K11 Starting & Alarm Probs

Hi there, 1st ever post so bear with me :-).

Car is K11, totally standard, 95 1.0.

Has ran perfectly forever until Jan this year. Had stood for 3 months & battery low. Went through normal catalog of recharging, starting logic & replaced all usual suspects : HT's, Dist Cap, Rotor, Plugs even bought (but not changed Mass air sensor). Also read about the Throttle body rebuild. In the end saw an article (I think on here) about ECU resetting (5 turns of key then on 6th start). To my amazement it worked & car has been spot on for months. Cant find article now but guy who wrote it is a hero.

Car started coughing & stumbling in traffic. Turns out to be a bad (new) HT lead. Changed the offending one & problem solved.

Then couple months back it was stolen. Was recovered but locks all smashed. Bought new ignition key and lock, Fitted it and all fine after.

Just disconnected battery to do a little cosmetic welding on reconnection, the alarm goes off & car won't start.

Any ideas from anyone would be very welcome.

Many thanks in advance

Hey Mate, sounds like you have an imobilisor installed. It probably thinks the car was being stolen, so has cut the ignition circuit.

Normally they can be reset fairly quickly with the remote or sometimes they need a specific series of steps to unlock (like the ECU reset).

You'll need to work out what brand Alarm (and model if possible) you have, then a quick google search should tell you how to reset.

Cheers,
Matt

Hi Matt & many thanks for the quick reply.

Think you are spot on with that. Whatever alarm/imobiliser we have is definitely factory fitted, has never been any after market stuff. there was a fob once and that did work when armed although it never was.

Weird thing is that it's never gone off before. My fear was that the new (scrap yard!) key & steering lock that was fitted had some relationship with the ECU but in reality it worked first time and every time since fitted. Mind I think that's the first time the battery was disconnected since introducing the new bits. We do have the old key transducer wise mind.

Does anyone know the necessary reset procedure? Could not see a fuse on the wiring diagram.

Also anyone know were I can find the ECU reset with key steps mentioned above? It was one of those voodoo things that sounded rubbish but really worked. It maybe useful once I can get rid of this alarm issue.

Cheers

Ahh found the ECU reset thread if useful to anyone.....

http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1525551

but need to get alarm to reset before I can try that.

If its the factory nats immobiliser chip in key ? Then you need software etc to recode that, but if its the early nats 1 with the 2 button fob ? Then there are some threads on msc uk :)

Cheers Frank.....it does have the 2 button fob. It's broken and we are trying to retrieve it just now to repair and hopefully give us some options. I have kid A checking though all her belongings trying to find the remnants of it....kids!!!

Possible to point me towards those threads? I have spent an age looking. I found a lot of discussion but nothing I could see that was definitive.

Very helpful if we can eliminate the alarm issue as I have to get the car to an MOT.

Also although I mentioned it had been starting/running fine.....I made the fool mistake of changing the cheap and cheerful HT leads for a decent set at the same time as MOT prep. Ironically it has not started since that "improvement"!

So I'm keen to strip off the problems layer by layer to not confuse things.

A pointer to those threads would be super

Many thanks

Sorry also should have said the key is a flat plain Nissan key (originals) - I can see no hint of a chip in there. If it is in there then it's embedded into the plastic moulding at manufacturer with no obvious way to get to it.

cheers again

here,s 1 thread mate, its not the one i was thinking of tho :)

http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/bypass-nats-immobiliser-on-micra-k11.41015/#post-426312

Hi Frank, yes I saw this one. But many thanks for sending the link.

Will read it again before being brave and cutting wires.

cheers

Just an update for anyone else struggling with this alarm on starting problem.

The solution to the alarm reset is to put the key ion the ii position and then reconnect the battery. Found this on a Honda forum and tried it expecting nothing. Works a treat...no need to bypass or rewire just stick the key in with battery disconnected to the (ii) position. Reconnect the (-) on the battery, then turn to ignition. Simple....infuriating for a couple of days but simple now we know.

Thanks to the 33driver & Frank2 for their help....hope this helps someone else out there.

no problems, makes sense I guess, if you can turn the ignition to point 2, you in theory have a key and its 'your car'!