I experienced a complete electrical failure last night during the snowstorm that hit the east coast.

I had everything on including the headlights, fog lights, map light, front and rear defroster, seat heater, radio and compass. Even when the rear defroster automatically turned off, I put it back on.

After 30 minutes of driving at 30 mph in fourth gear, the ABS and Airbag warning light came on. Then the seat heater and rear defroster suddenly switched off. I was already white knuckled because those 17 inch Potenza RE92’s aren’t that good in nasty weather.

I knew that I had a severe energy problem because the climate control display began to dim and act erratically. Well, I then switched everything off except using the wipers on the maximum delay. This made it extremely hard to see because the sleet began to freeze to the wiper and obscured the windshield.

Drivers passed me and honked at me to tell me my running lights were off, but I made the decision that it was better to try and make it home during the Nor’easter than getting stuck on the Long Island Expressway at 3 am in the morning.

I was relieved when I pulled into the driveway, but it soon died out and would not restart. The alternator was just about putting out enough juice to keep the car barely running.

I believe that using all those accessories completely drained the battery. After charging the battery today, the radio and climate controls would not turn on. It was weird, if I pressed the front defroster button, the radio and climate control turned on, but turned off if the front defroster was depressed again. After playing with it a bit, everything operated normally.

 

if you battery is being drained that means your alternator is bad and not charging the battery.

 

With a healthy battery and alternator the only thing that should be drained while running all those options is your gas. I'd take a look at the alternator.

 

alternator belt, maybe....easy and cheap to check out anyway

 

What year/mileage? I'm contemplating buying a Maxima... and so far it seems like not many people have many problems with these cars. My mother has an '04 Quest, and I love the engine in it.

I'd love to make a new post with some questions... but there's that 15 message minimum. Oh well!