i could still drive on bad alt

 

This is *exactly* how my Prelude used to do. The fuel cut-out got bypassed during the engine crank. So the car would start fine but as soon as you tried to move, no more fuel to the carburator and car would just die. This was designed so that in case the engine dies, you don't want the to be fed any more gas.

In general, battery should have enough juice to drive for many miles during the daytime with dead alternator *unless* the engineer used alternator output to implement some crude fail-safe mechanism like my 83 Prelude did. You would think for 2000 model year, they need not have stupid bugs. The ECM has many sensors such as CPS etc to know if the engine is running or not and should not rely on alternator output to know if the engine is running.

So back to my question; how many of you, Maxima owners, have driven your vehicle with the RED battery light staring at your face and reached home? We already have somebody who could not; any others?

- Vikas

 

I did, about a quarter mile.