here is what happened. about 2 weeks ago, my battery light, abs, light n brake light all came on. So i opened up my hood n found tons of corrosion on the positive terminal. I cleaned it all off n bam...i'm good to go.....battery was re-charged n all the lights went away.....

so yesterday morning, i went to start my car, found all the lights on again, i'm like man....my battery's done..so i just open the hood n see what i can find. I found that the covers to cover the hole for the battery was popped off a lil. So i took it off n saw that the acid was like boiling...i didn't know if it was norma. (still thinking htat it was my battery).

So today i went out to get a new battery. Installed it. started my car...hymm..all the lights are still there. this is a NEW battery so i drove it for like 5 minutes. parked it...started the car, lights are all there.. so i went home. My check engine light is on, but its because of the evap canister. CODE 0215. No other codes. I went to my hood n found that my NEW battery had leaked acid ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!! i just wanna get some opinions before i bring it over to the mechanic. I was thinking that it's my alternator. Maybe its charging too much?? i know that its not usually normal for an alternator to CHARGE too much but i believe that i have read that it happened before..

help me please!!!!!

 

Sounds like the alternator is overcharging the battery, thus causing it to overflow.

 

sounds like a over charging alternator. seen the same sympton on a civic and turns out the alternator is putting out almost 22 volt LOL

take the alternator out and have it tested at autozone. don`t start ur car again because IF the alternator is putting out THAT much voltage that **** up the batter in a day, it will prob.ly **** up all those electronic stuff.

 

thats what i figured it was....i think my radar got messed up..i dunno..keeps on going off everywhere...maybe it was just a cop or something...but i didn't drive it nemore obviously...but yes..i'll do that at autozone or pepboys....thanks!!!

 

Battery and brake light always point to a problem with your alternator.
Not once, twice, but three times your car tried to tell you it's charging system was not working correctly, yet you went out and baught a new battery anyhow without testing the charging system.
Makes no sense at all.

 

His abs light was also on. You seem to have pretty sarcastic comments for people that have issues with their car... no pity.

Definately see if your alternator is overcharging your battery.

 

thanks, will do. Apparently njmax was the type of person who came out of the womb with all the knowledge about everything and no longer needs to learn anything afterwards. Otherwise, he would be more considerate as to people who DON"T know EVERYTHING about cars to make some simple mistakes. Good for him

 

I'll bet the voltage regulator on the alternator is bad. When it starts to send a charge above around 15.5-16 volts the battery cant take it anymore. If you know someone with a volt meter you can hook it up to the battery and read what its doing with the engine running. If it reads fine when cold take another reading once it heats up since the regulator can malfunction once the cars been warmed up.

 

hymm....then i guess its the voltage regulator's problem...but correct if i'm wrong, the voltage regulator is PART of the alternator correct?? so now my question is, should i bother just changing the voltage regulator or just get a new alternator. Even if i can just change the regulator...is it worth it?? i think i found the regulator to be pretty expensive..thanks again!!!

 

Voltage regulator is built in and not servicable, with a rebuilt it comes with new bushes anyway. make sure you got one of those that comes with life time warr. too.

 

The alternator is definitely overcharging, it's boiling off water and the acid will be over-concentrated as a result. Also take care to use a mild base such as baking soda solution to wash down the area all around the battery because, from what you said, you will be facing some pretty serious corrosion very soon, if you don't.
I am, personally, paranoid about alternators. I have experienced not one but two engine bay fires caused by Ford alternators going short-circuit on the field winding, and glowing cherry red, melting the battery cable. So don't mess with it. Change the damn thing!

 

thanks, yea i def will do that....i'm jsut gonna get an alternator tomorrow from pepboys. prob just like the ones that are 110 amps. I know that some peope are running higher than that, but i'm pretty sure that the 110/120 will do fine.

 

i'd look at as an oportunity to upgrade. When my battery went out i upgraded to a redtop, and when the alt went, i went to an ohio gen h/o alt. 180 amps idle and a little over 200 revved up

 

200 amps?!?!?!?! Jeez, where'd you put that? Can't dump it in the battery. You'd need scary volts to push that through your battery and then it would fry in a minute.

I've heard of fast charging batteries with maybe 10-20amps. Do you really need 200amps?

That's enough to turn the starter over - then you got a perpertual motion machine.

 

 

Well, considering alternators only start their output when their is draw on them, then 200 amps is fine. My systems draws 150 amps at average volume, and about 250 peak. Plus that doesn't include my neons, screens, and the draw of the car running.I was originally going to do a 300 amp alt, but i'm too lazy to make new brackets.

 

Jeeez ~ sounds like you nothing at all about electronics so hopefully you don't post anymore about this topic.

To keep it short and simple the alternator will only give you 200 amps if you ask for it.

njmax is probably irritated at seeing redundant posts about items that are clearly laid out in the stickies. 70% of the threads in this forum wouldn't exist if people did something as simple as read the stickies.

ImmaSquashYou, you could also try callling your local nissan (in your case infiniti) dealer with your vin in hand and see if your alternator is covered by the alternator recall for 97-98 maximas (i30's). This is the cheapest way to go.

 

OK shoulda used some smilies in that last post

I see now that, had I installed a 3KW sound system in my max then I too would need a 200A alternator.

 

my car was made in august of 97...meaning it falls under the i30 terms. What should i tell them??

1) i need to make an appointment because my brake lights n battery light came on
2) i took it to the mechanic n he told me that my alternator is bad and nissan has a recall for those manufacturing dates
3) my battery n brake light came on...n i read that my car has an alternator recall.

what i should do??

i suppose i should take my cefiro's n hid's out. Just so they don't break nething...

 

need to know soon, gonna call tomorrow....has neone had the alternator recall from nissan???? if you did, did you did it before the alternator failed or after??