1996 Q45 electrical problem. Im a female...please help

[q45hubbydisaster]

my husband bought the car about a month ago from a friend who was letting it sit bc he bought a new car about a year ago..... so all in all the car has been sitting for over a year with out being started or cleaned or anything. when my husband bought it, it didnt have a full set of rims so for a month he's been driving around limp with the front driver wheel being a doughnut and the 3 others 19" rims. The first snow storm we have in ny and its his car we have out!!! so the q is all over the road "slip" light flashing and everything....we finally get home (about 5 miles) and turn the car off and the fog lights refuse to shut off, then after fiddling with them they shut off. after about 5 min. we go out to see the snow and they're back on. So my husband d/c the battery... 2 days later he connects the battery goes for a drive comes back and the cars dash lights up like a christmas tree....horn starts blowing (he think its the alarm) so he d/c the battery again....later on he tries to hook the battery up again, NOW the horn is going and the car is trying to start itself....2 days later still doing the same thing....i have no clue when it comes to cars what to do.....give me a vein i can get u blood, give me a brake line and i think it goes under the car....

could something be wet from sitting in the 2ft snow??? i know the previous owner had the "plug n play" HID's.....im at a loss he's exhauseted every person who knows about cars....

INFINITY= is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma

once u figure out one problem then theres another

please any one...all suggestions are welcome

Modified by q45hubbydisaster at 1:10 PM 12/27/2009
Modified by q45hubbydisaster at 3:40 PM 12/27/2009

[Skibane]

When the horn blows, does it sound a continuous note, or does it honk on and off several times a second? (When the security alarm system is triggered, it honks the horn several times a second - By contrast, a stuck horn button or horn relay makes the horn sound continuously.)

The fog lights are also controlled by a relay. The next time they stay on, try smacking the relay to see if the contacts are sticking.

Until you get things sorted out, I'd suggest installing a battery disconnect switch that attaches to one of the terminals on the battery - It will allow you to quickly disconnect or re-connect the battery without having to unbolt the battery cable.

[Q451990]

Welcome to NICO! It sounds like you have a real mess! If the car is trying to start without the key in the ignition, I suspect there's an aftermarket remote starter/alarm in the car. Who knows what's been done electrically to the car. Your problems are not typical, easy, "here's what you do to fix it" type issues... You need someone who knows their way around automotive electrical systems to look at the car...

Heath

[q45hubbydisaster]

when its in park/neutral and the battery is connected, the horn is continuous and it is turning over like its trying to start but no key is in the ignition...but when the car is in gear and battery is connected the car horn will still go but it wont try to crank over.... which in his assumption the safety neutral switch is still working.

[Skibane]

Yes, power to the starter solenoid is interrupted by the Neutral safety switch. So, it appears that the starter is spinning because the starter relay is either (1.) energized by a wiring fault earlier in the circuit, or (2.) has stuck contacts.

The fact that your horn sounds a steady tone is a clue that it isn't being triggered by the security system.

As Q451990 mentioned, the constant engine cranking could be caused by a remote start system that was installed as an aftermarket item, and now has a wiring problem - You might ask the previous owner if any such system was ever installed.

[q45hubbydisaster]

well thank you gentlemen, i will pass this info to my hubby and hopefully he. can make use of it....

but i am still open to suggestions if the above aforementioned doesnt work its back to square one.....

woohoo

[Skibane]

Having a factory service manual (or "FSM") would be a HUGE help in fixing your car. It has wiring diagrams for every electrical part, shows where every part is located, even shows what color each wire is. You can buy the FSM on a CD-ROM for pretty cheap on ebay (usually 10-15 bucks). Having the FSM on CD-ROM makes it easy to search the entire manual for certain keywords (such as "horn", "fog lights", "security system", etc.).

Make sure that the service manual you get is the official Nissan/Infiniti FACTORY service manual, as originally printed by Nissan. There are other "service manuals" available which are produced by independent companies - Generally, they aren't nearly as complete or accurate as the "real deal".

[elwesso]

if its cranking but youre not firing its likely going to be the ECU not coming on, or maybe the fuel pump is not coming on..

It sounds like the previous owner had some serious funny business with this car, anything else like aftermarket stereo systems, remote starters, etc installed with the car?

