Ultra6

Hey guys. So one day my car wouldn't start. It wouldn't turn over at all. I called AAA and a guy came out to help me. We noticed these switches and he did something to get it to start again.

However, the next day I had the same problem. Same guy came out and helped, but he had to do it 4 or 5 times before it worked. We then tried it again after turning the ignition off and it wouldn't work again.

All he did was hold down one of the buttons for 10 seconds and hold down the lock and unlock on my fob until it clicked 3 times.

For some reason nothing is working now. I bought the car used 4 years ago and no longer have the contact information of the original owner. Are these switches part of some stupid aftermarket F&F alarm system? Does anyone recognize them? I really don't want to spend hundreds of dollars at the stealership

Any help is appreciated. Thanks so much guys.


***** I have an update for this, please check my last post ******

Here is a link to some images of the switches. 2 black and 1 red. So weird.
http://imgur.com/a/suqrZ

PP08HR

iTrader: (2)

Hold down one at a time and cycle your key, sometimes it take multiple cycles. Should get horn beeps or whatever.

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Just start removing them. Simple and easy

dboyzalter

iTrader: (3)

Those are the bypass switches for a crappie aftermarket alarm... You have options... Go to a stereo shop like long radio or tweeter or whatever you happened to have and they can puy a new alarm in for you...

You can search for the brain portion of the alarm unplug the whole thing (all harnesses) and see if it starts.

You should be able to just hold the bypass switch while trying to start the car and it should work...

Sounds like you have a starter cut off... Aftermarket alarms are a *****...

Did this just randomly start happening? Did the aaa guy hook up his jump box while he started it?

dboyzalter

iTrader: (3)

Haha its not that easy... Depends on the original installer and how they did it. Its usually a *****.

Ultra6

Thanks a lot for the replies guys. Yeah this just randomly started happening. The AAA guy didn't hook up a box, he just ****ed with the buttons. I've held down the red one for 10 seconds and it turned over once and started fine. Now even that doesn't work anymore.

I found the e-mail of the guy who sold me the car. He was a nice kid so hopefully he still checks that email and gets back to me.

I'll look for the "brains" of the alarm.

I'm just really confused as to why he would even install a secondary alarm on such a high production car. I mean, it's paid off and I have full coverage. Someone stealing it is just giving me a downpayment on an HR lmao.

dboyzalter

iTrader: (3)

Is the car auto or manual? If auto try starting it in neutral... If its manual check the clutch actuator thing... Does it make a click or anything? Might have nothing to do with the alarm..

Do you have an auto starter? See if that will start it if you do...

dboyzalter

iTrader: (3)

You should see the **** boxes I see with aftermarket alarms... You would be surprised... That and how many people use the club in some less then desirable neighborhoods. I've been a AAA guy for about 6 years now. Sometimes those buttons work sometimes they don't...

Other things to get them to start is disconnecting the battery and reconnecting...

And a few more kinda sketchy things I wouldn't recommend trying on a z...

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Aftermarket alarms are not that bad to remove. My Z had one , and I just removed the one from my jeep a couple weeks ago. They are not very complex, and most installers half *** installs anyhow.

Ultra6

Ok so I decided to update this post because after a lot of searching I've found many people with similar issues and no real solutions.

So I bit the bullet and had my Z towed to a Nissan Stealership. After a day or so the guy calls me back and says it's a bad IPDM. I looked in to it a bit and read that the symptoms could very well be caused by that. I begrudgingly told him to go ahead and replace it.

He calls me the next day and says that the IPDM has been replaced and the switches were from an additional alarm that stupid dealers were adding as an option 11 years ago. I said ok take that garbage out of my car please. Work was done, car was starting. I was out over $1000, but hey my problem was solved, right? Or so I thought..

My dog was out of food so I figured I'd take the Z finally to the store for a quick run (woohoo). Started her up, stopped to get some gas, started back up and drove to Safeway. When I came out to start the car after the store.. no crank again. Son of a *****. Called farmers for a tow, they said 75 min. What to do for 75 minutes? Try and start my ****ing car.

I tried the following methods:
-Hold both buttons(lock/unlock) down on key fob until 3 clicks. Didn't work.
-Unlock door with key manually. Didn't work.
-Random combinations of button pressing. Didn't work.

-Finally, hit lock rapidly and start the car with my alarm light solid red... Vroom! Seriously? That's what started it.

So I just got home and replicated exactly what I did - won't start again. So I'm out 1100 bucks and my car is still broken.

Do you guys have any suggestions? How should I handle this with Nissan? I'm a very kind and laidback person these days after a child and a lot of soul searching, so I'd rather not take an aggressive stance off the bat. I've always avoided dealerships because I don't trust them and I don't like being aggravated. Should Nissan stand by their work and help me solve this problem? Their manager is the one who told me "This is the problem and this is how we fix it." The shop isn't open until Monday, so I have a couple days to figure out what angle I should have on this.

Here is what my work order says:
IPDM OPEN AT STARTING SYSTEM TERMINAL, REPLACE IPDM AND PERFORM IDLE RE-LEARN, OK NOW.

Thanks for your time guys.

padilla03z

iTrader: (2)

one thing i noticed is USUALLY a customer service manager is not a mechanic at all. this means no matter how confident he sounds telling you about the issue, he is just going off what the mechanic told him. if the mechanic troubleshot the issue then im gonna assume ipdm didnt have power on the output so he thought that was the issue. if i were u, i would respectfully return to the dealership and say the work you performed did not fix my issue and i would like my money back in credit so you can fix the actual issue, see if they go for that? in the end of the day u didnt bring the car in to get the ipdm replaced, u brought it in to have the issue resolved. just what i would do

dboyzalter

iTrader: (3)

Alright so I read your post and went back to bed and thought about it.

I would bring it back to the stealership and just say your car is doing the same thing as before and you think the new part might be defective... This way your not coming off like you know they screwed up and your giving them the benefit of the doubt.

See what they come up with and negotiate from their.

They should stand by their work and if its something small they should just take care of it and then call and say your all set.

If its something bigger you can say well could you put my old IPDM (im going to google that momentarily) back in and refund me.

Or say you would like to bring it to another shop for a second opinion because you want the problem fixed without a dealership just throwing parts at it.

The dealership people dont care if your a master mechanic they assume you dont know **** about cars. And they dont care about what you think might be the problem. The service guy is looking at you with dollar signs floating around your head. The mechanic is trying to get your car in and out as fast as he can so he can make more money.

The new age mechanic is more of a parts swapper. They go by what books say or a computer says and swap out parts accordingly.

But hopefully bring it back and they stand by their work and you won't be dishing out any more money for a no start.

Im a pretty laid back dude myself but this would get me kinda pissed so I would just have my wifey deal with them. She is good at yelling at people. (Luckily not me)

Best of luck

Ultra6

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm just going to enjoy my weekend and then go in monday and be cool about it. I'll give them a chance to do the right thing before I let myself get bothered by this.

I'm still perplexed as to what the issue might be though.