Ant96GLE

iTrader: (4)

Like I had said before, the power window fuse had been sucking up alot of power... after removing it overnight I didnt have a problem....

Shadow

iTrader: (15)

Thanks, I'm having my friend start pulling the interior fuses and checking everything. Ever since I had my car first painted back in '01, it's had a weird power window problem. The driver's control for the rear windows has been reversed, ie the driver's side switch controls the passenger rear window and vice versa. My friend at the body shop and I went over all the wiring, but we could not figure out the problem. I'm guessing he switched a wire when removing and reinstalling the doors, but we can't find it and I just never worried about it since it all worked. Any idea what the Alt.S relay is?

This is killing me, with the new 660cc injectors in, my car starts up beautifully and actually idles again so I really want to drive it, but I can't take the car anywhere if I can't even leave it for a few hours.

Ant96GLE

iTrader: (4)

I cant leave my car off for more than 8 or so hours either. I'll try to find out what the Alt.S relay is when I get home, I have a FSM at home.

Ant96GLE

iTrader: (4)

I'm looking through the manual now, where is the Alt S relay located?

Shadow

iTrader: (15)

I'm going to have to call my friend, all I know is he said the Alt S relay and without the car in front of me, I have no idea. Thanks for looking, I appreciate the help.

Shadow

iTrader: (15)

Update, we have definitively identified the Alt S fuse as the cause of my battery drain. We measured the draw off of the battery with everything disconnected and it was 3.25 amps. Pulled the AltS fuse and drain went to 0. We tested the BCM fuse, it's only drawing .64 amps, just enough to trip the test light last time.

The Alt S fuse is located in the engine by in the fusebox next to where the battery sits. It's only a 7.5 amp fuse, and we discovered that when it's pulled, the car won't charge while running. I cranked the car and it was only putting out 12.3V while running. Put the fuse back in, and it immediately went back to 14.3-14.5V. Obviously the alternator isn't charging the car through a 7.5 amp fuse, so what does it control? Is it for the voltage regulator? If I knew what it controlled, I could fix it.

And last week, I had a weird problem w/ the car. Right now when I crank the car, I always check the voltage because I've had so many charging problems lately. It normally reads 14.3-14.5V when it's running. But last week when I cranked it up, it only read 11.85V, I checked it 10 times. I thought I must have thrown the alternator belt, but it was all spinning just fine. So I shut the car off and check all the connections, everything seems fine. Turn the car back and on and it's reading 14.3V again. I haven't been able to duplicate the problem since. But now that I see my battery drain is related to the Alt S fuse and when it's pulled, the car doesn't charge, it makes more sense.

I hate electrical problems. At least when a motor or transmission blow you know what it is and you can fix it. Electrical is all about chasing gremlins.

japmaxSE

iTrader: (7)

So yo replaced it with another 7.5 fuse?

japmaxSE

iTrader: (7)

The Alt S Relay is called EGI under the hood next to the battery.

japmaxSE

iTrader: (7)

I'm still having the same prob took it to several Nissan dealers one audio shop I'm by myself with this one, my battery reads 13.4v and up the other wires read only 11.3v

I have a good Batt a good ALT new relays.

Recently I completly gutted the car out, no radio ,no seats, no alarm it's completly disconnected. I'm starting all over with my car all the way to the last wire everything is being tested it's been 2months and I havn't got anywhere with this it's so agravating.

Shadow

iTrader: (15)

So the Alt S fuse is connected to the EGI relay? I'll go look into this immediately.

And I replaced the 7.5 fuse w/ a new one, still draining. I didn't expect any different, but I had to be sure it wasn't something as stupid as a bad fuse.

japmaxSE

iTrader: (7)

With me the ALT S fuse too the relay it's 13.4v from the relay out to the wires it's 11.2v I changed relays same thing it just doesn't make sense??????

Whitemax

INterestingly, these are all the same issues I've been having. Yesterday when trying to start it, after a few seconds, all power went completely dead. As in nothing was getting anything. I saw the ALT-S fuse, and popped it out to check it. When I plugged it back in, everything came back. Shadow, since we're both in ATl, at this point I might suggest maybe we get together one evening this week, or maybe this weekened with both our cars side by side and trace this bish down. I'm 99% possitive it's not my alternator, becuase when the cars running, and I pop off a terminal off the battery, the car never skips a beat. I still think there could be a problem wit the new battery being bad, but this is something different. I'm almost positive theres an issue with the windows, but I'm not sure thats the only one. When driving for more than 10 minutes, if I try playing my stereo, when I press the brake, the radio completely looses power for a sec and completely shuts off (not even the time display on the face, it completely goes dead) and then comes right back on.

