[marctronixx]

Thank you for the quick reply but, this happens regardless of if it is a short drive doing errands or a 3 hour drive.. no car or truck at this age should run like this, and none of my past cars have.. I shouldn't have to buy a spare battery, a trickle charge or a battery booster just to make sure I can make it home from where I am because the truck will not start. That is unacceptable on the part of Infiniti.

my point is the charging system will not charge the battery up as you would expect. Primo added some extra bits that will further shed light on this.

your car is likely not at fault, but that does not mean that you may not have an issue elsewhere. maybe you should spend the 80 bux to have nissan give it a once over.

you are right - you should not have to do those things, and you dont normally. i mean ive had my 2012 qx new since 2012 and ive never had a stall or any other issue with the battery. i DID use odyssey batteries and never looked back. the stock nissan battery is not robust for the sensors and computer network the car has and thet battery should be replaced soon.

again, there are thousands of these cars on the road and not everyone has issues that you and some others here describe. there could be some other issues that are not showing their head yet, so a diag of your car may be in order.

 

[angelom]

Same here. 2019 Armada 4x4 SL. No problem in long trips. Recently driving around city, short trips, with A/C on and it had to be jump started. I ran the ODB2 for fault codes and none was returned. So far I see only bassmadrigal is happy with his fix: "took a wire wheel to the ground cable and the spot on the frame it was connected to".
I am not sure I understand "wire wheel". Can someone describe this in details (and pictures if possible) where/how to connect the wires. I would like to try this.

I had a similar issue with my Armada. The battery would be totally dead, I'd jump it and drive it around for 15-20 minutes and it would be dead again the next day. Autozone checked the battery and said it was fine and said I probably had parasitic drain. Once I got home, I checked it with my multimeter and couldn't find any sign of a drain. I swore up and down to Autozone that the battery wasn't holding a charge, but they said they had to go off their equipment, which said the battery was fine.

Long story short, I ended up replacing the fuse block right off the positive side of the battery (~$15 from Amazon) and then took a wire wheel to the ground cable and the spot on the frame it was connected to. Then I put everything back together and slathered everything with dielectric grease to hopefully prevent them from corroding in the future.

This fix was back in March and I haven't had any problems since.

 

[Terry]

So I must be doing something wrong, but I can not for the life of me figure it out and neither can infiniti.

We had the Battery replaced because we thought it was out of juice. Then we had the starter replaced bc we thought that was the issue.

Two weeks after replacing the stsrter thecar will not start again. Totally dead...seats will not move..nothing.

We turn everything off. Before exiting the vehicle. I mean everything YET something is causing the Battery to drain.

Is this happening to anyone else?

I bought a 2019 Nissan Armada May 5 2020 it had 16,000mi. In a month it die on me. I called Nissan they reprogram the ECM and said that took care of it 2 days later died on me again. My best advice to you is get rid of the truck. I sold mine to another dealership. Maybe they have the resources to trace the problem down. Trade it or sell it off.

 

[angelom]

I have started my little investigation on this. First I wanted to check for a bad ground. I followed this link. I did have 0.5v drop. So I verified that I have an acceptable ground.
Then I recharged the battery the night before with a tender and I went for a road test. I plugged the ODB2. I verified that the dashboard battery gauge (left bottom) was matching exactly with the ODB2 display. At the very beginning it would read 13.7-13.0v. After a while, maybe 15 minutes driving, A/C on all the time, driving between traffic lights, it started dropping as low as 12.0-12.3v, rarely going back to 13.0v.
I let it rest overnight and checked the battery voltage parked in the garage. It read 12.4v. I expected to see 12.6 instead.

So I am confirming what Primo is saying. The battery does not get recharged enough.

I would be worried to have the battery charged all the time at 14v. Would not that fry the battery? I know the battery tender switches to a floating voltage, around 13.1v, once the battery is fully charged. That is in fact to avoid damaging the battery.

