dam man, i'm so [profanity removed] at myself if i did. I [profanity removed] go to work and i got the volume kind of low and i'm waiting at a light and my rpm's start going crazy, my CEL light continuously blinks fast, i mean real fast and then my car just shuts off. I try to crank it and nothing happens. It cranks but it doesnt do anything, as if its missing gas or something. So i push the car to a side street and park it and call my friend to take me to work.

Before going to work, i checked everything. My system still worked, the HIDS still worked, everything still worked, but car wouldnt start. Worst of all, when i cranked it, around the speedometer, i can hear this nasty whine, sounded kind of low but nasty.

Anyway, i come back from work about 6 hours later [profanity removed] as [profanity removed] to see that my dam viper pager alarm isnt getting a response from my car. I have no idea what the problem is. I manually open the door and realize my dam battery is dead. This [profanity removed] never died on me before, what the [profanity removed] is wrong with my car!!!!!!! ahhhhh

So i come to a few conclusions, first i thought my fuel pump was damaged because the car was cranking before but wouldnt start through as if it was missing fuel. But now my battery is dead so it cant be that.

Then i thought maybe my starter is bad? or my pops actually thinks its bad but i dont think it is.

The only thing that makes sense is my alternator being dead. For one main reason, two actually. First off, i have a full system, dvd player, components, coaxials, two amps, and two subs. I blast my music loud all the time and i see my gauge lights dim all the time everytime the bass hits. The second reason making believe its the alternator is that my car is dead now. My friend had a corolla which was running and died and when he came back to the car, it wouldnt turn on. I dont see why the battery would just die like that. What do you guys think?

IF its the alternator where do u suppose i get a new one and who here in nj area can change it for me? i'll pay you to change it if u can, i heard it was hard

 

Get a free one, from the dealer.. Recall baby

edit:

 

its already been replaced through recall

 

Jump the battery and go to autozone get them to check the alternator and battery for free. Then go buy yourself a cap for your system also.

 

FOOL

u didn't knock on wood! that's what u get for making a post about "maximas w/ no problems..."

sorry mecca

 

u r so dam right .

dam, i'm going to bring it to autozone in the morning and see whats up. ;( i hope car doesnt die on the way down there.

 

daymn...everyone's max is hella bad luck these couple weeks mecca i hope everythin will work out for u...

 

when you had your alternator replaced did you have all your tv's and other mods in there? maybe they could replace it again :-D

 

i didnt replace the alternator, the guy before me did or atleast i think he did. 190hpkilla...not sure if my car even fell under the replacement but no i did not have a system or anything in the car before. I hope its just a dead battery but things point to alternator

 

hey man whats up, this is that dude with the rosewood max that saw you a couple times near don's house, good luck with the car bro!

 

It's not the alternator that killed your car. Look somewhere else like pulling the code. Your car was still able to crank after it died, so your battery had enough power because your alt. was working.

 

what happened is that your alternator started crapping out some time ago and the car has since been running off the battery alone, hence why its dead.. the crapped out alt cant supply a charge to charge the batt

the whining noise? thats the alternator

so get a new alternator, but its kinda hard to find a good "rebuilt" one because they never last as long as the OEM ones. My OEM alt went dead a few months ago and i had the same problems.. the stereo would sound crappy and the lights would dim at low rpms. So i got a rebuilt alt at the parts store and like a week ago that died so i got the OEM alt from the parts car now in my car

Theoretically its not hard to "change an alternator" but its a pain in the *** with these cars.. removing all the dam screws/nuts to even GET at the alt, then all the nuts/bolts on the alt in which you need your hands/arms to bend like rubber bands, then slip the tight *** belt off.. and reverse the process to get the new one on; ugh.. Gimme a chevelle, 67-73 camaro, GTO, etc something with a real engine and ill happily be planted under the hood all day

 

your right, he did have it replaced under recall, i remember him posting up about it

 

that makes a lot of dam sense, thanks bro, does anyone know how much a new alternator costs? i want to get it as cheap as possible from like a nissan online store but i know its gonna take a few days to get and i cant wait that long, with work on the weekend and fast and the furious this friday . Anyone know how much i can get one for off hand?