Almost the exact same thing was happening about a year ago, and I discovered the the ground wire that bolts to the engine wasnt connected because the bolt had come out, put it back on and it was fine. But before that, the windows would stop working, really loud engine whine throguh the front speakers, even though the stereo was off, and the amps were completely disconnected, strange things when I'd press the brake, etc.....

LvR

May I suggest the following in your particular case based on bitter experience with a VG:

Get a voltmeter, pop the bootlid and rip the rear inside covers from the boot off to expose the rear light clusters.

Now connect your voltmeter between the small little cables doing the "earth" work in those clusters (all the lights have one common wire running to a specific central point where a lug gets screwed down with a self-tapping screw into the plastic) and a really decent body earth or negative battery terminal if you can.

Start the car, switch on the lights and hazards and fogs and have somebody press the brake pedal so the brake lights come on and note the voltage drop you measure under those conditions ......................

Bet you measure a voltage drop of the order of volts there.

Also bet if you measure any voltage on any one of the burning bulbs you will measure a lot less than 12V.

If so you know what to do

Ant96GLE

iTrader: (4)

So could it be just a bad relay?

japmaxSE

iTrader: (7)

[QUOTE=Whitemax]
I'm 99% possitive it's not my alternator, becuase when the cars running, and I pop off a terminal off the battery, the car never skips a beat.QUOTE]


Wait my cable fell off while running and the car shut off but I had the Alternator tested twice and it's fine I also put a brand new one on and it did the same thing..

Whitemax

I was told by a mechanic that a quick way to test is to disconect the batery when the car's running. It ran for 5 minutes no prob before I hooked it back up. I defiantely think its a drain somewhere. I tested it this am when I first started it up and it was at 14.2 volts.....

Whitemax

One thing I need to add to my situation, before I replaced my battery, I didnt have this problem. I had a hard time starting mycar, but that was because the batery was bad. Once I replaced the battery is when all the strange electrical problems started. I'm going to re-wire the ground cable again and see if that takes care of it. Something happened after swapping the battery. Not sure what, but I didnt suffer any of the problems I do now, other than the hard starting. Once the battery was swapped, bam, electrical probs out the azz........

japmaxSE

iTrader: (7)

Well I tested the red wire it's about a 10 guauge it goes into the ECM it's the biggest Red wire that goes into the ECM when I disconnect the plug it reads 14.3v when I connect the plug to the ECM the red wire reads 12.5v WHY is this happening do I have a BAD ECM????

Becia

We *think* the front hood switch was why mine was doing the same thing. We found the switch, but for the love of air, couldn't find a light. We disconnected it yesterday, and it's started great for me today. I even managed to drive her around town and shut her off at work!

Of course, my trusty jumper cables are still in the front seat... just in case!

I hadn't thought about the radio drawing current like that though...definetly something to look in to (for me at least, I'm still learning).

Whitemax

Mine was the new battery. It was bad off the shelf. I had it tested Friday and it was bad so they had to replace it. Bishing the entire time that they had never seen a Optima bad off the shelf and that something in my car screwed it up. I said BS, since it was dead off the shelf, and was missing the plastic caps over the terminals and the tray to make it taller when I got it. I told them someone had used it before, and that while I knew they werent trying to sell me a used battery,the fact remained it was used. Put the new one in, tested the voltage before starting it, 12.57 volts, and no problems with it since.

Steve0835

I had a similar problem: a constant battery drain of about 200 mA, first repaired by shorting the hood switch to allow car to go into sleep mode, then traced the remaining 130 mA to fuse 40 and, thanks to previous report by nstjohn, went directly to disconnect the BOSE radio and this fixed it. It seems that for some reason this radio drains over 100 mA without cause. And I don't care why, now it is disconnected forever and the nice front will continue to shine.

Why did I troubleshoot a 1996 Maxima in 2018 ?? Because it is a fine car that still runs satisfactorily.

Ah... and I have also a 1995 Maxima SE which is a dream of a car, soon 24 years old, and I would have never expected that it could be such a fun car to drive for so long! I don't know when I will lay it to rest, but surely it won't be for a good while

nstjohn

Thanks for letting me know my post helped. My Maxima is long gone (sold) but my memory of it lives on in my posts. :-D

I would just add one more important reminder in this thread -- the stand-by current will occur after 30 seconds. If you test for less than 30 seconds then you can get a false reading.

My new ride is a Challenger Scat Pack. So...much...fun!

strkeout

I had the same problem but for me it was the Bose Radio.The display kept going out and the radio was factory resetting itself almost daily. Then finally my car battery was dead. When I removed the radio fuse, it solved everything. I will be replacing the radio.

Roymg

Bingo!!!

Roymg

bingo!!

thewomble

2004 Maxima. Two nights in a row battery drained and car had to be jumped started. Third night with a fully charged battery I disconnected the EARTH terminal. Battery held charge. Cleaned the battery post and inside the terminal connection and reconnected. Car now starts each morning.