Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

WTF?!


a customer brought his '01 over this week and I urethaned some suspension bushings for him, as well as replacing drive belts. (WHAT A PITA to get to the PS pump tensioner! who the F*** designed that?! they should be cursed by being forced to work in a dealer bay and replace those things for the rest of their lives! )


....... back to the point.....

After replacing the belts, I took the car for a short test drive. no problems, no dummy lights, nothing. everything was cool.

Customer picks car up today around 6pm.. he calls me back about 9pm. "Ummm, my car won't start. can you come give me a jump or something."


"WTF? did you leave your lights on?"
"I don't think so. thing just won't start"

So I grab my jump & carry and head the 20 miles to the car. pop the hood and the battery is reading ballpark of 10V... have him crank it over and it immediately drops to about 5V--- battery obviously dead.

I hook up the jumpers and the car starts right up... but it's only registering about 11.5V with the jumpers on. I pull it off and it immediately drops to 10V... he turns headlights on and they drop to 6V and the engine starts misfiring (surprise)...

I look at the gauges, and there's not a single dummy light on the dash at all. so no warnings, nothing. (is that normal?? my 3rd gen had dummy lights... I would assume the 5gen does as well)


So what the heck could I have done to this car while changing the drive belts?
The only time I touched the alternator at all was when I threaded the belts on/off of the pulley.. I didn't touch the alternator at all other than that, so there is no real reason this thing should have failed.
And yes, I did check the belt to make sure it's still on and spinning. the alternator is spinning just fine. no reason it should have died on me.

Anybody else had this problem before?
sudden alternator failure with no dummy lights.... WTF?

kobalt

iTrader: (3)

Hmm...perhaps coincidence, perhaps the you put the belt on a little tight? Maybe the old belt was on too tight, and somehow ruined the alternator when you took the pressure off...BTW, that tensioner IS a PITA, Nissan's probably got a special tool for it

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

belt tension won't ruin an alternator- well it shouldn't. it'll mess up the bearings on it, but I didn't put it on too tight.. it's spinning just fine and there's no nasty noises. it's a little loose if anything, but it's not squealing... it's not the belt.

time to see if I can find one at a parts store now.

[maxi-overdose]

iTrader: (3)

I dont think nissan has a special tool on it. I use a 10mm socket wrench to adjust the tension on the PS pump belt.

[maxi-overdose]

iTrader: (3)

maybe that alternator is already on its way out....

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

FYI, the PS tensioner uses a 12mm bolt.

I'm thinking it was on it's last legs as well.. he's got a pretty decent stereo in there and lots of other goodies..

plus the local parts store said they've been dropping left and right lately. they've ordered an average of 2 a day for the last couple weeks- I'm wondering if it's due to the heat here. hottest part of the summer.
fortunately, they have one in their warehouse and they were willing to put it on hold for me as long as I call them by 2pm today.

[maxi-overdose]

iTrader: (3)

oops....thanks for the correction, 12mm it is.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

That's odd... I doubt you can do anything except the replace the alternator now. Might as well stick the battery on a charger too if you have one...

condor9382

Customer may have played you. Alternator was shot already. He brings it in with fully charged battery (during the day). Upon test drive it shows no problem. After pick up he claims (with intention of getting a free alternator) you had something to do with it's failure. This is just speculation.

deezo

iTrader: (3)

It was the luck of the draw. The stock Hitachi Altermators suck. You definitely didn't cause that delemna.

Gennady7

A friend of mine has 99 maxima.
His alternator too stopped working after a belt change. He brought it to Nissan (this was in 2002) and apparently they had a recall on some of the alternators. Might be a good idea to call up Nissan and see if you can get it replaced for free.

BlackCloud

His alternator death has nothing to do with you.

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

Nah... He's honest... A fairly well-known member here actually.. he's not trying to jack me or anything.. just a freak occurence that they both happened at the same time.

the battery is shot as well.. the alternator probably killed off the last bit of the battery that was left. it won't hold a charge at all now. pull the charger off and it immediately drops to 6-7-8V.
time for a new battery and alternator. yaay.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

Time for a new Optima

IceY2K1

iTrader: (3)

You sure the alternator is shot and not just the battery Matt?

I've seen bad/shorted cell batteries cause some weird **** before. Try just replacing the battery and check the voltage again once it's running.

BTW, you didn't happen to short anything by chance did you?

BlackCloud

When this person goes to order a new alternator let me know if they can't beat $125. I know where to get them all day for that price.

Mr. Peabody

I've never had this problem with either of my Maxs but I did have this twice with my GMC Yukon and both time the alternator was fine and it was blown cells in the battery that would now allow it to charge sufficiently. I think Ice has a good point.

Mr. P

IceY2K1

iTrader: (3)

Haha...funny you mention that because that's the EXACT vehicle I was referencing.

Tow truck guy had dual batteries w/truck at high RPM on that bad cell battery for over 20mins. and it still wouldn't start. Everything worked fine in the truck, just wouldn't start. Finally, had it towed, replaced the battery and all has been well.