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kenzo42 08-18-2014 01:09 AM


Originally Posted by viperormiata (Post 1158423)
Need some quick advice/ideas from the brain trust of brilliance MT.

My super daily 01 Frontier 2.4 5spd has developed it's first real problem. I turn the key and it doesn't start. Nothing happens at all. But it only happens sometimes. I haven't been stranded, yet. Sometimes it starts like normal. I have no idea how to even begin diagnosing this. First guess is the starter.

Symptoms:
-doesn't start
-no noise being made at all when it doesn't start
-turn key back and forth a few times
-starts
-other times I get in and it starts like normal
-???
-profit

Dying battery? After a couple months of this same scenario, I finally got stranded - replaced battery and life was good.

rleete 08-18-2014 06:08 AM

Starter. Wife's Tracker had the same issues. I finally gave up and paid Firestone to diagnose it.

olderguy 08-18-2014 08:04 AM

Corrosion at the connection to the solenoid.

shuiend 08-18-2014 08:08 AM

When you turn the key and it does not start, does the Frontier get any power? IE do lights in the dash turn on, or the radio and such? On my 92 beater miata the clamp on the battery sometimes comes lose and I do not get a good positive connection to the battery. So I will turn the key and get a click and then nothing. Jiggling the battery connection restores the connection and then the car starts right up.

viperormiata 08-18-2014 09:59 AM


Originally Posted by mgeoffriau (Post 1158427)
Alarm system?

Negative

Originally Posted by kenzo42 (Post 1158428)
Dying battery? After a couple months of this same scenario, I finally got stranded - replaced battery and life was good.

Battery is good. When it does start up it cranks perfectly.

Originally Posted by rleete (Post 1158439)
Starter. Wife's Tracker had the same issues. I finally gave up and paid Firestone to diagnose it.

That is my guess, as well. My local shop is going to test it tomorrow morning for me. Hopefully I can have it back before work.

Originally Posted by olderguy (Post 1158448)
Corrosion at the connection to the solenoid.

Very well could be. If I get the chance today I will slide under the nismo and see if I can manage something.

Originally Posted by shuiend (Post 1158450)
When you turn the key and it does not start, does the Frontier get any power? IE do lights in the dash turn on, or the radio and such? On my 92 beater miata the clamp on the battery sometimes comes lose and I do not get a good positive connection to the battery. So I will turn the key and get a click and then nothing. Jiggling the battery connection restores the connection and then the car starts right up.

Good question. Yes, it does get power. The only thing that cycles on/off is the radio. The dash stays on. But you're completely right. I didn't even think to go check the terminals.

Thanks a lot, guys. <3

Edit: Lars, the terminals are corrosion free and very tight (as I feared). I started it for fun and it ran fine. Almost seems like it starts fine first thing and then later runs into issues. This is mildly frustrating.

shuiend 08-18-2014 10:26 AM


Originally Posted by viperormiata (Post 1158499)
Negative

Battery is good. When it does start up it cranks perfectly.

That is my guess, as well. My local shop is going to test it tomorrow morning for me. Hopefully I can have it back before work.
Very well could be. If I get the chance today I will slide under the nismo and see if I can manage something.

Good question. Yes, it does get power. The only thing that cycles on/off is the radio. The dash stays on. But you're completely right. I didn't even think to go check the terminals.

Thanks a lot, guys. <3

Edit: Lars, the terminals are corrosion free and very tight (as I feared). I started it for fun and it ran fine. Almost seems like it starts fine first thing and then later runs into issues. This is mildly frustrating.

My bet would be on the starter having issues then, same as everyone else is saying.

rleete 08-18-2014 12:20 PM


Originally Posted by viperormiata (Post 1158499)
Almost seems like it starts fine first thing and then later runs into issues. This is mildly frustrating.

Every. damn. time. It was only when it was warm that the problems happened.

Any possibility that it's a reman starter? If so, it is almost certainly the problem.

EO2K 08-18-2014 01:11 PM

I was just going to ask... is something heatsoaking? (starter solenoid would be my WAG)

Joe Perez 08-20-2014 09:50 AM

And now, great works of literature, as if written by an attorney, part 1:
William Shakespeare's
A Midsummer Night’s Hearing Before the U.S. Patent Examiner


Examiner. What hast thy client wrought,
That thou dost come before this oce arm’d
With sharpest wit of lawyers gathered in
Thy briefs abundant?


