2008 won't crank. Any suggestions

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tommymonza
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2014 4:33 pm
Location: sw florida

2008 won't crank. Any suggestions

Postby tommymonza » Fri Mar 10, 2017 8:44 am

My 2008 with 130 thousand turned it off at the gas station and than won't start.

Researched on here and found the thread referring to jumping the gray and white wire to bypass the neutral safety switch.

Didn't make a difference, still no crank.

Jumped starter and it cranks . Have not gotten it to start yet because I was not getting enough power to get the solenoid to engage the flywheel.

I need to get back to the truck with a floor jack so I can get under it better.

Anyways.

Any idea what could be the problem if not the neutral safety switch?


Brmadsenad
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2012 12:22 pm
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Maybe something obvious?

Postby Brmadsenad » Fri Mar 10, 2017 8:54 am

I don't want to assume you haven't considered things like battery, starter, and alternator, but I'd start there.

I drive a 2008 and had to replace my alternator in September 2015. Battery was shot at the same time, which seems to happen (bad alternator causes batter to fail, too).

When you "jumped" the starter and it cranked, was that with an alternate power source (something other than the battery on the Pathfinder)?

tommymonza
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2014 4:33 pm
Location: sw florida

Postby tommymonza » Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:42 pm

Well when o got it home I wiggled the negative lead on the battery and it cranked right up at the key.

Cleaned it aNd tightened it even though I did all of that 3 months ago when I installed a new battery.

The negative lead was a little loose but clean. The negative lead is stretched I think.

But even with a good set of vise grips encircling the lead to make it a super tight connection it just clicks again like before with no turning over of the starter.

Going to buy a new aftermarket ground cable since nissan 75 dollar one isn't in stock and see if that helps.

Do these starters just crap out with no warning ? It has not been cranked hard ever only 130 thousand.

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smj999smj
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Postby smj999smj » Fri Mar 10, 2017 9:15 pm

Well, any starter can fail, but starter failures on VQ40DE engines are pretty unheard of on the whole. I the battery connections are good, it could be a bad starter since bypassing the PNP switch didn't do anything. Battery cable connections are problematic on these vehicles. Battery post shims are available as well as replacement ends for the negative cable (cut the old clamp off and bolt on the new end). The factory negative cable has a voltage sensor built into it, which is why it's $75. The sensor is used by the ECM to control the alternator, so make sure your aftermarket cable replacement doesn't delete this sensor.


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