Okay so Ive searched everywhere and cant find my exact situation..

I bought my 04 Max SE Elite about 1 month ago with 125k on the odometer. Ever since I have bought it the brake and battery light in the cluster will light up together every now and then but they never stayed on. Whenever it came on until today it would just flicker on and off for no apparent reason.

Today whenever I drive it the lights will come on and stay steady or not come on at all. The Nissan dealership near me says it could be the charging system which would need to replace the alternator, battery, and trace the cables. But Im not too fond of paying nearly $700 to replace just the alternator.

I have already had Advance Auto Parts check out the charging system with their method and theirs came back everything positive so I am really lost as to what the problem is...

Thanks in Advance

 

Well due, it looks like it is an electrical issue...hence the huge cost for the Dealership to sort it out or try to at least. Electrical issues are tough nuts to crack. If the problem is not cleary apparent, then it takes man-hours to track down the cause. You really have four options:

1-Dealership and be broke by the end of the month;
2-Find a shop that specializes in electrical issues;
3-Learn everything electrical that deals with your brakes/battery and see if you can track it down yourself; or
4-Waite for failure of some sort and then you will know.

It is a tough call, dude. Good luck if no one on this forum can shed light on it for you.

 

Yea the more I research this the more I think its gonna be expensive. I wont even be putting the Max in the shop until Friday so hopefully I can figure this out soon.

 

Seems like Nissan would've fixed it two generations later...anyway I had a fourth gen with the same problem for about three years. The batt/brake light would come on and go off without any apparent reason. I checked and cleaned all my electrical connections (battery cables, grounds, etc.) and the problem seems to have stopped. Some on the .org say that this is a warning that the alternator is going out. I just replaced mine, but I drove my car for three years with the lights coming on and I'm not sure that this was the cause of me having to replace the alternator now. I wouldn't worry about it until your alt. actually stops charging your battery. Check it with a voltmeter periodically while the car is running and you should get 13-14v. If you do end up needing to replace your alt. I would recommend doing it yourself. I'm fairly mechanically inclined, but it isn't very hard. Plan on spending around 4 hours doing it. There are a lot of good how to posts and videos on here and youtube (boredmder).
Summed up: Ignore it if you can until it is actually a problem. If and when you do end up replacing your alt...good luck!

 

It's sounds like the alternator. Mine went and those are the lights that came on.

 

My old 4th Gen did the same. New alternator fixed the problem. Had around same mileage as your 04.

 

Sounds like an alternator issue to me have it checked

 

Ok... so the verdict is.. I had the alternator replaced with a brand new one bought through Nissan at a friend's shop. After the mechanic put it on the same brake and battery lights came on but they would not cut-off and the car kept cutting itself off. The next morning I took it to the Nissan dealership, payed the diagnostic fee, and they told me the verdict is that the motor mounts are broken and they cut a wiring harness. The cost to fix: $3400.

However, when they brought the car around to the service lane i realized the wipers werent working. They took the car back around, fixed it, and when they brought it to me again the wipers worked and the lights were off. They told me that something was unplugged to fix the wipers, but the motor mounts still need to be replaced asap.

Im not driving right now because they told me Im doing more damage by still driving around so im driving my brothers 03 pathfinder instead. The light hasnt come back on yet so maybe they actually fixed the problem?

 

The brake light comes on to let you know your fluid is low.

Nissan techs should know that...