Terrano refuses to start

Hi folks, need your help before i go outside and set fire to my car. My 98 Terrano 2.7 Tdi started to become sluggish for the first five to ten minutes of the journey after starting from cold, it would then start to run okay for the remainder of the journey.
It then decided that it no longer wanted to start . it was duly towed off to the local garage where they had no idea what the problem was. It was then removed to a four by four specialist who advised we take it to a nissan dealer as he had got it started by unplugging the airflow meter which he thought was the problem. Without nissan diagnostic equipment he could not confirm this.Off to nissan it went only for them to tell us that we had a broken earth wire ,which they had repaired,and our starter motor was now deceased(it was fine when it went in to nissan) and they had checked the airflow meter manually and there was nothing wrong with it.However they did not know if the earth wire repair had fixed the problem as they could not start the car,(it is an automatic so unable to bump start it). Since nissan wanted £440.00 plus fitting for the new starter we brought the offending vehicle home and bought a new starter from ebay for £140.00 and duly fitted it ourselves.It started first turn of the key and ran for a whole three seconds.We unplugged the airflow meter and it started. We then made the mistake of switching off the engine and now the new starter sounds like the old one did i.e turns slowly and all the dash lights go out whilst turning and it will not start at all even with jump leads on the battery. Is this likely to be a duff starter we have bought or will the airflow meter prevent the vehicle from starting? Dont want to take it back to nissan for them to charge me more money to break my car again.Any help or advice will be gratefully received.

Have you checked your +ve battery lead is not breaking off next to the terminal.

see I told you some one with brains would come along and help!

ask any one here im hopeless..... aint that true guys!?

Mine turns over very slow when it's very cold. I have to give it a couple of goes with the heater plugs and then it's fine. As previously said check the positive cable where it joins the battery terminal too. The engine should still start even with the air flow meter disconnected although these are prone to going faulty occasionally.

Does the engine management light come on? if so check the downloads section for the workshop on how to read the fault codes with no fancy test kit!!!


Jim T

Have had same problem. Have checked everything but ignition switch! If I wiggle it hard as I turn it it starts first time every time. New switch going in next week! Check battery voltage. 12 volts not running and about 14 volts running. That checks alternator. If the earth is suspect on starter motor use a jump lead on NEGATIVE terminal of battery and hold other end on case of starter while a start is attempted. I have changed glow plugs and relay all to no avail!!!!! Then I tried the wiggle the ignition key as you turn it and bingo!!!!!! All vry frustrating but hope to solve next week . Will let you know result

Try turning ignition switch slowly as that was one idea somebody had when their switch was duff.

When my ignition switch was duff it would start, run rough for a few seconds and die, then wouldn't start and the engine management light would flash. After a few minutes I could get it to start and was OK for a few days.


Jim T

still not starting

Thanks for all the useful tips.Checked battery,sitting at 12volts output.Checked leads to battery all intact.Battery charged up and put back on car it is now making a very fast clicking noise from the relay just beside the battery on the inner wing.The diesel heating light on dashboard is flickering and wont go off.Also the alarm is doing very strange things(it was reset before attempting to start the car).Any more help wpould be great as i think the next step will be to put it to an auto electrician:

Welcome to the Club brokendownmandy:thumb2

Hope someone helps with your issue

Graham

Someone once mentioned the relay behind the the battery, the terminals had coroded and caused starting problems.

Jim T

welcome sorry to hear of your problems keep at it all the help is here good luck:thumbs

Thanks for your tips

Thanks for the tips will send the other half out to have another go tomorrow.Will let you know of any progress that has been made.

ok things to cheak.
on the live feed from the battery you should have a couple of little wires and the big red live wire. if one of the little wires if fractured this will cause total power loss.
have a good look at the connections and wires here. if necessary cut the ends off and with the clean good wires left connect them to the battery.

make sure all connections are clean and tight (use wire brush or sandpaper)

also check the starter motor ends earth and live. and main earth strap again

id say its electric and not the maf. but there is a maf download anyway so worth looking at

sometimes the battery strap / clamp can earth out your battery

it could just be a case of cleaning and checking wiring unplugging connections cleaning . just make sure you do one at a time in dont mix them up its cheeper for you to spend a couple of hours than pay somone 40-50 ph to do it for you

there is also a glow plug relay to i beleive this can be checked , but toolbox is your man for that

also check fuses sometimes they can sweat corrode in there places just pull them out one at a time check they are good and put them back this will ensure good clean connection

ignition key area unlikelly but you can have a look if all else fails you would normally get other things like wipers fan etc not working long before it refuses to start. mines so bad now i can take the key out while driving but it starts every time with a little wiggle

my bet is a little wire on the battery or the glow relay


extreme

Hi Brokendownmandy my mav came out the garage on sat morning the symtoms were identical to your's donald the garage owner said although the battery was reading healthy charge he still felt the battery was at fault there is a green light on my battery to indicate healthy,so he put it on full charge overnight and on sat the engine sounds completely different He has given me a loan of a new battery and I picked a new set of jump leads from st catherines retail park and we are monitoring the situation .it has been out sat, sun and today If It starts to faulter I will replace the battery.Hope your'e problems are resolved soon kind regards

good point it can show 12v on the battery. but have next to no amps and wont start. so try some jump leads of another caryou can leave them on till the engine warm as long (as you dont drive off obviously). or a spare battery
but i still recon my first post is the problem

hi
do you have a Macnine Mart(or similar) near you?
If so try this
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/search/filter/jump+start/page/1
always handy if it starts with this then its your battery.
Tony:thumb2

any updates on this problem.... have we fixed it ?:nenau

hi tony I know that info was for others but thanks anyway .I had never heard of this shop but it turns out that we have one 25mls from us will have to visit soon

Update

Hi folks, just an update.
Today checked all fuses, cleaned both battery terminals, cut and re-connected the small wire that goes to the +ve terminal of battery, as it had a few broken strands. Still only getting a cough from the starter, and lots of demented clicking from the relay next to the battery (the glow plug relay). The postie turned up with the air flow meter that i bought from ebay just in case, so i put that on, and strangely, when i switched the ignition on, there was no clicking from the aforementioned relay. I plugged and unplugged the maf several times and the relay only clicks when the maf is unplugged. However, i'm sure it's supposed to click once isn't it? Well it's not doing anything, the heater light on the dash isn't going out now either, and the starter still has a sore throat. I checked the glow plug electrical connector as per the download, and there's no power getting to it whatsoever. Is it safe to assume that it's the glow plug relay? My other half is convinced that the new starter is broken, so he's going to check that tomorrow, and possibly take to the auto electrician to be tested. I'll make sure i'm not here when he takes it off. It's not a pleasant job, and patience isn't his strong point.
Amanda.

Firstly before you bother with heater plug, relays and MAF sensors etc you need to get the engine turning over with the starter motor. A simple test to do, with the starter fitted to the engine is to remove the offside wheel and rubber inner wing cover, with the starter motor in front of you locate the small spade connector with small wire attached to the starter solenoid, not the main battery + connection, disconnect this spade connection from the solenoid on the starter. Now for the next step you need to make absolutely sure the car is OUT OF GEAR this is very important!!!!! Make sure every one is clear from any turning parts of the engine and with a substantial length of wire connected to the battery +ve connection touch the connection where the small spade has been removed on the starter solenoid, the engine should turn over, if it will not turn over then there is a problem with the starter or the battery or the + or - leads and or their connections. On the other hand if it does turn over then there is a problem with the wiring and or ignition switch or connections.
Please make absolutely sure the car is out of gear when trying this.