Monday night I had to replace my alternator:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....hreadid=243844

Yesterday it seemed just fine, until late at night. I was driving home and getting dinner on the way. All the sudden my battery and brake lights came on. Usually the sign of an alternator problem.

However, just as suddendly as it came it, it turned right back off. And never came back on. It was on for about 15 seconds or so.

Get into a parking lot and pop the hood. Everything seemed happy: belt, alternator, etc. Nothing looked out of place. Shut the car off and went in for dinner. Came out afterwords and the car started right up, and had no problems the rest of the drive home.

Went out this morning to start the car, and nothing. The battery didn't have ANY power, not even enough to make the starter click. My brother came over and gave me a jump.

After starting the car the battery light came on again, until I revved the engine to about 2k RPM and it turned off, and hasn't come back on yet.

Bum alternator, or dead battery? I'm going to go out this afternoon and check each with a voltmeter.

I hate electrical stuff. What a PITA.

 

Sounds like the alternator is not charging the battery. If your battery was bad, the car would still run as long as the alternator is giving you system power. Check your connections on the alternator.

 

if you battery died died died.. then the battery maybe gone

the best thing to do is when you get another battery.. check the volts and if it says 12v you start the car up.. check it again.. if its still at 12v.. the altenator is bad.. if it goes to 14v's then the old battery was bad..

 

The car runs just fine once its fired up.

 

or maybe you burnt some wiring in your fire

 

The battery is done then. Diehard Gold time my friend!!!!!!

 

I'd rather the batter be bad than the new alternator be bad.

I'm going to test this battery first on my lunch break. We've got countless voltmeters around this place, so I'll just grab one and check it out.

 

and that my friend is the number 1 reason i bought an Optima Yellow Top.. that way if i was stupid enough to leave my lights on.. or play my stereo enough to kill kill kill my battery.. i know that once i got a new altenator it would fire back up

 

If I do need a new battery, I'm going to see if I can find a red-top around here. Don't know if I'll have any luck though.

 

i am not sure if the Red tops can be drained all the way and still work, to my understanding the Yellow Tops do. I know the Red Top's have more CCA and CA than the Yellow Top's.. but since i have 3 amplifiers in my car.. i figured i would be better off running a Yellow Top than a Red Top.

All local Autoparts stores car Optima Batteries now, and if not you can get it through Ange here

 

Anyone have any idea why the battery light would turn on and off while driving though? It drove just fine, but I can't imagine that's a good sign.

 

Maybe.

There are 2 plugs into the alternator. The one that bolts onto the post (+ cable) was just fine.

The other one (which I'm not sure what it is) had the plug melt a little, but all the connectors and wires were in tact. I got it out of the old alternator, sanded the casing to make it cleaner, and it snapped right into the new alternator.

 

no idea.. but when my altenator and battery went i had no battery light what so ever

what i have found is..

if your battery dies: (found out my battery cable fell off, so i was running with no battery)

you can still drive
your speedo goes to 0 when you hit the brake and goes back up
your brake light and air bag light come on when you hit the brake.

if your altenator dies:

your speedo stays at 0
your car shuts down, the injectors no longer work

 

Neither of those would apply to my current situation.

This is why I have electrical crap.

 

if not.. then it might be burnt or lose connection..

i would start the car up.. and jiggle the connections.. even try having someone jiggle them while testing the voltage on the battery...

 

Not easy to get to the alternator with that damn SC in the way!

I'll figure something out.

 

You forgot to add, the faster you try to drive, the worse the performance gets.

When my alternator went the first time, I had to run red lights to get my son home before the car shut off again.

 

Last night after the light problems, I did a WOT run, and the car felt just great.

 

I heard maxima is picky on alternator....I would go with an OEM or maybe an used one from a junkyard.

 

I found a great rebuilt one online. The ones from Autozone suck *****.

 

clicky

 

Well, after sitting for just 3 hours the battery had 3.8V, and of course the car wouldn't start.

Jump the car and the battery see's 13.9V with the car running.

Time for a new battery.

 

http://www.oeplus.com/imports.html

This author claimed that:
"NISSAN 1985-1994 Maxima 3.0L
1985-1994 Maximas have experienced a variety of electrical problems. When investigating a problem with the charging system, be aware of the following

Some Maximas may develop a constant electrical draw that drains the battery overnight. This may be accompanied by the appearance of Fault code DTC13, which indicates a problem with the cylinder head temperature sensor. The problem has actually been found to be with the sensor wiring harness, which chafes and shorts out, causing the A/C cooling fans to run continuously. Repairing or replacing any damaged wiring and rerouting the harness further away from the temperature sensor will cure the problem.

1985-1994 Maximas may experience a low state of battery charge and a high rate of alternator failure. This occurs most often in vehicles driven on short trips or in slow-moving traffic. Heavy use of the electrical accessories (lights, wipers, A/C, heater fan, rear window defroster, stereos, etc.) contributes further to this condition.

