Electrical problem

[agb104983]

So I’m having an electrical problem. My vehicle is a 2008 Limited V8 4x4. Here is the history. It’s a lot of information but I wanted to avoid the “check the battery terminals for corrosion or replace your battery“ answers.

Started out a few months ago when most the times that I would start my car it would seem like it would give maybe one starter “click“ before it would start. It was such a short pause that I almost couldn’t notice it but I was pretty sure it was happening.

About a month ago I went out and tried to start my car in the morning and just got the “click click click click” starter sound. I thought it was probably a dead battery or that I had left my lights on or something. I turn the key off and tried it again and it started right up. Based on how it started, the battery seemed very strong so it wouldn’t appear to be a low battery issue. It started doing this off and on for the next week or so. Sometimes it would just start right up and sometimes the first couple times it would click click click and eventually after turning the key off and turning it back on a few times it would eventually go. When it was finally began to start, it always started up strongly.

Next symptom happened when I was driving to go pick up a part, an 8 hour road trip. I have the navigation audio system and every 30 minutes or so for a section of the trip, the audio would cut out because the system would have to restart. It would appear it was very quick power glitch causing this. A couple of the times I could see the car engine actually cut out for about half a second well the other ones must’ve been so quick that the engine was affected. This problem only occurred during this road trip that I never saw it repeated after.

After this I inspected the battery terminals and clamps. There wasn’t any significant corrosion anywhere so I just cleaned them off really really well down to bare metal and reattached them, making sure that they were clamped down tightly. I continue to have sporadic starting issues, usually 20-30% of starts.

After about two weeks I rechecked the battery and there is a little bit of new corrosion on the negative terminal but not enough to where I would think it would affect starting

So this is where I’m at. Even when it doesn’t want to start, I still have 12 V power and my blower fan and other accessories still work, but you can see that the voltage drops way off when I try to start. Since I have had some issues while driving the vehicle, I’m fairly certain it’s not in the relay circuit for the starter. I’m guessing there is a bad connection or partially broken wire somewhere but it would have to be somewhere fairly upstream in the system considering that that the starter can’t get the amps and the intermittent power losses during that road trip that affected the engine. I would imagine this means it has to be upstream of the starter relay. I don’t see any corrosion or visible issues for the ground wire that connects to the body/frame from the battery.

Any other recommendations? Whatever the issue is it will always pass 12V even when it’s having the issue but it just won’t pass a high amp current at certain times. I would imagine that this would make it more difficult to chase it down with a multimeter.

 

[waypoint]

If you have a chain parts store around, they usually have a battery tester and will have a clerk run it for free. They usually test 3 modes:

1.) Capacity (engine off, tester measures battery voltage at rest and under artificial load);

2.) Charging system (engine running, tester measures alternator output);

3.) Cranking draw (engine cranking via starter, tester measures starter current draw and battery voltage under cranking load).

If no store/tester nearby, you can do similar tests with a regular volt meter/multimeter. #1 is simple, just probe the battery. #1 you can emulate load by turning on lights (high beam), seat heaters if you have them, rear defroster if you have it, any other electrical load. #3 needs a helper, probe the battery while your buddy hits the key to start and watch the meter while it's cranking.

 

[Seymore Butts]

A few years ago, a small Isuzu van at work was having exactly the same symptoms. Engine stall was usually preceded by a small bump in the road.

Based on that observation, the dealer theorized that a certain part of the wiring harness lost its insulation and we replaced that portion of the wiring. However, the problem persisted.

Next, they thought the battery, which tested very well, had a loose plate and was experiencing internal shorts when bumped. Once we replaced the battery, the problem vanished permanently.

My second experience of this nature was with with a Pathfinder which was still under warranty. While the engine never stalled, I got an occasional click instead of a start. The dealer attempted to fix everything except what I told them - a faulty battery which tested fine on their diagnostic machine.

After replacing a relay, key, and reprogramming the anti-theft system, they finally gave up and called a Nissan tech support number. The guy on the other end told them to replace the battery, which must have some internal fault. They did, and I haven't seen the dealer since.

If you have access to a battery from another vehicle, try swapping the batteries for a while.

 

[watson6505]

Update?

OP - Has anything happened to resolve this situation? I am having something similar.

- Drove the truck (2006 SR5 V6) on a Friday about 250 miles, drove again on Monday (Labor Day) for another 250 miles and then parked it in the driveway. On Thursday of that week, went out to start the truck and nothing. No clicking, no nothing...but the remote key fob worked to disarm the truck. I jumped with my 2003 SR5 V8 and it started right up.
- Fast forward a few days, truck was driven once or twice and not I try to start it and click click click, instead of just dead and no sound. I went to jump it again and it was click click click again. I reattached the jumper cables and it started right up again.
- Took to carquest and they tested it and said it was slightly stronger than it was rated for, so according to them the battery was fine.
- Neither time did I lose radio stations, but I did get a clock reset
- One more weird thing is that I feel like the radio has cut off before while driving for a milisecond and the come back on. I don't recall if it was radio only or if I lost other power or anything else. I'll pay closer attention next time.


Any thoughts? I may go the new battery route to be safe as someone in this post suggested but it seems like odd behavior.

 

[Jeffy]

OP - Has anything happened to resolve this situation? I am having something similar.

- Drove the truck (2006 SR5 V6) on a Friday about 250 miles, drove again on Monday (Labor Day) for another 250 miles and then parked it in the driveway. On Thursday of that week, went out to start the truck and nothing. No clicking, no nothing...but the remote key fob worked to disarm the truck. I jumped with my 2003 SR5 V8 and it started right up.
- Fast forward a few days, truck was driven once or twice and not I try to start it and click click click, instead of just dead and no sound. I went to jump it again and it was click click click again. I reattached the jumper cables and it started right up again.
- Took to carquest and they tested it and said it was slightly stronger than it was rated for, so according to them the battery was fine.
- Neither time did I lose radio stations, but I did get a clock reset
- One more weird thing is that I feel like the radio has cut off before while driving for a milisecond and the come back on. I don't recall if it was radio only or if I lost other power or anything else. I'll pay closer attention next time.


Any thoughts? I may go the new battery route to be safe as someone in this post suggested but it seems like odd behavior.

To both you and the OP: Check not only the terminals connected to the battery, but also the grounding points. A bad or corroded ground can definitely cause these issues.