In the middle of the street. In front of Grand Central Terminal. In rush hour.



I go pick up the car this afternoon from the lot, and it doesn't wanna start. I'm all like "WTF" but figured it was the battery... after getting jumped I have every intention to make it to the nearest Sears or Autozone to pick up a battery -- don't care for whatever the dealership has, since it's obviously crap...

I drive up Park from 23rd to pick up the wife and head on up, and it's all good. I get into the Park Ave. tunnel and the lights come on... and then my gauges start flickering. I'm like WTF?

So a few seconds later... the car turns off. And it stays off.

So... in comes the tow truck. My options are a) get a jump and roll the dice, maybe the car will die 3 blocks later or b) have the car towed to Autotech and leave it there overnight for their service guys in the morning.

So... the car is over there, waiting. Not sure what's going on with it... my guess it's the alternator took a dump on itself, otherwise the car wouldn't have shut off while moving...

 

If you get a cell failure in the battery the whole thing can come to a halt becuse it shorts out the battery or alternatively it could be alternator failure.

 

That sux huh....know of anyone else this happened to...or maybe just a freak occurence

 

You think they'll just drop in a new batt in there and it's all good? Just wondering... doesn't matter since the damn battery is coming off anyway.

 

Get them to check the alternator output( very simple test) , no point in putting in a new battery which will just die in a couple of hours/days...

 

Yeah, I'd say it is more than the battery. Usually, a dead battery will just keep the car from starting. However, a faulty alternator will not only cause your battery to die (since the battery would be the only thing running the car) it can cause your car to stall out. Because the battery is dead, your car won't crank after cutting off.

Also, if it does turn out to be just the alternator and you don't replace your battery, be sure to keep an eye on your battery because regular automotive batteries do not like to be completely discharged. It shortens their life and reduces their cold cranking amps. It would probably be beneficial to go ahead and drop in an Optima battery.

It can be a real pain when your alternator goes. It happened to me way back when I had a '92 Camaro. While I was on the highway my electrical accessories started to act funny. I look at my voltmeter and it is on zero. I should have had a clue when the car didn't start up as normal before I left. In my divine wisdom, I didn't even look at the voltmeter while I was driving until it was almost too late. Luckily I was able to get to a gas station before it completely died.

 

GRRR... I rag on Autotech sometimes, but I know it's with good reason.

I call yesterday... they're busy and haven't looked at the car. Call 3 more times and they say they're gonna get around to it, that it's probably the alternator. What a surprise!

I call today at noon, guy says he'll call me back... 3pm rolls by, no call back. I call and they say he's busy.

So I grab my stuff and head up there... sure enough at 4:30 he calls and says "come by at 5, the car will be ready" -- which I take it means "I'm just looking at it now and I think it's the battery", but I figure when I get there I'll see what they did and if they replaced anything.

Guy calls me back 10 minutes later... "bad news, it's the alternator"

Jesus what a circus...

Better yet, he has to order it (which he could have done yesterday morning if he looked at the car) and it probably won't be ready until Monday. Maybe Tuesday.

Nothing messes up your weekend like getting your plans shot to hell... I had everything set up to install all the mods at once tomorrow, and now it looks like it's gonna be at least a couple of weeks before I can do that, since I'm busy next weekend as well.

Oh well... live and learn. I should have had the car towed to Stamford where I take it for service instead.

*****es.

 

Man that really sucks...guess I will not be going to Autotech for any service work.

 

This is messed up. These Nissan stealerships suck. You would think that they would have 6th gen parts in stock. It should not have taken two days for them to find the problem. You should call Nissan's 800 number and complain. They will check it out. Its a bad mark for dealers. I hope its ready by Monday. Call the Manager Mon. morning and complain, wait a hour than call and ask for his manager, than call and ask to speak to the head d*ckhead. Tell the you are going to call the BBB. F*ck them.

 

Right after I get the car back...