 

anybody have any objectives with buying new alternator from pep boys or autozone? or them type of stores vs straight from nissan? i got great advice from someone that recommends these stores and just want to see if anyone else has something to say about this subject.

 

Im gonna suggest that new alt. and a optima red/yellow top to help that system out a bit

 

I got mine for ~$400 from the dealer I think $325 with core.

 

This is another one of those areas where there's no such thing as a NEW part--it's all remfg. Often the same part will be put in different boxes, such as Nissan, Napa, etc. So the bottom-line is price and warranty--there's a good chance that part has to come out before a year is up, so make sure they'll swap it if it fails.

FYI some dude in the office had his car die last week and he had alarm/sound installed. Turns out his fusible link was burnt up. He didn't have a Maxima but the concept may be similar.

 

damn Mecca this sucks...I'm thinking that it might not be the alternator, becuase you said the RPMS...jumped up and down...if it was the alternator, the rpms would just drop...and shut off. I would pull the codes before going to replace the alternator...also...if the battery died...something must be draining your batt...check your connections, kinda doesn't make sense that it was ready to crank and everything was working and then it died..with nothing on

let me knowo

 

sorry dude. that sux Mecca. just hope you can pull it together so you can make the movie tomorrow

 

MAJOR UPDATE:

ok, i go to jump start the battery today, and the car runs for 2 minutes then drops. What does this mean? new alternator?

Also, once i put the jumper cables on the battery, my fans came on without my key in the ignition and the car looked like it was on, not fully cranked on but u know on where u would check for ecu codes. And my ecu light did not go on when i started the car.

I do have remote start and i'm wondering if thats why my car was kind of on but not on before i put the key in.

Also when i turned the key all the way, the car was late to respond. I had it turned all the way and everything was on but car wouldnt even try to turn over until 2 or 3 seconds later...after that it started on time but i still think everything points to altnerator.

As far as bad wiring, i've had my alarm for months, my dvd for over a week and i've never had a problem until yesterday. And i think its cause i have 2 subs, 2 amps and pushing a lot of power and had no capacitor and i can see lights dimming when bass boomed.

Oh, one other thing. Shortly after the car died 2 minutes after jumping, the entire car's power fully cut off a good minute or two later. Does this point to alternator? i'm very tempted to say its alternator but some of u give me worries about it being something else....

 

wait...were the jumper cables still attached when the car died (2 mins later) or did you unplug the cables? if yyou unplugged the cables then its more than likely your alternator...and get a damn capacitor....

 

died 2 minutes AFTER taking jumper cables off...

i have a cap just need to get it installed

 

Jump the egnine to start it... Put an voltmeter across the battery terminals while the engine is running, all accessories off and jumper cables NOT hooked up and you should see 14-14.5v Anything less than 13v and the alt is toast.

I'd remove and take the battery & alt to the parts store and have them test both.

 

Before you drop the cash on new parts why not get it scaned. It's free...

 

because my car wont move 3 feet without dieing on me . The nearest parts store is maybe 2 miles away from where car is parked and i dont know how to take out the alternator

 

Well if your car runs for 2 min after jumping, get a cheap a$$ battery and drive it to the parts store.

 

Oh and no booming on the way there. And get that Cap put in!!

 

lol, definitely no booming...i have a friend driving up here, he'll take a look at the battery and alty and test car with his battery....anything to expect if i have a bad alty? i hear lights will dim and stuff...

 

I would get one from a local Junkyard(alternator). You will definateley need a capacitor I am suprised that you have not had this problem before.

