My alternator died last night on campus. The car only has 76000km on it!!. I usually drive to and from the university every day. I don't mind that it's about 35miles each way....I like to drive and I get to sleep in my own bed, but last night was tough. My parents had to drive up to get me and we left the car with family living near campus.

I knew something was seriously wrong when I first started the car, turned on the headlights and all the other light in the car went almost completely off. I also heard a mix between a groan and hum noise coming from the engine bay.

Today I got a used alternator from a 5th gen I believe, and installed it but I think I will have to change the bearing in it. Before I installed it I could feel a slight rough spot in the spin and now that it is running in the car there is a slight noise also. Still not too sure what was making the groaning sound in the old alternator cause it was spining smooth when i took it out. Right now my hand are in pain...that damn thing is so hard to get out. Unbolting it was no problem but actually getting it out from the engine bay required taking out the radiator fan setup. The guy that sold me the alternator, told me that the alternator is 100amps and that my old one was 70amps. Anyone has any info about the amperage and if putting in a higher amperage is better or could be harmful?

I was really lucky to get the alternator for the price I got it for. I called the nissan dealer and they told me that the alternator would cost $1750 US and I got it for $125US. You have to agree that that is a hell of a deal. When I heard $1750 I was like we have a mazda 929 wagon for sale at that price!!! A whole damn car for the price of the alternator.

The post is getting really long...hell I don't post that often anyways
Well while I was at the scrap yard I noticed they had turbos on the shelves and I was amazed when the guy said the average price was $190US. That's the price for the bare turbo though....no attachments etc. I saw all different models...for 3rd gen cefiros, toyota, mitsubishi. I was wondering if attempting a turbo mod on the maxima is worth it or is it too much trouble? Well got to go...school in the morning

 

Our cars have 100amp alternators... I30s have 125 I believe. As far as the $1750... definitely no there.. there is no way he told you $1750 for an alternator.. what he may have said and you just heard wrong was $175... List price from Nissan for a brand new alternator is $343.28 ($264.33 at www.nissanparts.org) for a '97...same for 5th gen.

 

I really don't think there is any single part on a 4th gen that would cost 1750$ from a dealer except maybe an the motor heh.. There was a recall on the 1997 alternator, last summer I had mine replaced free from the dealer. A rebuild for 175$ seems a lot more reasonable.. either that or the guy looked up the wrong part.

 

I didn't think we have 100amp alternators, thought less. And the I30 probably has the same...

 

i feel ur pain cause my alternator died on me also and my car only had 80,000 miles on it... go figure

 

Guys, you all live in teh US of A and I'm stuck in Trinidad. The nissan dealer here is the sole distributor I believe, so people have no choice. I could not make the mistake 1750 for 175 because the price the dealer called was $11,000 tt dollars which converts to $1750US approx. Also I asked how much for just the rectifier in the alternator(that is what was bad) and that was $3500tt =$555US. A new maxima in Trinidad cost about $40,000 US. I imported mine from Japan and it cost $8700US. I guess that is the only place Trinidad has an advantage, used cars and parts . I wish I could live in the US .

Thanks for the info about the "real" price of the alternator. Now I know where to get one if I need it. I'm gonna scrap the old one and check out how the rectifier is made. If I can get the diodes to buy online I will try to replace them and see if that fixes the problem. If it has IC's etc in it then I'll have to forget about that.