2011 g37x intermittent issues
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2011 g37x intermittent issues
Hey everybody, got an odd one I believe.
searched around and couldn’t find anything that fits what I’m dealing with, maybe I missed something, but pretty sure I didn’t so here goes.
my wife has a 2011 g37x, she’s got like 150k on the clock right currently. She came home from work Friday, and the car sat til Saturday evening and when she got in no dome lights came on, no power anywhere. Didn’t have a multimeter or anything at the moment so no idea where the battery was at at that point. Jumped it with my pick up, car fired right up multiple times in a row after I jumped it. Saturday I took it to town to have orielys load test the battery and that was about as fruitful of an experience as I thought it would be. According to the guy with his hand held thing the starter is bad, said it’s an open short and causing a drain on the battery. I myself am a John Deere tech and never once have I seen that on anything I’ve put a wrench too. So I go home and pull it back in the garage to jack it up find out what I have to do to pull the starter on this. (Looks like a serious pain, on the drivers side and a lot of everything around it, plus $350 for a starter that I don’t really think is the issue.) Sunday night I played around with it, battery had 12.7 volts in it, checked for a draw and I had like 52 milliamp draw on it. When I first put the multimeter to it, it started out at like 116 milliamps and then dropped to about 52 and stayed there. Any ag equipment that I work on, If it’s less then one amp I don’t worry about it figuring radio etc gets constant power figure I can apply that to the car. Anyway, I can’t find anything so we decide Monday she’ll take it to a mechanic (Monday, yesterday 2/28). Monday she goes to leave, opens the door no dome light no power nothing. I came home and hooked up jumper cables it fired right up. Alternator is putting out 14.6 or so, battery was at 12.7 or so, nothing wrong with power. Mechanic calls today after keeping it over night and said it started up just fine, they can’t find a draw, nothings wrong with it they say.
obviously there is. So my question for you guys is, what the hell should I be looking at? Looking for? It’s been twice now that it just has nothing. Why?!
searched around and couldn’t find anything that fits what I’m dealing with, maybe I missed something, but pretty sure I didn’t so here goes.
my wife has a 2011 g37x, she’s got like 150k on the clock right currently. She came home from work Friday, and the car sat til Saturday evening and when she got in no dome lights came on, no power anywhere. Didn’t have a multimeter or anything at the moment so no idea where the battery was at at that point. Jumped it with my pick up, car fired right up multiple times in a row after I jumped it. Saturday I took it to town to have orielys load test the battery and that was about as fruitful of an experience as I thought it would be. According to the guy with his hand held thing the starter is bad, said it’s an open short and causing a drain on the battery. I myself am a John Deere tech and never once have I seen that on anything I’ve put a wrench too. So I go home and pull it back in the garage to jack it up find out what I have to do to pull the starter on this. (Looks like a serious pain, on the drivers side and a lot of everything around it, plus $350 for a starter that I don’t really think is the issue.) Sunday night I played around with it, battery had 12.7 volts in it, checked for a draw and I had like 52 milliamp draw on it. When I first put the multimeter to it, it started out at like 116 milliamps and then dropped to about 52 and stayed there. Any ag equipment that I work on, If it’s less then one amp I don’t worry about it figuring radio etc gets constant power figure I can apply that to the car. Anyway, I can’t find anything so we decide Monday she’ll take it to a mechanic (Monday, yesterday 2/28). Monday she goes to leave, opens the door no dome light no power nothing. I came home and hooked up jumper cables it fired right up. Alternator is putting out 14.6 or so, battery was at 12.7 or so, nothing wrong with power. Mechanic calls today after keeping it over night and said it started up just fine, they can’t find a draw, nothings wrong with it they say.
obviously there is. So my question for you guys is, what the hell should I be looking at? Looking for? It’s been twice now that it just has nothing. Why?!
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I'm no pro, and in fact YOU ARE. But I'll just put some ideas out here to help you think about it.
