hey guys,

my car is a 2004 (feb) and something happened this evening that kind of freaked me out.

i turned on the car and it didnt catch. It made the usual sound then went silent.
I took out the key, then tried it again and it didnt catch again.

finally the third time , she started up but not as strong as she normally does. (rough beginning idle) has anyone experienced this ?

i was thinking..maybe im a bit overdue for oil change and i dont drive my car too much anymore since i take the train to work..

PLEASE HELP...i kind want to know whats wrong before i take her into the dealership

take it to local autopart and have the battery check.also take her out for a spin then come back try it again.this car made to be driven..

Right on^. Most batteries will drain pretty fast if you don't drive it much. And it really takes some miles to keep the charge up, most of the time

If you simply aren't going to be driving it as much, make a small investment to eleviate a headache that will return time and time again. Buy an Optima yellow top, dry cell battery.

My '55 Chevy project car wasn't started for 8 months at one period, and the Optima was still up to the task. My '97 Mitsu. GSX regularly went 2 months without being driven, and then it was only in the city. The Optima never let up. My wife's Honda Odyssey (EVERYTHING power-operated) just required more juice day-to-day than the OEM battery would charge during purely city driving. It would get too weak to open side-doors, etc. every 1.5 months! After the 3rd time, even though it was still taking a charge fine, I replaced it with an Optima yellow top and have never been short on battery power since. No periodic charging; no surprises when your running late in the morning.

Expect to spend $150 or so, but it's likely the last battery you'll buy for the car. When my OEM batteries die now (and they always do within the first 6 months), I only replace them with an Optima, so I can avoid the hassles. A lot of people will buy 2 cheap batteries during their ownership of a car. Just spend that much now and avoid the second changing and low-battery situations completely.

- GT-not-affilliated-with-Optima-in-any-way-Ron

thanks for the quick replies...
when i said i dont drive it too much, i didnt mean for liek 8 months at a time.
i use to commute but now i only driver her on the weekends.

also..when i started her up to take her out, she was fine. it happened when i made a stop at a friends house.

i was also thinking, I have a z tube/popcharger combo and i havent clean it in awhile, do you guys think thats could be a reason. Also if I take it into the dealership, would they claim the z tube/popcharger combo is the cause?

thanks guys

The dealership may blame the problem on the pop-charger/ztube. They will always blame problems on mods to avoid having to do work, and try to convince you that the car is fine, and you were the one that messed it up. They also try to screw you out of warranty work alot as well.

-Mike

I rarely drive my car during the week and she starts fine on the weekends.

I had two problems like this. Once it was the mass air flow sensor and the other was a rotation sensor on for the cranks shaft. I'd take it to the service department and have the check it out. They will be able to check the computer for any errors. I'm assuming it is still under warrantee and should not cost you anything.

Do you rev your car up at all or anything before shutting it off?

Maybe there was gas residue stuck on your spark plugs that was fouling them up a bit, and it eventually got burned off once the car cranked a bit(passing sufficient current through the plugs, to break up the gas residue).

They recommend not revving your engine and then immediately shutting it off, for this reason.. I believe.

Well, could be any number of things, but I would vote for a drained battery. If you don't drive your car regularly and you only drive it short distances when you do drive it you are likely to have battery issues.

If it happens again I would suggest having the batter checked at the local AutoZone. If it checks out you should probably have the dealership look at the car. I would suggest swapping the stock intake back into the car for the service call. That will keep them from blaming the problem on the mods.

no i dont rev my engine before i shut it down.
i dont want to swtich out my pop charger...i dont even know where my stock on is. hahahah

my dealership is glendale infinti in CA. i think they are pretty cool about mods. They had stillen come in the hook up some rides and i think they are looking into selling stillen stuff there. anyone from cali have an opinion on modded cars and glendale infiniti?

heres an update...

i took it into the dealership and they told me that they checked everything with an onboard computer...everything checked out..they did not even mention that fact i had a z-tube/pc in there...


it happened again this morning...its wierd cause i drove it quite a bit yesterday. approx 100 miles. i started it...it turned on then the revs got rel low and turned off. the battery warning light flashed too. even thou i drove it plenty last night, would this still be a battery issue??

this is really concerning me...can other people give some advice...i think i am going to take it into autozone...and ask my service guy at infiniti again.

Same thing happened to me today, I was on break today sittin in my car listening to the stero (without the engine running). After about 15 mins I went to start it and the same thing happened. First time it wouldnt start, or the second, or the third... finally i let it rest for about 10 seconds and then it kicked over right away. Its weird I didnt think its the battery becuase it was cranking strong... it just wasnt catching.

Its also funny you mentioned Auto Zone becuase thats where I work. Im a parts manager.. I think ill be ordering an optima yellow top for myself when I work tomorrow.

I can't imagine that the battery would drain that quick. I parked my Fin almost all last winter (Oct. thru Feb. it sat in the garage). The battery was still easily strong enough to start up the car first try. It was the tires that had lost half their pressure in them.
Unless your car's battery was already getting a lot weaker, that shouldn't be the problem.

this happened to me once as well. it took three tries before the car started up. i drive my car almost everyday and it's only 2 month sold.

hopefully this is just a battery issue...

i had another question??? where does you car idle at. when you start it and when you are at a stop ???

i feel like mines idling really low, way closer to zero than 1. is that normal. i hope its not a more serious problem..

also i havent cleaned my pop charger since i got it. any of you think this my comtribute to the problem...ive put it on march last year..maybe 18K with it...when would you have to clean the pop charger..??

thanks for all the imput