Yep, I had the same thing happen to my 2.5SV. It first happened with about 150 miles on it. I thought it was because it was in it's breakin period so I just ignored it. Then it happened another time with around 3K miles. The two times that it happened no codes where thrown so it would have been useless to bring it in. It has not happened again and I've got 8K on the car now.
Yup, add me to the list, 2nd time was Sunday.....3000 miles on the car....1st time I thought maybe didn't have my foot on the brake firmly enough...tried to be extra careful since...can't say for sure it's not that, so I'm going to really make sure going forward....bringing it in Monday for CVT, and heated seats....may as well add this little gem...... Here's what I expect..."we couldn't duplicate it...or it's a characteristic, or everything is as it should be...But hey, thanks for tying your 30K car up for the day, and getting nothing fixed...see you again, soon. Bring it back in anytime for the same thing, we'll be sure to do nothing, again.
Ok guys and gals I just had a weird issue and wanted to post and see if it has happened to anyone else.
I just got into my car to leave work, depressed the brake pedal and pressed the start button.
My car then hesitated to start for a second and the sound was like the motor was trying to kick over.
It did start and then I waited about 2 minutes and then turned the car off.
I def was shocked to see this happen out of nowhere and then restarted the car and it started perfectly normal.
So I wanted to know if anyone else has had this issue happen to them???
Hey, just to clarify, what do you mean by "...hesitated to start for a second and the sound was like the motor was trying to kick over"? What does "trying to kick over" sound like?
Do you mean that after pressing the button nothing happened for a second or two but you then heard the starter motor engage? If that's what you mean, then I think the answer is "working as designed."
The Start button is one relay in a complex electrical circuit that involves other relays including a timed relay to the starter motor. In order for the Start button relay to function at all, other relays have to be in the correct position (e.g., you have to press the brake pedal so that a relay will "tell" the Start relay that it's OK to proceed). Once the Start button is depressed, other timers and relays take over to engage the starter motor long enough for the engine to be firing by itself. The starter motor then disengages. It seems simple enough, but actually it's quite complex because what this feature does is replace the human mind and hand in terms of turning a key to crank the motor long enough to start. Now all you do is trigger an "intelligent" ciircuit that does all that carefully timed work for you.
I've driven a Nissan (well, now three different Nissans) for the past 5 years, all of which have had the Start button. At one time or another, I've had to carefully repeat the start procedure by releasing the brake, pushing it again, and then tapping the Start button. In other words, I had to repeat the procedure to get everything lined up correctly (and if you look, this is more or less what the Owner's Manual tells you to do). I have had one more obvious problem when my car's battery was nearing the end of its life. Just like with an older car with a manual (key) starter switch, when the battery amperage is low, the starter motor (and all relays involved) don't like to engage quickly. The net result was a delay and more cranking was involved (turning the key back and forth a couple of times). In a sense, the same kind of thing can affect the intelligent system.
So, if you mean to say that something more blatantly unexpected is going on...please explain more clearly. As I said, what I think is happening is the engine start system is working as designed. I don't think you're about to have your car explode on you (or worse yet, fail to start!).
My car always starts almost the second the starter motor engages...ie the engine turns very little before it's running (cold or hot)...when this issue occurs, the starter motor turns the engine over for a much, much longer time, to a point where I think it's not going to start....it finally does...seems like forever. I'm not sure that maybe I'm not pressing firmly enough on the brake....going to really make sure, see if it happens again...it happened at around 1500 miles and again at 3000. It acts like the engine is turning over but not getting either fuel or spark, then it does, and starts. The starter is tuning the engine over...it just takes a much longer time to start, than normal...really gets my attention, cus I don't think it's going to start.
My 2.5 SV did it once while remote starting. It turned over for 3-4 seconds before it started. I was shocked and got worried but it hasn't happened since. Happened around mile 1,000; I have 5k+ now. I use the remote start 50% of the time.
I've had this happen probably about 5 times already. I'm at 6K+ miles right now. I think it has something to do with the fuel that is being used or where the engine stops when it cuts off. With mine, it sounds like the car is starting, but none or not enough fuel is being sent to the engine to keep it going. So it keeps turning over until it is able to keep itself going.
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tharam thanks for the feedback as well I appreciate it.
Kind of shocking to hear 5-6 times for you though.
I'm using regular 87 in mine as I've never felt it necessary to use anything else in an Altima.