When this happens, since there's no dome light or anything until it gets jumped, and the battery and alternator seem fine, I would be looking closely at the battery terminal connections, main chassis ground of the negative cable (check for corrosion), close inspection of the "fusable link" main fuses right at the positive terminal... I think you've proven it isn't the clock / radio / drain issue because the battery is not actually dead, right? Once you jump it it all comes back to life and restarts fine. If it were starter related I would think you'd still have dome lights.
When this happens, since there's no dome light or anything until it gets jumped, and the battery and alternator seem fine, I would be looking closely at the battery terminal connections, main chassis ground of the negative cable (check for corrosion), close inspection of the "fusable link" main fuses right at the positive terminal... I think you've proven it isn't the clock / radio / drain issue because the battery is not actually dead, right? Once you jump it it all comes back to life and restarts fine. If it were starter related I would think you'd still have dome lights.
As 13_SkylineSedan addressed, double check all of your battery connections. The negative cable clamp on some Nissan's is prone to "stretching" causing the clamp to work loose. I had to replace mine a few years back.
Also, even a 50mA draw on these cars is relatively high. Average mA draw should be ≈25-35mA after the car "goes to sleep" (typically after 30min.). However, being that your car is "completely dead" indicates to me a connection issue as even a weak battery should provide enough power for the dome lights to illuminate.
Next time this happens, before attaching the jumper cables, lightly tap the battery posts with a stick and see if the car comes to life.
Also, even a 50mA draw on these cars is relatively high. Average mA draw should be ≈25-35mA after the car "goes to sleep" (typically after 30min.). However, being that your car is "completely dead" indicates to me a connection issue as even a weak battery should provide enough power for the dome lights to illuminate.
Next time this happens, before attaching the jumper cables, lightly tap the battery posts with a stick and see if the car comes to life.
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Ha, so the guy at O'Reillys was testing the battery and the test told him the starter is bad? Honestly, I would take anything O'Reilly says for a grain of salt. They are a parts reseller that pays their workers minimum wage, not an auto repair shop. Anyway, take what I have to say for a grain of salt too because I'm not a mechanic either.
If the car was starting up fine until the wife parked it on Friday, something must have drained the battery until Saturday evening. An issue with the starter WOULD NOT be fixed by jumping the battery, as it did in your case. The only thing I can think of is parasitic drain, and I haven't the slightest idea on how to test for draw. Luckily for me, you already tested the battery for draw which means I don't have to turn my brain to mush trying to explain something I have no knowledge of. Anyway, 52 mA is such a small number, that would probably drain the battery enough to cause starting problems in a couple weeks, not over night. This leads me to believe that something may be draining the battery at random times, which makes it even more difficult to pinpoint what is causing the drain. Normally I would tell someone with this problem to pull every damn fuse out one by one while testing for draw, see which pulled fuse causes the draw to decrease. But if the draw is intermittent and not consistent, I'm not sure how helpful pulling the fuses would be to you.
Well, that's my 2 cents. Sorry if this reply is a waste of space in this thread :/
If the car was starting up fine until the wife parked it on Friday, something must have drained the battery until Saturday evening. An issue with the starter WOULD NOT be fixed by jumping the battery, as it did in your case. The only thing I can think of is parasitic drain, and I haven't the slightest idea on how to test for draw. Luckily for me, you already tested the battery for draw which means I don't have to turn my brain to mush trying to explain something I have no knowledge of. Anyway, 52 mA is such a small number, that would probably drain the battery enough to cause starting problems in a couple weeks, not over night. This leads me to believe that something may be draining the battery at random times, which makes it even more difficult to pinpoint what is causing the drain. Normally I would tell someone with this problem to pull every damn fuse out one by one while testing for draw, see which pulled fuse causes the draw to decrease. But if the draw is intermittent and not consistent, I'm not sure how helpful pulling the fuses would be to you.
Well, that's my 2 cents. Sorry if this reply is a waste of space in this thread :/
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I'm no pro, and in fact YOU ARE. But I'll just put some ideas out here to help you think about it.
