'05 Frontier Dead Key - Shift lock

[RediNico]

Truck sat for 2 weeks during hospital stay.
Dead key: Turn key, no lights no start. nothing
Shift is locked in Park: Cannot recall if one should be able to shift without start?
Charge Battery full

No joy.

Comments, instructions and shared experience appreciated.

[VStar650CL]

If there are no lights, first make sure your battery connections are good. The shift lock works off the brake lamps, so if there's no power to those then the shifter won't move without using the emergency shift popper. To check the hot lug, turn the ignition on and put a voltmeter from the positive post to one of the smaller bus bars on the opposite side of the link box. You should show at or near 0V, if there's a voltage then your lug or your link attachments have a problem. Don't mess around with that, on a Frontier you have about a 50-50 shot at blowing up your ECM if the hot terminal sparks while trying to crank. Replace the lug with a proper one (24340-7F000, there are clones all over eBay and Amazon) and don't take chances. If that all checks out, see if there's juice at one of the battery fuses in the cabin fuseblock. If not, check the smaller links in the underhood fusible link box. If there's juice at the cabin fusebox, get at the ignition switch (back of the key cylinder) and see if you have juice at both the Red and White/Green wires with the key in the On position. If not, your ignition switch is bad.

[RediNico]

Very thorough response. Thank you.

[RediNico]

I had a charger on the battery for more than 12 hours. Thought it read 100%. but did not check vs. Next day, start attempt failed dead. something like 3 v. Jump it to another vehicle and starts up. So, will take in to have battery checked/replaced (purchased 1/23). Likely that's the whole problem. But, may take to my mechanic to see if there's a silent drain.
Thank you again VStar for your thorough response.

[VStar650CL]

You're most welcome. Deep discharge of any sort can completely trash a standard lead-acid battery. Any episode below 8V can strip away up to 20% of capacity, and even one episode of complete discharge can render it unusable. Sounds like maybe that's what happened.