2000 Sentra SE - starting troubles / stall while driving / clock & radio reset

[weinberk]

Hi folks.

My wife has a manual 2000 Sentra SE (sr20de engine). We bought it new and it's only got 50k miles on it. First I should say that my wife has been driving manual cars all her life, no problems, quite a smooth shifter if I must say so myself.

About 8 months ago, the car stalled while she was pulling nose-first into a parking space. She rolled the rest of the way. She's not sure if she actually stalled the car (VERY unusual for her) or if something went wrong. When she came back to the car, it wouldn't start. No clicking, almost as if the battery was dead. She kept trying and it started finally. (she doesn't remember if there were any dash lights for this instance).

No more problems until 4 months later. Same basic thing, although this time there was no stall. About 20 minutes after having driven the car (which started fine for that drive), the car wouldn't start. Try and try again, no dash lights this time for sure, but eventually it started.

A month after that, same thing. We called AAA this time, they came, jumped the car right away. We immediately replaced the battery with a new one.

Three months after that (two days ago), my wife was driving in heavy traffic and again the car stalled. She's been doing this same commute for several years, knows the roads and the traffic and has never stalled before. It stalled. Just before stalling the some dash lights illuminated. She thinks oil pressure and one other. Again, she's not sure if she just screwed up and stalled the car or if something went wrong. When she tried to start the car this time, nothing happened, NO dash lights came on, no clicking that she heard. It was almost like she wasn't turning the key.

The car finally did start. This time, the clock and radio presets were all reset. Note that this is with the new battery. Another interesting point is that once, while trying and trying to start the RPM gauge went up to about 500, very slowly, even though the engine wasn't on.

We checked things yesterday with a multimeter, though we couldn't get the car to misbehave. Everything checked out. My first thought was that it's a bad alternator or some kind of sporatic short, but who knows?

Has anyone else had this experience? Any suggestions?

Thanks.


Modified by weinberk at 7:16 AM 6/8/2007

[VMPhil]

hm....perhaps the ECM is the issue? unlikely though.

my dad had this issue when he first got his Xterra the problem was caked up crap on his positive and negative connections to his battery.

[Twilight sentra tuner]

my dads plymouth volare had( for the most part) the same symptoms. however this a 78'. but we did figure out the problem. turned out the grounding point on the frame of the car was rusted through. say if it is ur grounding point, that would explain the preset with ur clocks and radio. the ground wire isn't grounding out good because of rust or maybe its just not fastened down well. my dad went ahead and bought new ground cables and made new grounding points so if one fails he's got a backup. try checkin ur ground wire for any wear and take a look at ur grounding points for wear too.

[nametakennow]

Get your VIN run by a dealer for the ECU recall. Also check the battery terminals for corrosion.

Mine has done all of that a couple of times. Do the revs drop or lights dim under braking every now and again? The grounding on 00-06 Sentras is awful.

Lastly, keep an eye out for an SES light. It's possible that you're seeing the beginnings of the "purge valve stuck open" code, which will show up the same as a "gas cap not tightened" code. All SEs have this problem, usually at 50-60,000 miles, but sometimes later.

[NSR_s30]

I bet it's the ecu that took a dump on you.

[HondaTraitor]

im not familiar with the recalls or anything but it sounds like it is some sort of an electrical issue(duh right lol) your harness is not hacked anywhere is it(common with hondas on account of swaps and whatnot) its not grounding out on your frame anywhere that you know of is it? like they say it could be your ecu i would check all the electrical connections. hell ive seen someone hook up a stereo in a honda wrong and nothing work NOTHING wouldnt start or anything it popped fuces fried pats of the ecu and whatnot had to replace the ecu harness and the ecu itself. but like i said i would start checkin the ecu and all connections

just trying to help sorry if i sound like an a$$ (honda knowledge ive noticed doesnt help much anywhere else)

[weinberk]

Thank you all for your help.

Turned out to be a combination of a coroded ground connector on the battery and, get this, a bad multimeter!!! Got a different multimeter and it was clear where the problem was.

THanks!

[nametakennow]

The battery corrosion buildup on these cars is ridiculous. Mine has done the same thing several times, should have thought of that when I posted.

[Griever423]

It doesn't help that the stock battery terminals on the SE's are CRAP. Before I replaced mine, the positive terminal would come off with almost no provocation. Its absolute crap.

Anyway, glad you figured out the problem.

[kenmal]

Yep...I am not surprised most of the issues are somehow linked to this @##?" corroded battery connections and the charger....Which i feel an area greatly lacking attention, given the fact that the entire car depends so much on these 2 components.

I hv 1 year ago changed to those batt that do not need water top up.. CHanged to a slightly more powerful charger (not sure but that is what the mechanic said)..and I noticed that somehow..salt buildup is not significantly obvious anymore. Not sure whether this is the solution...