No one has been able to find out what is wrong with my J30

[cbtegner]

I have had a history of replacing alternators (7 times) in the last .75 years in my 1993 infinity j30. I have also replaced the engine due to timing belt breakage. My alternators still keep dying. I have taken my car to 4 mechanics and had them put in several new alternators. I have had full electric analysis of my car and no one knows whats wrong. I currently have a mechanic working on it that works for an RV dealership and he knows his stuff. He believes it could be my pully system, or ignition (since i have to crank the key back to get electrical stuff working. I have poured more money than the car is worth into it and at this point giving up is unacceptable. If anyone has any advice or ideas id love to hear from them.

Chris

[driverdriver]

Always use OEM Nissan alternators on the J. Its a rule. If you use anything aftermarket, the chances are high of (a.) alternator failure and multiple replacements (b .) Engine and electrical systems doing weird things.

A lot of us have experienced what your describing and have learned the hard way(like yourself).

[emerald-j]

ok, it sounds like you are blowing your voltage regulator in your alternator. If this is the case, then there is a major short somewhere within the charging circuit or there is also severe resistance in that circuit that causes an increase in amperage making your regulator blow out and kill your alt. Now let me ask you this, why is your mechanic saying that it can be your ignition or you belt drive if those two things have "ABSOLUTELY" nothing to do with your charging system. The ignition system only deals with your starter and starter circuit and that is no where near that. The belt drive (or your pulleys and belts) might play a factor if the belt is overtighten on the alternator belt drive. but if your alternator is not making no noise, then the blet drive is out of the question. but if it does and it sounds like some sort of shrieking sound, that means the bearing on the alternator is about to give, which in turn only happens if you overtighten the belt. If the above situation with the belt is not happening either, I would highly recommend that you take your car back home and don't take it back to that mechanic. I don't want to sound harsh but if he is gonna be shooting out guesses like that, that is not a mechanic, period. That guy is just there to take your money out of your pocket and pull out all the good parts that don't need to be pulled. Look, if you have a multimeter and your service manual that came with the car (located in a panel at the left side, inside your trunk), look up the "charging circuit diagram"for the j30. The circuit is seriously not hard to check out and there is not that much wiring to deal with. As long as you know how to read the diagram, you should be fine.

[emerald-j]

oh, by the way. if you need help with it, I would be more than happy to explain to you in detail what you need to check. like I said, its not hard as long as you have a digital multimeter. That is all you would seriously need. From there, I would explain more if you plan on doing it yourself.

[cbtegner]

Here is some history (over the past year and one month) The first place i took it to was pep boys, they did my brakes routers and disks which were warn down 4 months later, and they did not touch the alternator (said somthing was drawing power when the car was not on), then i took it to audio installers and had them make sure it wasnt my system which consists of 2 high power amps i have since disabled to eliminate that from the possiblities. Then i had a used infiniti alternator put in from a junk yard which lasted me 3 months. Then my car died the first time, a tow truck picked me up and they put in an alternator which took 3 weeks to put in and blew 10 miles later, they put in another one and it lasted me 2 days and blew again, they then said that its my electric and they are not responsible for replacement. Next i had a reputable shop that works on imports examine my car. They spent about a week and found a bare wire in the fuse box and removed it, then secured the battery cables which were loose. My problems were solved for a while and i was able to drive it about a month, that is until my timing belt on my engine broke. I then had a choice to make, scrap it after all the work or invest a grand in it and have a dealership mechanic and work friend of my brother throw an engine would buy on ebay for it. I choose B and had him throw an engine in it. He drove it around a bit and i got it back with high hopes. two days later the car started blowing blue smoke and died slowly on me. He examined it and determined that my alternator blew my water belt and so he got the alternator rebuilt. I then recieved the car back again and within three days while driving it the lights started to dim and the gages go berzerk. I stopped the car and luckly the alternator bench tested ok. That is where i am at now. No idea what is causing the sudden power loss in my car. The mechanic is getting me parts on wholesale and doesnt charge alot and in addition seems to care that the car is fixed with no financial motive. It has been 2 months since it went out and i guess he is making progress.

