Help!
I have a 2000 Nissan Quest with ____ miles on it. Tonight I tried to turn my car on and it was dead and would not start, so I assumed it was the battery. But then about 45 minutes later it started just fine. I drove around for about 15 minutes and then parked and turned off the engine, and now it will not start again. When i turn the key the lights inside make clicky noises but that’s about it.
Does anyone know what this might be? Is something wrong with the starter? Or perhaps the battery connection? What do you think??
Thanks!
There are many possibilities. You really don’t have enough information to pin it down yet. I would suggest cleaning all battery cables, both ends of all cables.
The starer is fine. The lights that aren’t turning on are the ones that the ignition key usually turn on and off, aren’t they? It seems the ignition switch contacts are making intermittent contact. You should have the ignition switch checked.
It could be the battery connections or the battery itself going south, or the battery cables or connections, etc. I’d make sure the connections were good. Next time it does it, turn the headlights on to see if you get good brightness or not. That’ll tell you whether the battery is up or not. You might want to have the battery tested but don’t totally rely on the test. I turned a 2 year old battery in for exchange a couple weeks ago that tested boarderline but wouldn’t even power the starter. Car sat for a month outside, started fine, brought in garage and put charger on for a few days, showed fully charged but low voltage. Batteries can be a little deceiving sometimes.
I had something like this happen to me one time. It turned out that the starter had a bad field or something like that. It would not start when it got hot, and then it would. It tested OK. Would start if jumped. Finally replaced it out of frustration. Ended problem. My first guess though is you have a bad battery.