I've been having problems getting my car started the past few days. I'm stranded at my Fiancee's parents house so I could use some help...(actually they are pretty cool).

Anyway, my car refuses to start. At first I thought it was the anti theft system, or the tranny not making it into neutral. I would get no click at all from the starter and couldn't measure any voltage from the small lead going to the starter solenoid. I'm pretty sure I've eliminated both of these possibilities (I guess the anti theft key thing located at the drivers right knee can only be plugged in one way... can someone confirm this?) Eventually I could get the starter solenoid to click (at least that's what it felt like and sounded like.) but the starter still wouldn't turn and engage the fly wheel.

I've measured the voltage going to the small lead on the starter solenoid from the car and it measures 12volts when it's not plugged into the starter (I'm measuring the car side.) When the starter is plugged in and the key is turned it measures 7 volts. I was able to jumper the small lead on the starter solenoid to the battery cable connected to the starter and finnally got the starter to turn and got the car started.

I drove the car around the block then turned off the car and restarted it without any problems. I then turned the car off again and tried a second time to restart it. It turned over maybe once and then stopped but the starter kept running! even with the key out of the ignition! It wasn't engaged to the fly wheel thank goodness but it was spinning like crazy. I had to unplug the battery to get the starter to stop and I haven't plugged the battery back in yet to see if it will still keep running.

So, I'm wondering if the starter relay located in the relay box next to the battery has gone bad and possibly fused in the on position. Is this possible? Or is there something else that I'm missing here? Any ideas, I can't wait to get home...

 

sounds to me like your battery is taking a dump or your cables are corroded and not allowing full juice through.
also pull the starter out of the car and check it off the car. the solenoid may be getting stuck which could keep the starter running.

 

I'm pretty sure the battery is fine, I've tried jump starting the car with another car and it has the same problem. The starter is brand new, I got Auto Zone to replace it the other day even though they tested my old one and nothing was wrong with it.

It just doesn't make any since why my starter would continue to run, even after I pulled my key out of the ignition. That's why I'm leaning towards a bad relay.

 

Wiking has got a lot of electrical info. on his cardomain site. It might help you trace down the problem....

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/748507/1

 

sounds to me like your starter has some major problems. Can you remove it and take it to autozone or someplace to get it tested?

 

i'd first try to clean your battery terminals. that seems to be the problem most of the time. they make a nifty little tool you can get for a buck or so that will clean the termals and the connector thingies. if the battery and starter is good, i bet this would make it start up right away.

 

"The starter is brand new, I got Auto Zone to replace it the other day even though they tested my old one and nothing was wrong with it."

1. Its what internetautomator says: stuck starter solenoid [as starter goes spin nomatterwhat]. Also stuck solenoid will not allow starter bendix for startergear to travel onto flywheel gears. ...take it bck to autozone.

2. You had a different problem before starter swap. What was that = why did you swap u starter?? ...relays?...ign sw?

 

Well the car starts now, the starter that I had was only a year old. I just asked the guy at autozone to replace it because when I first got it (way before any of this trouble started) it was making some grinding noises on startup. Those went away and are unrelated to what was going on.

My dad and I checked all of the wiring under the hood related to the starter, I replaced the starter relay and none of it helped. The starter solenoid was only getting 7 volts.

I then started to tear into the dash looking for loose wires or anything else I could find. There wasn't anything obvious but after playing with the wires under there for a while the car started up no problems. We thought it might be a loose connection so we jiggled the wires some more hoping to replicate the not starting but nothing did.

The best we could figure is it's a loose connection with the factory alarm, (where the alarm key or whatever the thing is called get's plugged in) or maybe the auto reset fuse that's connect to the alarm wasn't fully reseting.

So, problem solved but I'm kind of upset that I have no clue why or what it is, now I have to wait for the starter to not work again to hunt this problem. The only good thing I can think of is I sort of have an idea it's under the dash, that's about it...

 

The starter solenoid gets it power like this:

Batt ---> Fuse link G 30A ---> ign sw ---> inhibitor relay*1 --->starter solenoid.

So your bad link is one of those... (Security system it is NOT, as it uses the inhibitor relay primary winding, enabling startup contacts to close.)

Log on to www.autozone.com and find tha schema, it is there.


*1 Manual transmission: clutch interlock relay contacts

 

Hmm, good point, must be a loose contact ont he ignition switch. The battery checks out, fuse link looks good, and I replaced the starter relay (is that the same as the inhibitor relay?). The starter solenoid is brand new so that checks that one off.

So I guess I'll keep my eye on the ignition switch... thanks for the help

 

"(is that the same as the inhibitor relay?)"

Take off water reservoir and get this vista...

 

Hmm, okay, two things on this. Everyone says move the water resivoir but mine is located on the passenger side of the car, not next to the battery and above the relay box as what I've seen from most other people. Is this normal? Is it just the difference between a GXE and an SE?

Second, on my relay box (shown in the above picture) where it shows inhibit mine says start or starter, I can't remember which. I would assume that they both refer to the same part, I'm just wondering why they would change Nissan change the name?

 

if your car is an automatic, try nudging the shifter forward towards the front of the car while in park. mine does this when it gets cold out, starts right up.