Intelligent key not so smart, now my Z is at the Dealership...
 

I have an 09 Z and went to get gas and run errands today. After I filled my tank I got in my car and pushed the button to start it back up. To my surprise it would not start. A red light key symbol blinked in the middle of the tac and it would not read my key. I placed the key in the slot and tried to start it that way, no dice. Thinking the key might be bad, a friend picked me up and I ran home and got my spare key. That did not work either. Called the dealership, explained the issue and they said to bring it in.

The dealership called be about 2 hours later and said the Z would be spending the night at Nissan. He said there may be an issue with the car's computer.

Here are my questions, have anyone experienced this kind of issue and my car is under warranty, so I am assuming this would be covered. My only fear is, I had an after market stereo installed about a year ago. That should not effect the warranty, right?

Any help would be appreciated...

Did you try disconnecting the battery then holding the brake pedal down for like 10 sec. then reconnecting the battery which resets the ECU.

Some people have had luck doing this (I have)so I thought I pass it along.

No.. I thought about that but did not. However since the car has been to the dealership, I would have hoped they would have tried.

They probably won't they will just hook it up to the Consult III and reset whatever call you and say that they reset the ECU and have not duplicated the problem.

Good luck post back here when you find out what they said.:hello:

IPDM and steering column lock seems to be the issue. Read others in the interior section.

I started carrying my wrench ever since learning of baer's post. :tup: I'm going to do that and if that still fails I will disconnect both terminals from the battery and short it (touch + and -) that is a very aggressive hard reset.

:iagree:BOOM:eek::bowrofl::bowrofl:

Steering wheel lock mechanism failure (with the symptoms you describe) has plagued many owners in this forum. I would contact the dealer and let him know it's a possibility or it might take him awhile to figure it out.

Dealer just called and said it was the steering wheel lock mechanism failure. They said the car would not be ready until Friday or Saturday due to needing parts. I am a little mad that this fix will take three days. I think a free oil change should be in order.

For warranty work requiring that much time, they will usually give you a loaner car.

See if you can convince them to give you a GTR :D

The one time they gave me a loaner, I was hoping for a GT-R, but ended up with a base model Altima and possibly an STD.

Yeah, if he is lucky a Cube....:bowrofl:

I'm thinking about disconnecting my steering column lock, just need to figure out how to do the wiring so as to not piss off the ECU.

The 370 is not my daily driver, so I plan on asking for a comp on the oil change I told them I needed.

Why does the dealership owe you an oil change?

I'm just saying, things go wrong and stuff happens all the time. The dealership is only there to fix the issue, I would call Nissan USA and tell them you want oil changes or something like that. You may have more luck that way as the service stuff comes out of the dealerships pockets. After all, the dealership didn't build your car...

If you get Nissan USA to comp it... it would probably work out in your favor.

^^^i agree. People expect way too much. It's rediculous. I don't understand why you would expect the dealership to owe you something for this.

For the fact they have had the car for three days to fix what sounds like a simple issue and not using one of their cars while mine is in the shop.

I'd like to know too. I wonder if its like installing a srs trick resistor... :confused:

assuming it uses something similar to a locked gear mesh, would it be possible to pull it apart and file down the locking mechanism so it no longer has anything to grab hold of? Then you wouldn't have to mess with wiring.

You stated yourself that the 370z was not your daily driver, so I would assume you have another vehicle for transportation. If transportation was an issue, why not just ask for a loaner vehicle?

:iagree:

so the dealer should spend the labor to pull apart an inventory Z(not have it available for sale) just to use the parts to fix your car then put there car back together when the other parts come in?? Just so you dont have to wait an extra day? does that sound reasonable to you?? I bet you would be really understanding if you purchased that Z used for spare parts if you some how found out about it.......

Order Parts early
 

I had a microswitch go bad on my passenger side map light & I went into the dealer 2 weeks before to schedule an appointment & order the part. Guess what, the part came in 3 days after my scheduled appointment so I had to reschedule. Some parts take that long arrive.

I went from feeling sorry for the OP, to thinking "wow, what a self-entitled d*ck".

i'd like to know if it's a mechanically triggered failure or a simple electric failure.
reason being it doesnt seem like the user does anything different when they park the car. no one mentioned anything about werd mechanical noises during shut-down. it just seems the coil for the solenoid burns out for no apparent reason other than it being defective causing an open circuit.

if this is the case, i rather just bypass the entire circuit.

Good point Kenchan, I guess we need some one to be a guinea pig for us and find out :D