My wife and I returned from a Labor Day weekend trip to find a dead NAH in the airport parking lot. At first we thought the cellphone had erased the key memory, but when we went to call a cab the parking lot guy said that our headlights had been left on. My wife did leave the headlight switch in the Auto position. However,that doesn't stop them from turning off in the garage every night. The only thing we could figure is that in her hurry to get the shuttle that she didn't turn the car off. (This is a terrible feature in this vehicle: you can walk off with the key in your pocket and the vehicle stays on). In that case, the Auto function will still work when it gets dark!

Once we figured out it was the dead battery, the lot attendant wheeled over the portable jump start cart they have and we tried to jump start it. We had a heck of a time. First, we had a hard time getting it to go to Ready mode. After reading the manual a few times we found that there is a special procedure to follow if it doesn't happen right away. It involves cycling between On and Off in 5 second intervals.

Once we got the Ready light to come on the engine would come on, but then die. It did this several times. I finally tried to back the car out of the space and it died. We re-jumped it and got it to go a little farther. We drove a couple of hundred feet without dying and pulled into a space to try to let the engine charge the battery more. I found that I had to put it in Drive with the parking brake on to get it to charge. After about 10 minutes, we finally got the needle a quarter of the way into the blue and drove home.

The owner's manual does not describe at all the post jump start procedures. It assumes that you just get to the Ready light and it works.

Does anyone know of contact at Nissan that is gathering this type of feedback on the vehicle?

 

Hey Tom, sounds like a bad experience that Nissan should know about. Here is the link
http://www.nissanusa.com/apps/contactus I would not hold my breath though. I wrote because of a radio issue on my 350Z (sounded awful) and they never contacted me back.
So far no problems with the Altima. Good luck

 

Wow! I've killed the battery a few times in my HCH and it was really easy to revive. And the car recharged just fine in Park. I always wondered what would happen to full-hybrids with dead batteries. The HCH is on the high end of mild-hybrid but isn't quite a full-hybrid, so the car can still launch on gasoline ICE alone.

 

I've left the car on accidentally a few times. I'm honestly not sure how because I'm sure I punched the button and turned it off each time... but then I'd come out to the car a couple hours later and find it still on.

It's an unnerving experience.

 

It sounds to me like the car was left on (and probably in neutral).

Reasoning:

The 12v battery was dead
The hybrid battery was run way down
The car was not out of gas

But:

In a Toyota the hybrid battery will charge in Park. (But NOT neutral). A Toyota would have run out of gas. I'm shocked this would have carried over to the Altima. Are you sure it wasn't charging in park - did you pull up the energy screen?

Is it possible that your wife also left the car in neutral when she parked it? (I'm assuming she regularly uses the parking brake)

I've shut off my car in drive a few times - it rolls!! - I don't use my parking brake)

Also:

In the Camry, the car beeps three times if you close the drivers door with the car left on. If you then push the lock button on the door it beeps a long beep. (and does not lock the door).

What I think happened:

The car was left on and in neutral. The parking brake was engaged so the car didn't roll when she left it.

The gas engine cannot start or charge the car in neutral. (this is why it didn't run out of gas as well)

At night the headlights come on and start discharging the hybrid battery. (The lights run off the hybrid battery via a 12v converter when the car is on.)

Eventually the hybrid battery ran low. At this point the car shuts itself off to protect the hybrid battery from running all the way down.

With car off, the lights then ran the 12v battery down.

 

The Altima is cruising for a lawsuit. i pulled into the garage, put it in park, evidently did not shut it off but thought i did . got out, no beeping for the Altima. I went in the house and shut the Garage door. i came out after a short time and found the car running and a garage full for Co fumes. Nice way to kill a family and end up in court. stupid Altima.

