if anyone has questions about this install, send me a note, and I can help.

 

Fantastic! Good luck. May I say that you look like a great couple. Your partner helping you with the car is awesome. Just like my wife had to hold the AC Comp while I wiggled out the bad alternator.

 

I second pics and have put on 4 alternators so I know what you are going through. Got it down to about 2 hours with a hour drive to the parts store for a test and a new alternator.

 

sux......So my fiancee was driving her car yesterday, after using this thread to replace her alternator, and the car died again...It was driving fine on the new alternator for around 3 weeks....
Brand new battery, and new(reman) alternator. And the car shut off.
I showed up, and got in, started the car and revved it a little. Car was fine while my foot was keeping revs above 1000rpm, but when the revs droppped below that, the car would shut off? Anyone? I am lost. I don't get how the car runs above 1000rpm, but then shuts off when I let it idle/take my foot off the gas? Could the 'new' alternator be bad, and if so, would it cause this?
here we go again...

 

Hmm.... Idle air control valve gets my vote.

You can check for battery voltage using a normal voltmeter but I doubt your alternator is the cause.

 

well, it got towed to the dealer yesterday. They said there was a code for a bad MAF and that then they would try to relearn the idle. They did that, and now they are saying the idle motor is bad, and that it also fried the ECM...
They are going to get back to me, but what the (*&#. That is going to be more than $1K if they do the work...I guess I will see what they say, but what a pain in the ***...Where can I get a new/reman ECM online for a 2000 maxima, if I need one?

 

also, anyone in VA that has a scan tool, and want to have a few beers while I do this. Then I won't need to get it towed back to the dealer to get reprogrammed...If I need a new ECM, but I am sure they are going to tell me that.

 

you know.... there is a huge thread on the org about the electronic motor mounts our auto maxis have and how upon failure they fry the iacv and ecu/ecm.

I would strongly suggest to get the work done and also disconnect your electronic motor mounts.

I have been debating and putting off swapping out my electronic mounts for a set of manual ones... but your incident just made me say... get it done my end of the month.

 

have to check that out, thanks

 

What are electronic motor mounts?

 

They are fluid-filled mounts, electronically controlled, that get soft when the engine is at idle speed and hard at higher speeds. In our cars, only the ones with automatic transmissions come with these type of mounts (front and back mounts only).

 

I did not know that. Are these prone to wear and eventually have to be replaced?

 

^^From what I've read, when they fail they fry the ECU along with them. A lot of people opt for disconnecting them and just taping the harnesses, since they do not throw a SES light, to avoid expensive ECU replacement when they go south. Supposedly they give you warning signs, such as a particular buzzing sound, before they fail. I guess leakage of the mounts themselves is another sign.
Other people prefer to replace them for manual mounts and not have to worry about the electronic ones shorting the ECU. The only drawback is some excesive vibration that one have to get used to.
There's plenty of information in these forums about that, in case you want to dig a little deeper (before we get flamed for hijacking or whoring this thread...)

 

Thanks, back to the alternator business. I still have to fine tune my tensioner, I get a squeek every now and then.

 

I am trying to replace my alternator and the link to motorvate.ca isn't working anymore and most of whoever has replaced it have directed me to this link,

http://www.motorvate.ca/mvp.php/500

and it seems to be broken.

I am not sure if anyone of you saved the procedure from that website, if you did , i would really appreciate if you could share it with me or direct me to a working link

Thank you

 

You might benefit from reading this thread as opposed to posting a question at the end without reading its content. The procedure is outlined here, along with pictures and plenty of tips from different members who have tackled the task. You'll find out that reading it is very well worthy.

 

There has been a lot of input on changing alternators and I am sure if you read through them, you will be good to go.

 

I suspect I have to change the alternator and AC clutch bearing on my '03. Finally got the shop cleared out to be able to work inside. Monday I had a quick try to turn the tensioner "strut nut"

but it didn't move easily. I put some oil in it and went back to tidying up. I just want to make sure, there is no lock nut on it is there? As I understand it from here this nut should turn down and then you slacken off the tensioner holding nut (lower down) to actually get the tension pulley to move then? I know this sounds pretty "newby" but I sure don't want to strip/shear anything. The car's inside now, so today's the day to have at it. I'm thinking I might just put the new belt on first so I can diagnose things properly.

Thanks in advance. Andrew

 

This might sound obvious, but did you also loosen up the nut at the center of the pulley? If that nut is still tight, the pulley will not slide up or down no matter how hard you turn the strut nut (see edited image below).

 

Yes you are right. The nut referred to must be loose to adjust. I screwed up bigtime, I did not loosen up this nut and I was fighting with the strut nut. I was lucky that the strut nut did not give way!

 

Thanks everyone.

All was clear when I went back down. Got it loosened off (not without trouble and tension) and a new belt in position. I guess I released the tension just a bit too far and jammed at the end of the thread. Damn adjuster rod sheared off when I tried to re-tension. So now the whole thing is off and I'm about to start phoning to find out how much extra this is going to put me back. With the adjuster (strut) nut and thread being left hand it's more of a pain to fab up an alternative.

If it's not one damn thing, it's another damn thing.

cheers, Andrew

 

Replacement tensioner rod is only available from dealer as part of a new idler assembly for $123, and not until Friday. So I re-tapped the "strut nut" 5/16 NC (instead of the 7mm left hand, or whatever it is), welded a chunk of threaded rod onto the bottom part of the tension rod and put it all back together. Right now everything **seems** to be working OK and charging, although the AC clutch was rubbing somewhere before I put the belt on. If it keeps going OK, I can return the alternator and use the money towards either the AC clutch or some brake parts.

