roman

When I drive my car at night, sometimes my lights will go really low like the alternator is dying. Then when I rev the engine the lights become bright again. Sometimes even my stereo stops working because of the power drain.
I took the car to Nissan today and they checked the alternator and battery and said that both are working fine. Does anyone have any suggestions????
I have not done anything to the car recently to cause such a problem. The only electrical mods I have on it are regular hyperwhites(not overpowered), rewired clear corners, and amp and subs which aren't even connected right now. I've had this setup for more than a year and everything ran fine. Now I have this weird problem. I've noticed it only happens at night or when I have my headlights on..and it doesn't even happen every day but maybe everyother day. Nonetheless it's annoying and at some point I might shutdown the car and it won't start.
So any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Roman

Maxima_Van_WA

Take it to AZ or Shuck's etc, and have them run a test on it, and see what they say. It sounds to me like a dead battery or alternator. As long as you haven't changed anything lately that is putting on a HUGE load, or shorting out.

Jon91SE

Well if they have said your alternator and battery are fine then i would have it checked for a short ...

klymkow

Sounds like the alternator.

Take a quick voltage reading across the battery terminals when the car is idling (S/B about 14). Rev the engine a few times to see if the voltage fluctuates, if it does then the alternator is not performing properly.

If the voltage remains about constant, then the alternator/regulator is OK.

I had the same thing happening to me a few months ago. Had to replace my original 90 alternator. Thought it was the battery at first, but it wasn't. NAPA rebuilt for about $120.

Tim

roman

Nissan checked the alt. and battery and got a reading of 14.0v when idle and I think about 14.5 when revved.
Nissan also changed 3 drive belts which were cracked and one of the belts was attached to the alternator so I am really hoping that maybe the belt was slipping or something like that.
The next idea is to check for shorts but that's not something that I would be able to do myself and I REALLY don't want to pay someone $50/hr to go through my car wire by wire...that bill could come to half the price of my car.
Either way...thanks for the suggestions and keep 'em coming. Maybe there's something else that could be causing this.


Roman