K11 Micra Sport 1.0 both keys not starting the car

Hi all, after trawling the web and garage bills are escalating, I turn to you all for some guidance.

I tried to start the car one morning and the car turned over once then died. Later that day I called the AA out after doing various tests concluded that either there was a fuel pump problem or something more serious. I got the car to my local garage (non nissan dealer) and after not being able to find the fuel pump relay, they called in an auto electrican. The following is the conclusion.

Both keys unlock the car but fail to start it. The red immoblizer light in the dash stays on. The auto sparky says that its unusual for both keys to fail, normally one fails. The [garage and auto sparky] are suggesting taking to the local dealer to put on the analyser. After talking to local Nissan garage, they need to analyse for 1-2 hours £200 rough cost, then they might know the problem.

Trouble is, like everyone nowdays, I am broke and face the problem that the first garage bill is looking like £200-300 then another £200 for Nissan dealer. Arghhh.

So, has anyone had the problem of both keys loosing 'sync' with the NATS / immoblizer? How bad is this likely to be. The local garage says that if the ECM unit has gone, then we're talking some serious money, plus labour costs etc.

Thanks for your thoughts, whilst I have searched these forums, I found no mention of anyone having both key loosing sync with immobilzer. Thanks in Adv.
 
Hi Frank, thx for the quick reply. There was no mention of him reading fault codes, so I am presumming no. Another reason why they are suggesting taking the car to the Nissan dealer so that they can get the codes etc. Either way, its frustrating, maybe had I taken the car to Nissan first, I would have the answer for the same money spent already. I guess local garages are not always the best option. :(
 

frank

Club Member
Hi Frank, thx for the quick reply. There was no mention of him reading fault codes, so I am presumming no. Another reason why they are suggesting taking the car to the Nissan dealer so that they can get the codes etc. Either way, its frustrating, maybe had I taken the car to Nissan first, I would have the answer for the same money spent already. I guess local garages are not always the best option. :(

yours has the very sophisticated obd2 diagnostic system colin, the 1st option with any small or dealer garage is to check for any faultcodes surely ? fwn
 
I will ask the garage tomorrow if the auto-sparky got any codes, but I am doubtful. Like you say, I would have thought that a auto electrical specialst would have the ability to read codes, if nothing else, then google the codes etc. I will post any further feedback tomorrow once I know more. In the meantime, if anyone else has had a similar experience, what happened for them. Cheers, Colin.
 
Hi Frank, thx for the quick reply. There was no mention of him reading fault codes, so I am presumming no. Another reason why they are suggesting taking the car to the Nissan dealer so that they can get the codes etc. Either way, its frustrating, maybe had I taken the car to Nissan first, I would have the answer for the same money spent already. I guess local garages are not always the best option. :(

I can't believe that the local garage does NOT have a analyzer or computer to read the codes! That does not sound right. Just my .02... My car has a key fob that I have to press the button on to start it after the ignition is turned on. I hear a little "click" in the dash just to the left of the gauges. I have a '94 K11 1.0.
 
thanks for your feedback. My car is a 2001 51 plate. The garage is a MOT place specifically and I guess when the obvious mechanical stuff cannot show up the fault, then its main dealer time. Being out in the countryside gives me few options. Lesson learnt I guess. Hopefully I can post more tomorrow.
 
Thanks Frank. I did a little research on the 'bay' and sent a couple of questions. Found a reader > USB job, I just need to understand that the software explains what code errors are found, otherwise I will be none the wiser. More tomorrow.
 
Well a little feedback to keep this topic updated. I spoke to the Garage today and no they dont have the code readers etc, so I called the auto electrician who explained that the ODB2 code readers dont read immobilizer / non starting problems. Secondly, I contacted a company on ebay who was selling a ODBII reader and briefly explained that I was trying to get a code to diagnose non starting / immobilizer issues. That company replied back to me today, saying that their product would not help with this. The auto electrician explained that the ODBII readers will diagnose emmission related errors and not faults where the car doesnt start. Ok, so that sounds like a common message. On the positive side (if there is one) is that the Garage wouldn't charge because they couldnt fix, so credit for that, but as they needed to call in a auto sparky, they charged for his 2 hrs of time, which to be fair was only £40. So now it looks like the best option is to get the car booked into Nissan for their diagnostics machine to hopefully pin point the fault. Sadly, I lack the confidence in dealerships to not 'maximize' on stringing this out. I hope that I am wrong. So as promised, that's my update and where I stand now.
 

Shaun

***StaGGeRed***
ok well done on the garage being honest enough.
secondly you only really need nissan to tell you whats wrong and if possible to do everything yourself.
unless it really is the keys/ecu thats having a bad day :(

Good luck!
 
Thanks Shaun, I will keep this thread updated no matter what the outcome, hopefully if someone else should be unlucky to have the same issue, they may benefit from this post. Regarding the garage that I went to, its a small village garage and they have always been honest and fair. Kind of why I go there, I have trust in them, however its a shame that it took a week to reach the conclusion that we reached. Now Nissan are saying I have to give them 1 weeks notice before they can 'fit me in'. So I will be off the road another week at least. More to come in the next week. Stay tuned.
 
A little more feedback. When I first spoke to the Nissan garage I was informed that the analysis would need to take around 1-2 hours at a cost of £82+vat per hour. When we ran out of options and I called the service desk, they said, sure we can analyse the problem, we have a fixed fee of £65+vat for the duration of analysis. Depending on the work needed, they will refund the £65+vat off the overall charge, which in my view is not so bad. However I was seriously put off when the first person I spoke to (maybe he was a mechanic answering the phone on a Saturday?) suggest I need to spend £200 before I know what's wrong. Well the car is booked in for Friday, so hopefully I can update this post again with some results. Fingers crossed.
 
So the results from the garage are in. The diagnostics machine couldn't see the EMU. Without communication between the diagnostics machine and EMU, nothing much is getting fixed. So after a quick price check, the garage has confirmed that this part will need replacing, they agreed to do the job for now more than £500. This includes doing the recoding of them keys as that will need to happen as well. All in all, a painful but necessary bill. :( the other downer is that their electrician is only in 3 days next week with his work load cut out already, so it looks like another week being off the road. Bummer.
 
One final update to this saga. I heard from the garage who mentioned that my year of car had two different types of EMU in two different locations. They had to strip down the dash to check which one was installed, they ordered the part overnight and fixed the car this morning. So good news, I will have my car back later today. The bill was £418 all in, so this included the initial diagnostics, stripping the dash down, replacing the part and final testing. The EMU part was either £80+ or £150 + vat, the rest is labour. Just wish in some ways I went there first. Oh well, looking forward to being mobile again. :) Yehaw. PS, happy to share what part / cost if this breakdown is on the invoice, what that benefit anyone?
 
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