Micra News

"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse) 06/01/2016 at 07:59 • Filed to: Nissan, Micra, Battery

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One of the few failings of the K12 Nissan Micra is that the microswitch that opens the hatch develops a mind of its own and locks and unlocks frantically, thus draining your battery. You then have a second problem, charging the battery.

No problem. Take out battery, charge, replace.

Except that you have to get it out first by extracting the bolt right in the middle with the star sunk into it. You then find that you have a 12 and a 14 mm socket, but no 13 and you need an extension at least as long as the battery is high as well. Off to buy a cheap socket set then.

Having charged the battery, it’s common to find that the anti theft system no longer recognises the key and needs to be reprogrammed.

The joys of modern-ish cars.

FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem > Cé hé sin 06/01/2016 at 08:25

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That’s part of the N.A.T.S.

kanadanmajava1 > Cé hé sin 06/01/2016 at 10:09

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My friend has a Xantia Activa and it had similar problem with the hatch. In Xantia the hatch switch tells the active suspension to remain active while any of the doors or the hatch is open. This is an “anti jolt” system to keep the car from doing weird things when it is started. So one solenoid valve will remain open and consume ~1 A of current in this state

The hatch switch is likely to lose the contact tip and thus making the switch to remain open in all conditions. That will keep the active suspension activated in all times and drain the battery in two days.

It took some time before my friend was able to find the source for his battery drain problems.

Weird that a Micra has a 13 mm head bolt. I thought that Nissans usually have only 10 mm, 12 mm, 14 mm etc.

Cé hé sin > kanadanmajava1 06/01/2016 at 12:15

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Interestingly, the rear wiper motor which is near the boot switch is by Valeo and says Renault on it, as the Micra shares part of its design with the Clio.

I’m guessing that Renault, Citroen and Nissan have all bought the same rubbish microswitch from Valeo.

Cé hé sin > kanadanmajava1 06/01/2016 at 12:22

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May well be the only 13mm bolt on the car...which may be why my usual socket set goes 6,7,8,9,10,11,12,14.....

Then again, they put a substantial alloy casting under the battery rather than the usual rusty sheet of pressed steel.

kanadanmajava1 > Cé hé sin 06/01/2016 at 12:37

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I think that Nissan has a big assembly plant in UK. Maybe some locally sourced random parts are used instead of Japanese.

Cé hé sin > kanadanmajava1 06/01/2016 at 12:42

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Nissan has a very large plant in Sunderland - it makes more cars than the whole of Italy - but they reduced local content when they went from the K11 to the K12 Micra which is where the (French) Valeo bits come in. It’ll be interesting to see where the switch is made once I take it out.