Low Volts -Battery Current Sensor / IPDM

E

ellykay72

New member
Joined
May 16, 2013
Messages
15
Reaction score
0
Points
0
I bought a certified 2011 QX in May with 50,000 miles. For the second time since I've owned it, it has completely died after arriving at our destination and turning the car off. The first time was after a 300-mile trip. It ran great the whole trip until we got to the hotel. In the valet line, it would not restart. It took an hour to jump the battery, and until today, it has worked perfectly since. Back then, we did take it to an Infiniti dealer. Their service department found nothing wrong.

Today, we got home from church, and it would not start when I tried to leave half an hour later. My brother-in-law is a Nissan mechanic and came over since it's a Sunday. He is stumped. An hour of charging the battery did not work. After 30 minutes, a few lights came on, but they quickly went off again. He did not want to replace the battery because he feels like there is some other cause.

At this point, nothing works. No interior lights. No door locks. It doesn't turn over at all. Nothing.

Any ideas? I have to have it towed to the dealer tomorrow.
 
BCM issues or the IPDM.

assuming the key fob is properly speaking/handshaking to the car normally, those two devices can bring the car to its knees.
 
I am going to say it's probably the battery. A similar thing happened to me last year on my 2012 and it had to be towed to the dealer (after Infiniti Roadside could not jump it) and the dealer changed the battery under warranty.
 
Unfortunately, this has happened to us 4 times since we have owned ours. It happened 3 times under warranty and the dealership kept replacing the battery and said they couldn't figure out what the problem was. Then it happened out of warranty and guess what... they figured it out and tried to charge me $1,000 to fix it. I screamed like crazy and they finally agreed to fix it at their cost. I am not sure exactly what they did but I will look it up and get back to you.

C
______________________________
 
I am waiting on a call from the dealership soon with hopefully some info on what's going on. I appreciate the insight and will update when I hear back.
 
Battery?

Hey EllyKay, When the QX won't start, did your Brother-inlaw put a meter on the battery and is show at least 12.5 volts during this non-start time?
Maybe next time it does this, if you swap a known good battery in it and see if it starts? Get one from another vehicle if the post are on the same sides.
QX is a group 65 battery so just about any battery will fit in that large space.

I have seen a battery look good show 13.5 volts and then a plate come loose in it if it was jostled a certain way, dead. Someone else on the message board here mentioned they had to replace the battery on their new QX.
I put a motorcycle trickle battery charger on mine when not driven for a while.
let us know what the dealer says
Best regards
Parrott
 
Yeah, that was me with the battery. It went dead within 3 hours of sitting in a parking lot. But like not somewhat dead. Completely DEAD. Infiniti roadside tried and couldn't jump it. It had to flatbed towed over 400kms to the nearest dealer.

The diagnosis was a bad battery, I am sure that tow bill to Infiniti was not cheap....

But then about a month ago after returning from vacation (9 days) I tried to start my QX (which was locked with the FOB and left in my garage) and it was barely turning over. With each successive try the battery went more dead. I called roadside and they came to boost it, this time it restarted and charge up good.

He put a meter on the battery and it showed +13-14 volts charging....so it's not the charging system or alternator. I believe I have a small gremlin that is pulling a very low charge off the battery and as such will only see the problem occur when it's left for multiple days. Day to day driving is not uncovering the problem since it doesn't lose that much and gets recharged right away....

I have an appt on Nov 2 for a few other warranty items (rear diff, front camera etc) and will ask them to try and trace where that charge is getting pulled from...
 
Batt

>"I believe I have a small gremlin that is pulling a very low charge off the battery and as such will only see the problem occur when it's left for multiple days. Day to day driving is not uncovering the problem since it doesn't lose that much and gets recharged right away...."

I agree. If I let the QX sit for three or four days, and then put the trickle charger on it, it takes about a day to get it to storage voltage of 13.5 volts.
It seems to drift down to about 12.3 or 12.4 volts. I will check next time it sits a day or two. Wife drove it to work today.
But, that motor is something else :D

Have a good one!
Parrott
______________________________
 
They could not get it to charge, either. They replaced the battery and cleared out codes, whatever that means. They prepared me for something major and then did those two things, and all is now well.

I still think something is causing the battery to drain because it was replaced last year. I've never had a battery die in only one year.
 