Thanks again. Andrew

 

Great job! Good for you.

 

Sic write up!!

 

Got that right!

 

HUGE thank you to those who have contributed in this thread. I just got done replacing the alternator in my '00 with 160k miles (original alt!). Everything went very smoothly thanks to the tips/tricks in this thread.

I first noticed something was up 2 days ago when I thought there was an odd whine coming from the car. I suspected power steering (it's been feeling a little different lately) and was planning to change the fluid this weekend to see if it helped at all. When I was out running errands today the car wouldn't start after going into Staples....at that point I pretty much knew the alternator was what the whining sound had been the whole time.

I got a jump start from a friend and on the way back home my dashboard started lighting up like a christmas tree. tcs off, brake, batt, airbag, seat belt, you name it.

$128 plus tax and 2.5 hours of work and the job is done. Too easy! I got my alternator from advanceauto.com and used code sp20 to save 20%. Perfect fit too. Also, I didn't have to replace the tensioner pulley nut...I used liquid wrench on it an hour before I started and then was pretty careful with a 14mm box wrench.

I do have one question though -- should I be concerned if the new alternator is only charging at 13.9 volts? The battery connectors are not corroded at all but there is quite a bit of grease on the terminals from the last guy. Maybe I need to clean everything up a bit...

 

Good for you! As for 13.9V, I think it is good. Check your belt tension, it squeaks? If not you got it good.

 

The alternator should charge between 13.5 to 14.5. 14.5 being the highest and the regulator chops it. 13.9 is good.

 

I just did my pass mount and had to take off the idler pulley and got it adjusted right and now no more squeals.

 

Have a friend in NY, near brooklyn that needs a new alternator and someone to install..any suggestions for her other than stealership.

 

You should measure it at 1k rpm, not just idle using good digital voltmeter (multimeter). It should be 14.4V +-0.1V. I'm not kidding, this is very precise voltage. It is also temperature- dependent, higher in the winter by few tens of volts. If you see 13.9V at 1k rpm it is too low IMHO.

 

The FSM says a range definitely wider than what you stated. Where did you get the +/- 0.1V?

 

One common place:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93acid_battery 'Voltages for common usages' section. It also gives voltage temperature dependency coefficient which gives approx +0.7 V increase if the temperature falls to 0F. So it is meaningless to talk about battery voltage without being specific about temperature, the range becomes too wide. Alternator has this dependency built it into its charging circuit so temp must be taken into account when comparing actual voltage with 'ideal' one. You can of course ignore all of this and just check it is not below some very low (13.9V) or very high threshold (14.6V) but then again it might not last that long. See p.3 from that Wiki article.

 

I defer to the FSM which is specific to the Max we have.

 

You know, it's possible to overthink a problem. Really. Unless I take your post to mean you'd really change the alternator when the temperature is 0F, and have enough manual dexterity left to operate the voltmeter after.

<sarcasm>
Will you measure the temperature of every cell's electrolyte too when calculating the perfect charging voltage too, or is "ambient temperature" your measure? Are the factors multiplicative or additive? The ambient temperature of the air outside? Under the hood? The voltage regulator temperature? Will you consider the voltage induction, if any, from a nearby high voltage line, electrical storm, or temperature differential themocoupling effect?

Good luck explaining that to the Nissan parts guy when you want to return your alternator on warranty because it is off by .0043V, just sayin'. I want to see that on YouTube. Or you changing the alternator at 0F.
</sarcasm>

Back to the topic, your charge voltage is fine if it's in the range stated in the FSM. Moreover, it will be on the low end initially, simply because it's charging the battery that's probably low or not fully charged. You know, the reason the alternator was changed in the first place.

 

You're blessed in your ignorance - I never suggested anything you trying to be sarcastic about. All I was saying this voltage is unexpectedly precise and temperature dependent. Knowing approximate temperature allows to determine correct voltage and compare it to what voltmeter shows. BTW, that coefficient is multiplicative to the difference in temp relatively to the normal conditions (20C). There should be graphs of this voltage on the Net if you're having math difficulties.

Batteries are also very asymmetric load - while it can provide huge current when being discharged it takes much less current to drive voltage up when charging. My point is - 13.9V seems too low unless it was extremely hot or engine wasn't running at 1k rpm.

Good alternator should have no problem to drive it to 14.4V at 1k rpm even fully discharged. There was a thread here in the past when thick wire going from alternator to the battery was getting very hot because of high charging current from alt. In that case one of the battery cells shortened and it made alt produce high charging current. The insulation on that wire was literally smoking.

 

Okay, now I've done it. I've stripped the tensioner pulley nut and can't figure out how to get it off. The nut removers I have won't fit in that space. I don't think a nutcracker will work because of the washer part of the nut (or will it?). I'm at a loss. Any ideas. I stripped it with a box-end, by the way. After applying a bunch of Blaster. That guy won't budge...

Oh, and thank you guys for this and everything else on this site. I've been a lurker for a few years, and this community is awesome!

 

Are you talking about the actual pulley nut or the strut nut at the very top of the pulley assembly? (see picture on post #139 above)

 

Yeah, I guess that wasn't clear. I'm talking about the nut on the pulley, not the tensioning nut. I think today I'm going to try to modify a Bolt-Out to fit in that space, or file the nut down and crack it. Is the tension pulley assembly easy to replace if I foul the threads?

 

Yes, it is pretty easy to replace.