2007 Nissan Maxima SL.

Recently i had gotten my alternator replaced because the Brake and Battery lights were on. Got a new one for a great price from rockauto.com and it was also brand new (supposedly..) . Got it replaced at a shop and the lights were off, but before i left, the mechanic was testing it and said that the battery wasn't charging but he looked at the dashboard of the car and saw that the Battery and Brake lights were off. So he assumed he had a bad tester. Car drove like a champ since Monday but it finally died Wednesday but got a BRAND NEW BATTERY as i was still in warranty because i thought the battery i had may of went out. Then today after turning at a light i couldn't accelerate no matter how far i pushed the pedal. Can't remember what the RPMs were like since i was flabbergasted. I was still moving fowards as if i was in drive but could not accelerate. Turned off the car and it would not start back up. It stays on for a bit after we jumped it but it would just die. Was able to park it at an apartment's parking lot and now i'm charging the new Battery AGAIN. I'm gonna take it to Autozone tomorrow after getting the battery in to test it then back to the shop.

Sorry for the long story but does anyone may have an idea what's going on? The Battery and Brake lights are off so you'd think the alternator would be doing it's job.

What's causing the battery to die or not charge? Why aren't the brake and battery lights on to indicate that the battery is not charging? Could it be a fuse? Faulty Alternator? Anyone has any suggestions? Any information would be really appreciated.

 

Bad alternator out of the box could do it. When mine died, I had the same symptom you described where the car just died in the middle of the street, couldn't go pedal just felt like a sponge. Best you can do is get the alternator tested, and replaced under warrantee. Unfortunately you're out of luck on the labor most likely.

 

rockauto is usually good on warranty replacements. But, like the other guy said, you probably are out of luck on the labor.

 

You have to diagnose the real problem and stop swapping parts.
All you need is a multimeter and a test light.

1- charge your battery then check its voltage.
2- start the car and check the voltage at the battery. It should be about 13.5-14.5V depending on how many accessories are turned on. If you have the battery voltage, it could still be a lot of things ! Bad alternator, bad ground, open wire, power feed short to ground.

Find the service manual of your 2007 (google) to see the schematic of the charging system. The alternator is called "generator" by Nissan.

The alternator have 2 power feeds (2 constant) 1 for the warning lamp (through the ignition) and 1 ground.
Check the voltage of the 2 power feeds. It's best to check that when cranking the car (under load). It's important to check directly on the alternator posts, not the connectors.
Check also the ground. It's best to test that one with a test light (the other side connected to battery positive) because 0V could be a ground or an open.

If you do these tests, come back with the results.
If you just want to check the fuses, you can check the fuse a, 26 and 14. If one of them is blown, it's pretty sure you have a short somewhere.

 

UPDATE! So turns out it was a Faulty Alternator. Fried 3 good batteries (2 that were new, thank god for warranty!) Got it replaced with a new one from O'Reilly's, quite expensive but it works. Not sure why the Battery & Brake lights were not on to indicate bad alternator, i'll never know why i guess.

 

The reason why the lights never came on was because you had new batteries I'm assuming. The car sensed battery voltage, I'm assuming around the 12.5-12.0 range. Glad you got it fixed.