Hello Everyone, hoping you helpful people could shed some light on this...

I have a 04 Stock 350z.

Yesterday morning when I went to start it, it was dead. There was the normal tick tick tick but the engine wouldn't turn. I figured I left the trunk open or something and all it needed was a boost.

I tried boosting the car twice with two different cars and two sets of cables with no luck.(I’ve boosted cars before so I’m sure I was doing this correctly)

I figured the batt might have been so dead that there just wasn’t enough juice to start it so I disconnected the battery from the car and charged it via a wall charger overnight.

Today, I plugged the battery back in and the car started! Although I noticed the running lights were strobeing and there was a new slight ticking noise coming from under the hood. After driving the car around the block, the “CHECK AT” light came on.

So, I’m assuming I need a new alternator. Or could it potentially be anything else?

Now what really threw me off was as soon as I press the lock button the keyfob, the horn goes off and doesn't stop until the car is turned back on. The Alarm LED also stays on solid as well.

I figured thats just some alarm setting that needs to be reset?

Any ideas would be very helpful!

 

"check AT" is your car auto ?

 

youre from canada.. blame it on sasquatch.

and bring it to your dealership fast.. electrical problems get spendy and are very hard to diagnose online. I would never tell you to go there in other circumstances.

 

Yes, the car is Auto.

I've called a mechanic and his feeling is the battery is bad and not holding a charge... I have a feeling it's more then that..

Never had any electrical issues (or any issues for that matter) prior to this.

Dam the sasquatches! And polar bears...

 

i find his beef jerky to be quite tasty tho.

makes up for alot.

Good luck w the electrical gremlin fix tho... theyre never fun unless its covered in warranty.

 

now that we know your car is auto i will now tell you that your "CHECK AT" means check automatic transmission not alternator

 

Take it to a shop ASAP.

 

Maybe it's rats chewing through your wires

 

la ratta sucia!

 

Sounds like your battery has died from a shorted cell, which is putting a big load on the charging system.

Our Accord went absolutely nuts electrically when the battery failed like that, but it went completely back to normal as soon as the battery was replaced.

 

Was this wall charger a trickle charger or is it one of those that throws a full charge at the battery in 5 min. If it's the ladder then you killed your battery but force fast charging a highly discharged and therefore sulfated battery. Go buy a new one. . For proof bring it to Autozone or someplace like that and have them load test it. Betting it's gone. GL

 

Dam, it does mean automatic transmission - although I think this was a false alert just from the batt being all screwy...

Yes, It was one of those very slow trickle chargers - didn't want to blow anything up.

Just to update, after coming home from work, the car was dead again - so in 8 hours the battery went from charged to completely dead with only about 15min of the car being run.

Tested the old batt out with a voltmeter and it read 8 volts - definitely a crapped out battery. Actually, it looks like the original batt so 7 years of use definitely calls for a new one..

Bought a new battery and will be installing it tonight. Fingers are crossed it will fix everything like you mentioned with your Accord.

 

So after installing the new battery, almost everything is back to normal. So, if your car goes crazy with the electrical system - replace the battery.

The only thing is, the daytime running lights (which is just the high beams at half power) still flicker slightly. There's also a very very slight humming noise coming from under the hood when just the daytime running lights are on.

When the high beams are on or regular lights there's no flickering and no hum! So I do not think there is anything wrong with the alternator..

It may have something to do with the DRL module? Anyone have any experience or more info on this?

 

That's great that the new battery fixed things for you.

Are the DRL only on Canadian vehicles?

 

Unfortunately the DRL module is only included on the Canadian cars. As such, there's not much discussion or info on one failing.

There's alot of talk on adding an after-market DRL module for US cars to import them into Canada (these only cost $15 or so) so I'll have to keep looking into that..

Could also get a new module from the dealer but I've read it's around $100 bucks or so. Really expensive for what should be a $15 relay...

If anyone knows where this module is actually located in the car - that would help too!

Thanks everyone.

 

The DTRL relay is wired into the IPDM/ER, which is mounted behind the battery on the passenger side under the hood. That's where I'd start looking.