Before I take it to the dealer (not always so helpful), I am going to try to replace the Battery Circuit Fusible Link Holder as done by bassmadrigal. This link is the one I have found. I do not seem to find the exact match for Armada. I hope they are the same?

 

[Iayzon]

I have also have this issue. I replaced the entire battery negative cable without the inline amperage meter with a 10$ cable (sensor dongle left disconnected) tonight. This has happened to me 5 times since May. After the cable was changed the engine started fine with no SEL. Multimeter shows 14.4 v average over 20 minutes at idle. Will run the volt meter on my Bully Dog GT while driving to see what it looks like. Will post back if this issue is resolved.

 

[marctronixx]

Read post #10

Armada (and QX) charging system problem fix

long story but answers a few questions that nissan can't. I spent hours on the phone with nissan local and nissan north America with their answers to questions limited to -we can't- they can't-it won't-uh huh- and so sorry- then I got into the books and tools. As we all know, the Armadas leak...

www.clubarmada.com

 

[angelom]

Once I unplugged the sensor from the negative battery cable the battery started recharging. I do not drive the Armada often. So after a week sitting in the garage the battery voltage was down to 12.2V. I wanted to double-check if the battery would re-charge in this condition, according to the "feature". So I plugged back the negative battery cable sensor.
With my surprise I observed the voltage always stayed around 14.3-14.1V in 20 miles driving. I let it rest, the following morning the battery voltage was above 12.4V. So it did recharge!

I have some hope that the ECM recall fix did something right actually. So I decided to keep the negative battery cable sensor plugged for now and only worry if the battery goes below 12.2V.

 

[marctronixx]

doubtful nissan changed the design. it as been this way for years and years. what you are noticing is an edge case and likely will return back to normal if you keep driving. ive seen that behavior before and there's certain conditions that cause the battery to stay at a higher current, ,but its usually temporary.

 

[ledres]

Hello, it's my first post on Armada Club. I got QX80 2015 and now I have 3rd battery in my car already. It is the same issue what you guys mentioned. Original battery died after 2 years (I thought because short runs), second died in January this year with 'catastrophic' consequences. First thing radio didn't play any sound (lost coding - fixed by local professional electronic shack ), airbag light show up on desktop and blinking in " diagnostic mode". Last issue - no one know how to fix. We don't have Infiniti service in my country and specialists from Nissan service got confused. When they connect nissan consult 3P tool, they can read errors (no errors show up at all) but straight after connection internal fun blower start; first slowly and then faster and faster, finally after 10minutes car disable power and nissan consult tool is disconnected (aborted). But in this 10 min CAN bus diagnose never finish, and airbag diagnose show historical error U1000 - CAN bus issue. - May someone know what's going, some technician on forum?
Any way that was done by 2nd bad (dead) battery. Since that I monitoring my battery and battery charging is very weird.
Even I drove 200km (~130miles) on highway battery didn't get properly charge. Voltage from alternator jumping between 13-14V, on idle running (parking or red lights) dropped down to 12V(discharging battery!!!). I read thru many websites and forums and only one solution looks like works - disable (disconnecting) current sensor on negative cable from battery or signal cable PWM to alternator. I didn't modified my yet. The solution with tiny aluminum foil (shield) under current sensor doesn't work for me. I put 4-5 wraps on negative cable and still low charging voltage during driving.
I found also that after switch off engine and close car , parasitic current draining my battery is around 160mA.
Old school say it must be below 50mA. I waited more than 2 minutes to do this measurement - maybe not enough time? Today I will try wait longer time and then I will remove fuse by fuse to check what is eating battery "at night".
Save you battery guys for avoid problems like I have. I started to charge my with external charger every weekend.
Thank you for any help and suggestions.
BR
Dan

 

[marctronixx]

U1000
Controller Area Network (CAN) communication harness is open or shorted
Faulty Engine Control Module (ECM)
Poor harness ground connection.

you will have to visually inspect wiring harnesses and look for any signs of corrosion, bent wires/pins, faulty grounds. the canbus needs continuity all throughout the system. its serial in nature, so if there is a weak link somewhere ,it can cripple the car.

also with this basic error, usually there is some other code because that other code would pinpoint the issue, so i would go to another shop and re check the codes again. its only the u1000 shows up, then its a visual inspection that is needed.