Im just warning you, but this is likely going to be a nightmare, so i hope you're good with a volt meter and what not, because this stuff gets nasty quick, Q45 electrical systems are not fun things to mess with...

[q45hubbydisaster]

Thank u guys....the problem has been found n fixed...the guy before us had 22" s on the car and took out the inner wheel well which exposed the harness...apparently bc the doughnut was perfect height when he made a left it melted the harness into a ball of wire and plastic so that's what was causing all the random stuff above....so we had a friend who works with cars and their internal electronics and wiring he came cut out the ball of crap and rewired and when he gets a chance he's going to get another harness and resolder it correctly....

Now there's another problem...the tcs and slip light are on...when the car is started the tcs and slip lights aren't on, if u engage reverse and excel the lights still don't come on, but as soon as u excel in drive the lights come on....I'm thinking a relay is blown, but then the lights would be on all the time...tried to hook a scanner to it but it was 4 a 99 and up...wrong plug no adapter....trying autozone

Any suggestions....

[mtzgr777]

Yea have AutoZone scan it, I know there scanners work for my '96 Q.

[qship96]

No such thing, all obd2 plugs are the same...1996,1998,2008.....same plug!!!!

[Skibane]

Quote »Now there's another problem...the tcs and slip light are on...when the car is started the tcs and slip lights aren't on, if u engage reverse and excel the lights still don't come on, but as soon as u excel in drive the lights come on....I'm thinking a relay is blown, but then the lights would be on all the time...tried to hook a scanner to it but it was 4 a 99 and up...wrong plug no adapter....trying autozone

Any suggestions....[/quote]Just a guess, but if you're still driving around with three 19 inch wheels and one space-saver "doughnut", that might be the problem. If I recall correctly, the Traction Control System measures the speed of each wheel - when one wheel is spinning faster than the others, the TCS thinks that the wheel is slipping (and turns on the SLIP light on the dashboard). In your case, the "doughnut" is spinning faster than the other three wheels because it is much smaller.

If all 4 wheels are now the same size, check the connections to each wheel speed sensor - particularly the sensor at the same wheel location where your wiring harness was damaged.
Modified by Skibane at 8:37 PM 12/29/2009

[Q451990]

No such thing, all obd2 plugs are the same...1996,1998,2008.....same plug!!!!

True. Most early OBDII Nissans had both a Consult plug and a standard OBDII plug... maybe they didn't find the right plug?

Heath

[q45hubbydisaster]

probably true...the guy that my husband works for could just be circle jerking....and we stopped at autozone and they said they dont have the scanner for our car, but if we want to buy one it'll only cost us $350...right to scan one car....we'll try other ppl

[q45hubbydisaster]

Just a guess, but if you're still driving around with three 19 inch wheels and one space-saver "doughnut", that might be the problem. If I recall correctly, the Traction Control System measures the speed of each wheel - when one wheel is spinning faster than the others, the TCS thinks that the wheel is slipping (and turns on the SLIP light on the dashboard). In your case, the "doughnut" is spinning faster than the other three wheels because it is much smaller.

If all 4 wheels are now the same size, check the connections to each wheel speed sensor - particularly the sensor at the same wheel location where your wiring harness was damaged.

Modified by Skibane at 8:37 PM 12/29/2009

i would luv for that to be the problem...but it wasnt doing it before all this mess....do you think maybe its just recognizing the problem now, after like a reset??? **also the abs light is on**

[q45pimpin]

ok i'm the dumb hubby with the car when i turn the car off and start it back up the lights are off till i drive a few feet foward and the same thing if i pull the fuse and put it back in i never had this problem till the harness mess the abs light is also on and auto zone said they dont do body codes and my boss's scanner has a diffrent plug and no addaptors so i'm screwed the car was never malested ex for 22inch rims

[elwesso]

which side was the harness destroyed on? That might be helpful in knowing.

Without checking the codes and seeing what it thinks is wrong then you're spinning your wheels.... pun intended

Anyway, you can check the codes yourself using the FSM located at http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM and going to the BR section and doing the self diagnosis.. I would start with the TCS system first, thats simple to do.

[q45hubbydisaster]

it was on the harness was on the the driver side under the wheel well