So my 2002 K11 Coilpack 1.0 has been off the road for around a month now due to not starting and I still can't figure out the problem.
I should point out that up until this point the car was starting every time, every day, week in and week out no problem whatsoever and other than a slight loss in power (suspected weak coilpack under full load) the engine was running superb, smooth and quiet, no smoke, no smells, no squeeks, squeels or bangs.
So having two entire sets of coilpacks (x8) to hand in my cupboard, I got to swapping out coilpacks, driving the car to test, swapping out another etc but by the time I had swapped 2/4 cyls with the problem still present and two cyls still to swap, the car refused to start up again, hmmm very odd I thought, a bad coilpack wouldn't stop the car running it would simply misfire on that cylinder. I checked and rechecked the connections regardless, checked I hadn't knocked out the crank sensor, or any other sensors, all being good I wondered if I had somehow miraculously blown a fuse, checked fuses... all good. Bear in mind that while cranking the car doesn't even attempt to catch.
At this point I started suspecting NATS kicking in and Immobilizing the car, perhaps a weird glitch whereby the Immobilizer has blacklisted my key, I know old Nissans can glitch out and engage NATS for no apparent reason, so I downloaded Nissan Consult and also Nissan Data Scan II (will refer to as NDIS here on in) and ordered an FTDI KKL K-Line comms/diag cable. I also downloaded a "Siemens NATS Pin code generator" and have the 4 digit pin code to reprogram. Upon the cable arriving I installed all the FTDI drivers and set up the comm ports to match etc etc, turned ignition on and told NDIS to find the ecu. NDIS reported "ECU ID FE- active" but would not connect to the ECU, just kept saying "connection failed".... I tried everything yet no amount of tinkering would make it connect. I tried Nissan Consult, it couldn't even find a ECU, No VM/VI present. So I tried ECUtalk, that also failed to speak to ECU. Finally I plugged in my ELM327 bluetooth dongle and loaded up Torque on android phone, that has always worked for my K11's in the past.... nope Torque could not connect to any protocol.
At this point I condemned the ECU, bad ECU obviously, right? Well £20 lighter and a DPD van later I plug in the replacement used ECU, same serials ect, the right ECU and....exact same thing, absolutely no amount of efforts or program/cable will connect to the new ECU either. Again it sees an ECU "ECU ID FE- active" or "ECU ID FC- active". Severely pissed off at this point and completely out of ideas as to why the ECU won't connect to diagnostics and why this even happened in the first place when all I did was chop and change some coil packs while engine was off... Maybe my OBD2 port is bust, but then my elm adapter lights up every light when plugged in and NDIS at least recognizes a presence, very odd.
I was wondering if any wise souls on here could analyze this for me and throw out some ideas, I'm totally and completely bewildered as to what's going on.
**EDIT** The NATS security light on dash blinks every few seconds while key is in ignition pos 1,2 or cranking....also blinks every few seconds when there's no key in, but doesn't stay on as a solid red light, not sure what this means.
I should point out that up until this point the car was starting every time, every day, week in and week out no problem whatsoever and other than a slight loss in power (suspected weak coilpack under full load) the engine was running superb, smooth and quiet, no smoke, no smells, no squeeks, squeels or bangs.
So having two entire sets of coilpacks (x8) to hand in my cupboard, I got to swapping out coilpacks, driving the car to test, swapping out another etc but by the time I had swapped 2/4 cyls with the problem still present and two cyls still to swap, the car refused to start up again, hmmm very odd I thought, a bad coilpack wouldn't stop the car running it would simply misfire on that cylinder. I checked and rechecked the connections regardless, checked I hadn't knocked out the crank sensor, or any other sensors, all being good I wondered if I had somehow miraculously blown a fuse, checked fuses... all good. Bear in mind that while cranking the car doesn't even attempt to catch.
At this point I started suspecting NATS kicking in and Immobilizing the car, perhaps a weird glitch whereby the Immobilizer has blacklisted my key, I know old Nissans can glitch out and engage NATS for no apparent reason, so I downloaded Nissan Consult and also Nissan Data Scan II (will refer to as NDIS here on in) and ordered an FTDI KKL K-Line comms/diag cable. I also downloaded a "Siemens NATS Pin code generator" and have the 4 digit pin code to reprogram. Upon the cable arriving I installed all the FTDI drivers and set up the comm ports to match etc etc, turned ignition on and told NDIS to find the ecu. NDIS reported "ECU ID FE- active" but would not connect to the ECU, just kept saying "connection failed".... I tried everything yet no amount of tinkering would make it connect. I tried Nissan Consult, it couldn't even find a ECU, No VM/VI present. So I tried ECUtalk, that also failed to speak to ECU. Finally I plugged in my ELM327 bluetooth dongle and loaded up Torque on android phone, that has always worked for my K11's in the past.... nope Torque could not connect to any protocol.
At this point I condemned the ECU, bad ECU obviously, right? Well £20 lighter and a DPD van later I plug in the replacement used ECU, same serials ect, the right ECU and....exact same thing, absolutely no amount of efforts or program/cable will connect to the new ECU either. Again it sees an ECU "ECU ID FE- active" or "ECU ID FC- active". Severely pissed off at this point and completely out of ideas as to why the ECU won't connect to diagnostics and why this even happened in the first place when all I did was chop and change some coil packs while engine was off... Maybe my OBD2 port is bust, but then my elm adapter lights up every light when plugged in and NDIS at least recognizes a presence, very odd.
I was wondering if any wise souls on here could analyze this for me and throw out some ideas, I'm totally and completely bewildered as to what's going on.
**EDIT** The NATS security light on dash blinks every few seconds while key is in ignition pos 1,2 or cranking....also blinks every few seconds when there's no key in, but doesn't stay on as a solid red light, not sure what this means.