Not sure this is the alternator, seems like it to me. I was driving home no big deal no lights on. Went somewhere fast, got back in my car and noticed the "Brake" light and batter light remained on.. Drove home, an hour later drove back outt og et battery tested. They said it tested 460 or something so should be fine?About 15minutes of driving later I noticed as I stepped on the brake the ABS light came on then i Let go and it was off. Then it stayed on..Got home, tried to start and no chance. Gave it an hour rest and it started. Alternator right? How bad it is? Ive read nearly impossbile to replace. I have replaced one on a mustang but not maxima..

 

What about the belts ? crank pulley ? hard to move steering wheel ?

 

i had no problem steering wheel.Driving was fine just wouldnt start unless it sits

 

Any time those lights come on, and the car won't start, battery & connections are the #1 suspect, alternator #2.

Get out your multi-meter, and check the voltage of the battery with the car off, and the car running. Compare to values in the FSM. Swapping the alternator is tedious, but not hard, there was a nice thread on this if I may say so myself.

In the meantime, you can charge the battery using a plug-in charger or something.

 

I checked battery connection and seemed fine. Any clue where the thread on swapping is?I looked for about an hour before I posted this, unable to locate. I pretty much know nothing about batteries but know it had 470 when it was off. But as I was driving I could feel it losing power.. Clearly seems alternator isnt charging... Im just afraid will cost me like $300 if I dont do it myself.

 

I posted this question a few months ago...here

http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...what-else.html

cost me $380 including alternator.

 

^^^this

I'm not sure what value they're giving you when you say 470. Is that CCA? If 'they' had the technology to test that, I would assume 'they' could have easily tested the alternator. Also if you're alternator was causing the battery to fail 'they' should have at least mentioned to charge the battery.

 

I just posted this same question last week,I replaced the alternator and it fixed the problem,I also changed my belts as they showed signs of wear,And i got an alternator from autozone for around 200 bucks

 

Yes they had the technology to test the battery, but not the alternator. I guess the alternator needs to be out of the car to be tested and no chance I could get it out. Looking like a pretty expensive fix for normally such an easy one damn

 

Once the car is running with a recharged battery an easy check to see if it's the alternator is to turn off the headlights or the radio fairly loud and see if anything changes when you rev the car if the headlights become dimmer when it's idling then it's definitely the alternator.


This isn't 100% but should work most of the time, if the battery is really good(fully charged) then you might not notice the change in headlight brightness.

 

Alternator is actually not that hard to change... The only pain in the a*s is having to remove the water pump and belt.

Other than that, it should be an easy DIY fix with nothing more than a couple of wrenches and jack. (It's about an 1-2hr job; so have patience)



PS. I owned a 2001 Maxima for 5 years. Had to do some work on it myself a few times.

 

I just paid a shop to replace the alternator in my 2002 last week, car has stranded me twice in the past couple weeks so I got tired of dealing with it. For a good Alt, new alt harness, and installing belts it was right around $450.

 

Water pump? You mean the AC compressor, I hope. The water pump is driven by the timing chains on the VQ engines.

See the thread for a couple of how-to's and pics:

http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...lternator.html

 

You dont remove the water pump.check for some post by me i have some advice there for changing the alt.the hardest part is being prepaired.it should only take about 2 hours if your prepaired for it i didnt remove the rad to do mine either i do suggest get some cheap ramps from pepboys etc. Just for comfort and safety while your under the car.and call the dealer in advance and get the belt tensioner assembly its $77 because thats going to be your biggest problem with the job.

 

I am dealing with this problem now. Brought a remanufactured acdelco alternator and had it installed. Right out of the box it was defective. The battery light with light up under load every once and a while. So the alternator would work sometimes and not others. Now after 2 months my battery which was brand new is now completely dead so the car was running off the battery. I also never got the battery light when turning the key to the acc postion. Brought a brand new alternator this time. No more remanufactured units for me. They are hit or miss. Got a NSA brand all new alternator....

 

I was about to post a similar thread, If anyone has input i would appreciate it. I had my car running and checked my alternator by detaching the battery terminal, it continued running so im not sure what the problem could be. My cars lights started going dim while i was driving to work then my dummy lights started coming on. After i shut the car off it wouldnt start back up, but i let it sit for about 6 hours came back and tried again and it started but the problems continued, on my way home my speedometer and tachometer were going haywire aswell then my speedometer flipped to the other side. My battery was brand new in january so i dont know if it would be that either. I am stumped any help would be awesome.

 

Its your alternator. My car was doing the same thing. Techometer would be at 0 rpm even though the car was running. The speedometer would act all crazy. I think its because the car is running off the battery and its not putting out enough to support all the electrical devices.