I was on the interstate this afternoon, and my 03 Max loss power and I had to coast to a stop. The engine was running fine, no miss or anything like that but the car would not go forwarded no matter what gear I tried. It was like there was no transmission. I turned off the engine and it would not re-crank (or turn over), was like what u get with a very week battery.I never had any ahead warning lights on the dash, no indication as any thing wrong was to happen. Called a tow truck and delivered to my Nissan dealer. They put a charger on it and it crank right up and went into gear but barely made it to the back of the shop. First indication was I loss the gen. but again no dash light plus normally u can tell if your gen is not up to speed as even your blinker light would be weak. I never noticed any of this while driving.

So, I'll know for sure tomorrow.

 

sounds like the alternator took a dump

 

If it did it died in a hurry! My GM's when I use to own one always told me so.

 

my 3rd gen it was quick. one morning the wipers started going slow suddenly, then the ABS light came on, parked it for a couple hours, dead battery. acted fine the night before. Chevies will usually give you some warning with the battery light but Nissans the alternators seem to just go quickly

 

Another alternator case

Went through 4+ last year, some just died out of the blue & left me stranded at work... But car sometimes worked if jump started

 

That's nice to know. I guess every time I go out in this 03 or my 08 I'll just have to cross my fingers. I try and take care of these cars enough to avoid being stuck on the side of the road. Not a good feeling.

I use to own a 94 max for 15 years and never loss a gen.

Thanks,

 

I use to go through a lot of GM car generators and if you ever loss your gen. u might as well change your battery too.

 

Battery wasn't even a year old but I may replace it this year just in case

 

If it's automatic then bad alt might be a culprit- AT needs sizable current to keep those solenoids energized.

 

Thanks, yeah I hope that's all it is. Dealer hasn't told me anything just yet. Just never had a car's alt die that quick. Maybe had it been at night with all accessories on I'd known I was in trouble.

 

Got the word from the dealer that the alt is bad.
Looking at the manual it says to remove the radiator to allow removal of the alt. Is that really necessary?

 

ive never heard of having to remove the radiator to get at the alt. correct me if im wrong but you just have to swing the AC compressor out of the way on VQ to make room for the alternator to come out

 

You're correct, no need to remove radiator. The space is tight and you'll have to swing AC compressor but it will work.

 

Why did you tow it to a dealer?

 

I had a MAF die once when accelerating onto an interstate, and the car acted exactly like you describe. Power once minute, then nothing.