This is an interesting one- second straight week that I need to bring the Max into the shop. Background: about 3000 miles ago, car had 131K, had the alternator and power steering belts changed along with tensioner. no problems in 3000 miles. BUT...Driving home yesterday, both battery light and brake light is on...not good...did some research, it was the alternator going bad (as suspected)...open the hood...see the alternator belt is off...look for some input from the board.

1. my car is a 2003 with 135K now...when did you have your alternators changed. Followup to that is...are the 1995-1999 or 2004 to 2008 Maxima alternators interchangeable with ours- 5.5 gen? Did you go aftermarket/oem...experiences and when- year + mileage did you need to change.

2. While I am up in there with the mechanic...I may as well change the starter as well? any thoughts to that? car starts fine...but figure do it all at once...anyone changed their starter yet so far in their 5th generation max?

As always-- thanks for any - all feedback...

 

140k, starter at 135k, alty at 138k. Completely normal.

 

All 95-08 Maxima alternators will interchange physically, but the later ones (04+ I think) have a different electrical connector. It will work if you swap this over too. Make it easy, just get the correct one for your car.

As for the starter replacement: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Replacing the alternator or the starter are tasks that are totally unrelated.

 

You might want to look into the reason why the belt was off the alternator. Could be an improper install of the belt and/or tensioner pulley, not necessarily a bad alternator.
As oldngivout said, don't see a reason to replace the starter if it's working. Is not like you have to remove the starter to get to the alternator.

 

^^ I agree, if you had the work done by a shop in the first place why are you replacing more new parts ... belts don't just come off on there own unless they improperly installed in the first place, I would be straight back at the shop for some warranty work from them ... even if the belt was defective it would still be covered

 

Def- I understand but I figure at 135k with both original alternator and starter it is about time and I figured I'd do both as a peace of mind instead of the bits and pieces at say 140' and so on.

 

I am having big time issues also, car has less then 12V charging when running, take neg terminal off while running she dies , drive around the block she will just die- SES ,ABS light,battery? The car has only 75000 km on it! but is ten years old. All these symptoms started last week when I noticed a burning smell and the alternator cooking hot!

Thanks

 

Try cleaning the contacts especially the ground at the alternator I am getting
13.5 V at the battery terminals now vs 10 ??!! Well I am going test drive her today with my booster pack in the trunk and my CAA card in my wallet and hope for the best