Yesterday my brake and battery lights went on simultaneously. After searching the forum I determined it must be the alternator. Since it is cold this march I decided to let my mechanic handle the job. This guy is honest to a fault. He doesn't overcharge for parts or labor or perform unnecessary repairs, so I usually respect his opinion. Now for the interesting part.

On the drive over to the shop the lights went out. When I got there I deceided to let him check it out, since I assumed that they would find the alt faulty and replace it. Well he did a complete electrical diagnostics and told me everything checked out ok. He was baffled as well as I was, his explaination was that possibly the belt could have slipped as a result of it getting wet, even though he said the belt was ok and tensioned properly. I went home scratching my head.

The only thing I did before I went to the shop was to top off the power steering fluid, since this was very low way below the cold fill line. Now where did the fluid go it must have leaked out right? He said he didn't see a leak or any residue from a leak on the belts or pulleys. One caveat I'm sure he didn't spend a whole lot of time looking since his shop is pretty busy.

My theory is that the PS fluid must be leaking under load and spraying onto the ALt. pully, even though they are on opposite ends, or is the Alt. just doing its Maxima slow death dance? I guess I wonder if anyone has any advice to convince me that I can forget about the ALT and concentrate on finding the PS leak.

I wonder is it normal for the PS to lose fluid without a leak in the system?

Can the low PS fluid cause the ALT belt to slip, in turn causing the battery and brake lights to go on?

Thanks for reading, sorry for the long post.

 

More likely to be the alternator field brushes on the way out. Quite often when they get completely worn down they'll work, then lose contact for a while, then work again... probably all your alternator needs is to have the field brushes replaced. The two graphite blocks with little springs and braided wire... assuming the Max alternator is like all the others I have seen.

 

I have been having a problem with my maxima too samething what you mention the lights goo off and the car starts to weaken down.. And the problem was the alternator I replaced the alternator 3 x already :S every 2 months it happened I dont know what the problem is.

 

UPDATE!!!

I had the electrical system checked 3 times since, each time the alternator checked out ok, but the battery showed that it was weak. Well one day on the way to work I started the car ok in the morning drove 45 minutes, stopped to get coffee, went out side only clicking, Auto club came 1 hour later, drove home. On the way stopped at pep boys and bought an optima red top. Put in in, the car has been fine since.

I just want to tell people that the battery light, brake light on, does NOT automatically mean the alternator is bad. Of cousre have the electrical system checked, but believe what it says. I'm glad I did, and saved myself an unecessary expense.