Recently I have had a little trouble starting my car. When I would push the clutch in and turn the key, the lights would come on, but it would not crank. After playing with the clutch pedal, it would eventually start. I talked to a mechanic friend of mine and he said there is a switch under the clutch that must be pressed before it will start. He said either it needs to be adjusted or that it would need replacing. I took the car to the local dealership and told them what the problem was. The guy I talked to got in the car and it happened to him. He gets a mechanic to look at it and the guy says there is no problem. I'm like WTF!!! They tell me I need to leave my car for a full day so they can try to find the problem. The idiots thought the beeping from my stereo was an aftermarket alarm. I tried to tell them that the keyless entry was factory, to which they argued with me that I had an aftermarket alarm. Now, I have owned this car since it had 6 miles on it, you would think I of all people would know what my car has in it. So, since they had no problems, I was on my way. Went to the car...no start! B****es!!! I left vowing never to return! I want THAT kind of job. Getting paid for knowing nothing.

Anybody else have the starting issue?

 

Well if it starts after working the clutch a few times, then the first opinion is most likely true. Get down under there and find the switch that is triggered by the pedal. Move the pedal and make sure it moves the switch. If it does, and everything seems to be working correctly down there, the switch is probably bad. My sisters jetta wouldnt go out of park sometimes unless she worked the brake pedal, same situation, brake pedal had to be pushed to shift gears. New brake switch, problem solved.

 

Would ALL of the dash lights come on? Or just the main ones (battery, brake, SLIP, etc.)?

 

It works fine now. I got under there and looked at the switch, even pushing it in to start the car. I don't know what the deal is. Just hope it doesn't go out all of the sudden.

All the normal lights came on. Nothing out of the ordinary.

 

i have the exact same problem. Happened to me twice today. And a couple of more times with in the past 2 months. Its really annoying. Its just as if you try to start your car w/o pressing on the clutch. I turn the key, no noise, no crank.. all the lights come up as if in the ON position. Played with the clutch a couple times and tried reinserting the key and it finally started up. Where's this switch you're talking about? I only have 16K miles on the car.

 

happened twice today to me as well!!!

 

dang, been tryin to start my car for the past 10 mins now. No dice.

 

The switch is under the clutch pedal. If you look down where the clutch meets the car, you will see a little switch that is mounted on a bracket. The only thing you will see is the little "plunger" part of the switch. You will see the clutch pedal has a special "bracket" that will hit this switch when you press it down. It is kind of hard to explain, but once you look at it, you will see what I am talking about.

 

ok so I took it to the dealer and of course, it doesn't happen to them. It starts up 5 times in a row. So they said they'll look at it for a day or two and see whats up. the car starts up for them with out a hitch the whole day and they return the car to me saying everything seems to be working fine. this is confusing me.. the problem seems to be so random

 

Was this ever resolved? I am having an extremely similar issue with my 06 and Nissan wasn't able to find anything wrong with the car after having it for a day.

I spoke to my local mechanic, (his first idea was also the clutch switch) and he said it may be the crank sensor switch if Nissan already checked the clutch switch, which they said was fine. Anyone know anything about this?