Hey guys,

Not sure if you all know, but nissan just issued a recall on the alternators on some or all of the 98 maxima's. Unfortunately I had to find out while driving, but I got it to a dealership and they took care of it.


Rich

 

maybe that's my problem!!!!!
where did you call?

 

thanks for your info. but i think we all knew it lil bit ago. i had to replace it on my own because i didn't know about it and i went to the nissan to get oilchange service people told me my car was one of em. so nissan did it all over again and i had to send some paper & receipt to get my money back. but it was worth it...

 

My car makes weeeeee sound when i start my car..
hmm... did you guys have that problem before

 

yup... that annoying sound... my car did the same. sound came right after i did oil change for the firsttime by myself. so i thought i messed it up but after that alternator swap... that sound is gone

 

Yep, even though my alternator ran fine I got it replaced anyway earlier this month by the recall.... kinda odd though to replace a 4-yr old alternator but oh well, better safe than sorry

 

I got my alternator changed today and asked the service rep that same question, I mean, after like 4-5 years, why recall them now? Said that recently, people been taking their 97/98's in to the dealer for alternator problems, so they just recalled them. Apparently, there's a stamp on the alternator that has a colour on it, if it's a certain colour, it's a bad unit but I don't know which colour it is.

The dealer I went to was pretty good about it, but for a oil change + alternator swap, it took them 3 hours

 

Just last week I took mine into the local dealer to have them look at it, they said that there are four different alt. that could be in the cars, and two of them need to be replaced, they also told me that they tell by the color on the alt. mine was green and they replaced it.. just some usless info..

 

yo, have u guys ever seen where the alternator is located? it must be a b*tch to take off and put on....

 

Yeah I just called the Nissan Dealership and my poor car is on the list . Shes going to get the alternator fixed up next wendsday at the dealership. But im not at all surprised Nissan didnt make this recall earlier, people have been saying this has been a problem and a TSB for several years now. In my opinion most car companies (especially Ford in the past) tend to not give recalls unless they are liable for damages that may be brought about by lawsuits (Ex. the Ford Pinto and its amazingly explosive gas tank problem. Also there are several other cars out there, but the Pinto is one of the most blatant examples). If the cost of the lawsuits are more than the cost of issuing a recall the car maker will give a recall for the defective part. Im not accusing Nissan of doing this, I just find it odd that they gave the recall 5 years after the cars were built. Maybe they finally relized the scope of this problem and decided to take a $$$ beating ($28,000,000 by my est.) and fix the problem before anyone got hurt by it. Well make sure to tell everyone that has a 97~98 to get this checked out and get it fixed.

 

Mine was replaced late last week. They must have spent some money on it because they had to have done some research to find out I own this car since I haven't taken it to the dealer since I bought it last year. I got a letter from both the dealership and Nissan USA last week. My guess is they got registration info from each state based on the VIN number. You bet that wasn't totally free. The letter said something about a possible fire. I wonder if someone was injured and that's what triggered the recall.

 

Thanks to the Org. Im getting mines replace tommorrow! Too bad for me I wasnt able to drive mines for two dayz, because the car wouldnt start and I blamed my battery.

 

You've just gotta LOVE dealerhips... I took my Max into the dealership today for the recall. First they said that because I didn't have one of the mailings from Nissan NA, I couldn't have the work done yet. I basically told them where they could stick that load of BS (not in those exact words of course )... and they "talked about it" and agreed to do it today.

Then they told me that because my alternator had already been replaced with an aftermarket alternator (not by me, however... I just bought the car), that I was not eligible for the recall. Again, another nice heaping load of steaming BS. This time they had to call Nissan, and they decided they would do it for me.

So after all that I finally have a nice new alternator. Woo hoo!

 

i had that problem with my last max(R.I.P).....its your starter thats about to go....it will only do that like in the morning right....then after you run your car a little it wont make that noise when you re-start.....am i correct?