6spd_Hayes

iTrader: (3)

I've got a 2k2 6spd with about 143k. I've had an electrical gremlin rearing its ugly head more and more.

Situation: Normal morning startup to take the kids to school. 30 minute commute to work under normal loads. When I arrive at work, and shut off the car, I've noticed my interior light not coming on. When I open the door, the door light wasn't on either. So, I put the key back into the ignition and try to crank the car and I have ZERO juice (no lights even on the dash). It is like the battery is completely dead (or disconnected). At times, I can hear relays clicking rapidly (once I heard a relay inside the car, second time was specifically the rear tail light relay under the hood) but not every time. After a few minutes (2 minutes min, 5 minutes at most), the car comes alive again and it starts right up. After this occurance, my clock has reset, radio presets are gone, and trips have all reset (like the battery was disconnected). This does not happen every time I shut off the car though. For instance this morning, everything worked as it should. BTW, the positive and neative posts do not have any corrosion.

Thinking it could possibly be the battery (7 year old Optima Red Top), the last time this happened, I checked the voltage across the positive and negative terminals and got 12.5V. I am even getting 12.5V at the hot post of the starter. My starting the car never has bogged like a low battery, the car always roars to life.

Electrically, the mods to the car are:
- Zeitronix WB ZTt-2 (been on for 4 years or longer)
- led bulbs at corners, and licence plate (been on for 6 months)
- O2 sim (been on for 6 years)
- grounding kit (4 gauge wire, negative post to chassis, block to chassis, upper timing cover to chassis, upper IM to chassis)

Now regarding the grounding kit, the first time I ever noticed this dead start situation was immediately after installing the grounding kit. After the install, the car was dead to the world when trying to start with the exception of some lightly blinking dash lights and rapid relay clicking. After a few minutes, the car started up fine (with all of the dead presets, clock, etc).

I will be pulling off a leg of the grounding kit a piece at a time to see if it solves my issue. In my mind, how could BETTER grounding cause the car to act this way? It just simply does not make sense.

So, has anyone had a similar experience or have any comments? I would greatly appreciate any feedback. I'll also try to post some pictures of the grounding points, etc.

Xpcgamer

iTrader: (5)

Have you tried checking the obvious? Loose connections at the battery? If you have then take the battery to an Autoparts store to have the battery checked out.

6spd_Hayes

iTrader: (3)

I'll double check my negative post when I head out for lunch but I am abou 99% confident it is very tight. I did take the car to Adv Auto Parts about a month ago and they hooked it up and said my battery was healthy and did not need replacing. This was after getting my oil changed at the Nissan Dealership where they told me I needed a new battery simply because the voltage looked a little low. I've been checking it from time to time and the Voltage seems good.

When I have time this weekend, I think I will also do a good wire brushing of the surface just to make sure I have good contact.

BTW, all of my chassis connections, I made good contact to metal by sanding paint down to bare metal before attaching.

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

The fact that you lose the radio station presets and the clock time, you definitely lost connection to the battery on at least one of the battery posts. Check the original chasis ground connection. Follow the negative battery cable from the connection on the battery. 12 - 18 inches it bolts to the chassis under the battery.

Eirik

iTrader: (2)

I had this issue in my '05. Hard driving would sometimes jar the positive terminal's connection loose and the car would lose all power upon turning it off. Popping the hood and touching/wiggling the terminal a squidge would launch some sparks and everything would be dandy again.

Culprits in my case:
1. Wrong-sized battery with terminals sized for pickup trucks or SUVs.
2. Heavy, massive corrosion in the connector running from the alternator (starter? brain's not working today) to the battery, the one with the 120A (?) fuse.

I got a new connector thing from Nissan ($20), which provides new copper rings that slide over the terminal, as well as new fuses and connectors in the plastic piece up top. The harness running to the alternator plugs into the bottom of this plastic piece with two hard-to-unplug connectors.

That, combined with a new terminal that's the right size, has solved my connection issues.

I've already forgotten if the 6th gen uses a different battery setup than the 5.5, but maybe you can examine that harness where it connects to your battery terminal. Even though the terminal itself looks okay, something in that chain is intermittently breaking the circuit.