Low battery charge?! I need your help guys ...

[areznik]

Hello everyone, I hope you all are having a great summer.

Today in the morning all of a sudden I saw a "low battery charge" and other stuff like TCS, Park Brake, and other lights on dash were on during the driving. I restarted the car - same thing. Disconnected the battery and reconnected - same thing. Went to AutoZone. They checked the voltage and the amps - said the battery is good (it is really only 2 years old). But when I reved up to 2000 rpms they said that the voltage was not going up meaning that the ALTERNATOR does not charge the battery. It sounded very logical because after warmup my car used to die if I did not help it with the pedal and the idle was rediculously low even though I have 3 turns on IAC. Anyways, if anyone has experiented the same thing - please help.

If it is an alternator (never heard this one failing on a Q), how difficult is it to replace it?

I would greatly appreciate your help.

Andre.

[DAEDALUS]

Sounds like the alt to me. Replacement is a PITA and could take 4 hours. Lots of how-to help here.

zerothread?id=123915

[memiller]

I have the same problem with my 92Q. My display still says low battery charge...in spite of having a brand new altenator and battery. And now my new battery is starting to go dead after only a month or two of service.

Any ideas or suggestions on how next to proceed?

[DAEDALUS]

Measure the voltages for clues:Car off, check voltage, should be above 12.0V. Start car, voltage should be close to 13V, maybe even ~14V. Turn on all electricals...lights, radio, AC/blower high, etc and measure. Should still be close to 13-14V, maybe .1 or .2 lower than the last reading. Also, on a good battery voltage should stay above 10V after cranking for 15 seconds (remove fuel pump fuse).

[Jehangir]

Let me tell you guys a story about what happened to me this weekend while getting my oil changed.To begin, I go to this place because they do an awesome job cleaning my car. So all I have to do is wax and armorall the car. ANYWAY, I could only see the back of the car while they were changing my oil and 15 minutes later I noticed my antena going up and down. It must have cycled about 30 times. About 20 minutes later I heard my name announced over the PA system. When I went out to my car the "mechanics" were telling me that my car would not stay running. They were also quick to point out the "low battery" warning in my dash. I said "impossible". This is when they're tone changed to a little more condacensing sound. So, I began to react a little as well. I asked them to open my hood. After a brief inspection I noticed they had disconnected almost all of the vacum hoses to my MAF. So my car would start but would not remain running. Also when they checked the battery It also read low because they had been starting my car for 30 minutes. But these "mechanics" were convinced that my alternater was dead because of the symptoms.So I guess my point is, even though your problem seems to be electrical, it may be something completely unrelated.Good Luck and keep us posted......

[JedCoop]

My display still says low battery charge...in spite of having a brand new altenator and battery. And now my new battery is starting to go dead after only a month or two of service.

Any ideas or suggestions on how next to proceed?

I'd look for a grounding problem, for example between the engine and the body, or some other subsection. These problems always have weird symptons like you mention. With the engine running look for places where the voltage is less than the 14.5 or you should be reading from the alternator.

[Q45denver]

I had this happen on my 1990. I replaced the battery and the alternator with no sucess. I finally took it to the dealer who replaced the positive battery cable. Apparently even though it looked fine, it had developed some internal corrosion over time. Good luck.

[memiller]

Thanks guys. I'm gonna make an intital stab at solving this problem today.

I guess it's just a matter of "process of elimination" as to which electrical current path is the culprit...hopefully I will get lucky and discover its location more sooner then later...I suppose I'll begin by removing fuses one at a time and monitor the impact or lack thereof this has on voltage levels.

I'll report my findings back here if anyone is interested?

[DAEDALUS]

Sorry, I didn't read your post well enough. Yes, remove fuses one at a time. But first place a current meter between the battery and the cable (with car off). Presumably you'll see a decently high amount of drain. This way you'll know immediately when you've unpluggd the system causing the drain. Then you have to troubleshoot all the circuits that go through that fuse.

[areznik]

Hey guys,

Apologize for late reply, was overseas. I basically had Nissan dealership replace the alternator since I did not have time to do it on my own even though I would be thrilled to do it. Replacing the alternator solved the problem.

Thanks for your help!

[DAEDALUS]

You didn't get any LEDs lit in the dash?