so today for some reason when I started my car there was a slight smell like the kind that happens when metal rubs against metal. I pulled over immediately and thought it could be my radiator as it seemed thats where the smell was coming from. I let the car cool, opened the radiator cap and found that the radiator had enough fluid in it and that the reservoir for the fluid also had fluid in it but not past the max line. I decided to drive it back slowly to the hotel im staying at as im out of town today and the hotel was about 5 to 10 min away and as its pretty much the middle of the night here. I stopped a couple times to inspect the car but that smell didnt come back at all.

As I got close to the hotel the ABS light came on and stayed on, as i was less than 150 yards from the hotel I thought I'd continue but even more cautiously. After a couple more seconds the o/d light started flashing along with the fasten seat belt sign, the stereo shut off and the light began to get dimmer. I made it to the hotel parked so I could get a tow in the morning and found that the car wouldnt turn on. While the car is off all the lights worked and returned to normal strength.

I tried to search the interent and these forums for any similar events to help me diagnose the problem I now face. I don't know exactly what the problem is but am thinking that it could be the alternator and as I'm calling AAA tomorrow to get the car to a mechanic I wanted to know what the consensus is as I don't really want to end up at a ****ty mechanic and get stuck in the middle of me driving back to new york. right now im at king of prussia in penn.

if anybody here could help me out with what the possible problem could be it would really help as im going to the mechanic on wed afternoon for pretty much an emergency fix so I can get back to new york tomorrow. any help would really be appreciated, thanks in advance!

edit: 1999 maxima w 187k miles oil changed within last month and all fluids topped off with oil change, no recent major work, in good condition no recent (last 2-3 yrs) mechanical problems.

 

Abs = brake problem or sensor, maybe that metal on metal smell is ur brakes. The other one does sound like A alternator problem imo. Good luck

 

The metal smell is more then likely the copper bushings in your alternator. Mine did the same thing when it was on its way out.

 

Alternator crapped out. Strange that the idiot light for that system didn't come on?
The other warning lights came on as voltage dropped and they slowly shut down.

 

Thanks you guys were spot on, alternator blew, I got to the garage they first said the battery was dead, then after 10 min of being on they definitively said the alternator needs to be replaced. they wanted to take the alternator out from the top of the car and told me it would take 2 hrs to lift the engine out of the car (2inches) so they can remove the alternator, I told them to remove it from the bottom of the car as shown in an online page as well as in the service manual I was holding in my hands. They reluctantly said ok and worked step by step to replace it (~40 min time). I test drove it and the burning smell came again, I went back and apparently the alternator they put in (a reconditioned one from autozone) was bad so they went about putting in another (~20 min this time) and noticed my brake pads were down to nothing (my fault) so I told them to replace them. after a new alternator was installed I went for another test drive and again the same burning metal smell, I came back and they immediately thought there was an electrical problem until we noticed smoke from the left brake caliper, so they jacked up the car and lubed up the caliper after high pressure air cleaning the dust off. They fixed that and then they test drove it and then I test drove it and it was fine. total time 12 to about 5pm. It was frustrating but everything worked out at the end of the day. I just got back home to NY at 10pm. Thanks again for everything, knowing what the problem was and how to go about fixing it through some internet research really really helped me today, something that I wouldn't have been able to do without your quick replies.

Thanks again!

 

Was this an OEM alternator? OEM has the green paint mark on it FYI.

 

yeah the one that was in the car initially had a green paint mark on it, then the one that they 1st tried to replace it with was a duralast remanufactured alternator and I think that had a blue mark around it, and then the third one that finally worked was a remy newly manufactured alternator I believe.