ever happened in the first place.

I just bought my 2010 Max Sv 2 weeks ago and here in Quebec, we have a 3000mile - 30 day head to toe warantee on used vehicles bought from dealers. I don't think I bought a lemon, I took it out this morining in moderate snow and nothing wrong at all for a 50 mile trip. But I'll bet there's a computer code sitting in there and I'll make an appointment with the dealer next week before my 30 days runs out to see if there's anything.

Any thoughts on what went wrong??? Did I do something wrong other than going to a roller brush car wash in the frst place . I usually don't but there was tons of caked on winter mud and stuff that just needed to come off.

 

Never turn your 7th gen's engine off when in a carwash! And most of all never panic!

 

Push start automatic cars don't start up in Neutral. Thats pretty much why.

 

shouldn't use those automatic car washes.... touch the window notice the amount of force that being put on the windshield... like hurricane winds. I won't even take my beater through those anymore.

 

Thanks all for your thoughts - didn't know about non-start in neutral with doorbell starter. Thing is ... it did start ... kinda ... like it was running on 1 cylinder or flooded. But like I said, since last Monday no problem at all. Won't do that again. I live in a very rural part of town and won't see any car wash on my normal daily trips ... but thought I treat my new used 2010 to a bath because I had gone to the big city. I'll wait for summer.... its mid-Frebruary ... only 6 more months of winter here in Canada.....

 

If you treat her to a bath do it right...hand wash and wax

 

In the winter I dont mind using the car was here and there. I usally go the touch less ones. And by Touchless, I meant he ones that are just powered by water jets and not brushes. Since its winter, my only concern is getting most the salt off. Rest of the year, I load up my bucket with mirco tows, wax, favorite soap, cleay bar, 2 diffrent wheel cleaners and head to the car was bright and early Sunday mornings. I just go to town on the car. I might look like a douche but its usally just me out there LMAO.

 

Yes, use the touchless car wash. And every few months, pick a warm day and do the wash by hand, because the touchless wash does not get everything off the car, and eventually a glaze will form on the surface.

I have never been able to get my car to even try to start unless the tranny lever was in park. If your car tried to start in neutral, you may have a problem.

 

Its not that it wouldn't start ... what was scary was that it DID! but was sputtering as if running on 1 cylinder or computer was shutting off fuel..but the engine did turn maybe 40-50 rpm real sick and definitely not right! I'm going to the dealer on Monday to see if a code was triggered but I've been running it all this week in deep snow no problem.. and I havent been able to duplicate the problem....

 

The wind is the cause of the stalling, either water or air is being forced directly into the intake that sucks air in and that is suffocating the engine, check the air filter to see if its wet/damp

 

Do you have an aftermarket intake where the element is exposed? Maybe the wash is the kind that has the jets that spray from the ground to wash beneath the car, and they soaked the filter element...

 

Where in Canada are you located? I am outside of Toronto..
I had a similar issue before Christmas after the first snowfall when I started the car in the morning where it was trying to start then stopped and started .. Some ppl said it was most likely the battery about to die, but since then all is fine and I didn't change the battery..

 

Perhaps I'm not understanding something here, but my car starts fine in neutral. Its also stated in the manual you can start up from neutral. In fact every car I've owned can be started from neutral. its a hazard not being able to start from neutral...what if the car stalls at speed.


From 2010 Maxima Manual 5-11:

Starting the Engine:

1. Apply the parking brake.
2. Move the shift selector to P (Park) or N
(Neutral). P (Park) is recommended.
The starter is designed not to operate if
the shift selector is in any of the driving
positions.
3. Push the ignition switch to the ON position.
Depress the brake pedal and push the igni-
tion switch to start the engine.

To start the engine immediately, push and
release the ignition switch while depressing
the brake pedal with the ignition switch in
any position.

Also from 5-14

N (Neutral):
Neither forward nor reverse gear is engaged. The
engine can be started in this position. You may
shift to N (Neutral) and restart a stalled engine
while the vehicle is moving.

 

To Funnyman82: I'm real close to the Qc-Vt border near Jay Peak. There was lots of snow 2 weeks ago and bitter cold.

I went to the dealer today just to make sure I had something on file. They did a code check ($$$ free) and came up with "????" .. they said it was the first time their computer actually showed a ???? code on the screen!! Seriously ... 4 "?" on the computer...

Anyways, as I said earlier I can't duplicate the problem, and just before I went in to the dealer this am in their parking lot, I shut off in neutral and started in neutral ...twice... and both times it started normally (foot in brake). The best explanation I could get was run-on from gas vapours ...but jeez I haven't seen that sort of thing happen since I'd stole my Dad's '69 Beaumont for joyrides when he was sleeping.... you know... an old-fashioned aspirated carb...

Here's a thought ... that day at the car wash ... I had just changed to a lower octane 91 ---> 89. Maybe the computer had to think hard about the change? But by now this is my 3rd full tank of mid-grade and everything is 100% ... no ping, great performance, milage sucks but that's because of the over a foot of thick wet snow here in ski country and I've been plowing through it with the traction light flashing pretty much from my driveway to where I gotta go. Some FWD mini breadboxes couldn't make it up the big hill near my place along lake Memphremagog... but the Max really held the road great ... good thing ...becuase I had traded in my old '01 RAV4 ruster hoping I could get by out here with just a FWD and traction control. I don't think I would have made that hill in my '04 6-speed Max w/o traction control.

The only other problem I've had was all that snow getting into the wheels, thowing the ride pretty much out of balance, but I'll start a new thread for that one.

 

Good information.