Thread: Electrical gremlins- ran fine- died and now click....

Ive got a 1996 200sx ser (sr20de & M/T) that i purchased a few months ago. I pulled the engine and transmission out to do some preventative maintenance and a much needed cleaning. The engine and trans are back in now and yesterday i started the car for the first time. It cranked right up and ran fine for about... 5 seconds then died. Now when i turn the key i can hear the ignition relay close and the starter solenoid energize (CLICK!) but she doesnt want to crank (turn the motor over) i am getting 12.6v across the battery terminals, getting 12.4v across the posts on the starter terminals, and because i dont have a second set of hands to hold the key on i jumpered the signal wire and used a screwdriver across the starter and she turned over. Ive never had to have the clutch depressed to start the car and the issue is there regardless of whether i press or dont press the clutch in. Ive been checking out the relays, fuses, cleaning the ground connections, etc. I tried using my code scanner to pull a code but nothing came up. Its confusing that it would start then die then not crank... i have not tried swapping out the battery bc the voltage is good and the car started off of that battery. Bloody electrical gremlins...

when you pulled engine out did you take harness off motor or did you take harness off at ecu ?
did you paint in the engine bay during clean up and did you chase/clean threads in chassis for ground points ?
did you ground something or power something that shouldn't have been ?

Sounds like you have a plug loose or a ground loose. Double check every connection and ground.

My good uncle took my arse to school this morning. Found that even though i was getting 12.5 volts at the starter i wasnt getting the amperage... hidden corroded connection for the positive lead to the starter. Cranked right up. Thats the good news. When i let it run it went back to pissing what i believe to be engine oil from the bellhousing. This is the problem it had when i first got the car and it seems worse. I replaced the rear main when i pulled the engine but that obviously didnt make a lick of difference. Thanks for your help friends and please let me know if youve got any ideas about the oil leak. Looks like the engine will be coming back out. Fml. :nightmare:

I could be the rear main housing leaking or maybe even one of the oil galley plugs.

When i replaced the seal i made sure to remove the old silicone from around the housing, clean the surface, and re-seal it. Short of pulling the engine and trans again, is there anything i can do to narrow down the possibilities? The car ran probably 5-10 minutes and once warmed up and leaking probably lost ~1/4 to 1/2 qt of oil. Tempted to drive it until it goes bang and use that as an excuse for a ve swap

Im going to take another look tomorrow morning to be sure. It has to be engine oil though as it doesnt look or smell like the redline i put in the trans and the level on the engine oil dipstick had fallen from the mid level to the low mark. I will check again tomorrow. I cant rule out the possibility that i messed up the rear seal replacement. Seemed straight forward enough. The rear seal housing, oil pan, and inspection pan all got the old sealant removed, a good cleansing of the surface, and new sealant. The old rear seal i had removed was definitely the cause of the oil leak when i got the car as it was buggered pretty bad. I had thought i was doing the right thing by removing the entire seal housing rather than just prying out the old seal en situ. It just seems like its losing a heck of a lot of oil. The vc also got a new gasket and sealant so i think i can rule that out but i will inspect that as well. Ive read that a distributor leak can be misleading and seem like its coming from the bellhousing? I will inspect around there as well. I reckon it would have been wise of me to put oil in and turn the engine over before i put it back in. Doh!

Ok so this morning i went out to my shop. Openes the door and something fell just missing my head. Bloody great big black snake. What a wonderful way to start the day! Definitely still leaking engine oil from the bellhousing as before. Approximately 1 good drip per second @ idle. So losing too much to ignore. Have started dropping the transaxle again. When i replaced the seal i used one i had ordered from rock auto. Perhaps that was my mistake? Anyone else have problems using a seal that wasnt OEM nissan? I will be sure to use an OEM seal this time. According to the manual the seal can be replaced without pulling the seal housing. Has anyone done this? Successful or not so much?
Thanks in advance.

It can be tricky pulling the seal with the housing still installed. A regular seal puller or a slide hammer should do the trick. When you have the seal out, check the crank to see how back the wear is from the old seal. You will see a small grove worn into the crank surface. If this grove is too bad, you will need to get a redi sleve and install it. Do you have any experience with installing those? It can be kinda tricky. Also, when the trans is you, check and double check all the oil galley plugs. If you still cannot find anything definitive, bolt the starter up and start the car with the trans removed, you should see where you leak is coming from.

Well i would rather not run the risk of having to do this over again so i reckon ill be pulling the housing again. I dont recollect feeling a groove or any burrs on the crank but then again i wasnt looking for it either. Unless its obvious it is the seal i will likely run the motor as you say with the trans out to verify that is in fact the source. I did a google search for the reddi sleeve and it brought me to the timiken website. Where do you typically order the reddi sleeves from? And is there a better place than the stealership to order an OEM seal? I do believe i remember seeing them on the mazworx website for ~30$.