Nissan Electrical Problems
Question:
Stats: 2002 Nissan Sentra GXE, auto transmission, power locks and windows. No recent work, however I keep all the maintenance up to date.
Yesterday my car suddenly acted funny. While pulling out of my neighborhood, my CD player suddenly turned off, then faded back in as if I had turned it back on. At first I thought it was the CD, but after switching to my radio it did the same thing. The sound would disappear, then fade back in after a few moments. It did this about 6-7 times during a 15 minute trip.
I never lose engine power or the ability to control my car. I did notice the following though: The radio display and pre-sets are kept, for 1:5 sound drops my airbag light would come on, for 1:10 sound drops my odometer and speedometer would shoot up then return to normal, no loss in A/C. No other lights on my dash would light up, nor would any other gauges misread. Finally, I could hear a faint whine when Id shift gears. It sounded very similar to something I heard years ago in a friends car. He installed a radio that was too powerful, so if he ran the A/C and the radio at the same time it would make the same whining noise. It makes me wonder if my problem is a power issue.
On my return trip home, as well as on another ride that day, nothing happened. The second one was about an hour round-trip. At first I thought perhaps some water somehow got in the engine (we had a BAD t-storm the night before), or something like that. However, the problem came up again this morning, although not with the same frequency as the first time it happened.
Ideas?
Answer:
It sounds like an electrical issue in the dash somewhere. The whine you described is interference in the power wire, coming through the radio. It is most likely a symptom of a loose power connection somewhere under the dash. I would trace back the power wire from the radio back to the fuse box. It wont be easy, but you can lay under the dash and try to wiggle every connection you can see while the radio is on, to see if you can reproduce the cut-out of the radio. Once you find the offending connection, you can then determine why its loose. There is the possibility of water getting into a connection, but its more likely to be a bad/loose prong in the connector itself. You could also check the fuses in the fuse box, remove and re-seat the radio fuse to see if there was a bad connection there. Electrical problems are never easy to diagnose, since you cant see electricity and most people dont understand the basic principals involved.
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Posted: 30th July 2009 | Author: Kevin Schappell | Category: Electrical