One more You come up to the car push the windows down with the intelligent key, Get call back and try to put the windows back up with the key no luck, try opening the door and using the window button, no luck, close the door and try the button again, no luck, Press the start button to acc and try the button, no luck, press the break and go to full ready light only then will the window button on the door work, Stupid Altima

 

Did you report this incident to the dealer? That's Nissan's (and all manufacturers) primary path to get feedback from customers. Dealers are charged with reporting the issues that they find and that their customers report so that the appropriate technical people can determine what's happening in the field.

I agree though...it sounds like in turning off the vehicle it may have been accidently turned back on again (one too many taps on button), which then meant the lights would continue to go on automatically. Though the car automatically protects the High Voltage battery from going too low, it can't help the 12V battery. And it needs a minimum voltage from the 12V battery to activate all the relays in the High Voltage battery to start it!

And by the way, this same thing happens in other I-key cars too. My friend accidently left the car running for two weeks in his carport while he was away. In another instance, he inadvertently kept the the key in his pocket when his wife dropped him off at the airport...and she drove away. Fortunately, the spare was at home, and she just went home without turning off the car. I-key will allow you to lock the car or just walk away with it turned on in any position (on or in ready), although it will beep at you. In some senses it seems like it shouldn't do that--but if you think about it, it kind of makes sense that's the case--because what if you wanted to leave your car running while you went back inside somewhere? How else could you do it? On the bright side, i-key saves us from ever locking the keys in the car.

For recharging the car if the main battery is low...it has to be in any gear except Neutral (as mentioned above). If it is in Drive, it will recharge also, but do so with your foot on the regular brake pedal...not the park brake. If your brake pedal is pushed, the car automatically cuts driving torque and redirects power to the generator through the planetary gear. If you use the parking brake, the torque just works against the parking brake. It will still get there this way...it seems like it would take a lot longer!


Oh...for power windows. That only works on the down. It doesn't do it going up...for safety reasons I've been told. (Keeps people from doing stupid things, like squeezing people in the window or trying to explode soda cans inward? Who knows.)

 

I reported this to the Nissan Customer Service website and received a response saying that they were forwarding it to the technical folks. I hope they can come up with some clearer instructions on how to restart a totally dead NAH.

The car was definitley left in Park with the headlights in Auto for 5 days. both the 12 v and high voltage batteries were dead. There were several gallons of gas left in the tank. Shouldn't the engine have come on and recharged everything?

I realize now that it probably would have charged in Park if I had tried it after I got it going. The problem was that the ICE was coming on and then dying when it was in P, so I drove it 100 yards and then put the parking brake on and waited for the HVB to charge up.

Regarding the key issue. I don't think you should be able to walk away from the vehicle with the I-Key in your pocket. My wife must have had a premonition about this happening because that was one of her concerns when we bought the car. If you want to leave the car running, leave the I-key in the car. The car should shut off if it loses communication with the I-Key and sound the horn, not some weak beep.

 

It should have. That's why I believe it might not have been in park. Does the Altima have a "gated" gearshift? If the lever was pushed directly forward, the lever will stop in neutral.

The Camry has #&#$ floor parking brake. So I never use it. If my car isn't left in park it will roll. (that is my alert mechanism!) I'm assuming the Altima has the console mounted parking brake. This would make it even easier to mistakenly leave the car in neutral (or even in drive).

I really wish these cars would use the "shifter" like in the Prius. The shifter in these cars are really a throwback.

I'm not defending the design, but the I-key is only polled when the start button is pushed. The keyfobs aren't a passive RFID system. They are based on the "old" fob technology.

It sounds like Nissan might not beep if you close the door with the car on. It really should. Toyotas will beep on closing the door, and on attempting to lock the car.

 

"I'm not defending the design, but the I-key is only polled when the start button is pushed. The keyfobs aren't a passive RFID system. They are based on the "old" fob technology.

It sounds like Nissan might not beep if you close the door with the car on. It really should. Toyotas will beep on closing the door, and on attempting to lock the car."

The Altima is a not only a dumb design it is dangerous" You can put it in park, Get out press the door handle rubber exterior button and walk away, ALL WITH NOT BEEBS and the car is still on. Stupid and dangerous.