Hi guys,

Yesterday a weird thing happened. While i was driving. Everything seemed normal, but then all of a sudden my car started losing power. The instrument panel lights were flickering, and my acceleration was near zero. So, I turned off the radio and air, and regained power. Then just to test it out and see if it's related to power drain, i plugged my cell phone into the lighter socket, and sure enough after a few minutes of it charging, when i was idle, stuck in traffic the same thing started happening. I didn't let it stall or lose acceleration, and unplugged it right away. Car drove fine rest of the way.

What could cause this? Is my Alternator going out?

I have a 2003 Nissan Maxima. Also, I'm running late on my oil change this time around. I have however, added in some Castrol GTX High Mileage 10W30 just so my oil level doesn't drop. Could a dirty oil filter have any effect to cause this?

All feedback is appreciated. Thank you all so much.

 

Sound like it's battery or alternator related. Have AutoZone test that stuff and report back.

 

yeah same thought. battery or alternator.

 

definitely the alternator is going south, I have had the very same ... I first replaced the battery thinking it was the problem but no it was the alternator on its way out.

 

Thanks brothers.

Is it safe to buy an alternator off ebay? Any particular brand I should buy, or watch out for? Also, I'm assuming you also have to replace the belt at the same time too?

Thanks again. I really appreciate you all helping me out.

 

My mechanic just replaced mine with a rebuilt one, have no idea which brand and yes he replaced the belt while things were off the car as I had 200,000km on the clock just made sense to replace the belt.

 

Def the alternator. Boshe is a could brand thats all we install at work. And we run into these problems alot ppl say I have a wiring problem and its just the alt usually lime someone said have advance auto check it out simple

 

On the Altenator....