Do any lights at all come on i.e. sidelights, headlights etc, if not you have a poor connection on your battery leads somewhere, possibly the earth lead from the battery to the engine/gearbox.

Towed the car to a local mechanic and he's diagnosed it as an immobiliser. Rang Nissan and they're seriously taking the p***. Firstly they can't book the car in until the end of the month and secondly they want to book the car in for minimum 2 hours and they're going to charge £118/hour.Why do they want to book the car in for 2 hours and not for an hour initially? Surely if the fault is found within an hour there's no need for them to charge us 2 hours diagnostic.

What's your opinion on this?

Also spoke with another independent comnpany and they've said it could be "ignition barrell". They've said because key is turning in the ignition it can't be immobiliser. I'm confused.

Edited by MazMan on 07/02/2014 at 11:46

Peter thanks for your prompt reply. Car has got fairly new battery, its only few months old. It goes flat fairly quickly though so you've got a point but once connected to another car it seems to charge but doesn't hold the charge for very long time.

Connect a voltmeter across the battery, it should read about 14.4 volts with the engine running, if its much less as Collos says you have a duff alternator

Peter car isn't starting up so can't do that.

Thanks for providing the link "elekie&a/c doctor". I've read through all the posts but there's no solution anywhere to the problem. Could it be "Ignition switch"? :-(

I've left it with another mechanic today so let's see what he comes up with! I'm dreading taking it to Nissan because they'll quote silly money which might be more than the value of the car.

First of all thanks to everyone who tried to help.

Car was fixed yesterday by my regular mechanic. It was "ignition switch" which was the culprit. Labour including parts was £60 much cheaper than Nissan's diagnostic costs, let alone them fixint it. I'm hoping someone else with the same problem would find this helpful.

There was an immobiliser recall on these which caused the battery to drain.