I have a 2012 Altima with the push button start.
About a week ago, I was working on my aftermarket car stereo because the electrical ground was not making it to the battery. To work on the stereo, I took the center vents out that contain the airbag activation light, which I unplugged so the wire would not have any strain. It remained that way a couple of days while I debugged the intermittent issue, and the airbag warning light blinked in the instrument cluster.
After fixing the stereo and reconnecting the airbag activation light, the airbag warning light in the instrument cluster was still blinking.
I posted a question on one of the Facebook groups about how to get the warning light to reset, and someone told me how to cycle the power 4 or 5 times until the light stops coming on. I was tired from a 12-hour shift, so I wasn't really counting, but I gave up and stopped somewhere around 10 times.
When I got in to drive to work later that day, the car would not do anything. The push button light is ON, and blinks OFF shortly every 15 seconds and goes back ON.
The brake pedal usually gives a little I push the brake to crank, but now it is firm.
The push button does not work at all unless I have the key fob plugged into the fob port.
I had the local Nissan dealership send a technician out. He plugged his consult into the port; we could see the consult register when we turned the car to ACCESSORY/ON, pressed the brake pedal, and a number of other things, but there were no errors. He removed the battery and did a factory reset of the ECU, but there was no change. He said I should have Nissan replace the brake switch, but I pointed out that the brake lights were still coming on when he pressed on the brakes. Then he started talking about needing to replace the ECU, but I pointed out that he had the consult port plugged into the ECU and it was confirming everything. He agreed with the logic of both my findings, and he could not find any reason why the car would not start. He said I would need to have it towed to Nissan where they could do more tests.
My car does not have a warranty. I imagine if I bring my car there, they are going to start replacing all sorts of stuff because that's what they usually do and what usually gets charged to warranty. I cannot get other shops in town to look at it because they aren't sure what would cause this, even though I keep mentioning the Immobilization System.
I have tried various techniques to clear my issue (like the Nissan technician did), but nothing has worked yet.
With all that said, does anyone here have any experience with this type of issue?