 

I would check the negative cable. This is the ground for the engine. I think that you might have a bad ground(loose connection) or a short somewhere in the starting/charging circuit. I was going to say the starter but, if it started the car? It could still be the starter, a starter can kill a battery pretty quickly if it is bad. I am leaning more towards a slowly dying starter. This could be a million things though, I would have it checked out before dropping cash on replacing parts when your not sure what the problem is.

Also, definitely look into a cap and maybe even a beefed up alternator, since your "system" is using so much power.

 

A battery with a full charge will take a while to show signs the alt is bad. more than enough time to get to the parts store. even if there is no ses light on there still may be a code stored. If there is no code thats good. They can then check the voltages across the bat and alt. If the atl is bad then if you aren't under warranty and you can't do it yourself then have them do the swap. If you can do it yourself with help get the new atl and if you want a battery then take it to where you can do the work and install the cap

 

electrical short

 

why do u say that?

also i may be able to go back to nissan and get alty replaced for free since it falls in the recall...they cant tell if i had it replaced before...can they?

i dont see how it can be the starter since the car starts when car has power but before car wouldnt start with power, now with the car hooked up to my pop's car with jumper cables it can start....meaning starter cant be bad, car must not be getting enough power...and to think i was gonna have a cap installed today, my dam luck but its better this happened right? my alternator was on its last leg and if i dont have it replaced (if its the problem) things can get worst...right?

 

Thats why we're saying get it checked out. Beacuse it could very well be the alt, but it could also be a bad fuse link, a bad starter, a bad battery or a simple short somewhere that is drwaing current and daining the system. It needs to get to a shop.

 

I told you it was an electrical problem. Like I explained to you on AIM... just disconnect ure entire audio system and see if it will hold the battery charge... one of ure + wires has grounded out. also, double check your dvd install... let's hope ure fuses protected ure audio/dvd equipment

 

Caps assist slightly with stereo installs, but will not fix a problem like this. Dimming lights are more easily fixed by upgrading your ground wire to the battery, alternator and any/all grounds you deem necessary. Your ground wire should be at least as thick as your power wire, if not thicker.

Also, a cap will also not help if you are pulling too much power. We have 120A alternators. Are you pulling more than 120A? If so, get an upgraded alternator NOW while you need a new one anyway. A cap does next to nothing for this situation as well. Caps are more of a marketing thing for car audio. I'm not saying they're completely useless (although you will find guys who have been in the industry for 20 years that will tell you they are) but they simply aren't as miraculous as everyone says.

Oh, and, Nissan can tell which cars got the recall done already. Everytime you bring it in for a recall, they note the VIN and go by that ...

 

ANOTHER UPDATE

ok, we did several tests. There is one major test that leads to a problem other than the alternator. This is how today went.

I took the old battery out and put a new one in. The car started but cut off a few seconds after fully starting up. Then tried to start it up again and it works fine. To test if the alternator was bad, we unplugged the battery from the car (positive and negavite) and the car still ran. We did this for like a good 15 - 25 seconds but it did run without the battery and only other place car can get power from is alternator right so i guess that means its still working or maybe messed up but still functional? i dont know. Does this test fully determine taht the alternator is fine?

After this i drive the car for about 25 minutes and cut it off then about an hour later, maybe a little more, i start the car up and i go through the same problems again.

I gave up and sent the car to a shop to get looked at. Its definitely not a battery problem because even with a new battery it still wasnt working fine. It can be one of few things imo

- alternator (huge question about that)
- fuel pump or something that has to do with the fuel system
- loose wire somewhere

i dont know what and i guess the shop is gonna take care of things but for a better piece of mind, any of u have any idea what this could be...? wasted the whole day trying to fix this dag on car and to no prevail... althought a valiant effort.

 

ok simple way to find out if alternator is working or not... same way to test battery too

get a VOLTMETER, touch the terminals and see what the battery reads... if it's 12.something then the battery is fully charged... and when u start the car and have it running, voltmeter should then read 13-16 volts.. then that means the alternator is working.

 

Mecca- I hope everything ends up okay..i know how much she mean to you ill keep her in my prayers
-Brian