09 Versa 1.8 intermittant starting problem

[jemull]

Hi, first time poster here. Bought my 09 Versa hatchback about a year & a half ago with 17,400 miles on it. About 2 months later and continuing to this day I have had a very unpredictable issue with my Versa not wanting to start. So far I've always been able to get it running, but since I can't recreate the problem and it doesn't set off a warning light I have not bothered to take it in and waste money on a diagnostic. The car can go months without incident, or it can happen a couple of times in one day. I'm guessing something is loose or something. The car now has 54,000 miles on it.

Here is what is happening: When I turn the key, the ignition will click, all lights go on in the instrument cluster as usual, but no starter trying to turn over. I try turning the key again and the car will try to start but won't turn over. On the first turn of the key it is acting like the car has a dead battery, but everything else works. The next time I turn it, it tries but just can't seem to get the engine going. Someone suggested it might be a neutral safety switch going flaky, so I've been alternating between Park and Neutral and starting in both (the shift lock feature makes this really annoying). Sometimes I'll shift the car in Neutral and it will start up, sometimes it will start in Park, sometimes I'm there trying for several minutes to get the car to start. When this is happening, the car is either doing the dead-battery click, or is trying to start but won't. Sometimes I will stop, take a break for maybe 30 seconds, then try again and it starts right up like nothing is wrong.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason that I can tell. It does it in all weather (hot, cold, wet, dry), with full tank or not, parked uphill or down. I've asked two local Nissan dealerships if they've heard of other Versas with this sort of problem and neither was any help. I don't want to start replacing every and anything that might be causing it because that gets $$ and it would be months before I'd be satisfied that it is fixed.

Any help is appreciated!

[DeadxEye]

could be a flat spot on the starter,.

[jemull]

Okay, here is an update on my problem. My '09 Versa was in a rather nasty accident and was written off by my insurance. So I took my insurance check and bought a 2010 Versa hatchback; it is very similar to my old one except for being a year newer and having 23,000 miles on it.

Anyhow, within a week of owning it, this newer Versa is exhibiting the very same issues that my older one had! This puts the lie to the dealerships saying they've never heard of this problem before in my mind. I mean, what are the odds that I could buy two cars (from different dealerships in different counties) with the same problem that no one has heard of before? It's probably astronomical....

[Luminar]

About the only problem that is consistent that causes problems like that coming to mind is loose or bad connection (likely ground) to the battery, or corrosion on the terminals. Would be extremely coincidental but a bad cell in a battery *could* cause a problem like that too. I mean its worth taking the car by autozone and having them test the battery since it's free.