If gas prices weren't already ridiculous I'd consider 89 but I can't imagine this has to do with octane.
I don't use any off gas stations, only Mobil, Sunoco, and Gulf. So I can't imagine its from the quality of gas either, unless there's some sediment in there from the first tank from the dealer.
It also didn't happen with a low tank either, have 3/4 of a tank, so that also makes it even weirder.
I by no means want to start running more expense gas if I don't need too and if it is a octane issue then Nissan really should of known this.
Id like to hear more feedback from members and I appreciate everyone that has posted their issues as well.
The first time around 300 miles and the second around 1,000 miles. I was stocked and took it to the dealer they said that everything was fine but I had it documented.
Both time my car was parked uphill so not sure if it could be related plus been using regular 87.
I did some research. I looked up the subject in the Owner's Manual (surprise! this subject is mentioned) and I spoke with the service manager at my Nissan dealership this morning. He's a nice guy and so am I...so he was willing to take time to talk to me about this subject after I explained why I was asking. So, in case it's helpful in reducing someone's angst, here's what I found:
[Excerpt from Murano Owner's Manual Page 5-13, 2012 edition]
If the engine is very hard to start in
extremely cold weather or when restarting,
depress the accelerator pedal a little
(approximately 1/3 to the floor) and while
holding, crank the engine. Release the
accelerator pedal when the engine starts.
If the engine is very hard to start because
it is flooded, depress the accelerator
pedal all the way to the floor and hold it.
Push the ignition switch to the ON
position to start cranking the engine.
After 5 or 6 seconds, stop cranking by
pushing the ignition switch to OFF. After
cranking the engine, release the accelerator
pedal. Crank the engine with your foot
off the accelerator pedal by depressing
the brake pedal and pushing the push-button
ignition switch to start the engine. If the
engine starts, but fails to run, repeat
the above procedure.
As for the input I got from my service manager, here's what he said (paraphrased, but based on notes I took while he was talking):
"Engines are engines regardless of whether they have the Intelligent Key (IK) system or not. The IK system just tells the starter motor to engage for as long as the key is pressed (limited by a safety override timer). If there's anything wrong such that the engine is harder to start (e.g., temperature, gas quality, battery voltage, etc.), the IK system cannot overcome it; in this sense the IK system is exactly like a regular key switch.
We sometimes have complaints from customers (particularly new ones) who imagine all sorts of things about the IK system...mainly I think because it can seem like such a mystery to new users. What we train our team to tell customers is to patiently try the start process again if the engine fails to start after cranking for a few seconds. We also explain the instructions to press the gas pedal down a bit if the engine seems to be "hard to start" in warm or very cold weather. Most of all, we tell customers not to worry if their engines don't start instantly every once in a while. Only chronic hard-to-start conditions are actual problems. In those cases, we know what to do to try to isolate the cause (i.e., run a report on the car's ECU to see what error codes were recorded).
Random episodes where a few seconds of cranking is required are no big deal. I suspect that the gasoline quality (i.e., contaminated with water, not low octane) is the root cause. Strangely, even though they occur infrequently, the random episodes seem to worry new owners the most. What I try to do is be patient and explain that if the car had the old-fashioned manual key-start switch, this so-called problem would present itself in exactly the same way. The usual concern seems to be that the IK system is somehow defective or the engine is in, or about to enter, some failure mode. Unfortunately, it can be hard to get people to overcome their fear of the IK system, particularly if it is new to them."
There. I hope this is helpful to someone. If not, well, at least it was free.
Peace.
The Following User Says Thank You to Wallybear For This Useful Post:
I have yet to have this problem in the Altima, however it did occur probably a dozen times in my last car, a 2011 Suzuki Kizashi. Although it took a few visits, Suzuki service did an excellent job troubleshooting the issue and they found there was a lot of condensation in the fuel system. Rather than drop $150+ for a fuel system flush, I ran the fuel to almost empty and stopped by Wal-Mart to pick up a can of SeaFoam, put the whole can in the gas tank and filled up. It seemed to fix the issue since the hesitation didnt occur again, that is until the following (last) winter. Another can of SeaFoam and a full tank, hesitation was gone again. This leads me to believe that the so called "winter blend" gas, colder temps, or a blend of both somehow causes more condensation than normal which requires the engine to crank longer before the engine fires.
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