My 2000 Nissan Altima started stalling, especially when accelerating. It would restart after stalling, but then stall again under load. The “Service Engine Soon” light was on, so I asked a friend with an OTC scanner to help. He connected his scanner, and immediately after, my car wouldn’t start at all. It would turn over, but just wouldn’t fire up. Frustratingly, we couldn’t even pull any error codes at that point.
Left scratching my head, I left the car overnight. The next morning, surprisingly, it started again! I managed to drive it home and did some basic maintenance – changed the fuel filter and oil. It seemed okay for a day, but then the stalling issue returned while my daughter was driving.
Determined to fix it myself, I decided to invest in my own OBD2 scanner. I ordered an Ancel 410 from Amazon for $73.00. While waiting for it to arrive, I turned to YouTube for possible causes of the stalling. That’s when I discovered a vacuum hose that had been chewed through, likely by a rodent that had nested in my engine. I’d removed a nest earlier, but hadn’t noticed the damaged hose. Replacing that hose seemed to solve the stalling problem, and the car ran much better in road tests. However, the “Service Engine Soon” light was still stubbornly lit.
Once the car was running again, my friend came back with his OTC OBD scanner to try and read the error codes. This time, we were successful, and it gave us codes: P0100, P0505, P0325, P1490, P0446, and P0464. (My own Ancel 410 scanner still hadn’t arrived). But here’s the strange thing: after connecting his OBD scanner again, the car died again and wouldn’t restart! It was the same no-start issue as before. It was running fine, and then after plugging in the scanner, it wouldn’t start. I still needed to get that “SES” light off!
Back to YouTube I went. This time, I searched for problems related to OBD scanners causing issues. I found information suggesting that sometimes, scanners can interfere with the car’s ECM (Engine Control Module), requiring a hard reset. The solution? Disconnect both battery terminals and then briefly connect them together (while disconnected from the battery) for about 10 seconds. This discharges any capacitors and resets the system.
I tried this battery terminal reset, and it worked! The car started right up again. It seems that in this case, the OBD scanner somehow glitched the system, preventing the car from starting. While OBD scanners are incredibly helpful tools for diagnosing car problems, it’s good to know about potential quirks like this and how to resolve them with a simple hard reset. It also highlights that sometimes, even before using a scanner, a good visual inspection (like finding that chewed vacuum hose) can be key to solving car troubles.
