I've noticed lately that every now and then when I brake, my brake and battery lights, light up on the dash. Then when I start accelerating again they both fade out. Can anyone figure this one out? Bad sensors? bad connections? freak incident?

 

Either your alternator belt is loose or it is going bad.

 

Your alternator is going bye bye....The batt.+ brake light coming on together on these cars usually means the alt. is dying..

 

always means alternator.
if it's just the battery light then it may be something simple and cheap.

 

def sounds like alternator is going....make sure to check the voltage at ur terminals to confirm....u should be able to get one out of a yard for under 30 bucks..they'll probably even throw in a 90 day warranty....

or go the lifetime warranty replacement route from a place like autozone and look to spend anywhere from 80 to 180 bills

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...1&postcount=12

 

yep happend to me too. = alt

 

check for loose wiring. I had that happen to me a few years back..
turned out to be a cut wire running up the right side harness through the core support from where the car was in a wreck before I bought it... wire eventually fatigued and snapped off and the light stayed on all the time.

pulled the entire harness apart, found the cut in the wire, spliced it correctly, rebuilt the harness, and everything was good.

but the batt + brake lights are an indication that your alternator is having issues.. it could be a bad alt, could be bad wiring.

it also wouldn't hurt to check your brake fluid. if the diode in the dash wiring harness is bad and you're low on brake fluid, it may possibly trigger both lights as well. (my brake light will come on during hard stops when the reservoir was getting low, but never brake + batt)

 

Ok this just happend to me just last night. My max has 145,700 I was coming home from work, parked and got chinese food. got back into my maxima and the brake light came on with the battery light, but the brake light is very bright, the batt light was very dim. I checked the fluids and they are all full. Now when i was at idle the engine wants to stall on me, hovering about 500-700rpm back and forth and dipped to 400.

I took her to the mechanic and he put a volt meter to the terminals and the alternator is pushing 14.3+ but the engine sounds like crap. He says it could be a bad diode in the alternator, and said that the only way that the check battery light will go off is if i replaced it. But he assured me that the max is charging, and that it upto me if i wanted to replace the alternator.

Pepboys has the alternator for like 90 bucks, but the one they listed was for vg, and the sales rep told me that they are the same for the ve. I told him that I have a DOHC engine not SOCH. but said that is what they had in the computer system. So i am warey in getting it.

I have search for ho alternators and seems like its not neccessary and a waste if I am not running compitition equipement.

Is there one better that the other bosch,ac delco, hatachi?

I guess its time to check the wiring.
I am running a yellow optima battery that is about 2 yrs old, but i never had a problem with it.

 

VG and VE alternators are NOT the same. the case is different between them and they won't mount up.

 

my battery light is coming on too. i bought the car on saturday, the wife and kids and i drove it around for a while. then all of a sudden it wouldn't start. i jumped it then replaced the battery. now the battery light comes on when i first starte it up. it starts to dim as the rpms go up, then the light pretty much dissapears until i start up the car again. any ideas?

 

Well, the altnerator is fairly new. It was replaced just a little over a year ago. I bought one from autozone for about $120.00 and installed it myself. I recently had my brakes done by Sears a couple of days ago, cause' they sounded like they were grinding pretty bad. Well, the brakes sound better, but the lights I mentioned keep coming on every now and then. Although, they come on less frequently since the brake job. My suspicion is that the light issue is related to a leak I have in my power steering fluid lines. I know there is a leak there but I never paid much attention to it cause' it was a very small one, and I've just been putting it off until I have more time to mess with it. Well, they couldn't do my alignment at sears cause' the bushing on the control arm on the passenger side of the vehicle has been rotted off, obviously due to the power steering fluid dripping onto it. Well, I figure since the alternator is located on the same side of the vehicle as the power steering fluid resivoir, that maybe the leak is dripping onto the alternator or the wiring and causeing the lights to come on. Does this sound probable?

 

Oh and could someone please explain why the brake light would come on if the alternator was the problem? I mean, I can understand why the battery light would come on, but not the brake light. I don't see any correlation there, any explanation would be greatly appreciated.

 

i was driving this morning and the car started lurching and the dash lights started getting dim. i got it off the road and it died. wouldn't start. 10 minutes later it started up and off i went. half a mile later it started lurching again. i turned off the head lights (it was getting pretty light out by then) and the lurching stopped and i was able to get the car back home. it sounds like the alternator to me. and my brake light does not come on with the battery light, just when i have the parking break applied.

 

Be ware, I got the exact same "must be this" diagnosis, and it wasn't


http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=441419


Real problem turns out to be this:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=441635

 

I got the "might be a bad diode" thing too, and I changed the alternator, and that DID NOT fix it, THIS did:

ECU fuse...it's in the fuse panel under the dash.

 

this is why people buy the fsm....as awesome as this board is, its kinda nice to have nissan walk u through the diagnosis

 

Now that is wierd

 

Not wierd but interesting, when I get a chance I'm going to pull this same ECM 10a fuse and see what happens. I would have never thought

 

well, got the alternator replaced today. no more battery light, no more lurching. it fixed my issue.

 

Goes to show you sometimes we get it correct, except for those odd ball 10a fuse business. Hopefully you got one of those lifetime replacement alternators because after-market units haven't been known to last very long, again another crap shoot

 

well I must thank you for that post, and I did check that odd ball 10a eng contr fuse, guess what it was blown. I replaced it and the accessories such as clock and radio settings were erased so i had to reprogram the stations and clock.. You are the man. Save me the time and money of replacing a 146k alternator that was working properly and terminal cables. The maxima started up with no problem and no rough idle like when It first started. Before the the solution of the problem, I had to start the max and gas it really quick to keep it from stalling and the rpm needle bouncing from 400rpms-600 rpms and lights dimming.

What could have cause this fuse to blow?? I am glade that I didnt have to spend on the 100+labor replacement, money that I currently have to spare at the moment.

Org rocks.... thanks again blackandwhite

 

i sure did.

 

Hey could that be the same problem why my car idles funny?

 

No problem.

What I think caused mine to blow was that I was fiddling with the VTC grounding hook-up I have. That's the last thing I did before the idle got rough, the VTC's got loud, and I started having the same stalling issues you describe.

 

Yep, alternator.

On a related note, anyone know what might be the problem if the brake light and battery light don't work on the dash? I have checked the parking brake switch, and it's ok, and I have checked the bulbs in the instrument cluster, all good. Does it sound like broken wires/circuit somewhere? I was hoping I wouldn't have to trace the entire wiring harness to find it... does anyone know if this is a common problem?

 

This is certainly the alternator if both the brake and battery light comes on. Check the belts and replace the alternator. Save your bill , usually you get a lifetme warranty.