So I was driving my car and it started to make alot of clicking noise from the pass side wheel area. We stopped at a stop sign and the cars idle went waaaaay low and then shut off.

I am figuring the alternator is at fault.

We just started the car and it ran fine for the 2 minute drive home. When I got to my drive way I saw the RPMs drop down to like 500 it sounded like it was going to stall again but it made it up the drive way. We left the car running for a few mins and the clicking noise was still there while the car was parked. And the RPMs were normal no spiking or dipping.

So alternator FTL?

On and it smelled like something was burning in the engine bay.

i think you might need to replace ur idler pulley,, check your altenator with a voltometer

Have you looked under the hood at all? Checked for any codes present, if the CEL is on?

Tested the batt or alt?

it is probly your idler pulley if it olny does it when you slow down or stop. i got stuck in georgia for 2 hours because of it. i had to take off the pulley and basically tear it apart to get all the metal out of it cause all the part stores were closed on sundays. i found a gas station with the belt i needed luckily. it was so bad by the time i got to florida that i pulled up to the time share that i was staying at and the pulley came flying off and hit my moms car infront of me. btu i made it there so i was happy

where are the ecu's is these cars....new owner here. From past experience with having other cars (gvr4s) that have ecu's on kick panel by passenger side, clicking and funny smell (fish) meant leaky capacitors in the dsm ecu's. just curious if there's any similarity.

ecu is located right next to the gas paddle behind the kick panel

how about you bring your car over my house and i fix the problems

if alternator was bad the car wouldnt start back up.

It might...

My alternator belt was off, and i could drive it home (approx 2 mi) and start it up, twice. I suppose it depends on your battery because mine is only a month or two old.

You can check your idler pulley pretty easily.
Look on the side of the engine, near the timing belt cover (i think). You can see the alternator and compressor on the bottom. There is a belt that links these two and a few other things.



Looks like this, the part that you can adjust will be on top.

I can give you more details if you find that the belt is off/your pulley is gone, because mine just came off and i had to replace it (today in fact) =/. Just let me know.

Ok the alternator belt is moving. But I think it only likes to work when it engine is cold
Becuase the noise was like a set of metal stairs and a chain was dragging up it. And it only happened after the engine was warm and soon after that the car shut off.

But once we got a jump it was working fine until we got about 2 mins away to my house where I saw the RPMs dip again...

btw this is on a 99 maxima sel

to do a quick check on your alt just pull the positive cable with the car on. if it dies the its the alt if it stays on its probly the pulley

Do you guys think that if we bought the car a couple days ago that the guy at the local place we bought the car would repair it? because we only had the car for since the first of sept.

This is kinda retarded....but there is no day light out right now, so i will wait till tomorrow to see what we can do.

They don't have to fix it unless they gave you a 30 day warranty. Most used car dealers in CT do, but they don't have to unless the car is over $3k and I think the car also has to be less than six years old.

Im pretty sure they said that they sold the car as is or something like that. I remember my dad signing a paper with that on it...

ok one more thing....

There was smoke when it shut off

oh jiggys car yo i think that alternator just **** the bed. did it smell like someone was cooking food?

I don't think that its the alternator now just because it when I had the car sitting there idleing I tested it with the MM and it came out to 14.xx volts and when the engine was off it was around 12

Check your MAF sensor. My daughter was having problems with surging and stalling. I replaced the MAF (mass air flow) sensor and it took care of the problem.

My car just recently started turning off when I start slowing down and coming to a stop. Its a 5spd manual. I was coming to a stop and threw it into neutral, and the car just shut off on me. RPMs went down, and it shut off. The car was still rolling a little bit. My older bro, who know a lot about cars, said its the airflow probably. how should i address this problem?