Alright, im new here, indeed..but heres my problem...

I was driving my 03 z couple days ago on the parkway here in NJ and after getting out of the gas station my car simply shut off. I pulled over and tried turning back on, and nothing.

Headlights works, but nothing else goes on..no radio, no dash nutting.

I am a car illiterate, yet i bought the car haha =]

It did it again today at a parking lot, i turned it on and half way on the ignition the car died again.

Help?

on the first time after the tow truck took back to my house the dam car started up just fine...
Mechanic said nothing was wrong. So i am lost..

A friend told me to post here at the forums, since you guys mod and work with tthe Z.

let me know

thanks in advance

 

Does the car crank?? And are your headlights dim or normal?

 

Lights are ok, I am not sure if it's dimmin
no crank, nothing!..just quiet and darkness

 

huuuuwierdd.... could be a problem with your neutral safety switch.... but i dont see why the radio would be off. Otherwise i'd say it was a problem with your starter and or the + batt. cable to its solenoid

 

tht sucks, did you just buy the car?

 

Something similar happened to me, but it was on an RX7. The thermostat went bad and made the car think it was overheating so it kept shutting down to protect itself. Just a thought

 

is car stock or do you have any aftermarket parts like intake?

 

This is a new feature to prevent teens from wrecking them.

 

Haha nice one Hraesvelg...

it has 67K miles
bought it 3 months ago
and it has been in an accident right door.


edit:

I just went there to see if myc ar wud start up, and nothing...still dead..alarm works..headlights works
but no crank

 

start by removing the battery and taking it to a local auto parts store to have them test it for you.

Is your car an automatic or manual?

 

Sounds like battery?

 

Idk..... why would it be battery if headlights are working? Logic tells me its a wiring or switch issue..... idk. I'll try and pull up a wiring diagram from the battery tomorrow and see how the headlight is setup

 

its the starter my z had the exact same problem, take it to a dealer it should be under warranty, and yes I went through all of that with the neutral safety and battery and it was none of that I even thought it was the fuses but nope nissan simply said your starter needs to be replaced and that was it. Cars been good ever since. Good Luck

 

Logically Could be the battery being dead and not having enough juice to crank the car. needs at the least 12.0 amps to actually engage the starter to spin the flywheel. As far as the lights working if they are HID and they stay on pretty good amount of time with out doing the disco strobe flash then your battery is probably not the cause. The starter it self may be the issue for the car not starting, but i doubt it would have an effect on nothing working like the radio, only due to the fact that the starter is direct connect chassis ground and battery powered. The starter solenoid is what turns it when the key's put to the start POS. Another possibility is your ignition switch could be faulty, but once the car is started less it takes a minute movement to cancel it out the car should not just turn off. Another possibility could be a relay either not working or becoming stuck on or off as well.

To bad i just saw this cause i was just at the GF's in brick...I could of swung over to help you diagnose, or at least have you crank while i tapped the starter to rule it in or out.

 

**** dr.venture haha i live right n the border of lakewood with howell on squankum.

well I will see what happens and i'll definetly post a solution. Like i said im the idiots when comes to car. But i am learning.

 

sounds like battery and or alternator related to me. if it will not turn over the bettery doesn't have the power to handle it. quick test for this is jump it from another car and see if it fires up. if so then your battery most likely has dead cells.

a battery with dead cells will start the car sometimes but not others, it will show 12v but have no cranking power. it's weird when they are like that and will do weird things to the car.

good luck and make sure you post your fix here it helps the knowledge base for the next guy who comes along with the same problem.

welcome to the community, stick around and make some friends!

 

Seems the OP's problem is the car dying, not just a starting problem. Pretty sure the starter is not needed to KEEP the car running and that would also not affect the other electrical items like radio and dash light. I would rule out any relay, as I don't think one particular relay would have control over starter and radio/dash lights either - starter usually has it's own relay. But I am at loss as to what it could be - electrical problems are the worst and this one is affecting multiple things, which is really strange. Stock radio or aftermarket? Any other electrical type mods? Bad wiring can lead to a host of problems.

 

If the radio doesn't come on and the lights do, we have other probloms then a starter,alt.it would be a fuse or an ECU.Then I think it would be a battery.

 

its an after market headunit..i bought the car like that


Both my hid's burned out, no idea how one side went, but the other side mightve burned out bc of the water splash..yes my shield is missing i hit a whole and that came right off...

I have lil time in hand to take car of the things i need to.. bleh..

would electrical probs on the hid cause all this?

parking lights still work, so does high beams.

its an Automatic, some one had asked me b4

2003 350z Tour
68K miles on it
stock everything.

 

sounds like you got what you paid for. did you get a pretty good deal?