I plan on bringing my car to the dealer or a local shop for the following issue. I plan on simply giving them this write up.


Has anyone experianced anything similar ?

I have a push button start on my 2008 altima coupe. The car requires the foot on the brake for the car to start.

Intermittently, the BRAKE, ABS, and SLIP lights come on. They come on when I am driving (not exactly sure when during driving, as I am not looking at the dash). They go off when I turn the engine off and then back on. This is intermitent but happens in bunches (happens frequently for a few days, then not at all for weeks). The brakes have been checked and they are/were OK when checked. There were also no engine failure codes stored.

Shortly after the brakes were checked for the above issue, the car would intermittently not start. usually trying over and over again the car would start. This was also intermittent, and seemed basically coincident with when the lights would come on while driving. (both intermittent problems would come and go together).

When the car wouldnt start, it behaved exactly as if my foot wasnt on the brake, even though it was. Specifically, the first time I pushed the start button, the ignition would go to the ACC indication, and the second time it would go the ON indication (but the engine is off).

Assumption at this point is that for whatever reason, the car didnt know my foot was on the brake, so it wouldnt start. In the rare instances when I couldnt get the car to start with repeated presses of the start button, the remote start would work. Note that the remote start doesnt require the foot on the brake.

Unfortunaalty, I was wating to get one additional piece of information before I took the car in. I finally got this piece and unfortunalty, it doesnt support the above theory.

Apparently the brake lights will go on even if the car is totally off when I put my foot on the brake. So I have gotten into the habit when starting the car at night to look in my rear view mirrow to see if the brake lights come on when I first get in the car.

So far, the car has failed to start once when I was checking the brake light. I didnt check it when I first hit the start button, but after I pressed the start button and the car didnt start, I checked the rear view mirror and the lights were OFF. I removed my foot from the brake, pressed it again, the brake light went on, and the car then started. (What I should have done was leave my foot on the brake, but press harder to see if that made the brake light go on, but I will do that next time. However, I dont think it is a pressure issue as when it doesnt start, I press it hard). With the above piece of information, everything hung together.

Then, the next time I got in the car, before even pressing the START button, I kept pumping the brakes to see the lights going on and off. I was hoping to see that on one of the brake presses, the light didnt come on.. This didnt happen, as the brake lights always came on. Then, when I pressed the START button, with the brake light on, the car failed to start. This one piece of information doesnt fit with the rest.

Has anyone experianced anything similar ?

First question is, are we talking about a 2.5 or 3.5? I have an 08 3.5 CVT, purchased it new a year ago and I have been problem-free. So no, I have not experienced ANY of what you speak of. I would run, not walk to your stealership and find out what is up....sounds like your whip is fu*ked!

Sounds like the brake pedal switch in the foot well is broken/not working correctly. Look behind the brake pedal, see if the switch is effed up haha.

I would take it to get looked at for sure though, sounds liek a few different issues going on.

QR25DE wrote:Sounds like the brake pedal switch in the foot well is broken/not working correctly. Look behind the brake pedal, see if the switch is effed up haha.

I would take it to get looked at for sure though, sounds liek a few different issues going on.

Yeah, sounds maybe like the switch and low brake fluid.

Yes, I need to take it in but want to avoid them fixing the wrong thing.

It is a 3.5. Fluid and brakes themselves are fine as per the last time I brought it in.

maybe i mis read this bu tu said u have a remote starter ?? is it factory? if not maybe the messed up some wiring.. just guessing here .. really dont know much about Electroics and what they have to do to by pass the break press to start car ... just something else u might want to consider.. also if its not a factory instal. u might want to take it out before going to deal cause they will blame it on such for sure .. hope this helps

last year during the winter it got to -4 F and i was at my gf's dorm, left at like 2 in the morning. it was cold, it was snowing, it was windy. and my abs light came in- and it was amazing lol- reminded me of my old car w/o abs.

but to the same degree- im assuming it was just really cold and electronics got confused. i turned it off, then bak on, and the light turned off.

how about alternator

infinity_lineup,

You indicated there are many things that could cause those lights to come on.

Which of those things do you think may also cause the car not to start on occasion?

I am fairly convinced that its one problem causing both symptoms (I will have neither symptom for weeks, and then for a few days I will intermittently get both, then they both go away).

Thanks

infintiti_line_up,


The engine simply fails to engage. The gory details are in the original post, but the quick details are as follows:


-When car fails to start, it behaves as if foot isnt on brake, ie, first time button is pressed the car transitions to the ACC state, and the next time the button is hit it transitions to the ON state, even though the engine has failed to start. This is the exact same pattern I get when the car is working fine, except I have purposely not put my foot on the brake. Usually repeated brake presses and buton presses get the car to eventually start.