Lawyer. ’Tis not in Heaven, Earth, nor prior art,
This boxlike element 11 that pivot’ly connects
To molding box by means of pin 13 upon’t.
Behold! Yon lever 3, with spring 19,
Doth give resilient opposition ere it move,
And on this basis, prithee, you’ll approve.


viperormiata 08-21-2014 02:03 AM


Originally Posted by shuiend (Post 1158516)
My bet would be on the starter having issues then, same as everyone else is saying.


Originally Posted by rleete (Post 1158552)
Every. damn. time. It was only when it was warm that the problems happened.

Any possibility that it's a reman starter? If so, it is almost certainly the problem.


Originally Posted by EO2K (Post 1158568)
I was just going to ask... is something heatsoaking? (starter solenoid would be my WAG)

Took it in to my favorite local shop. Turns out it was not the starter, but the switch under the clutch.... So, I had them fix that and since I had budgeted the money for labor/new starter I had them track down my a/c leak, replace the hose and service the entire a/c system....and change my oil (nearest oil dump is key west, fuck that).

No more foggy windows when it rains.

olderguy 08-21-2014 05:08 AM


Originally Posted by viperormiata (Post 1159572)
Took it in to my favorite local shop. Turns out it was not the starter, but the switch under the clutch.... So, I had them fix that and since I had budgeted the money for labor/new starter I had them track down my a/c leak, replace the hose and service the entire a/c system....and change my oil (nearest oil dump is key west, fuck that).

No more foggy windows when it rains.

Congrats! Most of us have that switch bypassed and didn't even consider it. It is always the simple things that elude us:facepalm:

Ryan_G 08-21-2014 02:18 PM

3/4 CPA exam sections passed. Take the last section next Saturday and it is the easiest one. That is all.

Braineack 08-21-2014 03:04 PM

last night I had a dream that I was discovered off the streets for my falsetto. I got cast in a broadway musical as the lead role playing an American president where I performed as if I were Barry Gibb.

It was pretty awesome.


Last week I had a dream where a plane crashed in my parents backyard. I rushed over to help the pilot only to discover it was Chuck Yeager piloting an experimental craft. Not an Aircraft, but a spacecraft. And to thank us for his rescue, he took us on an adventure across the galaxy.

It was pretty awesome.

z31maniac 08-21-2014 09:31 PM

My dream last night was me being in my childhood home and a tornado ripping apart the back half whilst leaving the front half untouched (where I was).

sixshooter 08-22-2014 04:58 PM


Originally Posted by Ryan_G (Post 1159751)
3/4 CPA exam sections passed. Take the last section next Saturday and it is the easiest one. That is all.

That is perfectly awesome. I know that was a very difficult exam and that you studied for months.
Congratulations!

y8s 08-24-2014 05:49 PM

Thursday my dad was riding his motorcycle home from the post office and swerved to avoid a driver who did not see him making a left onto a smaller street. His swerve took him (slowly) into the rear of a pickup truck with a big steel bumper. Bike laid down and one of the crash bars folded over on his leg, crushing both tibia and fibula. Did I mention he is 81? When I asked him if this will be the end of his riding, he said "well, you'll have to ask your mother..."

He's in good spirits and the leg has been stabilized. He'll have to go in for surgery to put it all back together in a few weeks.

Mom is pissed because he was supposed to drive with her down to Riverside, CA to meet up with me and my family for our 2 year old's birthday party.

Erat 08-24-2014 07:02 PM

Funeral for my mother is tomorrow, died at age 50. Sad times around the household lately...

Her cats that are now mine know it too. They've been crying and begging for a lot of attention for the past week.

sixshooter 08-24-2014 07:29 PM

I'm very sorry for your loss, Dillon. That's far too young to be gone.

Love the kitties as she would want you to.

xturner 08-24-2014 08:31 PM

Very sorry to hear, Dillon. My condolences. 50 is too young.

Godless Commie 08-25-2014 07:05 AM

I am very sorry for your loss man. You have my deepest condolences.


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