My 2010 Suzi won't start

[KuroNekko]

Does anybody know for sure exactly where the ESCL is located on our vehicles? On the bottom or topside of the steering column? Can it be replaced independently or is it a sure thing that the whole steering column has gotta go? I just got my Kizashi back from having the CVT replaced and just when I was feeling good about that issue being resolved, I get the harsh reminder this morning that this bullshit steering lock issue is still a problem.

In my case, Suzanne (my Kizashi, as I lovingly refer to her) has this problem when the weather is cold and/or wet. I live in the South Bay/Silicon Valley area and this issue has been slowly getting worse during the fall and winter months. If it's cold in the morning, she won't start. If there's condensation on the car, she won't start. If it's raining in the morning, she won't start. Pretty much anytime she's been parked and cooled down, If there's a combination of any or all of those three weather elements, she more than likely won't start for a while. The column lock warning will come up and no go, even though the steering wheel is free and everything else is firing up just fine. I go through all the motions, opening/closing the driver side door while attempting to start her up and all that other shit we've all tried that normally would make no damn sense, and eventually she will start. But it's gotten to be so consistent now that I'm either gonna have to pony up a shitload of money (again) or drive her off an effin' cliff!!

I guess I've just been looking for a better answer than "I think it was this" and "maybe it was this" or "my mechanic said this and made me pay this to replace this" and all that speculative bullshit. KuroNekko knows what I've known for a while, it's the damn ESCL. And weather/temperature is definitely a factor. I'm guessing it's a short of some kind due to condensation somewhere in the system, but does anybody have any definitive info as to what the actual malfunction is? Is it in fact electrical? Mechanical? Can the lock be bypassed or removed (legally or not) or must it be replaced? I'm sorry if I sound like a bitter bastard. I really don't mean to, but this morning was the last straw. ESPECIALLY after shelling out for a replacement CVT literally yesterday!

And thank you KuroNekko for your assessment of the issue as it is probably THE MOST detailed explanation of it all.

I have no experience with the ESCL, but we do have the Service Manual available on this site. That should give you the info in accessing the part.
viewtopic.php?p=14843#p14843

Nissan owners seem to resolve the matter by replacing just that part from what I can tell. Best of luck and keep us posted.

[Shelly]

Thank you KuroNekko for your research and response and posting the link to the service manual.
After a short time of no events, it happened again almost two weeks ago, leaving us stranded for over 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon waiting for a tow. Then it randomly decided to start again. I am really not sure what to do about this now, and have the same questions as the commenter guamshady. I will have to do some research but I am also checking back here to see if anyone has made any progress on this issue.

[KuroNekko]

Thank you KuroNekko for your research and response and posting the link to the service manual.
After a short time of no events, it happened again almost two weeks ago, leaving us stranded for over 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon waiting for a tow. Then it randomly decided to start again. I am really not sure what to do about this now, and have the same questions as the commenter guamshady. I will have to do some research but I am also checking back here to see if anyone has made any progress on this issue.

You're welcome.
As for resolving the issue, I don't think anything will reliably fix the issue other than replacing the Electronic Steering Column Lock.

[Shelly]

Thank you again, KuroNekko.
We will have to make this decision now, as my HB is currently out with the car and it's happened again. 2x this month.

[garymaxxx]

Turn wheel to release pressure light comes on and engine won't start after doing so fix. It happened to me and a mechanic showed me this trick. leave you foot OFF the brake and press the start button 3 or so times, keeping your foot OFF the brake. You when hear a clicking sound with each click which he said would bypass, disable, or whatever, the steering pressure or locking switch. It worked, the car then started. For then. The problem came back a few more times and I used his trick with varying results, sometimes half hour or so of trying before starting. So here is what I ALWAYS do now. When parking, always use flat surface, no hills, slants, or hard turning into spot. BEFORE shutting engine off go a bit forward straight or back straight, then shift into neutral to let the car roll on its own a bit and pull up parking brake to stop. If you are not to worried about locking the car leave in neutral...this will leave acc. position on and will prevent your FOB from locking doors, but car always starts. Most times though after rolling a bit on flat surface and applying parking brake I shift into park......for the past few months I have not had the problem. Lately I also often immediately restart car after all these steps hoping if it starts then it will later. So far all is well. As you probably surmise, this rolling is aimed at removing and pressure from the steering system, so that is what to keep in mind. Another trick that worked once was to shift into neutral and roll the car straight a short ways when it would not start due to tension on steering wheel . That worked too.

[SamirD]

Turn wheel to release pressure light comes on and engine won't start after doing so fix. It happened to me and a mechanic showed me this trick. leave you foot OFF the brake and press the start button 3 or so times, keeping your foot OFF the brake. You when hear a clicking sound with each click which he said would bypass, disable, or whatever, the steering pressure or locking switch. It worked, the car then started. For then. The problem came back a few more times and I used his trick with varying results, sometimes half hour or so of trying before starting. So here is what I ALWAYS do now. When parking, always use flat surface, no hills, slants, or hard turning into spot. BEFORE shutting engine off go a bit forward straight or back straight, then shift into neutral to let the car roll on its own a bit and pull up parking brake to stop. If you are not to worried about locking the car leave in neutral...this will leave acc. position on and will prevent your FOB from locking doors, but car always starts. Most times though after rolling a bit on flat surface and applying parking brake I shift into park......for the past few months I have not had the problem. Lately I also often immediately restart car after all these steps hoping if it starts then it will later. So far all is well. As you probably surmise, this rolling is aimed at removing and pressure from the steering system, so that is what to keep in mind. Another trick that worked once was to shift into neutral and roll the car straight a short ways when it would not start due to tension on steering wheel . That worked too.

