hey guys !!

well max died on me on tuesday all of a sudden. this is exactly what happend.

i started the car in the morning and it started just fine like any other day, i drove about 10 miles to this shopping center and turned off the car and went in and came back about 10 min later. i got into the car and tried to start it. but the car wouldnt start and it wouldnt even crank. at first i thought it was the battery. i turned on the cd player and it was working but some of the speakers were goin on and off and the cd player light was really low. i tried my headlights and they wouldnt turn on and the alarm wouldnt lock the doors either. so i had this jumper cable and i asked this guy with an older body altima (around 96) to give me a jump start. the altima wasnt able to start my car because its battery was weak. then i asked this big truck to give me a jump start and max started just fine when we hooked up the battery to the truck. well after max started, i put the car in reverse (auto tranny) and it shut down on me. we tried turning it on again and it was successful, so i started rolling this time with no problems and traveled about 3 miles and got to a red light and boom, max shut down on me right behind the red light. to make this story short. i finally got max to the nearest autozone store and they checked my battery and said that it was bad. but before i go to autozone, i called 1st owner of my max (bought it from him in august 2k3) and he said that the battery was less than a year old. anyways, i bought a new battery and put it in and asked the guy to check my altenator with his system and after doing so, he said that everything was fine. he also showed me the date on the older battery which read C-0 which means march 2000. so turns out that the battery was almost 4 years old. now my question is that. was my battery really dead and 4 years old or is it less than 1 year old and the alternator just doesnt recharge it. max has been running 150 miles on the new battery without any problems and it starts right away. im just afraid that the alternator is bad and battery might go dead soon again. what do u guys think?

car has 27,500 miles on it with auto tranny.

thanks !!!

Well it sounds like it was your battery. If your alternator died then it wouldnt matter what batt you stuck in there I dont think you car would crank. I maybe wrong on that assumption. I had a 86 buick and my alternator went out and killed the battery after. I have heard of batts going out and a car running on just the alternator for a while but that will eventually kill the alternator.

I had the same problem and went thru 2 batterys. Turned out it was the alternator. The new battery lasted about 4 or 5 days and then the car just died. Before the car died the radio started cutting out, the electronic climate control would kick off and clock dimmed. Put a voltmeter on your alternator while running see if its putting out about 14volts.

When you were at Autozone, did you watch them test the alternator? If so, what amperage reading did you get at idle after revving to 2000 rpm's? Go bakc there and have your battery and alternator tested. Also like trci-ztt said you can hold a multimeter to the battery and it should get 13.6-14.4v while the car is running. Did your brake and battery lights ever come on?

there is a recall for alternators for 97 and 98 maxima's check with your local dealer they will put in a new alternator for free they r doing mine on tuesday i hope this helps eliminate one problem for u

thanks for everyone's advice. the autozone dude had me rev max while he tested the alternator, i was in the car so i dunno what he did but he told me that everything was fine. maybe ill go to the dealer and have them check it out. isnt that a better idea?

I had the same problem, but my speakers went out when I was on the highway, I pushed the brake and my whole dash would dim more and more, the needle on the speedometer just kept going down and down.
It was the alternator.