Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain

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Tue 22 Jul 2014 23:00
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Hi there

Just bought this 2004 K12 Automatic Micra. I have two major issues with this car.

It sometimes cuts at traffic lights (usually when cold). When starting from cold the car seems to cough up a little and rev goes down as if it's cutting off, which sometimes does. Guy I bought it from said he changed the timing chain on it a few months ago. Engine management lights is on and I have had it plugged in and it's showing cam sensor fault. Previous owner recently cleaned the cam sensor and error went away but then came back.

Also, there's something that's draining the battery. When I lock the car it lets out a long beep even when all doors are closed. Reading some of the posts, people are pointing at boot switch but I haven't noticed any issues with it. It locks and unlocks fine. I have disconnected the boot switch just to check and the beep is still there.

Any idea what that could be and what's draining the battery?

It's pain in the butt when engine cuts off when battery is dead. Jump start works perfectly fine.

Thanks in advance.

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Wed 23 Jul 2014 00:29
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - Peter.N.

Disconnect the battery + lead and connect an ampmeter between that and the battery with everything turned off and see how much it reads, anything up to 100ma is acceptable but if its much more than that you have a problem, the actual current flowing might help ientify the leak. Check if the current flow is constant or whether it varies.

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Wed 23 Jul 2014 01:39
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Thank you for your reply.

I'll try that tomorrow, need to get my ampmeter back from friends.

Any idea about engine cutting off/Stalling?

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Wed 23 Jul 2014 08:18
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - brighteyes
Further to the idea of putting an ammeter in line to your battery. It will almost certainly show a reading in the high milliamperes, the trick then is to remove all the fuses, one at a time and when the drain stops you then have your culprit or you know which items that particular fuse is feeding. As regards the stalling I doubt it's the battery drain that's causing it but fix this fault first, you just never know. If the previous owner cured it, albeit temporarily, by cleaning the cam sensor, then this is the place to start. Maybe invest in a new cam sensor if the diagnostics is still saying it's faulty after you find your drainage problem.
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Wed 23 Jul 2014 10:24
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - bathtub tom

Guy I bought it from said he changed the timing chain on it a few months ago. Engine management lights is on and I have had it plugged in and it's showing cam sensor fault. Previous owner recently cleaned the cam sensor and error went away but then came back.

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Wed 23 Jul 2014 13:23
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - elekie&a/c doctor
Cleaning the cam sensor is a waste of time.you could try swapping the cam and crank sensors.I think you will find they are the same type.access to the fuse box to check for a battery drain is a major job on these and requires the release of the front bumper and left headlight.Great idea !
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Wed 23 Jul 2014 15:08
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - elekie&a/c doctor
Forgot to mention some models have secondary fuse box under dash area.
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Wed 23 Jul 2014 17:23
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Ok I found the cause of the beep, it was the bonnet. Bonnet sensor thing (i61.tinypic.com/2s0mlnd.jpg) was faulty, I have taken it off for time being, will replace it when I find one. Also, hope this will fix battery drain.

Got a multimeter from my brother and can't decide if there's something wrong with it or if I'm doing something wrong. Can anyone confirm if I have set up this multimeter correctly to read amps It's not giving me any readings :S Pic of mutimeter --> i61.tinypic.com/69lykx.jpg. Thanks in advance.

I have also uploded a short video showing how I had to start the car 3-4 times this morning as it'll cut off soon as it starts. I had to give it a fair bit of rev which helped. Link to the video --> www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXFeNl_2esU

BTW is the cam sensor easier to swap? I would like to do it myself but would prolly need a step by step guide.

Thanks again.


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Wed 23 Jul 2014 16:51
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - bathtub tom

Guy I bought it from said he changed the timing chain on it a few months ago. Engine management lights is on and I have had it plugged in and it's showing cam sensor fault. Previous owner recently cleaned the cam sensor and error went away but then came back.

Seems my previous message was lost!

Do you have any proof he changed the timing chain? He should've done the sprockets and tensioner as well.

The symptoms are indicative of a stretched timing chain.

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Wed 23 Jul 2014 17:26
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Seems my previous message was lost!

Do you have any proof he changed the timing chain? He should've done the sprockets and tensioner as well.

The symptoms are indicative of a stretched timing chain.

Unfortunately no, I, being me just trusted that guy and now not too sure if I should have tbh.

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Wed 23 Jul 2014 18:56
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - elekie&a/c doctor
My thoughts also,I,m with. mr BT on this.The running and starting faults with cam sensor logged are classic symptoms of a worn timing chain.
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Wed 23 Jul 2014 19:54
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - Peter.N.

