My neighbor has been having a cold-start issue with his 2011 Suzuki Equator (Nissan Frontier) for the last 5 years.
He says whenever it’s below 20F (-5C) outside, it just cranks and does not fire up.
He has taken it to the Nissan Dealer for the last 5 winters and spent over a GRAND on diagnostics, and his truck is still broken!
Let’s see if we can 100% pinpoint the root cause of the no-start and get this truck back to full health.
THINK TOOL PROS:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XXWHQVJ?ref=exp_pinehollowautodiagnostics_dp_vv_d
Flagship One Inc.
www.fs1inc.com
Enjoy!
Ivan
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Bonus information. I am the happy owner of the Equator. Ivan was a pleasure to work with and explained everything to me in language I could understand. A true professional. The truck has started ever since the fix. Many thanks Ivan!
Another definitive diagnosis and fix Ivan! Its good that a company tries to put right what they put out for their customers even though they still had a step or 2 that needs to be done in this case. Most company's I've dealt with specifically on electronics components outright tell you that they won't cover warranty specifically on used parts.
Seeing the customer's video and hearing the satisfaction of having their vehicles fixed is the cherry on top for us who fix cars apart from getting paid to fix these. Thanks for taking us along. Cheers!
What is most concerning is the fact that the ECM went bad 5 years ago. If I read the odo correctly and doing some quick math, this problem started at about 61 – 65K Miles ago. That is dreadful initial quality in my book. Regretfully 99% of us don't have a genius like Ivan in the area to fix such poor initial quality issues.
IDK why someone had an issue diagnosing this. It's not super common but certainly not unheard of for older Nissans. I'm a Nissan Master technician at a small dealership and I've ran into this a few times. I never found this to be a big diagnostic challenge.
Great job Ivan. I really appreciate the details you provide on the videos!
Ivan is da man
Cold weather…ECM issues interesting… vehicle needs to be on the west coast.
The dealership sucks.
I had a trailblazer that did the same thing. Replacing ECM fixed it.
Ivan I really enjoy your videos and your thorough methods of finding the 'issues'. Thanks so much for taking the time to do these programs and teaching us how to be better
diagnosticians and not just 'fire' off the parts cannon. There are so many 'shops' out there just 'throwing the dice' and charging people for things they don't need. Bob
What a shame we cant clone Ivan….Oh wait I think we can !!
ECM is too expensive! His wife can knit a little sweater for the current ECM.
That was cool.
Have you ever been a member of the Iatn?
Gust heat ecm with hair dryer worked for me took 2 mins.
Good for you for staying on top of these companies. You shouldn't have to change the vin.
HI Ivan it would be cool to put back the old ECU in the truck in the cold again and just heat up the ECU with a heat gun to see if it will stat again and you could do a simillar test with dry ice and see if the truck won't start with a cold ECU.
is the think tool pros the only scanner u use? it looks like its a really good 1. im in the market for a new scanner not sure what to buy.
hey ivan, the spray/straw assembly on the WD40 cans will snap onto most other spray cans., I put the spray nozzles off empty wd40 cans on all my other cans, like pb blaster, ect. works great.
under federal right to repair laws you should not be forced to go to the dealer for any car sold in the US. Subaru is battling this right now.
I've seen the diagnose-dan channel a few times test modules that fail when hot using a heat gun. I wonder if popping the old ECM in the freezer for an hour, then plugging it back in would recreate/prove the problem.
They said they don't do Suzuki, and I think this was a special occasion because you're PHAD
I didn't know Nissan and Suzuki had a deal, no dealer required, nice
Great vid Ivan. Since you've been doing lots of case studys with the Thinktool ProS, I'm going to purchase one of them as it seems to be a really good scantool. I currently have a Snap-on Solus Ultra and an Autel 906TS so this looks like a great addition to my scanners. Thanks for sharing !
Sorry, but this was not a diagnosis, it was a shot in the dark. Powers, grounds, connectors, sensors, etc can 100% fail at certain temperatures due to shrinking and causing higher resistance. A crude next step would be to remove computer, put it in a plastic bag and put it the snow for 1 hour, then try again. Assuming it fails when plugging back in, then take a heat gun to the computer and see if it starts working right away. Powers, grounds, crank, cam, inputs must be checked to confirm a computer.
Ivan, do you realize you have the basis for a chain of diagnostic centers, maybe even nationally…