BayareaEMT

Guys,

I have this 1997 Infiniti I30 bone-stock with 327K miles. It was running like a charm so far but now it has started to give me some problems.

Basically, couple months ago, original alternator went out so I replaced it and since then I am having this intermittent problem which I can't figure out and need help from some gurus here.

Basically, I drive around town and most of the time I go through fine for more than a week (total 500+ miles) and all of sudden I find my battery going down and after I park somewhere and return, car doesn't start. I check the battery voltage at that time which shows me 12.5V (when it is fully charged up it shows 13.0+ Volts). Amps are shown under 100 instead of 600+. Even a jump start doesn't help because after I jump start car, after I disconnect jumper cables from other car, my car doesn't want to rev over 1000 rpm after 3-4 mintues and eventually it will stop again. Last 3 times, I took my battery to AutoZone fully charged it, Even bought a brand new battery to throw out any guesswork, after new battery or charged battery car will run fine for another week or two and show me that alternator is charging fine with 14V with car running at 1500-2000 RPM across battery terminals.


I thought Alternator might be faulty, I changed alternator 2 times already and Autozone reported both the alternators were fine but they replaced those with another ones. Battery is just 15 days old from Costco with higher cold cranking amp (680 CCA) than car really needs. Whenever a problem occurs, at that time, I jump start car and after removing jumper cables, when I rev car to 2000 rpm (which lasts only 3-4 minutes), at that time I only measure 12.5V to 13.0V across terminals which means alternator is not charging. I checked for all grounds and fuses and found those to be OK. Is it possible that car is developing some sort of short circuit (intermittently) which drains battery rapidly?

Anyone has seen this problem. All I am seeing is whenever a problem occurs Alternator stopped charging but after I put a fully charged battery in, it show charging fine for a week or two.

Anyone faced this before? I will appreciate your feedback and any troubleshooting tips to solve the issue.

I wanted to cross at least half a million miles on this car and besides this issue every thing is going per plan. I love the car but if this issue is not solved then I may have to part with her due to my job situations.

ImmaSquashYou

iTrader: (7)

maybe the plugs are bad? or the wires are exposed and is grounding with the chassis so that it doesn't reach the battery which can be very dangerous. I would try to follow the wire that goes to charging the battery and see if everything is ok there.

BayareaEMT

Well, I replaced last alternator in end of october 2008. Checked all wiring and couldn't find any shorts anywhere on all the open wires, plug-wires. Charging system worked fine for 3+ months and now my I30 crossed 335K miles.

But the sad story started again yesterday when charging stopped once again. I took alternator out again (it is pain in the a** to change alternator in this car) and took to autozone and it tested out OK.

I am pretty sure now that there is some problem between alternator wires through it reaches battery terminals. Just don't know how would I be able to troubleshoot since after alternator sockets and ground wire gets plugged in to bracket next to it, it just simply goes inside big engine harness and I don't want to mess with it.

Does anyone wire colors, I should be tracing at the end where it reaches POS terminal on battery. I mean I need to find what socket terminals at alternator side should show continuity with what wires on battery positive terminal side. There are two little wires go into battery positive terminal with little sockets.

I will really appreciate your help on this guys. I just want this baby to reach half-a-million miles. Outside this problem there is no problem this car had ever.

Stormzusmc

iTrader: (17)

part it out...get new car lol

BayareaEMT

Buddy, If parting out is the only solution then I sincerely wish you don't get any limb stop working in your body ever...


Anyways, what I find out now is, when I turn on ignition on position I or II, I don't see any battery light coming on. I think that is the source of the problem here.

I checked charging circuit diagram and found that from Alternator there is a write/red wire that hooks up to harness which supposed to goto combination meter for charging and from that meter a green wire goes to Fuse 13 under driver side kick panel. I verified that Fuse 13 with 10amp is fine. And I see connectivity from alternator to the socket which plugs into harness. That leaves with only two problems with continuity in wiring. 1) A wire from socket at alternator side that goes into harness to the end where it connects to combination meter or 2) combination meter to the fuse 13 wire (green one).

Does anybody know where this combination meter is located? Maybe I need to check continuity at that side for both ends.

Thanks for your valuable help in advance.

4th gen maxi

iTrader: (1)

I have tis very same problem does any body have a clue?

pflicht

iTrader: (2)

Kept happening to me. Eventually I replaced alternator and battery at the same time (even though both were new) fixed my problem. Also under the hood there is a fuse box. Locate the "alt s" fuse and check to make sure that is fine.

4th gen maxi

iTrader: (1)

I woke up this morning determine to check all my wires going from alternator to comb. Meter the red white dissapears coming out under the fuse block into a green one not sure which, one too many. I looked under my dash and 10a fuse is changed now..wherre do i go from here ? I need help, thanks