When this happens, since there's no dome light or anything until it gets jumped, and the battery and alternator seem fine, I would be looking closely at the battery terminal connections, main chassis ground of the negative cable (check for corrosion), close inspection of the "fusable link" main fuses right at the positive terminal... I think you've proven it isn't the clock / radio / drain issue because the battery is not actually dead, right? Once you jump it it all comes back to life and restarts fine. If it were starter related I would think you'd still have dome lights.
When this happens, since there's no dome light or anything until it gets jumped, and the battery and alternator seem fine, I would be looking closely at the battery terminal connections, main chassis ground of the negative cable (check for corrosion), close inspection of the "fusable link" main fuses right at the positive terminal... I think you've proven it isn't the clock / radio / drain issue because the battery is not actually dead, right? Once you jump it it all comes back to life and restarts fine. If it were starter related I would think you'd still have dome lights.
that’s what I’m saying, I’ve never seen a starter cause issues like that with a battery. Is there a resource I can find to show me all the grounding locations on the car?
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As 13_SkylineSedan addressed, double check all of your battery connections. The negative cable clamp on some Nissan's is prone to "stretching" causing the clamp to work loose. I had to replace mine a few years back.
Also, even a 50mA draw on these cars is relatively high. Average mA draw should be ≈25-35mA after the car "goes to sleep" (typically after 30min.). However, being that your car is "completely dead" indicates to me a connection issue as even a weak battery should provide enough power for the dome lights to illuminate.
Next time this happens, before attaching the jumper cables, lightly tap the battery posts with a stick and see if the car comes to life.
Also, even a 50mA draw on these cars is relatively high. Average mA draw should be ≈25-35mA after the car "goes to sleep" (typically after 30min.). However, being that your car is "completely dead" indicates to me a connection issue as even a weak battery should provide enough power for the dome lights to illuminate.
Next time this happens, before attaching the jumper cables, lightly tap the battery posts with a stick and see if the car comes to life.
when I started looking into on Saturday the positive clamp was loose, not about to fall off but definitely wasn’t tight. Which I thought was odd because I wouldn’t of left it loose when I put a battery in it last year or the year before. I’ll try playing with the cables next time it doesn’t start though for sure. Haven’t been in a perfect situation that it won’t start and I’m not on the move to look into it at that moment. Which I really need to do.
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Ha, so the guy at O'Reillys was testing the battery and the test told him the starter is bad? Honestly, I would take anything O'Reilly says for a grain of salt. They are a parts reseller that pays their workers minimum wage, not an auto repair shop. Anyway, take what I have to say for a grain of salt too because I'm not a mechanic either.
If the car was starting up fine until the wife parked it on Friday, something must have drained the battery until Saturday evening. An issue with the starter WOULD NOT be fixed by jumping the battery, as it did in your case. The only thing I can think of is parasitic drain, and I haven't the slightest idea on how to test for draw. Luckily for me, you already tested the battery for draw which means I don't have to turn my brain to mush trying to explain something I have no knowledge of. Anyway, 52 mA is such a small number, that would probably drain the battery enough to cause starting problems in a couple weeks, not over night. This leads me to believe that something may be draining the battery at random times, which makes it even more difficult to pinpoint what is causing the drain. Normally I would tell someone with this problem to pull every damn fuse out one by one while testing for draw, see which pulled fuse causes the draw to decrease. But if the draw is intermittent and not consistent, I'm not sure how helpful pulling the fuses would be to you.
Well, that's my 2 cents. Sorry if this reply is a waste of space in this thread :/
If the car was starting up fine until the wife parked it on Friday, something must have drained the battery until Saturday evening. An issue with the starter WOULD NOT be fixed by jumping the battery, as it did in your case. The only thing I can think of is parasitic drain, and I haven't the slightest idea on how to test for draw. Luckily for me, you already tested the battery for draw which means I don't have to turn my brain to mush trying to explain something I have no knowledge of. Anyway, 52 mA is such a small number, that would probably drain the battery enough to cause starting problems in a couple weeks, not over night. This leads me to believe that something may be draining the battery at random times, which makes it even more difficult to pinpoint what is causing the drain. Normally I would tell someone with this problem to pull every damn fuse out one by one while testing for draw, see which pulled fuse causes the draw to decrease. But if the draw is intermittent and not consistent, I'm not sure how helpful pulling the fuses would be to you.