[cbtegner]

BTW I really appreciate your response. I am going to get in touch with the mechanic and have him explain what he has done already and what he thinks are his next steps. I could be wrong about the ignition and the pulley system, so ill ask him why he would want to replace that. Do you think it could be the battery (one battery and all these alternators). Also the symtoms i noticed before it the alternator shut down the last time was an almost truggle to turn over (electric wise). The reason they are looking at my ignition is that to get power to lights, windshield, stereo, you need to gently push the key back just a tad once started. Also just a tidbit of information, i was messing around with the key going back when i was listening to my stereo the first time it broke down since i got the replacement j30 alt in it (which seemed to last me a long time) So i essencially **** the car off on accident while driving and i was unable to start it again. I just thought i would include that info if it would help. It has been worked on several times since then however. Ill call the mechanic later on and update on anything new, but as of know we are at a loss for words as to this mystery.

Chris

[liquidJ30]

the last 3 years i owned my J30 you had to push the key back a bit to get the audio and everything to work.(sure its kind of annoying but i can think of worse). and i only had 1 problem with an alternator and i believe that was because i put in an aftermarket one. next one you swap out, make sure its oem. but other than that, good luck finding the culprit.

[emerald-j]

also, if for some reason you are picking up a power drain, get a test light and follow these procedures. disconnect your negative battery cable and connect the test light connector to the cable. From there, place the pointed side of the tester to the negative terminal of your battery. If it shoes that it flashes continously in series, then its your clock that is on your dash. The reason I tell you this is because, I was testing my electrical system in my car and picked it up during the test. But when I pulled the fuse for the clock out, the light went away. If the light still stays on, then you got a short somewhere that can cause this.

[emerald-j]

I will explain more later, I got to get back to class. There is allot more that I got to explain so maybe you can give it a try.

[cbtegner]

I just talked to my brother for a second and he said the mechanic is looking for a water pump for it now. He said i may have to get one from a dealer which is gonna cost a bundle. I had no idea that if i let my car sit in a driveway for 2 years it would totally rot.

[cbtegner]

Just spoke to the mechanic, he says that the engine i bought for it dosnt have the serial number anywhere and every water pump he buys does not fit correctly. so that is what is holding it up. once i find the right one i will get it hand have him put it in. He said the water pump (old one) did not exactly work with the new engine. The repleacement engine did not run the water pump like the old engine did, instead the alernator did it. As a result the belts were tight and did bad bad things to the alternator. Im thinking possibly the electric is not a problem and the problem lies in the engine transplant. I think if found the right water pump (it has a long circular shaft coming out of it as opposed to other ones with shorter) see the

http://www.car-stuff.com/inclu...W50eQ==

we think this might be the one. Does this make any sense. That the water pump needs to fit the replacement engine in order to not mess up the alternator. (i think i got a 94 engine in a 93 j30) I also told him that if thaat alt blows again def try OEM one. The question regarding the alts is 7 alternators blowing so quickly doesnt neccessarily mean that its b/c they wernt oem. I think the first spell of bad alt luck was due to electrical, and now it is happening b/c the water pump and the engine.

[emerald-j]

yeah, if you let it sit for a long time without running it, the seal in the water pump will go bad, resulting from leak. Anyway, i am gonna be here at school till 6pm or maybe more because I just rebuilt my starter today but now she won't engage and fire up the engine. Now since you mentioned the issue about the key incident, I think that you might have messed up your ignition switch. Take apart your collumn and remove your ignition switch (including where you key goes, this is basically your entire switch). If you know anyone that knows how to check your switch and rebuild it, please take it to them. If you really can't wait for it to rebuild it, go to the yard and find a donor J and see if it has one. The only thing you would have to do to make it work on your J is swapping over your key insert to the donor part.

[emerald-j]

i forgot to mention that all year J30's (from 93 to 98) have the exact same engine in them. The water pump are all the same and there is no way that it can mess up your alternator. Now another thing is that the picture that you showed me is not the correct water pump. I found one for you on ebay brand new and is made by the same manufacture that is originally on the car from the factory. Its an Aisin water pump and it has everything you need including the gasket and bolts. here is the page that I found it on:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW