Confirmation of alternator

[Romeo5k]

Okay.. i read thru archieves to the best knowledge i knew how, but no one had the exact same symtoms as me, they were similar, but not exact same.

1. Cruise contriol stopped working a whoile back, someone says to check the fuse that it was prolly it. I havent checked that yet. It came on but wouldnt engage. I said to heck with it because its not required to drive the car. 2. I been driving for i dont know how long, but today, i came out of the mall, remote started my car, hopped in, and started driving. Rode 1min down the street and realized i had a thing in information box that says "LOW BATTERY CHARGE" Also, to the left, i have a brake light on. Like the park brakes was pushed, so i tried releasing, and its still lit. Also, my ABS light (orange) is on too. Im like WTF...now im paranoid. Im 20 mins away from the house and its drizzling. So i turned off the radio, A/C was never on. I barely run it in thecar, being that the weather is cool. I drove 20 mins home, no radio no lights. Only winshield wiper.

I get to a light by my house, and put car in nuetral turned it off, and took out the key. <--- Im like WTF, normally in neutral, key wont come out, how did that happen. I put it back in, and it started right away. Got home, parked, sit it in neutral again, and tried to take the key out, but this time it didnt come off.... Kinda crazy.!! Turned car back on, pshed the gas for about 5 secs to rev it up, maybe battery will charge... still same lights and same LOW BATTERY CHARGE. What i wanna know is, i read somewhere about taking the negative cable off, and if car stays running, then the alternator is ok.. if not, its bad. And are these signs normal and okay???

[92Q45guy]

NEVER EVER REMOVE THE NAGATIVE CABLE WITH ENGINE RUNNING! If you have a voltameter, you could test the alternator with that. With the engine running probe negative and positive and you should be in the 14 volt range. Make sure all electronics are off when testing. You can also take it to autozone and have them test it.

[lino]

Some of the symptoms you are describing sound like an alternator issue. What is the year and mileage of your car? Has the alternator ever been replaced? What is the condition of the battery?

[Jesda]

When Nissan alternators fail, they can fail intermittently.

I took a 1995 G20 across the country to Spokane, Washington. Then I took it to Portland, Oregon and then Seattle. In Seattle, heading toward the pier, I saw the belt and brake lights flicker briefly. Then, the flickering got more frequent. Then, the flickering stopped for a week!

On the drive back to St Louis, my headlights would suddenly go dim. Pretty scary since I was in the middle of nowhere (Wyoming I think?) at 3am. Sometimes, WOT would force the electrical system to come back to life. There were some hairy moments driving at 80mph with the dash lights, climate controls, and stereo turned completely off.

I finally did make it home to St Louis with a couple moments like that along the way.

Two months go by, my brother has the car at school. He drove to Kansas City to audition for a part in some movie, then on his way back it died completely. Called for a tow to take his car back to school.

I drove out and helped him install a new alternator.

Its just stupid luck that I wasn't left stranded out in the forest, among the grizzly bears.

Replace your alternator NOW.

[goody90q45]

A person in Sacramento has a new alternator on Craigslist for $60. He bought it for the parts car I bought from him but never put it in. Give him a call and if you need help shipping let me know.

[Romeo5k]

its a 95 yr model... i dont know if the alternator has ever been changed.. As for battery, i just got that in october of 2006. I got it from Sams... I dont have a voltage meter thingy, but i think the pioneer radio has a lil voltage thing on it.. ill look at that before i got to autozone, I would hate to break down on my way.!

[DrewQ45]

Sounds very much like my alternator failure. I'm 95% sure that's what it is given your description.

[Skibane]

I dont have a voltage meter thingy

Well, that's my cue to jump into this thread and b*tch at you for not owning a digital multimeter...

They're on sale for $3.99 at Harbor Freight every other week, for chrizizzle's sake - And under 9 bucks even when they're not on sale!

GET ONE, AND STOP GUESSING!!!!

[TBrack]

When my alternator belt broke I got the same dash lights and message. It is your alternator itself since your belt is fine.

[Romeo5k]

Well, that's my cue to jump into this thread and b*tch at you for not owning a digital multimeter...

They're on sale for $3.99 at Harbor Freight every other week, for chrizizzle's sake - And under 9 bucks even when they're not on sale!

GET ONE, AND STOP GUESSING!!!!

oopppss... my bad, ill make it my destiny to get one asap... seriouly.. NO JOKE..but that'll have to wait till next month wen i pass inspection and pay for someone to put this alternator in.. From what im reading, im looking at 4hrs labor, and at 60$ and hour thats 240$ labor alone.. Im a dead man. Grrrrr... I wish this was like my chevy where the alternator was on the top!!!!