- On the occasions when the car fails to start at all, even after repeated attempts, , the remote starter does the trick. The remote starter of course doesnt require the foot on the brake.


- I just figured out about a week ago that when I put my foot on the brake, even with the car off, the brake lights come on (which I can see at night in the rear view mirror). So, one of the times the car failed to start, I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed the that brake light wasnt on. Releasing and then pressing down on the brakes again make the brake lights come on, and the car started. I am waiting for the car not to start again at night. When it doesnt, I will leave my foot on the brake and simply press down harder to see if that makes the brake light come on.


All of the above points to a failure in the brake sensor path EXCEPT for the very last piece of data I collected. What I did was get in my car at night and with the car off press and release the brake literally 100 times. I was hoping that on one of the cycles the brake light would fail to go on, proving without a doubt that the issue was in some way that the computer doesnt know the brake pedel is pressed. On all 100 presses, the brake lights came on. Then I went to start the car, with the brake lights ON, and it failed to start, I had a perfectly cohesive theory right up untill that last piece of data.

As for the lights coming on when I drive, they are related to the car not starting only in the sense that they both are intermittent, and both come and go at the same time. Like I wont have the probelm for two weeks, and then in the span of a couple days I have both issues a few times. My assumption is that they have the same root cause.


Thanks.

I mean, sometimes it gets complicated and then ends up with no explanation....

For instance, I had my dashboard fully changed w leds, and a whole bunch of stuff done to my car... and it conked out on me for some reason...

Wouldnt fully start.. it was in "safe" mode...

and took my nissan tech ("mustang joe" for you locals who know him) over 8 hrs with nissan techs on the phone trying to figure it out... The cause, was an aftermarket taillight (mind you this was someones homemade concoction, not the tails on ebay now) and once we swapped out the lights, it was back to normal.

bump ...

I have similar issue with my ABS. Often times the lights come on, the ABS does not click into place. I turn the car off and on, it clicks into place and everything is good. The weather is getting cold and it is acting up more often. Tonight, I had the worst feeling ever with this car (which has always ran smoothly except one time last year when the starter froze). Tonight, the ABS would never click into place and after I would get speed up to 20mph it would continuously "Thunk" repeatedly as long as the wheels were spinning. (Wouldn't thunk at all in park while revving the engine). Wouldn't thunk repeatedly until reaching 20mph.

I am scared to drive my car now. I wish I knew how to fix it. Maybe my break fluid is running low, and needs to be topped off? Maybe the ABS is failing - completely and needs to be replaced?

I don't want to get stuck with a $3,000 replacement fee - Which NJ would be happy to tell me that is what I will need, plus they will try and sell me air filters.

Any tips on how to ensure it is your ABS, and if it is your ABS - how do we "nudge" it back into position to work smoothly again? What is the cut off line that says "This needs to be replaced"?

Your best bet is find someone good with electrical, as hard as that can be. Don't have someone start playing the sensor switching game. It's either something simple like a switch on the brake pedal, or an abs sensor (which shouldn't cause a no start) or a combo of both. Or it could be a nightmare. It's not a flood car is it? I have an 08 2.5 cvt with 111000 thousand miles. Owned it for a year now. Besides a door jamb switch and a tpms sensor i've had no electrical/sensor/switch issues at all, even with the bully dog. The car is from Alabama and I live in vermont. Absolutely no cold weather issues last winter or this winter.

I just had a weirdly similar experience. This morning, I got in my '13 Pathfinder, stepped on the brakes, and pressed the starter button. It started and immediately died. Repeated attempts to start it again resulted in good cranking but the engine didn't start.

When I raised the hood with the ignition still 'on', I heard what sounded like a motor running on the passenger side. I turned the ignition off and tried again to start it - no luck. By now, I had spent several minutes with no success so I took the wife's car to work.

Came home this afternoon to troubleshoot. I put my OBD code reader on it but got no codes. It still wouldn't start but on the third attempt, I heard that 'motor' sound again and investigated the source. It seemed to be coming from the ABS unit. On a whim, I checked the brake fluid reservoir and the dipstick was dry. I topped off the fluid and tried starting again.

It started but ran poorly because it was likely flooded. It died when I took my foot off the gas but started readily when I tried again. After a minute or so, it ran fine.

Is it possible there's some sort of logic in this thing that prevents starting the car if something isn't quite right on the brake system? I could see not being able to take it out of Park but why prevent starting? And why not set a code somewhere to help figure out what's going on? The brake light on the dash never even flickered.

I could have spent a lot of time and a ton of money trying to figure out which sensor was preventing my vehicle from starting when the problem wasn't even related to ignition or fuel. I'm glad it turned out to something inexpensive but I'm still buffaloed by the experience.