The problem is that at low engine speeds, the alternator turns too slowly to generate enough current to meet the demand on the electrical system. In most cases, the battery is able to supply the difference, but in doing so, its state of charge is lowered.

If the vehicle is rarely driven at highway speeds, the battery will gradually be drained until it is unable to start the car.

If the vehicle does get driven at highway speeds, the alternator will turn fast enough to generate its full rated output, and will power all the accessories as well as recharge the battery. However, alternators are not designed to work at full output for any length of time. If the accessory demand remains heavy, and if the state of battery charge is low, the alternator may be required to maintain full output continuously. The heat and stress of such operation dramatically shortens the service life of an alternator and often causes visible damage. It is common to see Maxima alternators whose diodes have literally popped open from the strain of continuous full-output operation.

To relieve this problem, Nissan recommends installation of a smaller alternator pulley (69mm diameter) along with a shorter drive belt (part number 11720-16E02). Both are available through Nissan dealers. Use of the smaller pulley makes the alternator turn faster for a given engine speed, improving its output at idle, and allowing it to be more effective at meeting electrical demand at low driving speeds. This, in turn means that less need to work at maximum output once the car reaches highway speed."

So I would suggest getting a smaller alternator pulley like he suggested, 69mm diameter. However, I don't know who would carry them. Anyone know if jerryromenissan.com got them? And what is the part no for it? Do they have one for the 3rd gen maxima?

 

More battery wierdness:

As I mentioned before, I checked the battery at lunch, after sitting 2.5 hours and it had 3.8V

Jumped it, drove it, parked it.

4.5 hours later when I left, it had a full 12.5V.

Drove home.

Checked it over the course of the entire night. From 5 until 11 it dropped from 12.57V to 12.49V. Seems normal!

This morning I got up and it was back down to 3.8V.

So I assume its the battery, but its acting kinda strange.

 

How are your connections to the battery? It seems that you mey have a short somewhere in the circuit. Sounds crazy but it may be the case.

 

sounds like the battery.. you are driving for long distances so the altenator is charging the battery.. the battery is weak so it can't hold its charge and then goes back down

 

But, why would it lose it charge sometimes in 3 hours, but then not lose any over 6 hours?

Same length drive, driving the same way.

 

Yeah Sprint, if the battery was gone, it wouldn't recharge at all. I'm thinking something in the circuit is not allowing it to charge properly one time to the next.

 

The battery is charging.

After any drive, the battery has 12.X volts. Its just not holding that charge. Its either the battery isn't holding it, or there's a draw somewhere else in the electrical system that I don't know about.

I think

 

have you checked the battery fluids?

 

No. Going to check it afterwork.

 

Definitely could be a short somewhere especially since there was a fire. I would check for a constant draw on the battery. It could just as well be a weak battery, if the battery is over three years old just go ahead and replace it. Thats my $.02

 

Can't imagine where though. I haven't messed with the electrical system in this car a hole lot, just my guages, which oddly enough are having problems too. The cig-lighter fuse blew a week or so ago, and I haven't replaced it. So even though there's something wrong there, that circut is open and shouldn't be part of the problem.

 

Well, that is the thing that sucks about electrical shorts! They suck! If you do have one which, I am not absolutely sure that you do, it would be easy to fix but HARD TO FIND! First place that I would start to check are the starter, wiring, and connections. A bad starter will drain a battery. I would definitely take the battery with a full charge to a auto parts store and have them test it. After that start with starter and then move onto the wiring and things within the starting/charging circuit. I would defintely start with the battery before putting any more labor into it.
Good Luck Man!

 

If you really wanted to save all of your moneys, just read my post earlier but don't buy a newer alternator. Just take your ride to the highway more often to work/school/or-whatever back and forth. That should takes care of the problems becuase when you're driving faster. The crankshaft will spin faster than on local road. Consequently, your alternator will also spin fast enough to distribute enough energies to AC, battery, etc.... Soon, all of your battery charges will be back in tack. The only problem with this is that, you might wear out the life of your alternator faster than normal cuz you're pretty much abusing it, its diode will soon wears out too. But alternator have known to last for a while regardless of the driving condition, so it's really depending on how long you've got yours. Didn't you mentioned you just put in a newer alternator? If so, it could be your wiring harness around the temp sensor that is bad. Move it further away from the temp sensor should do it.

But if you got enough moneys later, just invest in a newer alternator anyway, esp with 69mm pulley. Bosch makes those types. I just ordered a reman for $94 with free SH from www.nissanpartstore.com

 

Have you read this thread?

Anyways, put a new battery in last night, and it started right up this morning. So, I'm going to assume there isn't a draw anywhere, otherwise this battery would have been drained as well.

 

optima?

 

Well, maybe it was the battery. I've never seen a battery react that way before though.

 

No, a $50 AutoZone battery. It this proves to solve the problem, I'll invest in a better battery before winter.

Didn't want to spend $150 on a battery if it wasn't the problem.