The 10-Month Mystery: What Was Behind My GTR’s Nightmare Engine Stall?

Part 1: When the Nightmare Began

It all started in June 2024. I hadn’t been driving my GT-R much, but out of nowhere, the battery died after a short drive. No warnings, nothing.

Jumpstarted the battery, and thought that would be the end of it. A few days later, I decided to take the car out to the beach, about 35min drive, with no unusual signs. The drive back was also fine, but on the final turn, nearly home, the engine suddenly died in the middle of a U-turn. All the lights, AC, and electronics stayed on, but the engine just wouldn’t start.

I managed to limp the car home by jumpstarting it multiple times, but every time I thought it was sorted, it would die again, even while idling in my garage. There were no check engine lights, and nothing made sense.

Part 2: False Hope

At first, I thought the culprit was a simple battery drain issue, possibly caused by leaving my Ecutek OBD dongle, or dash cam plugged in for years. I unplugged both, got a Ctek tender and charged the battery overnight.

Next day, car firing up right away! And so I thought that was it! Took it for a drive, parked for 30 mins to run errands, got back in and dead again! I then thought the battery just ran out of juice from the Ecutek & cam i had plugged in before, as it would start back up after a jumpstart.

Got a new battery, went for a drive all seemed fine until I park and leave it idling, the engine dies again. Called up the shop, and sent the car for a full diagnose “keep it for however long it takes to sort this out”

Part 3: The Endless Hunt – Replacing Everything

The shop began a marathon of troubleshooting, and checking every single part. They replaced the plugs first, test, and nothing. Next, replaced the BCM with a brand new one, every relay and fuse, all the sensors, the wiring harness, the battery, and even tested the fuel system. Everything looked good on paper, but the issue kept coming back.

The Tuner monitored the car with diagnostic tools and saw that when the engine died, all the cars electronics would lose all signal, as if the ECU just stopped working, yet the rest of the car’s electronics were still alive (A/C, multimedia, lights etc.) There were no codes, no check engine lights, and no clear direction.

I reached out to forums, got every diagnostics/steps to help the shop look at (like the common 4Bar MAP sensor failure) but nothing. Meanwhile the shop found another shop in the GCC that had an R35 with the exact same issue, but no one had found a solution.

Part 4: The Real Culprit Revealed

After months going in circles (total 10 months from day 1 at shop until I got her back).

The shop finally decided to target the one part nobody wanted to suspect, the “Engine Control Module” (ECM). To make matters worse, the 2014 GT-R’s ECM (part number 23710-38B0A) had been discontinued by Nissan, and there was no official replacement.

The shop managed to track down an ECM through AMS, got it shipped, and had it reprogrammed to my car by a Nissan specialist, as apparently each ECM is programmed to a car.

After a 10-day stress test with the new module at the shop, the car finally passed. I got it back, 284 days later to be exact, been daily driving it for days, no issues so far.

R35 Stall Diagnostics

Where to begin? I would say a datalog first to rule out any tune related issue. Otherwise here’s a couple of stuff to diagnose:

  • Tune related (datalog & check)
  • Bad key fob, replace battery
  • Spark plugs, old/clogged
  • MAP Sensor at intake failure (try to wiggle it when idle, if it stalls. Could be that)
  • Omni 4 Bar map sensor (common)
  • Sensor failure in battery terminal
  • Some electronics plugged in causing battery drain, like ecutek/cobb in obd port or dashcam
  • Ground connections Rust, Especially connection to ECU and Ignitions
  • Ground connection pinns, might be loose from vibrations or heat (Eg use hairdryer around those wires and see if it causes the cut)
  • Ignition switch & circuit failure 
  • Alternator failure
  • ECU Fault/Failure and auto reset, which might be the reason why it can start up again after hours. 
  • Air flow meters failure, or water in MAF
  • Fuel pump system issue, causing cut off under heat. Resets after cool down
  • All wiring harness , relays & fuse (damage or under heat causing shutoff)
  • BCM module
  • ECM Module (hard to source, needs programming)