Awesome feedback. I'll have to pass this on to my neighbor as she was running into a lot of problems with the start system in the winter.

[SLCKiz10]

I've been dealing with the steering lock issue on my 2010 GTS for almost two years. Jerking the wheel side to side, opening and closing the door, messing with the FOB - all of these tricks worked for me in the short term but nothing was permanent. After around $350 spent I can confidently say I've resolved the locking issue for good. Here is what you need - from a website called Megazip I ordered a Steering Lock Assembly (part #3710057L12 $213.92) from a warehouse in Japan as all domestic Suzuki part stores were out. If you take off the panel under the steering wheel and look up you can see a little grey box kinda shaped like a fat L, that is the steering lock assembly. If you have a confident mechanic he should be able replace it in under two hours. The bitch is having to lower the whole steering column as the attachment for the lock assembly needs to be bolted from above the column, not below. Been a month since the fix and no starting issues, even after temps here dipped into the low 40's. Hope this info helps!

[KuroNekko]

I've been dealing with the steering lock issue on my 2010 GTS for almost two years. Jerking the wheel side to side, opening and closing the door, messing with the FOB - all of these tricks worked for me in the short term but nothing was permanent. After around $350 spent I can confidently say I've resolved the locking issue for good. Here is what you need - from a website called Megazip I ordered a Steering Lock Assembly (part #3710057L12 $213.92) from a warehouse in Japan as all domestic Suzuki part stores were out. If you take off the panel under the steering wheel and look up you can see a little grey box kinda shaped like a fat L, that is the steering lock assembly. If you have a confident mechanic he should be able replace it in under two hours. The bitch is having to lower the whole steering column as the attachment for the lock assembly needs to be bolted from above the column, not below. Been a month since the fix and no starting issues, even after temps here dipped into the low 40's. Hope this info helps!

Thanks for confirming the solution.

[BLyons]

Mine hadn't been acting up much, but did it 4 times in an 8 day span the last couple weeks, and the door trick started becoming less effective, so I started looking into this more. I discovered on a 370Z site that they got around their issue by pulling the fuse for the Steering Lock and disabling it all together so it would never be in lock mode. (Topic: http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-gene ... -real.html). This led me to notice that we also have a steering lock fuse, I believe it's #16 under the dash. I don't trust my wire diagram skills much though, so where the Nissan fuse seemed to feed into a relay for just the steering lock, I can't tell if ours is connected to other systems or not. Hopefully one of you can decipher the diagram further. The fuse is the 15A STL fuse in the top left and the steering lock is in the lower left.

I haven't attempted to pull the fuse yet since I want to be fairly sure that it won't affect anything else. One thing to note for anyone that might consider it is that you have to make sure the steering is unlocked when you pull it.

I'm also attaching the following images because another solution the Nissan guys had was to cut/bypass the power wire to the lock, which would also disable it.


My question with that method is that we seem to have two power wires to ours, so how might that work? And does the following from the start up procedure mean that the car would not start due to possibly not being able to communicate with the lock unit?
6) The starter relay turns ON and the starting motor starts, a steering lock release request is output to the steering lock unit through serial communication, and a message is sent to the ECM to permit engine starting only when transponder code corresponds with the registered code.
7) When transponder code does not correspond with the registered code, keyless start control module does not turn on the starting motor relay to prohibit the starting motor operation.

Or would this alarm possibly be triggered if it's disabled?
Steering lock abnormality alarm
Driver side door is opened with steering lock not locked while ignition mode is in “ACC” or has switched from “ON” to “OFF”.
• Immobilizer indicator light lights up
• “SERVICE STEERING LOCK SYSTEM” is displayed

[Ronzuki]

w/o a detailed schematic of the Keyless Start Control Module itself (the mystery box above), there's no way to know with any certainty what pulling STL fuse #49 is going to affect. Other than giving it a yank. It may exclusively be for supply of power to the steering lock mechanism, controlled by the module via passive internal components (such as a simple relay). Or, it may power the entire module and all functions associated with it. The dwg above indicates there's more to the module not shown in that particular diagram, so maybe there are other fuses associated with the module and the other I/O devices attached to it. One thing, for sure, there is a fuse somewhere that provides base power to the module itself for its function. Could be STL or not. If I had to guess, I'd say that STL fuse is likely strictly for the lock. That would likely be an inductive load (high draw) and if I were to design that module, I certainly wouldn't be powering the module's electronics off the same circuit with a load such as the lock solenoid (or whatever the mechanism is).

The firmware/software issues 6) and 7) referenced above are an entirely different matter...who knows other than the developers.

As far as cutting in to the wiring harness of any modern car...don't. Your playing with fire. There's no where near enough information published by the manufacturers regarding the voodoo going on in their circuits to risk it. You could very easily turn a several hundred dollar fix (replacing the column lock) in to a several thousand dollar fix (replacing fried modules or who knows what else).

This is the price of the nifty technology the world is so fascinated with embracing. It's all wonderful ...when it's working. So when it's not any longer, you'll be forced to embrace it all over again in a different way...the price, the cost, the unknown, the unreliability and the aggravation. If this doesn't suit your fancy, petition auto makers to knock-off with all the unnecessary gadgetry by purchasing simpler base model vehicles (which still have too much non-sense in them). They'll get the message, eventually, when the mega-dollar vehicles sit on dealer lots and don't sell...Keep It Simple Stupid. A keyed ignition still works best. Crank windows still work best. Manual door locks still work best. Every function of a vehicle's operation does not need to be run through a 'control module' and software.