Also... i took it to auto zone.. i swear, anyone can get a job there!!! <<<DUMMIES PREFFERED!>>> i told the guy to test the alternator and the battery... i dont know much but i do know that im supposed to be between 12.0 to 14.0 it read 12.4-12.5 not too low i guess.. So i tell em check the alternator, he hooks up the stuff and tell me to start the car and torev it up to 2000RPM.... 10 secs later he tells me to stop. Saying the machine is not reading the tachometer... he says its reading 0 rpm... and theres something wrong somewhere!So then he comes up with my conclusion sort of... tels me to unplug the red end on the battery (i thought its supposed to be black) and if car dies, then its the alternator. But that cant be correct, because my 95 has some lil module addon to the battery cable, and when u just unplug taht alone, car dies.. even if the battery wire itself is plugged in. Then he says my alternator cant hold. I told him thats my power for the car, he says, theres no way that thing can power up the car.. So i left.!!! its time to do some fund raising. I spent all my money thinking i was done with maitenance untill the fall, now im stuck!So, my mech is just going to have to investigate it for me.

BTW: does anyone have a writeup about how to take the alternator off without a lift.? All i have is a car jack and my 80$ tool box. i believe its the alternator too tho..if it is battery, it woulda already died by now. By me just driving 5 miles to autozone!

[Skibane]

oopppss... my bad, ill make it my destiny to get one asap... seriouly.. NO JOKE..but that'll have to wait till next month wen i pass inspection and pay for someone to put this alternator in.

Dewd, you got the cart before the horse!

The purpose of the meter is to determine whether or not you need a new alternator. If you buy the alternator before you buy the meter, you may find out that you wasted your money on an alternator that you really don't need.

The meter is four bucks - FOUR F'N BUCKS!!!

BTW, 92Q45guy is absolutely right about not pulling EITHER battery cable while the engine is running. With the battery disconnected, the alternator voltage regulator no longer measures a stable voltage - and can make the alternator produce huge voltage spikes. This is a wonderful way to ruin just about any electronic device in the car.

[burijon]

zerothread?id=105336

About a quarter way down on the page:zer...age=7

No one has written as well(and as much) to describe a fix/problem as Tangalora!

zerothread?id=52150

[Romeo5k]

thnx all.. ill get the thingy tomorro at autozone or walmart.. whichever has it... thnx.. and ill kepp yall updated.!

[qsiguy]

I concur, alternator. Holy smokes, the panic that flowed through me when you asked if you should disconnect the battery to check the alternator was intense! I can't believe the guy from Autozone suggested that as well. Sheesh. People need to fast forward to modern day. Back in the 70's and maybe ~80's you could get away with pulling your battery cable but it's not worth the risk. So much damage to be done.

Had my alternator die twice. Same thing, batt., ABS, SLIP, TCS OFF lights coming on. Last time it was my regulator and I have very high voltage which would easily show up on your voltmeter if you had one! Of course low voltage will show up just as easily.

[DrewQ45]

Your lucky day...

I just pulled a very new looking OEM Nissan remanned alternator off a 91Q. Looks like it hadn't been on the car very long at all as everything else around it was dirty.

You can have it for $120 shipped. I can take pictures of it if you wish. Let me know, otherwise I'm gonna post it in the parts forum.

**Edit** You can view it here.... zerothread/244363

...Drew...
Modified by DrewQ45 at 8:38 AM 4/19/2007

[Clyons0203]

I just went thru something similiar. First my interior lights (foot and dome light wouldnt turn off) this drained my battery one day and since then the car had a very slow start, like the battery was dead. Well i drove around like this for a week. I thought the alternator would recharge the battery but it never did. So I had autozone test the car, they said bad atl good battery. Then 10 mins later advanced auto tested it, they said bad battery good alternator.

I bought a new battery, problems went away.

Now my cousin had a 92 Q, and his dash board lit up one day like a christmas tree, turned out to be a bad alternator. Nissan designed the ABS, cruise, and all the electrical systems to run on a certain voltage. If that voltage isnt their, then u get a warning light. Hence the christmas tree effect.

[Romeo5k]

OMG ... taking this thing ou was a pain in the arse.... I dont know how many screws we took loose.. but we took alot .. AN U HAVE TO MOVE THE COMPRESSOR to the side. Without it... u wont get to the 2 or 3 screws back there... There 1 or 2 for the wires, and 1 more in the bracket.. Thois thing has never been changed.. So bolts were hard to break... I wish i could take some pictures... but its hard with so small of a space... Also... its nice to have a kid with u that is skinny, they can make the job a hell of a lot easier.. And i dont believe an ordinary person with regular tools can do this by theirselves.. It takes an experienced person, and some expensive tools,.. NOT the ones u buy in the tool box for 80$.. You need special tools.. My mech is doing it for me.. He is charging me 160$ for the part and 250$ for labor. I hope it decreases tho, because they said they are going to rebuild the alternator. ANd i hope labor goes down because, im helping.. But thats what im going thru... I wish i woulda known cruise control can also mean the alternator may be dying.. I woulda got it replaced wen i had 4 grand in my hand. zerothread?id=237793

[Q45tech]

$160 for the parts sounds like a less than stellar partial reman or just cleaned up yard unit.

