Notes:

1) Over the past 5 months of so, the car has exhibited a random slow start. It always starts though.

2) The battery is a Nissan unit and I've never replaced it since I bought the car back in Janaury 2005.

3) In the past few months, the battery has began to show signs of leakage from the top caps.

Today,I pulled into my garage, slide the shifter into park, and the car nearly stalled. I revved the engine and then it was fine. I revved it again and it nearly stalled. Battery light came on just as it was about to stall, then went off when the idle recovered. I put it back into gear and then it finally stalled. I went inside, ate dinner, and came back out and tested the battery. It tested fine, showing about 12.5 volts. I turned the car on and it was like nothing happened. Battery voltage at idle was 14.4 which is fine. I checked the vacuum and it was a rock steady 20 at idle. I revved the motor a few times at idle and no stall. No stall when in gear, with the A/C on, headlights on, etc.

So, anybody have an idea? My guess is it's a battery with a flakey cell. The battery is old and it was 90 and very humid today so that battery was cooking. I believe that some battery is used when the car is in neutral or very low rpms situations. I do plan on getting a new battery because it is time.

 

I bet its the battery. I just recently replaced mine with a Duralast. Really nice battery. I'd recommend that. Your car is an 03, it is due for a battery.

 

def a battery problem. how do the terminals look?

 

battery, my old sentra did the same... then one day put a new battery.. and damn did it start quick!

 

how many AA's did it take?

Duralast Gold

 

Dave it's probably your battery. As you stated when a cell starts to go bad, you'll get erratic behavior from the batt. It will often test fine one time then show weakness on a subsequent test. If you're super curious (which you normally are) you can always have a shop test the alternator.

You've gotten 5 years out of an Infiniti battery which is good. Just go buy a Duracell (ha,ha) like Janik, it'll keep going, and going, and going..............

Janik I think you meant to say Duralast??????????????

 

I guess battery. Have it load tested. A bad battery can still show a static voltage of 12v or more when idle.

 

Maybe not...

 

Check the fluid levels on the battery. All the cells are probably low. Use distilled water to fill them back up. +1 on time to replace the battery anyways. Especially if it's been running low on fluid for a while

 

Psh. Same thing.

 

Good idea. I didn't realize the battery was actually serviceable. My last Nissan battery had 6 screw off caps. This one has two rectangular caps that pry off with the screwdriver. When I popped the caps, the water/acid was about 1/4" below the lead plates. The battery took well over a 1/4 gallon of DI water to fill up. We'll see how it goes. My last Nissan battery lasted 7 years. I will definitely be buying another. You pay about 25% more for a Nissan battery, but you get a far better battery life than anything aftermarket.

 

Is that a Canadian thing? I've never seen them in the States. I saw the pic in my e-mail, don't know why it's not working here.

 

I don't think Duracell even Makes Car batteries.

Glad your having good luck with them, in 4 years my car has taken 2 Infiniti batteries. I went with Aftermarket this time. Ill see how it does.

 

This is the pic Swivel posted earlier. I have never seen one in person. Maybe he made this **** up.

 

And Duralast and Duracell arent produced by the same company?