2002 Nissan Altima Car Won't Start - getting fuel but no sp

LUV4DUBB

MEMBER
2002 NISSAN ALTIMA
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
134,000 MILES

Car battery died over a couple of days – wouldn’t even crank a couple times then started hours later. I got battery replaced. 3days later my battery completely died and I had to have someone jump start my car. I drove 1 ½ miles to auto store. They tested battery & said it was perfect.

About 1 week later my car now will turn over but not completely start. No funny noises or anything – it just won’t start. I had it towed to a shop; mechanic checked it out for 3 hours but can’t find anything wrong with it. He said that the car is getting fuel however it is not getting spark. He recommended I take it somewhere they have a diagnostics machine to pinpoint it.

Another friend of a mechanic mentioned they just had an Altima same as mine in there few weeks ago with the same problem & turned out to be the electronic chip in the key was causing it not to start. Any thoughts on this?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I can’t afford to get a new car or I would have after all the other ridiculous problems this car & everyone else’s has had.

3 Replies

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,815 POSTS

Hi luv4dubb,

Thank you for the donation.

There are 2 problems with the vehicle.

1. Battery draining due to some fault with the electricals. You need to find out what is draining the battery.

2. Immobiliser problem. The battery draining off has caused the immobilizer to be affected. A transponder is embedded in the igniion key and if the immobilizer cannot read it correctly, it would cause non starting. If you have a spare key, use it to try to start.

If you have other keys attached (which might have a transpnder inside them) as a ring together with the car key, remove them as they will affect the transponder and cause the immobilizer to fail.