WE see lots of people who bring their own discount store remans and we just love to charge them over and over and over to swap units which fail soon after install.......................sure the warranty covers 12 months but they don't cover labor.

Even Bosch is a low quality unit in this application.

I would rather see a junk yard take out than any from a national chain.

At best a 50/50 on them lasting more than a year..........vs oem which can last 10 years.............my oem lasted 12 years and 235,000 miles.

[Jesda]

$250 is a nice price. Once you move the compressor though, it takes 2 minutes to replace the alternator. Just that damn compressor and its mess of bolts...

[lino]

I took a lot of people's advice here and didn't risk buying an aftermarket unit. Unfortunately, it cost me over $1000. I was away when the car broke down and had to fix the car quickly.

I paid $75.00 to flatbed the car home the night the car broke down.I paid another $75.00 to flatbed the car to the dealer.The dealer's Invoice was $815.54I paid $65.00 for the alternator core at the parts counter when I ordered it and they charged me another $65.00 for the core at the service counter. I ordered the alternator from the parts counter with the intention of doing the work somewhere else. Then I ended up doing the work at the dealer and they charged me for keeping the core at the service counter which showed up on the invoice. I never knew this happened as I was away and my father was the one who handled the repair. I saw the invoice months later.

The dealer charged me for 2.4 hours of labor, but in reality they started at 9:00am and didn't finish the car until 6:00pm and they usually close at 5:00pm. My father waited at the dealer for hours and hours until they finally finished. They were really upset and said that they lost money on this repair and said a lot of BS to him about not being happy. The reason for that was I told my father before they start to work on the car to sign the work order stating that he "only agrees to pay for the 2.4 hours."

Here is a copy of the invoice:



Buy an OEM Reman and you get a nice box like this:

[Q45tech]

Where does one pay 15% in sales tax or any tax on labor?

We charge 6-7% on parts only labor is tax free in Georgia.

Did I see Canada on the box...............the $90 labor rate is low for a dealer.

[lino]

Where does one pay 15% in sales tax or any tax on labor?

We charge 6-7% on parts only labor is tax free in Georgia.

loooool welcome to Canada where the government owns your a** and all of your income. They are a real mafia. That's only the beginning of the taxes...you don't even want to know how much more the nail us with. Btw the tax was almost 19% not long ago.

http://www.fathersforlife.org/...taxes

http://www.jonushas.com/dcp/opc/detax.php

http://www.detaxcanada.org

[Romeo5k]

welll.. hold ur guns ppl... I dont know if this makes it any better, but im not getting a reman one, im getting mine rebuilt... Id rather that because its OEM and whatever they send... I think the mech told me they sell Hitachi or something like that... but either way, they are rebuilding mine for 160$ is that a beter deal ppl?

[DrewQ45]

Depends on how long the rebuild lasts. The job is so difficult that few want to do it again. This is why most stick with OEM. If the alternator were sitting on top like a camry, aftermarkets would rule the day. I have offered you a Nissan remanufactured for $40 less than what your questionable rebuild would cost you. Think about it.

...Drew...

[lino]

I'd buy it from you Drew in a heartbeat if I needed it. It looks mint!

[Chrisfrend]

I recently had my alternator replaced in my 97 Q45; my Japanese mechanic claimed that the Denso (owned by Toyota I believe) alternator would be more durable than the stock Hitachi one. I don't know this to be necessarily true, but a remanufactured Denso alternator for your car may be another option worth considering since it is available for your car.

[Romeo5k]

I would have, but the mech decided to use the one he had ordered so he could warranty the part and the labor. So the part cost me 160$ and labor 240$. Car is back rolling... I just pray now somone comes out with better injectors, cause i know thats next.Thnx all for input!

[Jesda]

Enjoy the ride.

[Q45tech]

My oem Hitachi lasted 12 years and 235,000 miles [bearings got noisey] the second is a Nissan remanned that has been in almost 5 years and 78k.

I have 2 fine examples of almost new remans taken fron junkers waiting for future use in 2012 and 2020.

[DrewQ45]

I have 2 fine examples of almost new remans taken fron junkers waiting for future use in 2012 and 2020.

Yeah.... I'm thinking of keeping my recently acquired reman. My current reman is about 5 years old but might not last as long as yours due to upgraded car audio (amps, subs). This might be the answer to heavy audio, electric fans and such. Stock up on alternators!