Ignition switch problems

[trajanH]

I am having problems starting my 97 Q45. It is an intermittent problem that I have noticed faintly for a while now but since I left the cabin lights on and drained the battery, the car sometimes does not want to start when I turn the key. I fully charged the battery and I still have the problem.

The power in the cabin is normal but when I try to start the car nothing happens and I cant move the gears out of park. So I put the car in neutral and turned the ignition. There was a brief pause and then the car started. That worked for a couple of days and now even that does not work.

It seems like my ignition switch is the problem since I cant move the gears out of park when I turn the switch. So I am looking to change my ignitions switch and want to know if anyone here has any experience changing the ignition switch of their car and what needs to be done? Do I have to change all of my keys? What about the door and trunk locks? I would appreciate any help if you have experienced this type of problem before .

[loystock]

Replacing the ignition switch ,may just complicate things as the Ignition Key is part of the NATS (Nissan Anti Theft System) whose Key ID is stored in the ECM and IMMU.

Allowing the lead-acid battery to be fully discharged may cause sulphation and weaken the battery. Check the battery voltage with engine off is 12.5VDC or higher. If not, replace the battery. BTW, have you tried jump-starting the car to eliminate the battery issue?

You may also have a problem with the Shift Lock Solenoid which prevents you from moving the shifter with Ignition ON. The Shift Lock Solenoid is interlocked with the Brake Switch.

Is the Security LED blinking? It must turn off when Ignition Switch is in ON position. Otherwise, you may have a problem with NATS.

Refer to the thread below as it wil hep you in the diagnostic.

zerothread?id=459437

[trajanH]

Thanks for the reply. Well my car is starting ok now. My battery is good. I pulled some fuses in and out of the fuse box and cleaned the ignition fuse connectors and after doing that the car started. Not really sure if it was because of what I did though but I will take it.What is interesting is that after I washed the car when I got in to start it the car did not start on the first try and the problem seemed to come back. The second try I got it to start up and it has been starting well so far.

So it might have something to do with water. Could be a relay under the hood that does not like to get wet or humid or something. Actually, we have had several huge rain storms in SoCal and the problems started after that which leads me to think that water is contributing to this issue.

I wanted to check the relays but could not get them out and did not want to pull to hard and damage anything. Anybody know the secret to pulling the relays out? When I get more time I will go thru the whole diagnostic procedure. It is just a pain to get some of those connectors lose underneath the car without damaging them.

[loystock]

Most of the connectors have tabs that you can squeeze in and then pull out; others you have push in (downwards) to release the lock. As for the relays, they are locked in place to prevent them from getting loose. If you look closer at the relay, one side of it has a tab-slot where you can insert a small screw driver in-between to release the lock.