msoemax

So I go out to the garage this morning and try to start my car-Nothing!!! I have to be at work in 20 mins and I am SOL. So I call up the dealership and have the car towed. Dealer claims that my battery went bad.

So I pick my car and the porter pulls my car around to the front. The serpentine belt squeeks like a ten year old car. So I immediately pop the hood open to see what's up. Sure enough I have a new battery in there or they put an official nissan sticker on my old battery and charged it up. Doesn't look like they touched the altenator at all. I just want to go one week with out having to take the car in!

Has anyone else had any issues with the battery in their car?

Tvetti

Sorry msoemax... i remember someone else mentioning about the alternator or some combination of blinking lights on the dash....

I live in pretty cold place, and have had no problems with my battery or alternator (so for).....

are you sure, some of your mods are not taking extra juice? properly wired... just a thought..

msoemax

I have an amp in the car and I know I wired that correctly. I have done my previous three cars the same way with no problems ever. I also have an electrical engineering degree so I hope I know what i am doing.

lightonthehill

In a properly adjusted electrical system, even a poor battery should last at least three years. I had a battery in a 1978 Datsun 200SX last seven years (until I bought my 1985 Maxima).

Either you were unfortunate in that you got the only bad battery I have read about here, or one of only two bad alternators I have read about here. Another possibility that comes to mind is that there might be a short somewhere in your wiring system, in which case this will be a recurring problem until it is fixed.

I will give an example of the last situation I mentioned: I drove from Fort Monmouth NJ to Fort Huachuca AZ in 1958. The car caught fire three times enroute, and I had to replace both the generator (predecessor to alternator) and battery all three times.

A garage in Bisbee AZ finally found the problem. The ground wire between the engine and the frame had broken, but was inside a sheath, so the break was not visible. The generator ran full blast trying to charge the battery, but nothing was reaching the battery. The generator would eventually overheat and catch fire.

This is a very simplified version of that nightmarish trip. The full story would leave the meek here shaken and sobbing for Mommy.

Mike_TX

I need a good cry to help me get in touch with my feminine side.

Mike

jrod1014

iTrader: (2)

I know i have mentioned this a bunch of times before. If you are taking the car in to the same dealer and walking out with more problems then you started, try different dealers. Its sucks that so many shady people are running the dealers our cars come from...
I hope it helps
-Jeremy

lightonthehill

OK, Mike_TX; just so you can have one good cry, I'll give you just one peek:

Visualize a young soldier and his blushing bride down in a roadside ditch on a deserted back Texas 'farm-to-market' road at midnight, having expended the contents of their fire extinguisher in the previous fire back in Arkansas, desperately clawing dirt and throwing it into the engine compartment of a burning Bonneville.

I await your sob.

Rathmax

I'll sob too at the pitiful scene. On a separate note, Fort Huachuca brings back many memories, most of them good. I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder.

jsmithsole

iTrader: (5)

My battery has died twice, the dealer said it could possibly be from my amp/stereo etc. Once it died when I had left town for week, the second time I had left the lights on while I was working inside the car for about 30 min. The dealer also said the headlights use up quite a bit of power...
Haven't had a problem in quite a while now.

Konicaman2

My 03 Altima battery died a few months ago. It was less than 1.5 years old. I have a friend who is a mechanic at my dealer and he said that the OEM Nissan battery is crap. He said the replacement Nissan batteries are made by Interstate I believe.

factorymax

Well I will sob for Mike_TX. Light, you are full of stories like my Grandfather used to be (not an intended age insult).

It is great to have someone like you in the 6th gen forum.

Mike_TX

Sorry for the delay in replying. I have been in counselling since reading your post. I tried to deal with it myself, but it was bigger than me. I began drinking heavily ... too heavily. Then I became self-destructive, taking silly risks and endangering others, all in an effort to get the images of your horrific experience out of my tortured mind. I thought I had it licked, but it kept coming back to me in nightmares and flashbacks. I lost my job and my home and began wandering the streets of the city aimlessly, depending on handouts from passersby and eating out of garbage cans. My health began failing me, and I eventually ended up unconscious in a filthy back alley, beaten senseless by a vicious gang of Eurasian children. That's when the lady from the Salvation Army found me and had me taken to their clinic, where I was nursed back to health and given the psychological help I so desperately needed.

I have still not been able to deal completely with the images in my mind of your hellish trip, so I hope you will forgive me for not offering further comment on it. It's time for my electroshock now, so I must go ...

Mike

lightonthehill

Mike_TX - I'm trying to decide if your prose is more Tennessee Williams or Earnest Hemmingway. . .

Are you perhaps the weary disheveled unshaven gent with the strange body odor that usually arrives at the therapist's office around 3PM on Tuesdays? Driving a bronze '04 Maxima? If so, we are using the same therapist!

I'm the gent with the sunken eyes, maroon tie (won't show ketchup) with mustard on it and sandals with a broken strap. The one who avoids eye contact with anyone, and is terrified of the cat the therapist keeps in her office. I'm in the silver SL with ricey ventshades which you park beside, and I watch out the window of the therapist's office to make sure you don't ding my car.

It seems I never fully recovered from that ghastly trip thru Texas over forty-five years ago.

But this thread is about batteries, which makes this 'post' a very weak 'non-starter'. The mods may 'charge' me with 'posting' an 'acetic' diatribe which has 'drained' their 'short' patience. They may 'clamp' down on me by 'disconnecting' me from the site. Maybe we both belong in a mental 'cell'.

msoemax

This is a Nissan forum!!!!! snap out of it the both of you! Go into the max turn the heat to high and smell the new car smell. that will bring you to your senses!

bigcozz

Why dony you gte an optima batter they crank a bit more juice out. This may be helpfull especially if you have any stereo equiptment or aftermarket products that drain teh juice. Also try setting the auto off on your headlight to a lower setting. I see it goes up to 1 minute. That IMO is a waste of juice.

msoemax

Headlamps are set to 30 seconds, always have been. I don't run the stereo with the car off in the winter time. And I know my amp isn't draining the battery that bad. I think it was just a fluke with the battery. It's very cold here and I am not having any problems with a new battery.

NismoMax80

iTrader: (6)

I think I saw either CourtestNissan or JerryRomeNissan site sell a battery warmer.

msoemax

Thanks Nismo, I saw it on the site a while back for $60.

I know it's cold out, but at 30-40F there should be no issue with the battery. It's when it gets down to 0 or below that I can see issues. I think the battery warmer runs off the battery. If not It won't be much help when out and about away from electrical outlets.

lightonthehill

I no longer have the accessory booklet Nissan sent me a month after I bought my '04, BUT, IIRC, it showed both a battery warmer and an engine block warmer available for the 6th gen Maxima. Both plugged into a 110 volt outlet (house current).

I have friends in cold climes who have used such devices for many years. They say the major drawbacks are either forgetting to plug them in when they get home, or forgetting to unplug them before driving off.

If I lived in a cold clime, I would absolutely positively use these devices. This gives easier starting, plus the pre-warmed engine block reduces the worst part of the wear of starting a cold engine.

Nissan dealers (especially in cold climes) should be able to get these devices from Nissan.