Hi folks, I've always viewed these forums and have always been thankful for all of you experts that are open to sharing your knowledge.

I now have a problem of my own and thought I would register and post to see what input I can get.

My problem is that my 2003 G35 Coupe 6MT with 56k miles is giving me quite some trouble when I try to start it. The first time I noticed the problem was 2 weeks ago. About 60% of the time I try to start my car it take anywhere from 2-10 attempts ( removing the key and releasing the clutch. One thing that seems to help a bit is if i hold the key in the ignotion shop then pressing the clutch and sometimes it would work. It seemes to work better than anything else.)to get the car running. There are no movin parts or clicking when it will not start. Here is my normal startup process.

1. Insert key
2. Push in clutch
3. Turn key
4. Then presto!

I do steps 1-3, except instead of starting up, the car does absolutely nothing.

The first time thi happened I thought I had a bad battery so I called AAA out. They ran a test on my battery and said it's fine and that it may be my starter. Apparently the darter wasn't accesible on the spot do we thought we'd try to push start it then I could get it to a dealership. As we were about to try I noticed the brakes weren't working and had to pull the handbrake to avoid rollin backwards over the curb(close call). The mechanic then figured it might be my car security system locking us out. So we did the following and it started like a charm.

1. Parked the car
2. Then using the wireless unlock/lock device we pressed unlock twice
3. Lock twice
4. The alarm button (the alarm then started)
5. The alarm button (the alarm stopped)
6. Then unlock twice
7. The the car started normally

Well I couldn't keep doing that to start my car, so after a few days I took the car to the Infiniti dealership to have it checked out. They ran a diagnostic test on the whole car and came up with no problems. And when they tried to start the car it worked fine 3 times in a row. Even when I tried it(great). So they told me i must now have been pushing in the clutch all the way. So I figured maybe that was the issue. That was this morning, and now I am back home and am experiencing the same problem even with the clutch ALL the way in. They have no idea what is going on.

My car is all stock except I just found out the previous owner had an aftermarket racing clutch installed (I had no idea).

So the dealership told me it could be a few things
1. Bad clutch
2. Bad security system
3. Bad battery

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

 

I doubt he changed the clutch switch, so I'd rule the aftermarket clutch out of the issue. If your alarm button combo made a difference, there's a pretty good chance that's not a coincidence. If it was installed before you bought it, ask the old owner who did it and see what they think?

If it was a battery it *probably* wouldn't have started after the alarm button thing you did anyway. My money is on the alarm locking you out. Can't you disable it altogether from the remote or the unit in the car?

 

although the batter may show satisfactory...IF the terminals are corroded the juice will not reach the starter...a slight clean with sandpaper to battery terminals and cable ends can do wonders.

 

I have a very similar problem. Today I drove 20 min to pick up dinner, 10 min later I'm back in the car driving home. I stalled at the top of the driveway and turned the key to restart - nothing, completely dead. Had dinner and went out to jump it. connected the cables started the jumper car and proceeded to start my car and it started right up and I put it in the garage and shut it off. Just tried starting it a couple hrs later and it started right up, all lights are nice and bright - weird.

 

I actually fixe my issue a few days ago. After posting this thread I did a bit more digging and discovered that is was just the small button behind the clutch. $18 got me a new one off of eBay and it was easy to switch it out.

To anyone who is having this issue-
1. Find the small black protruding button behind the clutch pedal towards the top.
2. Try pushing that all the way in with your finger while tring to start the car.
3. If that solves your issue then you have 2 options.
Option 1. It may be that the nut that holds the little clutch bottom has come loose and caused the button to slide back a bit. So that when you push in the clutch it doesn't activate the button. To solve this just get under there with an adjustable wrench and you can see how the threads are orientated, just adjust the bottom to come forward as you see fit.

Option 2. Buy a new one off of eBay for $18 or maybe a bit more. I just searched for 2003 clutch button and you will get the results. I just purchase the cheapest one for $18. It came in a small bag with a label that seemed official and it said it was a genuine Infiniti component. I just unplugged the wire from the back of my old one, unscrewed it, screwed in the replacement button, then plugged in the wire. I haven't had 1 issue since.

I know nothing about cars but was able to replace this. I had this issue an it really had me worried. But this forum was a huge help and I thought I'd post to help out anyone with this issue.

Best wishes,
Josh

 

Josh, before you fixed it, did the car have power (eg the lights worked, radio,...) but would not start? I am trouble shooting a similar problem but when my G won't start there's no electrical power to the car.

 

I've had the same issue, and of course the most annoying part is that it is inconsistent so whenever I try to show someone it always starts without issue.

Going to crawl under my dash and check out that button now.

 

Wow I had a similar problem like that today. I took my car to get a new belt and the mechanic did a diagnostic to make sure there wasn't anything else going wrong. One I made it home I stepped back out to run somewhere. I tried to start my 03 4door G-35 but it made a wired noise so I turned it back off and tried starting it again but it would do anything. So I thought to myself they did do a diagnostic on my G so maybe the battery went low. So I got a jump off and finally it started up. IS THAT NORMAL? Also while started my G it makes this noise while starting,, any comments of what could be the problem?