# Nissan sentra B12 - headlights/dashboard lights all blinking



## mindtwist07 (Apr 16, 2014)

Hi, I'm a newbie and noob at car maintenance as well.I would like to ask some help with my recently acquired sentra. Here it goes, when I start my car at night the engine sounds good as it goes and then when I turned my headlights on everything is still doing great. But when i start to rev up the headlights and the dashboard lights start blinking like a pulse and the engine starts to almost sound like pulsating like the headlights. I had it checked and the battery goes to 14-15 (electrician says its normal and says the alternator is working properly) and everything at that time is turned on together with the air conditioning. I researched about it in google and there are mixed opinions about this, battery, loose wire connection, alternator, fuses, wire corrosion and more. I don't know where to start, the blinking drives me nuts at night, this might end up worse sooner or later. Please help. Thanks


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## worthirt (May 21, 2013)

Prob your ground is bad or flakey. clean it and the problem will most likely go away. If I were you, I would add a few while you are at it. add one from the engine block to the strut mount nearest and another from the battery to the nearest strut mount, don't forget to clean up and redo the main one. Usually it is behind the battery, the cable will most likely contuine on to your starter. It would be good to clean and tighten all of your battery connections while you are at it. I have a B13 and had the same problem. The B12 should be close in design.


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## mindtwist07 (Apr 16, 2014)

worthirt said:


> Prob your ground is bad or flakey. clean it and the problem will most likely go away. If I were you, I would add a few while you are at it. add one from the engine block to the strut mount nearest and another from the battery to the nearest strut mount, don't forget to clean up and redo the main one. Usually it is behind the battery, the cable will most likely contuine on to your starter. It would be good to clean and tighten all of your battery connections while you are at it. I have a B13 and had the same problem. The B12 should be close in design.


Awesome! Thanks! I'll try this one tomorrow. A friend told me this might be a relay problem or something. But I'm not sure about that. Your comment makes more sense and easy to understand.


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## worthirt (May 21, 2013)

Someone said relay for me also, it could be one, but do this first. It won't hurt anything and may not cost anything but time (if you have some extra wire lying around).


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## b13er (Apr 7, 2010)

I agree with Worthit, car manufacturers are really cheap when it comes to grounding your car. That and after so much time your grounds need to be refurbished. Doing it will never be a loss even if it didn't fix the problem, it's routine maintenance anyhow.

Your alternators voltage regulator can start to go out and make noise like that, but I'm pretty sure sometimes you go to test it and it looks good at 14.4 volts which throws you off. The best test for an alternator is if you take it out and hand it to the people at AutoZone or Advance Auto Parts.

You could also try running a new power wire from the alternators positive output directly to the positive side of the battery. It's a common trick for Car Audio installations to get more power out of your alternator. If the short was in that tiny stock power wire, adding that extra one should fix the problem.

A short or a bad relay is going to be worst case scenario, since finding it will be so hard, so I would save those for last. 

For the relay, you can sometimes save money by swapping out a good known one, say like the horn, and putting it where you think the bad one is. Just make sure they are the same relay with the same model number. If it fixes the problem, go buy a new relay.


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## mindtwist07 (Apr 16, 2014)

Thanks or the inputs. I'll keep those things in mind as references.

Ive tried adding ground by using a thick battery cable from the engine to body and battery to body, the blinking is still there.I bought the car second hand and there are a lot of loose wires that doesn't have a connection and wrapped around with an electrical tape. I was thinking those things might be the culprit. Like Bi3er said I'll check the alternator and think of the relay as a last resort if you will if anything else fails.


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## b13er (Apr 7, 2010)

So my backup lights weren't coming on recently, guess what the culprit was... the only wire on the entire car that had electrical tape wrapped around it. After I removed the tape I saw that the wires weren't even touching each other anymore. Wiring tape never holds up long under the hood of a car, it's just too hot under there and the glue from the tape gets hot and doesn't hold.

Get some of those plastic connectors where you put a wire in each side and crimp them down. I would even add some heat shrink tubing to the outside of the connector so that the wires don't corrode.


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## mindtwist07 (Apr 16, 2014)

b13er said:


> So my backup lights weren't coming on recently, guess what the culprit was... the only wire on the entire car that had electrical tape wrapped around it. After I removed the tape I saw that the wires weren't even touching each other anymore. Wiring tape never holds up long under the hood of a car, it's just too hot under there and the glue from the tape gets hot and doesn't hold.
> 
> Get some of those plastic connectors where you put a wire in each side and crimp them down. I would even add some heat shrink tubing to the outside of the connector so that the wires don't corrode.


Thanks Bi3er. I'll try checking the wiring and all connections involved. I was thinking of those bronze female and male connectors and crimp them. Its going to be a lot of work. If that still fails, I have no choice but to see an electrician and hopefully find a good one.


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## worthirt (May 21, 2013)

If you would have mentioned the loose/damaged wires from the get go, I would have told you to go after those first. The best way to fix a wire is to sotter the wires and heat shrink them, because it makes the best connection. Crimp is fine, but no matter what you do, heat shrink the connections.


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