370Z Not Cranking Problem
 

Hey, everyone. Well, this past Friday morning I was leaving for work as normal, I got into my Z and hit the "Start" button with the clutch pressed completely down and everything lit up as normal the but the car didn't not start! I then turned it off and tried it again and nothing. I did this a several more times and still nothing. I even put the key fob in the slot! :mad:

I then made a phone call to the local dealership and spoke to a friend of the family, whom works in the service department, and he said that the battery could possibly be dead in the key fob so I went and got my spare key fob and tried it but to no avail. He then advised that I needed to get it towed to him so he can have it checked out. So I called and got a tow truck on the way and in the meantime, I pulled out the owner's manual to do some troubleshooting research and nothing useful. Then I had the idea of disconnecting the battery for 10 minutes and then trying again. It didn't do any harm to the car and it didn't do any good either. Shortly the tow truck got here and it was super sad to see her be put up like this. At least it was a full flat-bed (see pic 1).

We got to the Nissan dealership and the technician did a quick diagnostic. I also explained everything mentioned above. The initial results was that the key fob was being read (obviously), the clutch signal being completely pressed was also being read, but the ECU was not sending the signal to the starter to turn the motor over. They told me they wanted to do more diagnostic and troubleshooting work. I told them it was fine and to take their time. The dealership was cool enough to cover the charge on the tow and provide me a 2009 Altima (see pic 2) as a rental from Enterprise.

One thing I noticed was the "Start" button itself (see pic 3) was illuminated as normal except the 3 lights above the "Start" button was not (e.g. "On"). I'm not sure what this means but I hope to find out the results sometime next week.

I wanted to post this as a possible reference material for anybody else in the future. I will provide further details once I get an update.

If this helped, please "rep" me! Thank you!

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Please! Report back what they find.

Absolutely! I gave them today to work on it so I didn't harass them. I'll probably touch base tomorrow so stay tuned!

They you give us at least a Maxima instead of an Altima if our car has to ever be in the shop for warranty issues.

suprisingly a fully loaded altima could go for more than our base Z's !

also he said he got the rental from enterprise so prob just a coincidence that its a nissan..

And def let us know what the problem is!

hmm let us know what they find! i had a very similar problem and had a thread on it. but my car would just stalh and not fully start :shakes head: but it was a freak occasion and hasnt happened since

Alright, I just retrieved my voicemail and heard that my car is ready to be picked up. :icon17: They briefly mentioned that they had to replace the ECU and then the car was all good. As you recall from my first post, the problem was the signal was not being sent from the ECU to the starter to turn the engine over. I'm still curious to know what they think that would have caused this. It could be a fluke like what Zrider mentioned except mine was permanent, haha.

I'm at work right now so once I get off, I'll have to return the rental to Enterprise and then get a ride to Nissan. I'll ask more questions to hopefully get more info so I can share with all of you. Stay tuned!

Side note, I like the Altima! It would be a daily driver I would consider in the future. I definitely enjoyed it overall more than the Corolla rental I had fairly recently. The only upside is no matter how you drove the Corolla, that sucker got like 30+ miles a gallon.

even with a stuck throttle? lol, just j/k :bowrofl:

so basically it was the ecu that was busted. did your old one also make a buzzing whining sound? some people say nissan redesigned the ecu to fix that issue so let us know if there is a difference

Okay, the problem had to do with the IPDM (Intelligent Power Distribution Module) and the specific pin not sending the voltage to the starter. The voltage was going to the IPDM but it was not coming out. Everything else checked out with the battery and ECU. After replacing the IPDM, she fired up like normal. Here are the codes information:

RD21AA RPL IPDM/USM MODULE
Fail Code: ZE/62
RD9999 STRAIGHT TIME
Fail Code: ZE/62

Hopefully none of you will experience this! If so, at least this thread exists now to help give some reference material. If this helped, please "rep" me! Thank you!

I was worried about the whole throttle ordeal, haha! But fortunately it was all good.

So the buzzing-whining noise was from the ECU? I didn't know that but always heard it before. My girlfriend insist the radio be on when she rides my car because it is terribly annoying; I did too. Let me check on that tomorrow on the way to work and report back!

Well looks like this just happened to me today! I am getting the exact same symptoms... I recently installed Illuminated kick panels. I wonder if this has anything to do with this????

sucks to see a Z on a flatbed, but glad to see it's fixed!

Bummer! I doubt it has to do with it. Maybe we are starting to see the beginning of a problematic trend. Please keep us posted and feel free to add to this thread to beef it up with more insights or info.
Yes, it was and thank you! She is on the ground again, where she belongs. :tup:

To followup on Pharmacist's thought about the buzzing from the ECU, I've been listening for it in the past few days, even though my ECU was not replaced, it is still there. At least we can eliminate the IPDM as being the cure for the buzzing noise!

^^ its the ecu... i have a 2010 and i still hear it...

i took it to the dealership and they said Nissan had already addressed the issue with the 2010 ECU in the assembly line because of the issues on the 09's ECU.

But why is it that i still hear it? some of the guys here on the forum that have an 09 replaced their ECU and the sound is eliminated.

If they truly fixed the ECU for the 2010... shouldn't the noise be eliminated like the 09s??