Electrical Issues on a 1996 I30.

[Johnrose81]

Hey everybody. I'm not really known around here, but I do troll the forum a lot since I've owned a '96 Maxima and now, for the past 3 years, a '96 Infinity I30. I have worked on this car and have, for the most part, brought it up to show room running condition. Even at 200k miles. About 6 months ago, I replaced the starter, alternator, belts, and battery. I had a high pitch whine that followed the RPM's in pitch. I read that that could be the alternator bearing. One day my car wouldn't start at all. Just clicks. So I replaced the starter and alternator and the battery too along with the belts. Everything was dandy until this past Tuesday I was driving to work. I turned the key and I got a click. No dash lights. I pulled the key back, waited, tried again and the car started with no problem. As I was driving I had a very loud high pitch whine again. I turned off the ac/heater and the whine died down quite a bit. So I figured a fan was the cause. I rolled my window up and noticed my dash lights came on when I did that. After a bit, the screen on my radio would flicker and I noticed that my radio channels have been reset, thus electrical failure. The next day, I pulled the starter, alternator, and batter and had them tested. All passed as if they were brand new (and rightfully so). So that lead me to believe it could be a grounding issue. I can't find all the grounds on my car, and the ones I did find, looked normal. Can anyone help? I've tried to be as detailed as I could. Thank you everyone. The knowledge here is better than any shop I could go to.

[loystock]

Welcome to NICO.

Sysmptom is indicative of partial short, most likely in the charging system. Check your alternator connectors and cables. Make sure the 'hot' wire is not touching a ground wire. Ditto to battery cables which may be corroded and into the fuse box. Refer to the Electrical System link below for more info:

http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/i30/1996_I30/el.pdf

[Johnrose81]

I'll take a look at this. Thank you!

[Johnrose81]

I've worked on the alternator and other ground points. No problems as of yet. I'll update if I have anything bad happen with this stuff.