Hey guys so I've done a full search and literally couldn't find out whats wrong with my car. Ill start out with the details

Nissan
350z
2004 Base
6spd Manual

So recently my car started acting up, i had the check engine code to change my driver side camshaft sensor, i ordered the part online and hasn't came yet. Anyway the car has a bad sensor for id say 2 weeks MAX and since I'm out of school i rarely drove the car it only hesitated to start twice. So the other day i was coming back from work and the car felt like it wanted to die on the freeway which i knew was a cause of the bad camshaft sensor so after that day i left the car parked and didn't drive it at all waiting til my new sensor to come to start driving it again. So today i was bored and went outside to replace my fender liners, i started the car and it started up 100% fine no hesitation at all i let it warm up and moved it inside the garage to install my fender liners. So an hour passes by and i finished installing the fender liners and i go back inside my car to start it just to pull it out of the garage and nothing. The car didn't even click and try to start, the gauges don't light up nothing not even the radio works. Its literally as if there were no battery with the exception that my tail lights, headlights and dome lights turn on but thats it. I have a really strong battery its an xs 5100-r that I've had since 2012 but never gave me problems. I cannot remember if i left the dome light on while installing but i doubt my led dome lights would kill my battery in an hour. Or can they? anyway i tried to jump start the car but still nothing. My battery doesn't have regular terminals so the jumper cables were barelyyyy on there so i don't know if thats the reason the car wouldn't jump start. Or can the bad camshaft sensor cause this? I would expect at least the radio to be able to play but nothing and what surprises me is that literally an hour before that my car turned on 100% fine can anyone PLEASEEEE help me? i have work and school starting tomorrow.

I also want to add some random info
I live in California so i doubt the weather has anything to do with my car starting i know cold weather can affect the car starting but its like 70 degrees here.
&
The car had atleast half a tank of gas so fuel isn't an issue

Also the battery gauge in the car was reading the battery over 12V right before i began to install my fender liners, i have a habit of checking the gauges every time i start the car so idk how it could've died out so fast

 

Start with the basics: use a multimeter to check the voltage on your super duper battery. You clearly don't have enough to turn the starter; although it's enough to get the lights to come on. Next, check the connections on your battery and I bet you'll find some corrosion or other problem with the hardware. If all else fails, make some arrangements to get to work and school tomorrow,,,

 

ill get the battery checked tomorrow, i checked the terminals and they were perfectly fine, they were replaced about 6 months ago so everything is fine in that area, i also took out the battery completely to check if the battery was somehow damaged or if any of the wires were damaged as well but everything was fine in those places too but what confuses me is how the car started perfectly fine just an hour before that

 

 

did you ever figure it out? Sorry this threads really old, my car did this when I got to work drive there and now it won’t start. It sat for two weeks and I started the car every week considering it was 100° plus outside.

 

Start with the BASICS!!

- Check battery condition (multimeter).

- Check terminal condition. I don't mean "Oh, they look fine." No, take them off, clean them with a battery brush (same as you would replacing a battery.... you do brush the new battery's terminals and cables before installing, right? You'd be shocked to see how many people don't...), reattach.

- Check ground end on the fender. Again, take it off, check that it's not rotted out by tugging the connector as the cabling itself might be rotted inside out, if terminal doesn't fall off, clean with battery brush, rough up the ground point with emery, reattach.

- Replace battery if needed - first step shows sub-12v, cranking draw on battery (by reading meter while cranking and it shows severe draw down)

With all that done, and if that doesn't fix the problem (it does on over half the problems) move on to the other possibilities... as in read codes again, check all engine grounds, and standard advanced troubleshooting.

 

I checked the battery terminals and the plugs scrubbed them with a wire brush, grounds are good. Battery read 12.4 volts. I have no power inside and it doesn’t crank so I can’t test the cranking voltage. The car has power to only the headlights, taillights, dome lights and the hazards. I’m genuinely losing my mind cause no one has ever had this issue it feels like.

 

did you find out what was wrong with it? Mines the exact same and I can’t find a way to fix it…

 

​​​​​​​The ignition switch fuse popped, replaced fuse and it popped again before I could even get an eighth of a crank, I’ve been searching for months for the short in the harness and it’s driving me insane. On top of horribly cold weather and working outside I haven’t gotten much progress in.