Well, that's my 2 cents. Sorry if this reply is a waste of space in this thread :/
No I agree about orielys, what they’re capable of there is laughable at best. I just wanted the battery load tested. When he hooked up his little deal I asked him it tested and he goes ‘the batteries at 12.5 volts’ I was like okay cool but how’s the load test and then he just repeated the volts. I was just like ok bud lol.
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As 13_SkylineSedan addressed, double check all of your battery connections. The negative cable clamp on some Nissan's is prone to "stretching" causing the clamp to work loose. I had to replace mine a few years back.
Also, even a 50mA draw on these cars is relatively high. Average mA draw should be ≈25-35mA after the car "goes to sleep" (typically after 30min.). However, being that your car is "completely dead" indicates to me a connection issue as even a weak battery should provide enough power for the dome lights to illuminate.
Next time this happens, before attaching the jumper cables, lightly tap the battery posts with a stick and see if the car comes to life.
Also, even a 50mA draw on these cars is relatively high. Average mA draw should be ≈25-35mA after the car "goes to sleep" (typically after 30min.). However, being that your car is "completely dead" indicates to me a connection issue as even a weak battery should provide enough power for the dome lights to illuminate.
Next time this happens, before attaching the jumper cables, lightly tap the battery posts with a stick and see if the car comes to life.
on second thought, I’ve been reading of earlier years of these rigs having electrical failures in an emissions vent valve. Couldn’t find anything if that was a problem on the ‘11. Also don’t even know what fuse that would run off of. I know of the fuse location by the battery, and on the positive lead, but not sure if there’s other fuse locations?
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The "Power & Ground" FSM for 2011 sedans is here:
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-man...F2011%2FPG.pdf
Below that viewing window you can "Click here to download". It's not the easiest read but it's full of info.
There's an in-cabin fuse box near the drivers left knee which has most of the usual suspects. The box behind the battery is the IPDM - Intelligent Power Distribution Module (gotta love these names). That one, although not easy to access, is responsible for the major operations like headlights, fuel injection, starter relay, etc... But again, your no dome light situation means more than just "won't start" so check the obvious first, the +/- battery connections.
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-man...F2011%2FPG.pdf
Below that viewing window you can "Click here to download". It's not the easiest read but it's full of info.
There's an in-cabin fuse box near the drivers left knee which has most of the usual suspects. The box behind the battery is the IPDM - Intelligent Power Distribution Module (gotta love these names). That one, although not easy to access, is responsible for the major operations like headlights, fuel injection, starter relay, etc... But again, your no dome light situation means more than just "won't start" so check the obvious first, the +/- battery connections.
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The "Power & Ground" FSM for 2011 sedans is here:
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-man...F2011%2FPG.pdf
Below that viewing window you can "Click here to download". It's not the easiest read but it's full of info.
There's an in-cabin fuse box near the drivers left knee which has most of the usual suspects. The box behind the battery is the IPDM - Intelligent Power Distribution Module (gotta love these names). That one, although not easy to access, is responsible for the major operations like headlights, fuel injection, starter relay, etc... But again, your no dome light situation means more than just "won't start" so check the obvious first, the +/- battery connections.
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-man...F2011%2FPG.pdf
Below that viewing window you can "Click here to download". It's not the easiest read but it's full of info.
There's an in-cabin fuse box near the drivers left knee which has most of the usual suspects. The box behind the battery is the IPDM - Intelligent Power Distribution Module (gotta love these names). That one, although not easy to access, is responsible for the major operations like headlights, fuel injection, starter relay, etc... But again, your no dome light situation means more than just "won't start" so check the obvious first, the +/- battery connections.
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