 

[primoV8]

...The solution with tiny aluminum foil (shield) under current sensor doesn't work for me. I put 4-5 wraps on negative cable and still low charging voltage during driving.

Adding foil won't do anything for the battery discharging issue. Nissan is definitely aware of this issue but refuses to acknowledge their ECM controlled alternator is causing these premature discharges of the vehicle's battery.

One of the first mods I did when I first got my Z62 was cutting the signal wire (5V output) on the battery current sensor. It's been over 3 years and 50K+ miles since I did this mod and no battery/charging issues.

 

[ledres]

Thanks for answers. Those wires I'm planning cut today but first I have to find proper diagram for that, I can see 4 wires, +12V, ground and 2 other with signal I guess. Someone mentioned before that after cut signal wire some DTC error will show up. And the whole theory about shielding negative wire under sensor probably have to jamming\fool IPDM- ECM
to make this "undercharging" of battery. Not sure for what is that selling more batteries or some environmental business.
I made this shield isolated but maybe it should be connected to minus on battery(holder of sensor). I believe that jamming will change characteristic of charge (higher voltage for longer time during driving trip).
About this airbag error U1000, consult show it as historical error but cant clean it. I checked already all connectors grounds etc. heh car looks that time as vandalized. Then I tried different car interfaces but no luck. This running cabin fan during error readings with consult and shat down after 10minutes means something but I'm not expert.
Apart of that issues car is beautiful

 

[primoV8]

On my ‘14 QX80, the signal wire for the ECM-controlled output on the battery current sensor is a blue wire. It’s likely the same for your truck. Easy to rule out with ignition on and a multimeter on hand. It’ll be the only wire with an output of at least 5V.

The only DTC that will appear when scanned is a P1550 for battery current sensor. What I did, since NYS has annual emissions/inspections, I spliced in bullet connectors. When my truck is due for inspection, I reconnect the wire and the P1550 DTC is eliminated. Once inspection is done, I disconnect it.

 

[realtor954]

So i just got mine back from Infiniti for the 3rd time last night. They swear they have fixed it now, here is what they did: DE-PIN THE IPDM IN ORDER TO HAVE THE ALTERNATOR NOT CYCLE ON AND OFF BUT TO REMAIN ON AT ALL TIMES. IPDM PIN #33

I too am in Florida and I saw your post and I am having the same issue. I have been to the dealer over and over and they just reprogram, tell me it will solve the problem, and I keep being left stranded. This past week I have had to jump the battery 4 times. I drive around with a battery charger and jumper cables, so I don't have to wait 1.5 hours for roadside assistance each time. I told the dealer about the depinning of #33 on the IPDM, but they are telling me that is not an option on the 2019...just on prior years. They are insisting the reprogramming is the solution, yet it isn't. I am desperate to get this fixed. I not sure where you are in FL, but trying to find out if it is nearby, so I can possibly go to the same dealership. I am in the Fort Lauderdale area. I would appreciate if you would let me know which dealership did you go to please? Thanks.

 

[marctronixx]

your 2019 is no different than a 2018 or 2017 in terms of this mod being done. the dealer just dont want to modify something thats not sanctioned by nissan.

you can do it yourself. if not, and if you have a trusted mechanic, give them the link to this thread and have them do it. there are photos and all the info needed to get this done. there is also a youtube video to shed light on this.