Don't worry, I have experience with shafting the dealerships that give me bad service. Last time the guys at MB Fairfield screwed me with their service, we ended up with a loaner ML55 for a week. Mileage sucked, but it's a hell of a truck...

 

My previous Corolla, Accord and '97Max all had bad alternators. The Corolla's RPM just jumped all up and down intermittently. The battery on the Accord was over-charged and almost blown up (acid smoke came out under the hood). Took my boss out for lunch one day and my Max just died (at least I got the guy pushing the car for a change). At least, my mechanic just picked up the phone and had rebuilt alternators delivered in 1/2 hour for the Accord and the Max (cost around $150 installed). All three cars had one thing in common: I washed the engines. I did wrapped the alternator carefully with plastic bags and tried not to spray water on it. The mechanic told me a dirty engine only looks bad but will be a lot better that way. So, this time I believe the guy and try not to mess under the hood anymore.

 

I usually clean the engine every time I wash the car, but I haven't touched it recently... at least a week or more, because of the rains we've had.

And every time I mess with it, I'm careful to cover the intake and any electrical components, just in case. My guess is something happened to it though, but if it got wet, I didn't do it...

 

I clean the engine once a week. I use windex and rags never water. I also use polish on my intake and battery cover and have no problems.

 

Just be very careful when cleaning the engine. Maybe you should do "dry" cleaning like Ramberg. Things may only go bad later down the road, usually when the warranty is out.

 

Is the car fixed?

 

Yep. Get this...

Guy calls me this morning... "oh, it's the battery"

I went down there and made sure to check the voltage out of both and it seems to be alright. Sucks that it took them DAYS to figure this out, but the service manager now knows my name. And I'm calling the 800 number tomorrow to complain about that too.

Hopefully I'll get one of those surveys in the mail too (does Nissan send those out when you go in for work?)... I'll let them know what I think about their service department.

 

so it was the altinator and the battery or just the battery ..

Talk about very crappy service ... this is terrible....

Go get em...

 

It (supposedly) was the battery... and I say that because I don't know if they did replace the alternator, although it didn't look as if though they had. Not to mention that if they actually had, it would have been more labor to bill for under warranty... so it leads me to think it was just the battery.

But... it also begs the question, if it WAS just the battery, why did he say on Friday that it was the alternator (after originally saying it was the battery)?

I can't imagine a scenario where they would think that it's the battery, then the alternator, only to find out that it's the battery... it doesn't make any sense.

 

I bet you are not the only customer that they screwed. Check with BBB. The ppl at the 800 number will take good care of you and will contact the dealer and get back to you. Yes they send out surveys out for service but not to everyone. Good luck let me know what happens. gec lowered his price.

 

I'm thinking that this is not the last we will hear of this story..

It is very easy for a tech to tell you in like 5 seconds if it's the altinator .. So for him to say it was and then not ... ????

Worse case senerio, it's an intimitant altinator fault and its going on and off like a light bulb...save you won't know till it knocks ya battery dead again.

 

Gee.. thanks...

But I understand what you're saying... I'm confused also as to why they'd say it's one thing then the other, then switch back... especially when you're talking about the alternator and the battery. It's also weird that they wouldn't have just replaced the alternator under warranty and called it a day... seems to make sense for them (more $) and as a CYA tactic (it won't die again if you replace both).

But what are you gonna do... so far the car has been behaving, so I'll wait and see what happens. If it dies, it's really no big deal for me to get back over there and yell some more... I got nothing better to do...

As long as the car doesn't shut off in the middle of the highway, or on the way to the airport...

 

once you get it back, head straight to an auto zone to see their unbiased findings.

you may receive a satisfaction survey. It's funny how I received a couple over minor stuff, but not for other visits.

 

Ditto, Hand clean mine every week with Windex, Polish, paper towels/lint free rags and rubber gloves, the more often you clean it, the easier it is to keep it clean.

Dirty engines suck at shows and dirty engines make it harder to find leaks or diagnose problems.