I don't know what the hell happened, but my car went haywire today. I was around the corner from my house and all of a sudden my stereo shut off, all gauges died, clock, signals, wipers, brake lights, head lights, everything, but.......................... The car was still running!:eek: I checked the alternator, the belt was still there, the battery was still connected, everything looked fine. The volt meter on my Turbo Timer worked, and it read 12.69 volts, when it normally reads 14 - 15 volts. I shut the car off and restarted it fine, but it slowly dies immediately.

Is my battery gone, or something more serious?

Thanks

I'm no mechanic but I had the same problem earlier this year. 95% of time I believe its either starter or alt. (It was both in my case)

Kyle

It's the alternator. Mine died Tuesday night. It had the same symptoms. I replaced it yesterday, and now all is good once again.:D

IF it's the alternator, I'm going to snap. I just changed it last week! It's the one that came with the DET.

My battery is reading 12 volts, more than enough to keep the car running for a few minutes at least. It dies immediately, that's why I think it's the battery that's dead, and the cars running off the alternator only.

I've replaced my alternator 4 times in my car so i consider myself to be experienced on the subject. Every time my alternator died, i never had the symptoms your experiencing. My Stereo would die but my gauges NEVER went out with simply an alternator problem. However, my gauges did go out once and my car still ran fine. Here's what it was...

On the positive terminal of the battery there is a clip with two wires connected to it. One of the wires is white and it runs to the alternator. The other is a fusible link (should be about 6 inches in length with connector clips on both ends). Remove this peice of wire and feel if it is solid throughout. Mine was melted and hence my problem. If you cannot tell if it is solid, disconnect it and see if the cars symptoms change at all. If it is the problem you can pick up a new one from the dealership for about 20 bucks. Hope that helps..

Mike

When the car is running, it is running off the alternator. The battery is there for starting purposes only. Everything runs off the alt. The alternator charges the battery up while you drive.
Unhook the battery while the car is running, if the alt. is good it will stay running nomatter what. If it dies, it's the alt.

Originally posted by se-r sam
When the car is running, it is running off the alternator. The battery is there for starting purposes only. Everything runs off the alt. The alternator charges the battery up while you drive.
Unhook the battery while the car is running, if the alt. is good it will stay running nomatter what. If it dies, it's the alt.
thats not a real good test with newer cars esp with such complex computers. on the older muscle cars it was a good easy trick but i would not do that now.

you have a voltmeter use it. ;)

Explain. ?
The computer is still getting the right voltage to work properly.

from what i was told when i worked at nissan and went to auto tech school it can send a short to the circuits. i've never done it though. but like i said its not hard to test yoour components with a multimeter so why not play it safe?

if someone can add more insight to it please do if im wrong correct me.

Originally posted by SupaBlackNX2k


On the positive terminal of the battery there is a clip with two wires connected to it. One of the wires is white and it runs to the alternator. The other is a fusible link (should be about 6 inches in length with connector clips on both ends). Remove this peice of wire and feel if it is solid throughout. Mine was melted and hence my problem. If you cannot tell if it is solid, disconnect it and see if the cars symptoms change at all. If it is the problem you can pick up a new one from the dealership for about 20 bucks. Hope that helps..

Mike

This is what it was. We replaced the fuseable link, but it exploded right away. I think I have a bad ground somewhere, but I don't know where to start. Any ideas??

I had the same problem not too long ago, all the gauges turned off (tach, speedo, factory temp gauge, gas gauge) lights didn't work, hazards didn't work, but the car still drove fine. It turned out to be 75A fuse that runs the battery. I went from store to store looking for it, turned out they only sell em at the Nissan dealersship, cost me 13 bucks for that damn fuse. Give it a try. peace.

Originally posted by Loe Lyf


This is what it was. We replaced the fuseable link, but it exploded right away. I think I have a bad ground somewhere, but I don't know where to start. Any ideas??

That I can't help you with. Wiring promblems are HELL. Good luck finding the problem.

Mike

I had a similar problem in an 'older' car (88 Escort...don't laugh, had to drive something in high school!). But that car, when the alternator died the whole car shut down, which was BAD because I was on the high way and had no warning at all. After 2 alternators we discovered that the wiring harness had 2 wires that had fused together and kept shorting out the lights and the alternator. I'm not a mechanic and don't claim to be, but from what I've heard newer (like early to middle 90's and up) there is a fail safe on the electrical system that allows the engine to run till the battery is dead but shuts off all other components in the car so that you have at the least a few minutes to get the car off the road safely if the alternator goes out or loses power for some reason but the 'check engine' light is supposed to come on (no other dashboard lights). But like someone else said, wiring problems are hell, I'd have someone go over the harness and the grounds very carefully looking for any burns or odd things otherwise if it is the alternator, expect it to crap out a couple of times before the problem is completely resolved :mad:

This same problem happened to me last night after work. It turned out that the positive terminal coming off of the alternator was a little corroded. The rubber boot covering it melted and made the connection real shitty. I unbolted it and scraped all of the junk from it and put it back on. It worked like a charm. I also was going frantic, thinking it was my alternator cause all of the connections looked good and I had no blown fuses. Hope this helps.


Edit: Forgot to add something. You should also check all of your engine grounds. The one from the alternator, the one on the thermostat, and the one coming from the battery itself. When we did my swap, the ground terminal on the thermostat was barely there and was severly corroded.