Well it happened to me yesterday. Was at the office and went to warm up my car before I was ready to leave. All the buttons to control Heater and Radio were locked and did not respond to being pushed. Fortunatly the heat was set to 25 Celcius before everything locked so I did have heat on my trip home. When I got home I disconnected the the negative pole on the battery for 10 mins and when I reconnected it everything came back to life.

On another subject matter, I did something real dumb earlier in the week. My car was sitting all day outside at work so I decided to start it before I was ready to leave. I used the "Wallet Key" that comes in the plastic credit card holder.
I turn the key and the engine started to turn but would not catch. It was then that I realized that you cannot start the car with this key, it is only for lock out situation, this key can only lock and unlock the car. Well by this time the car would not start even with the regular key. It was minus 24 celcius, so I called Infiniti Road Side Assistance who told me there was a 3- 4 hour wait for a boost, so much for their quality service. Thank God I did not cancel my membership with CAA - Canadian Automobile Association, they showed up within 1 hour , got me started and away I went. Aside from feeling real stupid, you had to see my face when all my staff got into their clunkers and drove out of the parking lot and here I was with my shinny 2003 Infiniti G35 alone in a very dark and cold parking lot. Oh well.........

 

gabman: I read somewhere that if an incorrect(uncoded) key is used to try and start the car, the system shuts down for something like 5 minutes (not sure) then resets itself so that the proper (coded) keys will work again.
So how did the batt. go dead? Did you crank it to kill it? Or was the starter system immobilized even with the 'good' key?
I can't imagine you cranked it enough to kill the batt. , so is it possible the immolizer reset itself b4 CAA arrived? (and would have started without a boost?)
Thanks for sharing that with us. It must have been frustrating (and cold).
Perhaps someone else has heard of this temporary disable feature ?
I'll see if there's anything in the S/M.......[img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Gsedanman's Coupe

 

Gabman: I've found the section in Infiniti Vehicle Immobilization Section (IVIS) in my Sedan ESM concerning escaping the lock mode you encountered. I've tried it on my car; works.[img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Thought you'd like to know.

Gsedanman's Coupe

18537-Escape from lock mode.jpg

 

Are you guys talking about the display on the center stack going blank w/ the radio not working? That happened to me once ... I was out with my wife and we made it a couple of blocks before I noticed nothing on the stack working. I turn the G off at the red traffic light ... pulled the key out ... flipped the key over ... inserted the key back into the ignition and cranked the car and everything began functioning as normal. WTF??? I then turned the G off ... flipped the key over as before ... started it and everything still worked. I have not had it happen again ... knock on wood.

 

Sounds like the same thing that happened to you a few months ago. I remember your post. Turned out ok for gabman too (so far) altho he had to disconnect his batt.[img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]

The other thing was that his ignition locked on him because he used a non-registered key in the ignition.(his wallet key) The ESM post explains how to get out of that mode.[img]/w3timages/icons/wink.gif[/img].

Gsedanman's Coupe

 

Thanks for the info, you may very well be right. I really didn't think that I cranked it that much as I am very well aware of damage that could be done to starter under these circumstances. I did try to start the car just as tow truck arrived, Truthfully by this point I really did not want it to start, the last thing I needed after this emabarrasing fiasco was to start the car as the tow truck was pulling into the lot. Ha HA
Keep in mind it was -21 and car was sitting outside for more than 12 hours, the battery was not dead but it was weak.
When the booster cables were attached it took awhile to get it started and only after operator put the peddle to the floor and kept it there. I think it was a combination of a weal battery and a frozen gas line. I alway lecture my kids to make sure that they have over a half a tank opf gas in the car in frigid weather. Of course I only has a quarter of a tank. Too Much.... Anyways thanks for the instructions, but trust me this will not happen again. Have a good day.

 

Sorry for the ancient dig-up, can someone direct me to a more helpful/recent post regarding this issue? I know it's common but haven't dug up much on it in the way of fixing it....

Any help is much appreciated thanks!

 

The audio unit is going bad which causes the a/c and radio not to work. This is a really common problem with the factory Clarion head units that they give us in our G's. We probably do 3-4 audio unit replacements a week

 

Ok great. I assume that because the radio controls still function via steering wheel controls, that this is a problem with powering the CONTROL portion of the units, rather than a main power issue.

This tells me that the ACC/IGN trigger is common, or some other ground perhaps is common between the two units. Is there a way to bypass this by adding a ground or trigger perhaps? I will obviously have to install an aftermarket unit if this issue will keep going, but in the meantime, I'm hoping I can use the Heater controls so it's not blasting full heat constant!!

Thanks for the quick informative response.

 

One other thing just came to mind, only on 2003 models the electrical portion on the back of the ignition switch is replaceable and is alot cheaper than a audio unit. There is one screw that holds it on and this switch can cause the same issue as well. If and when this happens again and the controls quit working, try to wiggle the ignition key back and forth and see if the a/c and audio start back again. If this doesn't work,then the audio is sure to be the problem. Hope this helps

 

I would never have suspected that so thanks very much man!

I'll post back results when I get a shot to tinker with it this weekend. I just bought the car getting it Saturday.

Looking for a Factory Service Manual online now.... I'm sure that will help this endevor....

 

Hey no problem bro, just glad to help. Just let me know what you find out...

 

While this thread is up I suppose I will post in here.

Tonight I got in my car after work and started messing with the radio while it was warming up. The display on the radio went out (I always listen to Cd's). I got it to come pack on powering it down with the steering wheel controls and turning it back on but the display is now frozen. The weird thing is, none of the buttons for the radio work, except for the ones on the steering wheel. And the heater controls still work?

I have an 05 with bose, I am hoping it is just a fluke thing that its cold outside? The music still plays from the cd and radio I just have to use the steering wheel controls and not have a functioning display.

Any Ideas?

I will unhook the battery tomorrow if it does this again in the morning.

 

Did you try switching between FM/AM/CD? Since radio uses the display it might kick start it if you haven't tried that.

 

Yes sir, I tried on the actual deck but none of the buttons were responsive. The steering wheel would let me toggle to those different sources and they would all work.

I let the car sit for about 15 minutes ( with the battery CONNECTED ), went back out to see if I could get it to work and possibly unplug the battery. When I turned the key on the radio worked.

I think it was just that cold and froze or something. It was weird to say the least