08 Maxima with zero power

[SOLGardener]

My dad was in mom's Maxima and plugged a phone charger into the accessory port and the car lost power in the interior, and now it won't start, the power locks don't work. There's no sign of power from the batter to the car anywhere.

I ran by on my lunch break and had about 20 minutes to check fuses and all are fine. There is a battery/alternator fuse on the positive terminal of the battery but the fuse looks fine (unable to test).

I've tried searching for similar, but Nissan searches suck compared to Toyotas.

Anyone have tips on a direction to head? I'll likely replace the battery fuse to see if it's blown. I don't have a tester handy, other than the fuse tester that Pops has.

 

[Squiddley]

I would check all the battery cables and the ground from the batt to frame.

 

[Mr. Booshie]

Make sure there isn’t change or something in the outlet causing it to short over and over again.

 

[SOLGardener]

As far as the car goes, it has about 40K on it, barely used. There's no sign of corrosion on anything. I'll have to see if there is charge from the battery and past the cables.

Pop said that there was part of the charger missing, but looking in the outlet, it doesn't look like it's in there. Maybe the part missing is what caused the short.

 

[Allsmiles]

Great idea to check the outlets for foreign objects. Also, remove the battery cables for about 15 minutes and let everything reset in the car. Once last thing, have you checked the battery as a lot of newer cars won't do anything if the battery gets below a certain voltage.

Also, check the ground cable to the frame for a good connection. My old pickup the other day quit running and wouldn't charge/jump. We removed the battery connections and found that it had corroded under them and all it needed was a good cleaning for everything to work again.

 

[Kyzrsoze]

If all power is lost it's likely one of two things:
- bad connection to the battery
- dead (possibly bad) battery.


- Check for 12v between the battery posts.
- If it's weak or dead, recharge or replace.
- clean the contact surfaces on the cables to make sure that power from the battery and charge from the alternator are getting through.

If the battery checks good, looks, then remove both battery cables and clean the contact surfaces.

If the power still isn't getting through, then check the battery cables for corrosion under the insulation.

One more thing: If the battery is dead, but there's no corrosion on the contacts it's probably a good idea the check the alternator as well.

 

[MRM]

Any update?
I would take a voltmeter and start checking it out.
It would be hard for me to describe my process, but if you go through it methodically you should find some thing wrong fairly quick.

 

[SOLGardener]

Well, parents went out of town so it's on the back burner til they get back. I'll check with my multimeter when I get back to it, but it seems like there's indication that the battery fuse attached to the positive terminal blows but that's 120A fuse, so no small feat to blow with a phone charger.

 

[GeauxLSU]

[QUOTE="SOLGardener, post: 8633702, member: 25000"
Pop said that there was part of the charger missing, but looking in the outlet, it doesn't look like it's in there. Maybe the part missing is what caused the short.[/QUOTE]Could it have fallen out of site but still be causing the short?

 

[SOLGardener]

Yeah, could be. I was checking the bottom of the outlet and it seemed that it's part of the outlet and not the innards of the charger.