Thanks to the nice folks at Hunt Nissan in Chattanooga, Tennessee, my 97 SE now sports a brand-spanking new alternator. No problems dealing with them about the Nissan recall. They were also nice enough to check and correct drippy power steering clamps at no charge (although the first inquiry produced a mention of $65 to tighten a clamp).

 

Hey listen to your car for a strange noise,that comes from the passenger side and souds like an exaust leak..My maxima had this noise after i had the recall done..truned out to be a bad alternator,They had to replace the new one they put on.twice and now my car is starting to make the same sound,the dealer says its the alternaters that are bad, something about being loose in them..Anyone had these problem before.Im about to have My 3rd alternator installed??

 

there's been a recall?? when?? i got a 97 SE too but my warranty's expired.. hmm..

 

If you did not receive a notice, your VIN might be excluded. www.nissanusa.com/owning/RecallLanding

 

Thanks Ivan, I'll be listening. I did have a "whine" which increased with rpm with the old alternator. Happily that went away when the new one was installed yesterday. Hope this is it for awhile!

 

i had a problem after my alternator recall.. not sure if it was nissan's fault or maybe just time... but my car started to make a weird noise after the install when i would start my engine... and about 2 days later.. my idler pulley FELL OUT while i was driving.. had to drive home on battery.. cuz alternator was gettin' the power.. so i had to drive my dad's car and buy a whole new idler pulley for 75$+ and spent about 6 hours fixing it.. i didn't know if i put it right or not.. because the belt would always be loose... my check engine light did come on... but not sure what's wrong with it... didn't get the time to get it checked.. kinda made me made thinkin' nissan could have done it.. by not tightening somethin'...

 

...I had to find out the hard way there was a recall on the alternator, untill the car died. I was driving, of course it had to be a miserable, rainy day out last fall (my luck)....the car was actin funny, headlights dim, windshield wipers sloowwwww, bla bla bla untill the car finally died on me down the street...tried crankin, nothin. Pushed it to the side of the road, thinkin it was the battery. A few hours later, and another set of clothes since the first set was drenched walkin home, it started...I quickly parked it in my driveway. The next day I thought let me take it back to Nissan to see what they say...so earlier that day I took every aftermarket part off and put it back to stock, so they wouldnt blame it on whatever was wrong (which the first dealership did to me on my O2 sensor). Crossing my fingers that the car wouldnt die on me, I made it to Nissan to find out there was a recall on it...Well they fixed it for free sorry needed to vent a little on the alternator subject

 

Don't worry if your car is not under warranty. Nissan will provide you with a new alternator and install it for you. I had my '97 Max with no warranty taken in after I found about the alternator recall and they installed a new one in. They were very quick and nice about it.

 

yes i had mine replaced for free... think you get 30 hp from a new alternator j/k

 

I got mine changed 2 months ago cause I got a notice from Nissan. I've noticed a new noise coming from the engine bay. This has been occuring since day one. I can get a hint of it in my car but once I get outside I can definitely hear a noticable increase in noise. It's not a high pitched shrill from the belts squeaking. Its more of a power drill or grinder on high speed setting noise. It increases with the engine RPM's.

Do you think this is a problem?

 

The alternator went out in my 95 and I put in a new one... Still having trouble ...but whatever

 

If Nissan removed alternator, It WAS Nissan's fault that the idler pulley fell off afterwards. If pulley fell off, they did not tighten bolt in center after setting belt tension. Part should have been $55.00 (+$20.00 for belt). I know, I just bought idler and installed it with new belt 2 weeks ago.
If your belt is still loose, you installed idler wrong, or are not adjusting it properly.

 

LIke I said before nissans alternators are defective..Ive had 2 new ones repacled,and going on to get a 3rd one..My nissan dealership says its the alternators that are coming out bad,I think they said the shimes inside are loose are something like that,You get a noise(from the passenger side) at lower rpms that sounds like its coming from the exaust..it starts out very quite and gets louder as time goes on..You should replace it as soon as you can.Hey one good way to hear for the noise is try to go up a hill very slowly and you will hear it ,if its bad,start going up hill steping on the gas lightly and you will hear a weird soun coming from the atlternator.I"m very surprised no one here has said much about the problem,I guess most people that got it replaced arent paying attention to the noise or lucky not to have a bad one