scorp508

2009 Maxima SV with 75k miles. The electronics subforum looks pretty dead so posting here instead.

Our Maxima has an aftermarket remote starter which was installed by a third party vendor at the dealer we purchased the vehicle from years ago. It is a Pursuit PRO9056C. I've been fighting an issue which causes the battery to drain under certain circumstance when using it.

If you do the following everything is perfectly normal.

1. Start car via remote starter.
2. Allow car to run for less than 20 minutes (the auto shutoff timer)
3. Get into the car and drive away. Turn off the car when you arrive at your destination.

However, if the following takes place you end up with the headlights, parking lights, and taillights remaining on regardless of the turn signal light switch position.

1. Start car via remote starter.
2. Do no get in the car and drive off.
3. Allow the remote starter's timer to time out (20 minutes), or double click the remote starter FOB to turn off the car at any point after it has already been started remotely.

If the above takes place you end up with a dead battery as the lights remain on. You may walk away thinking the lights will turn off after a minute, but you'd be wrong... very wrong... and come back to a dead car if you leave it for a few hours. The only way to fix the car once it is in this condition is to start it manually, turn it off, and lock the vehicle. Or you can disconnect/reconnect the battery.

I've contacted Voxx Electronics (parent company of the Pursuit brand) to see if they have any suggestions or a local installer to contact.

Any else run into a similar gremlin before?

Richard66

Just thinking out loud here as I have no experience with aftermarket remote starts but is your headlight switch in the auto on position? Maybe the remote starter doesn't recognize that switch position when the car shuts its self off. If you use auto on try with manual on.

scorp508

I'll be damned you may be onto something there! I never thought to try that before and we do always have the lights set to auto. I was able to start/stop the remote starter with the light switch in the off position and it did in fact turn off the front market and rear taillights as expected. The headlights also did not come on at any point.

If the switch is 'auto', the headlights come on in addition to the front markers and taillights when the remote starter is running, and the headlights stay on if you turn off the remote starter via fob.


If the switch is 'off', only the front markers and taillights come on and they properly turn off when using the fob to turn off the remote starter. The behavior you'd want to have.

I'll do this again in the daylight and see if the headlights are always coming on regardless of ambient light values when using the remote starter and the 'auto' setting.

Thanks for the simple and effective suggestion. Maybe it'll get us somewhere or just make us adapt how we use it.

TableRocker

Just curious if the headlight switch position fixed this issue?

scorp508

I don't know if I'd classify it as a fix or just a good workaround, but so far it does seem to avoid the issue.

Generally speaking the original issue isn't a massive nuisance as my wife almost always gets in the car and drives away within the 20 minute limit (which I could extend to 40 minutes). However it is the time you start the car thinking you're going to leave soon, then get sidetracked and end up leaving a couple hours later. That's when you realize what you've done and now have to deal with jumping the car. Or you start it to melt some ice for the next day and have no intention of driving away.

TableRocker

I've been thinking of putting a remote start on mine, and have been interested in seeing threads that discuss issues.
Thanks for posting up what you did.

scorp508

To give you a bit of background this particular remote starter has been a thorn in my side since we first purchased the car. Don't take my experience as typical.

We purchased this Maxima during winter north of Boston, MA. We requested the dealership, a proper Nissan dealer, install a remote starter before we took posession of the vehicle. I don't mean that as in "throw one in for free and we'll buy it", rather we paid for it on top of the car as it was something my wife wanted.

The dealer made the installer from a third-party company work outside in their parking lot rather than letting him use one of their garage bays. When I saw the quality of the wiring work under the dash it makes me wonder if he was pissed off and just trying to get it done as fast as possible before his fingers were frost bitten.


A month or so after taking posession things were not acting right and the starter was acting all kinds of wierd. We ended up bringing the vehicle to the physical location of the company who installed the starter. The owner stated the original installer no longer worked for them and spent a bunch of time redoing things to make it right at no cost. A better ignition bypass was installed and some of the harness connections redone. Since that visit the starter itself has been entirely reliable in operation. It is only this one wierd thing with the headlights being left on that bites us now and then.


Would I get a remote starter again? Absolutely. I think my saga here has been a combination of a less than stellar original installation and possibly a note-quite-compatible-enough starter being used. So whatever you do I'd definitely recommend going with a reputable shop in your area that can service you later if necessary and making sure whatever unit you choose is known to be quirk-free when combined with one of these cars. I do nearly everything myself mechanical/electrical related on my vehicles, but remote starters are one area of voodoo black magic I prefer someone else do for me. Their experience will probably fix in 15 minutes what would take me 15 hours of research.