 

[realtor954]

your 2019 is no different than a 2018 or 2017 in terms of this mod being done. the dealer just dont want to modify something thats not sanctioned by nissan.

you can do it yourself. if not, and if you have a trusted mechanic, give them the link to this thread and have them do it. there are photos and all the info needed to get this done. there is also a youtube video to shed light on this.

Thanks for your input. I was looking for photos or videos specific to the location and removal of the IPDM from my vehicle. The only video I have seen over and over on multiple forums is of a guy working on a random IPDM already cut out of a vehicle. Once I get to that point, I know I can get the #33 pin removed, as specified in FOOFUR's post...so that video is not helping me. Anyone who knows where I can see photos, videos, or even a schematic diagram of the wiring on the IPDM, I would appreciate your direction. I have locked behind the negative terminal on the battery and I see a couple of things that may have the IPDM in them, but would rather not just start pulling off things arbitrarily. Thanks for any assistance you can give me.

 

[marctronixx]

are you mechanically inclined? can you read a schematic?
if you are not comfortable doing those two things, you should not mess around with this system. the color codes of model years differ , so what may be a purple wire on a certain year model could be blue/brown on another year, this is why reading a schematic and tracing wires is imperative.

id recommend you find another nissan dealer and ask them if they have heard of this mod and if they would do it for you. otherwise, find a trusted mechanic who can do this.

if you have emissions testing done in your area, you should also make it so its reversible if you need it to be.

 

[realtor954]

I am actually very mechanically inclined...more so than many men. When I was much younger, I worked on my cars all the time...even rewired an MG back in the 70s, which was notorious for electrical problems. However, that being said, prefer not to do that kind of work these days unless I have no choice. Furthermore, it should not be my responsibility on a new vehicle under warranty.

After recharging my battery yet again yesterday and this morning, I said enough is enough. I called the dealer and demanded I wanted it done or I was going to pursue legal action. They once again tried to insist de-pinning was not necessary on a 2019...only on older models...that reprogramming should solve the problem...but I already had mine reprogrammed. I told them that based on forums I can give them proof that hundreds of people with 2019 models were experiencing the same thing, and Infiniti needs to take responsibility and fix the problem. The service adviser concurred that the "smart" alternator system in the vehicle was garbage, but said his hands were tied. He put me on hold and then told me to bring it in. I am at the dealer now and they supposedly already removed the pin #33 wire from the IPDM. In my case it was a red wire not blue, like other people mentioned. I guess the squeaky wheel does get the most grease. I just hope this is the solution. Waiting as they recharge the battery, since it was very low.

 

[marctronixx]

cant speak for anyone else but i dont know who you are, man or woman, and i did not mean any disrespect either way. i don't know your comfort level with mechanics , hence why I asked. based on your posts it seems you could not gather the data in this thread to make the mod, when others did, so that is why i mentioned a mechanic.

i agree 100% , squeaky wheel gets the grease. you knew better and pushed back and the dealer sided with you because they knew you knew..

your car's charging system is still the same as in prior years based on the operators manual in that regard and the dealer knew that as well.

happy to hear all is going as you want.

 

[2011QX56]

2011 QX56 and have had all the battery issues mentioned on this board for past 3 years. Bought the truck used in 2014 with 17K miles. Took it to the dealer and each time it wouldn’t show issue. Then let them have it over the weekend and not being driven and battery dead. They changed all cables and new battery and it worked for 6 months and that was 3 years ago. Then cold weather seems to make it worse. Changed to Odyssey Battery and good for 4 months and started again. Couldn’t link it to the shirt grocery visits as it died for me at the boat ramp. Was about to sell and they did the 2019 dates end of year and seemed to work through the winter and 2020 summer. First cold weather and back to not working and need to keep battery tender on car. No issues when checking the monitor. clearly the parasitic drain is too much and haven’t started unplugging every amp or relay. The only issue we have seen is the passenger seat belt locks up once passenger seated.

This past week the tender wasn’t even enough. does anyone know which color wire off the ground sensor or where to find schematic for 2011qx56?