My battery and brake warning lights are coming on if I rev past about 4000 rpm. Yesterday I passed a car and my headlights and instrument lights got intensely bright at the same time the warning lights came on. After the engine revved down to 3000 rpm everything got back to normal. So I guess I have a voltage regulator going out.

Since yesterday I have kept rpms down below 3000 rpm so as not to burn anything out. I am going to replace the alternator this weekend.

Has anybody else experienced this type of alternator failure?

Any reason I shouldn't be driving the car at all?

 

If it is your alternator then youre slowly killing your battery. Youre car is probably functioning on whatever juice you have left on your battery. You could always recharge the battery but it will never be the same after it has been drained.

 

You need to get that swapped out pronto. When my first alternator went, it did the same thing. When my second one went it did the opposite (rev over 2000 and the battery light went out). You don't want to get stuck like I did and I was lucky. I stalled in front of a place that had a battery charger.
I took my spare alternator to have it rebuilt and slapped it on out in the rain. I got soaked to the bone too.

 

No, it charges fine at low rpm. It's the high rpm overvoltage that I'm worried about.

At any rate, I'll be changing it out tomorrow.

 

Any bearing noise? Hope it doesn't catch on fire like mine!

 

Actually, yes. It has been substantially noisier than my 2k Maxima's alternator for quite some time, when listening to it through a mechanic's stethoscope. But this morning it was audible over the V1 blower. Sounded pretty cool, actually, kind of like a Phantom jet at low thrust on a landing approach. You older military types will know what I mean.

Was there any collateral damage when your alternator caught fire, Eric?

 

If my windows are all rolled up, and my headlights are on, if I "roll all four windows up" even though they are all up, my headlights dim - is my alternator dying?

 

That pretty much what mine sounded like before the fire. However, I didn't experience any of the surges that you're seeing, so we could be talking about different failures. Also my idiot lights didn't come on at all...so its doubtful that you have the same exact problem I did.

It was obvious after removing the alternator that the bearings died and siezed, creating extra heat, creating the fire on mine.

Thankfully no. Someone at my office noticed the smoke right away (I can't see my car from my desk). The fire was put out before anything else was damaged (other than the alternator of course).

However, if I didn't catch it, who know what would have happened.

 

get it changed ASAP, many people say get hte rebuild kit from nissan or the alternator from nissan.

i got mine from autozone and it has been working good for about 5-6 months