Urgent question

[MPlb]

I was taking my k11 2001 1.0l Micra home to France today. First the fuel guage, speedo and temp guage failed. Shortly after the airbag light came on and finally the battery light lit up and it stopped.

Of course, it was in the middle of a great thunder and lightning storm but I got a tow off the autoroute.

The battery was bubbling and spitting acid and letting off some lovely fumes.

I got another battery put in (amazing for France on a Sunday) but whilst it turns over it won't fire up.

The immobiliser light is flashing constantly won't go out. I've tried both NATS keys that I have but nothing. I left the battery disconnected for an hour, still nothing.

The two keys I have both have NATS stamped on them with a little blue 'flash' at the front. Am I missing something or is there a code somewhere (which I don't have).

It's been disconnected from the battery for longer than this before with no immobiliser troubles.

As a matter of urgency can anyone advise what could be wrong before I get fleeced by the local Nissan dealer?

Also, any ideas what could have made the battery boil like that?

Thanks for anything that may help...

 

[getawaycar]

Oh dear!
Check there are no broken earth cables or damage to the main live from the battery to the starter or alternator and check all the fuses, including the ones in the engine bay.

Assuming all thats ok, I'd say the NATS code had been scrambled. Especially if the lights flashing.
Afraid you are going to have to find 'Le auto electrician' or visit 'Le Nissan distributeur'!

 

[frank]

i would say that if your battery was bubbling and smelled of acid, the voltage controller in the alt has failed and overvolted
its probably blown some fuses and may have spiked the ecu fwn

 

[NeX]

does sound very serious, batteries don't normally do that. the only way a battery will bubble is either like frank said, from over charging, or a short.

if some wires are crossed somewhere that could cause the battery to bubble, but they have to be big wires otherwise the wires would just burn out (i had some foglight loom that burnt out, it just went white hot!)

so first obvious job with any car electrics check all the fuses, and any ground wires you can find. secondly try checking the headlight connector, sometimes they melt and could possibly cause this problem.

other than that, the only thing i can say is check all wiring everywhere, which means taking out the dash etc.... not a fun job but thats all i can think of. lets hope the ECU is ok

 

[MPlb]

After checking out all the fuses, wiring etc we removed the ECU which smelled (and still does) really well cooked. Opening it up there was a lovely scorch mark on the circuit board where it had been spiked...

I had to sit down when the dealer told me it would be €1300 for a new one. Luckily I managed to get a secondhand one for a fraction of the price (thanks Matthew) which is being fitted and re-programmed today along with another genuine Nissan alternator.

If I get another spare ECU (just in case) can it be reprogrammed in advance and then simply plugged in if the current one fails?