2003 FX45 - dies while driving as if ignition was suddenly disabled

[ericthered]

I am staying with my brother in law - I was picked up at the airport in his FX45. One mile from home his it died. Simply going up a hil at a steady pace, and the engine stopped, and dash lights came on. Adter multiple attempts to restart with and without the remote, it never restarted. It was just towed in.

Earlier today the FX was picked up from the local dealer for the second time for exactly this same problem - towed in both times dead. At first it was blamed on the battery (which they replaced) and then on the gas. When they picked it earlier today - it died a third time. However, after it restarted before the tow truck got there, and was driven back to infiniti. They then said it was that the key sent a "negative signal" that turned off the engine.

So now it has died four times for the same reason, and been towed back three times.

Any idea what is up, or how to deal with this? The FX has only 44K and is otherwise in immaculate shape.

thanks for any help.

[Q45tech]

Buy the extended oem warranty before the 6 years runs out!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and you forever lose the chance!

[ericthered]

Q45tech wrote: >>> Buy the extended oem warranty before the 6 years runs out!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OUCH! Thanks for the response, tech, but that sounds scary... based on your level of knowledge I assume that this doesn't bode well for the future reliabilty of this FX.

For this car, is already past 6 years/ These repair attempts/guesses have been BY the dealer at the owner's expense.

What wil they guess next? This problem is totally unacceptable since the car just dies while driving.Totally unsafe. How can they get this fixed without paying for repeated guesswork and experiments?

[Q45tech]

Unfortunately most dealer technicans are not experts in electronic testing, diagnosis, and trouble shooting.Current ones are trained to plug in diagnositic computer, look up failure code, and follow step by step proceedure in FSM.

The other problem is they do not get paid for diagnosis it is bundled into the warranty repair time.

If it takes them more than 45 minutes they are losing money.

You will need to PAY until the problem is found then deal with Nissan in court.

Or get luckly and find the 1-2 real experts in US on that exact year and model.

[Q45tech]

Lux cars full of gadgets are not very reliable in general because of all the connectors and the hot/cold cycling which is never found inside the home or offfice.

They are built to high standards but not like a space shuttle or satellite and cost Billions less.

Just think in 64 years we have never had a nuclear weapon go off accidentally and we have built 80,000 over the years.

What do people expect for a measely $50k?

I spent $8,000 on non covered repairs in first 100k [7 years] the next 2 years cost $13,000 [to fix all the things I missed previously.

[goody90q45]

Lux cars full of gadgets are not very reliable in general because of all the connectors and the hot/cold cycling which is never found inside the home or offfice.

They are built to high standards but not like a space shuttle or satellite and cost Billions less.

Just think in 64 years we have never had a nuclear weapon go off accidentally and we have built 80,000 over the years.

What do people expect for a measely $50k?

I spent $8,000 on non covered repairs in first 100k [7 years] the next 2 years cost $13,000 [to fix all the things I missed previously.

Unfortunately most dealer technicans are not experts in electronic testing, diagnosis, and trouble shooting.Current ones are trained to plug in diagnositic computer, look up failure code, and follow step by step proceedure in FSM.

The other problem is they do not get paid for diagnosis it is bundled into the warranty repair time.

If it takes them more than 45 minutes they are losing money.

You will need to PAY until the problem is found then deal with Nissan in court.

Or get luckly and find the 1-2 real experts in US on that exact year and model.

Buy the extended oem warranty before the 6 years runs out!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and you forever lose the chance!

I thought you were a Infiniti technician. Three posts and not even a hint to what the problem might be.

[mksue3240sx]

There is an updated crank sensor for these. There is probably an open recall on it.

[ericthered]

mksue3240sx wrote: >>> There is an updated crank sensor for these. There is probably an open recall on it.

However, there is no MIL light, and I assume the dealer checked memory, too.A crank angle sensor failure would likely set the MIL/show a trouble code, yes?

Like the dealer, I would suspect something that the engine thinks is a normal reason for shutting down, like some security issue. It seems like absurdity to just shut down a car after driving happily for 15 minutes for a security issue, though. The shift lockout works on (attempted) starting.

I was also thinking it may be that the fuel was cut off instead of the ignition. Mostly because I remember pushing the car uphill off the road :-( :-( as well as after numerous starting attempts and did not smell any unburnt fuel, as you might expect. (I expect the dealer should be able to tell us next time they look at it which systems are disabled).

I am also wondering if this is a rare occurrence, or more common. Given the feedback so far, it does not seem common. Once a car instantaneously quits on you while driving a couple times, it leaves a persistent distrust in the back of your mind - these folks need something to restore faith if they are not going to sell it after "fixing" it.

[mksue3240sx]

I have had a couple of altimas that stalled w ith no code. If the recall is open, just get it done and see what happens. Should not cost you a dime.

[Q451990]

I thought you were a Infiniti technician. Three posts and not even a hint to what the problem might be.

Nope... he's an engineer, consultant, and expert on the theory behind G50 Q45 issues - not much outside of that in terms of other specific models except for what comes through T3 - and general automotive theory that follows through all models. The FX series is still fairly new to see that many in a non-dealership setting.

Heath
Modified by Q451990 at 11:03 PM 9/8/2009

[Q45tech]

T3 has about about 18 FX45 customers. But until you see your first 100 or so difficult to make statistical analysis.

Every brand new model has defects and weak designs that show as rolling changes 2-3 years later.

[ericthered]

Just to tie this one up. The car was "fixed" (no charge), died once more, and then the dealer took the car and kept it until it was fixed, no extra charges.

Kudos for that, no doubt a lot of hours went into it.

But it took them weeks. After finally pronouncing it fixed, but wait until Monday to be sure, it was finally returned the following Friday. Not completely clear on what it was, but it seems to have been a wiring problem.