Here are the symptom's I'm having:

- Car won't start without a jump.
- When it is jumped, the car stays on (haven't had time to check voltage).
- The noise from the car is making a whining noise that grows louder relative to rpm.
- Smoke comes out of the alternator side when it's on and running.
- Electronics still work on the car despite it not turning on.
- If I try to start the car, the lights that come on when you have your car in the ON position are there as usual (CEL, Brake, etc.). Then when I crank, these lights flicker and I hear a clicking noise until I stop trying to start.

- If I try to pick up in first gear, it barely moved (think letting go of the brakes on an automatic car on a flat surface) even if I floored it and the lights were dimming, but the car didn't die.
- After the previous symptom I decided to just rev it up and drop the clutch like a launch. Once it's moving at this point, there's no dim lights and everything works fine other than the whine and smoke.
- When I'm at a stop everything is fine but the dashboard gauges dim a little. It's significantly brighter if I rev the car.
- As soon as I shut off the car, it doesn't start anymore but electronics still work.

Some help before I start replacing the parts? I'll have a multimeter and time to work on the car on Saturday but if someone can confirm my suspicions that it's the alternator, that'd be nice.

Serpentine belt was replaced on it less than a year ago and I have retightened it since the install.

EDIT: I have driven with that belt tightened for several months without issues. This noise crept up 2 days before the issue with the car picking up from a start and the dimming lights. When that happened, as soon as I shut off the car, it wouldn't start.

 

I'd start with the alternator. It definitely sounds like it's bad if it's whining and smoking (both bad things). Good luck man.

 

The alt is going out they do all kinds of strange things when going bad its acting like its overcharging which is just as bad as not charging..

 

also check the other pullys on the same belt. if any of the others or stuck you will see this. as well as a bad alternator pully also. id check to see if you can visually inspect belt and pully movement while the car is running.

 

You have the time to make a topic here but not to put a DMM on battery????

FAIL

 

Good one. Thing is, the car is not with me at the moment and when people have jobs, it's simple to go on and post a thread and ask for useful advice until they do have a chance to go to the car.

Now if you're done being cool and funny, please keep yourself out of this thread since you don't seem to have anything useful to contribute and just like increasing your post count cause it makes you feel cool.

 

Obviously all the symptoms are there for the dying or almost dead alternator. Has BATT+BRK light started coming on when the engine is running? It will soon.

Rather than confirming dead alternator via DMM, you come here and give us all the symptoms of a dead/soon-to-be-dead alternator including letting off of magic smoke!

Most likely, it is dead alternator but it could be shorted cell in the battery although unlikely. Driving as it is would cause the battery to die quickly and even more things to go wrong electrically.

 

Agreed there. Fluctuating Voltage=electronics fail. They're pretty sensitive to below 11 and above 14ish. Kinda like the way our bodies are sensitive to such a narrow temp range. Never did understand that....

 

No the battery and brake lights haven't gone off which is part of why I want to be sure.

That's the point of the thread. If I didn't have the means to test it when the car died in the middle of the road, then how do you expect me to test it when I'm not near the car?

Going online to post a thread takes 5 minutes and I can have more experienced people weigh in.

Getting to your car that's parked somewhere 10 miles away without an easy way to get to it on top of having a job isn't easy. It's just that simple so stop complaining.

 

The battery and brake lights only turn on when there is a no charge condition thats why i made the comment about the alt is overcharging.

 

Take it to a BM Auto Store that can check your Alt + battery, it is free.

 

It's your alternator. My car did the same thing (minus the smoking alternator) so have it replaced as soon as possible.

The whining noise is the bearings in the alternator. They will fail very quickly once you start to hear it, so don't drive it, unless it's to a shop to have it done if you don't do it yourself. If you do it yourself, you have to unbolt the a/c compressor and move it out of the way to get to the alternator to remove it. It's a major p.i.t.a. unless you have good mechanical skills and patience to do it.

 

I would add the fact you have to boost the car to get it to start that the battery is also done, as the battery is primarily used to store the extra charge that is made by the alternator the lack of crank power points to the battery also being caput. As mentioned by several others the alternator also sounds like it is finished, whinning and smoking are two pretty good indicators of course having it properly check to see what voltage it is putting out will confirm the alternator problem.

 

+1 overcharging causes the electrolyte in the battery to boil off.

 

In that case, pour in some Brawndo. It has electrolytes. It's what batteries crave!

 

So me and my uncle ended up tackling it today.

Started off by checking with a multimeter and found that with the car on after a jump the voltage on the battery was dropping from 14.X to 11.X and kept going down.

We replaced the alternator and the battery still required a jump to start the car the first time but now it's running fine. Checked the voltage on the battery afterwards and it seems to be fine.

Glad I didn't buy a battery since mine still seems to be working fine. Thanks for the help everyone. I've been stuck with a minivan all week and am glad to be back in the Maxima.

 

Good for you, you fixed it! Saved the battery, too.

 

Glad you got it fixed, man. Keep an eye on your battery though. Those kind of discharges severely damage anything but a deep cycle battery. You might still get a year or two out of it if it's already pretty new, but you might only get a few months. At least batteries are relatively inexpensive! Sux about the minivan, THE worst vehicle on the road...lol!