Greets,

My battery and brake light came on and went off 3 times yesterday while driving . I searched around and it seems like the alternator going bad is the answer. (comments)

Can someone tell me what's the warranty on the alternator and can people who have had this happen share what mileage or lifetime (years) they got out of their alternator?

Evertime I fix one thing on this car another item pops up

 

I checked the voltage with the car off it's 12.45v and with the car running it's 14.26v.

The brake and batt light did not come on yesterday. The measurements above seem normal. I also checked the belts to see if anything causing slippage, etc.

Anyone got ideas why the lights came on 3 times on Sat? In the dying phase of the alternator is this the way it reacts?

 

those light came one when my the belt came off the pulley once! strangely some parts were missing when i brought it to the dealership! but they took care of it under warranty!

 

Same thing happened to my moms max recently. 2000 SE 5 spd, ~65k miles. Autoway Nissan charged 500ish installed for the new alternator. Not under warranty.

 

Alternator, mine has been doing the same thing in the morning sometime. I bought a very looooow mileage alternator off a .org member in anticipation of mine taking a dump and since I got the alternator I have yet to get the lights to come on. I have not repleaced it yet. I refuse to buy reman alternators even from Nissan. One time my alternator took a **** on my 93 SE-R and I bought one from Nissan to repleace it. I only put like 1500 miles on the car that year and the alternator failed a week after the 12mo warranty ran out. Remanufactured starters and alternators are junk in my opinion. One I got has 17K miles on it and its out of a 01 Max. I have 120K miles on my 01.

 

Blackbird,

Any update, did you change your alternator? Did that fix the problem.

The light on mine has been coming on and going off intermittently.

 

Nah I'm driving with the same old alternator and have the new used one as a spare just in case it craps out on me. If it does I can swap the alternator out even on the side of the road so its not a big deal for me. Lately with the warm weather its been acting normal, but I'm sure when winter comes it will be different.

 

Swap it on the side of the road ... That's quite a trick, I guess you drive around with your tools.

Can you do me a favor next time the brake + battery light comes on. I think I found a test for this condition. On mine I notice if you hold a flat head screwdriver firm but gently against the pulley on the alternator you don't feel any magnetic field pulling on the screwdriver (failure condition). Under normal condition I can feel the magnetic field pulling on the screw driver.

Please let me know if this holds true on yours when the failure condition occurs.

 

My brake light has been coming on and off latly....not the battery light, just the brake light so do I need a new battery?