Battery

Infiniti must have sourced the batteries for the QX from 'low-bidder' and its starting to show.
Ellykay, it sounds like you had the same exact issue Gumbey had. I am glad that it was just a battery.
A couple ideas, I don't have my headlights on 'auto' no sense in putting added load on the battery after the engine is shut down.
Another thing you could try is if you need to open the rear door, is open it with the engine running. Then you can shut the engine down.
The motor on the rear door works harder lifting on open, and probably draws more amps from the battery, than it does on close, with gravity helping.
Might get you longer usage out of the battery.
Have a good one,
Parrott
 
ellykay, do you have a remote start (aftermarket) installed?
______________________________
 
They did not tell me specifics about the codes, but my brother-in-law mentioned something about the security system having codes.

I do not have an aftermarket remote start.
 
the security system is tied to the BCM and if the BCM is malfunctioning, this can cause all sorts of heck as it is the brain of a majority of the cars computer system.

i can see the security system failing to disengage itself and allow the car not to start and other things (example, not sending a signal to the BCM to shut down other components in the chain because the security system is sending false/incorrect signals).
 
codes

Yeah, I agree with Marc, need to know what the codes were. I don't like service departments that act like 'black box' . drop QX off, they say fixed, no detailed information. Hate that.
At least if you know the code & detail, you have an area to watch.

I thought about buying one of of those Fancy code readers, Can't decide on which one to buy. I'd like to get one that reads the TPS, in case you have to replace a sensor when the battery goes dead.
Anyone have experience with a reader /analyzer, and can recommend one, I would appreciate it.

have a good one
Parrott
 
Dread_Parrot said:
Yeah, I agree with Marc, need to know what the codes were. I don't like service departments that act like 'black box' . drop QX off, they say fixed, no detailed information. Hate that.
At least if you know the code & detail, you have an area to watch.

I thought about buying one of of those Fancy code readers, Can't decide on which one to buy. I'd like to get one that reads the TPS, in case you have to replace a sensor when the battery goes dead.
Anyone have experience with a reader /analyzer, and can recommend one, I would appreciate it.

have a good one
Parrott
Click to expand...

http://www.actron.com/product_category.php?id=249

You can get the simple one that tells you the code or the expensive one that tells codes, name of the part, approximate cost of the part and live viewing of data. I have the good one and it has paid for itself. Read the codes, write them down, clear them out and see if the reappear. If they do you have an issue. The best thing is I can update the software over the internet for free.
______________________________
 
QX won't start AGAIN!!!

HELP! I tried to leave for church this morning, and our '11 QX won't start again. Third time since July. I replaced the battery in October, and they told me they cleared out the codes. How do I get them to replace the BCM? I cannot replace the battery every three months. Something is clearly wrong with the electrical system.
 
Where are you located ellykay? Our 2012 has a dealer installed aftermarket remote start. A relay malfunctioned once last summer and killed our battery in the driveway. I just happened to notice the marker lights flickering dimly when we got back later in the evening. Didn't notice it earlier in the day.
I think what triggered it was my wife walked by the qx with her fob in her purse and it tried to "awake" and it couldn't because the battery was dead so it started clicking under the hood. Thankfully it wasn't locked so I didn't have to use the key unlock the door. I was able to jump it off with my truck that has two batteries (HD Diesel) and let it run for a while and it charged back up. Left it on the battery charger overnight and drove to the dealer next day.
They had to replace a relay. Dealership told me they had gotten a bad batch of them. Actually ended up replacing two of them in the end because a week later while I was in one of my customer's offices, the qx decided to roll all four windows half way down. Later same day it rolled all four all the way down. Took it back in and they replaced same relay and since I have had no issues.

To sum you may have a bad relay and they may have possibly replaced a bad relay with another bad relay.

Ours never threw any codes or warning lights on the dash fwiw so I'm unsure of any codes.

Hope this helps. Nothing sucks worse than having to worry if you're car is going to crank.

Keep us posted and let us know how we can help.

As we help each other on here we can also share this info with our local dealers so they can learn as well.
 
I don't have the remote start, and I am in Texas.

It seems like it doesn't turn all the way off sometimes when I hit the button. I press it down, just to make sure. But, sometimes, it makes an alarm as if it is on, even when the engine is not running.

Right now, hours later, there is a clicking coming from somewhere around the driver's seat and the lights are on, even though the lights are turned off and the car won't even turn over when we try to start it.
 
You definitely have a bad relay. That clicking sound is the relay malfunctioning. I bet if you raise the hood you will hear the sound coming from near the BCM box located on the passenger's side rear of the engine compartment if I recall correctly.

When you take it back in tell them the relay is bad. If they push back then message me and I will put them in touch with my dealer here in Ann Arbor who replaced mine.

That is the source of your battery drains. The relay is constantly functioning because it cannot break the circuit so it is in an endless loop sort of like when your computer locks up and needs to be restarted.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Cars Connected in the Apple App Store Cars Connected in the Android App Store
Back
Top