Micra Diesel Issues

[tony wright]

Brother has a 2009, 1.6 diesel Micra with starting issues. Car starts instantly when bumping, but no amount of turning the engine over using the key works, any ideas on what the issue could be guys?

Forgot to say engine warning light flashes on occasionally.

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

assuming when you use the key that either nothing happens or you get a click, I'd say its the starter motor.

[tony wright]

No sorry, should of explained better. Car turns over as normal using the key, but refuses to start, but a quick 20m push at it starts instantly.

[Smint]

Try inviting power from a real jump pack or jumper leads off something with a serious battery to the party and see if that makes any difference.
Might be something as simple as the cars own battery is starting to peg out, a slight drop in voltage might be enough to cause this.

[tony wright]

Pretty sure it’s not the battery, the car spins pretty quickly whilst cranking and we also tried jumping it from my car as an added check with no success. Funny thing is, even after trying the jump start (no success) we then pushed it 10/20 meters down the road and it started instantly.

[tony wright]

He now has it booked in for a diagnostic check, fingers crossed it’s something simple and a cheap fix.

[bearman68]

Ignition switch is failing to provide power to the ignition when it's cranking would be my guess. Check the key output is correct by measuring the voltage off the back of it. (Prob easier said than done).

[tony wright]

He ended up having a new injector fitted at a cost £300 (including the diagnostics). Car ran okay for two days, but now back to how it was, i.e. starts instantly with a bump start, but not with a jump start, or using the key to turn over the engine. He’s now worried about taking it back to the same garage as expects the guy to say it’s the other injectors and at over £100 a pop plus fitting the car is borderline not worth fixing

[stevemcs]

You tend to find with injectors replacing one or two is rather short lived. You often find with one good one in the other 3 can no longer keep up with it.

You could remove the 3 remaining ones and send them off for testing, yo may find its just the cold start side of the injector failing on one of them. The company we use put them in the freezer and then test them.

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

if your Micra is one fitted with stop start , then the batteries Nissan fit from the factory are prone to fail. This is because in the wisdom of cost saving Nissan chose a battery where the cells within it are separated by paper. This degrades after time and causes voltage issues which could mean that the battery might keep charge to keep things going, but never has enough charge ( +12.1v) to start the engine.

For 60 or so quid I'd bang a new battery in it. If that doesn't do it, it' s time to PX.

[tony wright]

Went back into garage and he’s been quoted another £500 for three more injectors and a replacement priming pump. He’s now worried that if it was to conk out again has he any comeback on the garage after spending £800 on it?

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

The come back time is now. Before spending another 500 quid.
However have you changed the battery?

[tony wright]

No he hasn’t. Although I, don’t think his car is stop start, or it certainly didn’t do it when I last drove it. Garage it’s gone into specialises in Bosch diesel injection systems as seems pretty reputable. My only thought on the battery is that it seemed fine, it cranked the engine over pretty quickly and never dropped off, just didn’t fire up.