Hello all. I have a 2012 Frontier that I bought for my son. I have a 2012 Pathfinder, so I am familiar with the brand. My Pathy, no problems at all, love it. The Frontier? so far a nightmare. When I bought it, it needed a little work, I knew that going in. The problem is it will not reliably start. Ok, here goes.

First, I replaced the battery, then the starter. still no start. I blew an ignition fuse jumping the solenoid, and replaced fuse. Got power to the ignition. Went through an ECU check, and have 12 volts coming out. Then I replaced both battery terminals and the positive power fuse block. She lives!! Great. Ran for three days, then got stranded. Son called roadside service, the battery was showing 8 volts, and 175 amps. ok bad battery, replaced ran for a few days, then kaput. The alternator tested good at three shops with the new battery. Get back to the house, dead. I notice when I jiggled the wires, and slapped the fuse box, she cranks up! Great, bad connection or ground. I take off all the terminals, clean, and wire-brush the connections. Same for the ground connections, everything looks like a shiny penny. Take out the main fuse bus, use electric contact cleaner and q-tips on all surfaces, and she runs for two days.

Now, she sits in the driveway dead. The battery shows 12.89 volts. No crank, no start, fuses are good. no power to anything. No lights, radio, nothing. Just a giant red brick in the driveway. I have exhausted the extent of my electrical knowledge. Before I tow it to a mechanic, can someone help a brother out? Maybe a neutral safety switch or parking switch?

PS, i haven't even started with the c1163 code for the air bag sensor. The horn doesn't work and the airbag light was on from the beginning. Maybe a steering angle sensor, or the clock spring, or maybe. oh hell, i don't know.

The airbag light will be the clockspring for sure, it's very common on R51 Pathies and all their close relatives.

Have you checked the main fusible link on top of the battery card? Also, those cards can sometimes crack from fatigue where the card right-angles, which will kill just about everything onboard. I'd suggest putting a test lamp on it connection by connection starting at the plus terminal and see where the power goes away. If you reach the alternator and it still hasn't gone away, suspect a bad ignition switch.

Yes, I did replace the fusible link. When I dropped it off to the mechanic, the darn thing cranked right up! There is a bad connection somewhere, so they are going to try to chase it down.

She lives!! Turns out the negative battery cable was not making a steady connection. Even after removal when I cleaned everything it felt solid, not pliable at all. So far so good, two days in a row!