You need your amp meter set to 0.5 otherwise it will overload and not give you a sensible reading.

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Wed 23 Jul 2014 20:24
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Ok I'll try again with amp meter.

About stalling and poor idle. It only happens when car is cold, issue goes away 5 mins after when car isn't cold anymore. Does that still mean timing chain?

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Wed 23 Jul 2014 20:55
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - elekie&a/c doctor
It is possible that the idle adaption settings need to be re-learnt.however this can only be done via diagnostics,and usually does not flag a code for cam sensor I think you need a more accurate meter to do an amp check.
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Wed 23 Jul 2014 20:58
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - bathtub tom

You could risk buying a cheap code reader. The engine management light would suggest it would read a code. If that code points to either the cam or crank position sensor you could change them over and see if the code changes as well. If it does, you've identified the faulty sensor, if it doesn't, it would suggest the chain.

You can get cheap OBD code readers off ebay for less than fifteen quid, or ask around if anyone's got one.

The cam sensor's probably easy to find: tinyurl.com/kpt39kw The crank sensor will be less accessible.

You need to turn the knob on your multimeter to the 5 position. The leads are in the right places and it will read up to 5amps. You need to move the red lead up a position and turn the knob to one of the other three 'A' positions to measure smaller currents. Get it wrong and you'll be buying your brother a new multimeter ;>)

Let us know how you get on, we like to know the outcome of these threads.

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Thu 24 Jul 2014 17:08
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Hi thanks again for your replies.

I have bought this USB ODB2 reader and checked for faults. It's showing camshaft sensor.

i62.tinypic.com/2lvel4z.png

Battery seem to be working fine ever since I have removed the bonnet sensor but I will still check for drain on Saturday.

Also, it looks like I'll be changing the camshaft sensor to start with then and see where it takes me from there. I'll keep you guys posted.

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Thu 24 Jul 2014 17:54
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Bluetooth, not USB. Do you guys need any values from torque or ODB car doctor app to see what's going on?

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Thu 24 Jul 2014 19:27
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Sorry I need to stop posting in pieces.

I have taken the cam sensor out and have ordered a new one which I'll receive tomorrow. Thanks a lot for the pics.

Is there any diagram or guide on how to change crankshaft sensor? What would be the best way to access it?

Also, looking at eBay both crankshaft and camshaft sensor look hell a lot similar. Are those same or am I imagining stuff?

Thanks a lot again.

Edited by durranee on 24/07/2014 at 19:34

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Thu 24 Jul 2014 19:45
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - elekie&a/c doctor
In my previous post I suggested that they are both the same ,so you can swap them out.try before you buy.
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Thu 24 Jul 2014 22:42
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Thanks, I must have missed that. I already have bought one sensor so I think I'd change that for cam sensor tomorrow to see if it helps. If not then I'll come back to you guys. Still trying to figure out how to easily get access to crankshaft sensor. From what I've read it would be from the bottom of the car on drivers side and have to remove the bottom cover to get access.

I'll try tomorrow and see how it goes and will update you guys.

Again, I really appreciate the help I've been getting here.

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Fri 25 Jul 2014 00:37
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - bathtub tom

Have you bothered to read my post at Wed 23 Jul 2014 19:58?

We'll try to help, but if you can't be bothered, neither can we!

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Fri 25 Jul 2014 01:13
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Hi sorry yes I have and I thought I replied to that. I have spoken to the guy and he said they only changed timing chain and cleaned Camshaft sensor and changed oil and stuff. Nothing else was done.

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Fri 25 Jul 2014 19:00
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Back again,

I have replaced the camshaft sensor and removed the code but the problem is still there and EM is still showing the error.

Couldn't find crankshaft sensor for the life of me and now I'm pretty sure that the guy I bought the car from lied and never had chain replaced.

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Fri 25 Jul 2014 21:31
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - bathtub tom

Looks like you're right.

Have you tried dedicated Micra forums? I know there's a simple way of checking for chain stretch on Almera engines by measuring the protruberance of the tensioner, perhaps there's a similar procedure for yours?

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Tue 25 Nov 2014 00:39
Nissan Micra - 04 micra stalling and battery drain - durranee

Hi guys

Sorry for the (very) late update as I went on holidays for a couple of months then forgot my login details.

Wanted to update for anyone who'll land here with same issues. As everyone suspected, it was a stretched chain and nothing else, changed the chain and it's been driving like a dream ever since. Cost £400.

Thank you very much for all the help here I really appreciate it.

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