Altima Battery and brake light - bad luck for me

Time for a new alternator.

It is also what i thought first, but when i whecked for voltage on load everything looks ok to me (more than 13 volts). Or i missed something (for sur but what) ?

It is also what i thought first, but when i whecked for voltage on load everything looks ok to me (more than 13 volts). Or i missed something (for sur but what) ?

I bet 1 of your diodes are open, maybe 2.

I think you can frive it for a while but it ain't gonna fix itself.

Keep a voltmeter handy I remember a few years ago I kept a cigar lighter plugand meter in the car so I could moniter the battery voltage while driving

Mike

NIRAV !!!

Good to see you !

I must apologize, for some reason I had you on my blocked senders list... don't know why ... please forgive me

Nirav is exactly correct on this matter, replace the alternator with a factory OEM part or....

care to take this one Nirav ?

I'm been around :) not posting as frequently, but nevertheless around. I see you're not posting as often anymore :).

The answer is replace it with an OEM part or make sure you keep a spare on in the trunk, and be sure to enter the local "how fast can you replace an alternator contest" because you'll get so good at swapping out non-OEM remans that you'll be able to do it with your eyes closed... etc. I think the point is clear.

I think I'm figuring out the OEM vs. non-OEM thing; tonight after work I get to replace the alternator on my 1995 Nissan Altima GXE for the

3rd time in 6 months (the first replacement lasted 5 months and my second lasted 1 month). I was driving along just fine on the way to work and got the brake & battery light on just as all of my gauge lights and headlights dimmed. Since it's happened before, I just kept going to work knowing that running just off of the battery I can go about 60 miles at 55mph.

So, if you haven't sunk your money into a "lifetime warranty" non-OEM alternator, go straight for the OEM. On the bright side, I'm not a mechanic by any means, but I can swap out my alternator in about 45 minutes now, so I'll just keep dealing with the inconvenience because I'm too cheap to start over and pay $180 for an OEM when right now it only costs me my own free labor. :)

Scott, I got plenty of yard work and stuff aroud the house I need help with - since your labor is free - can you help me out Saturday AM? :)

All jokes aside, I know what you mean by being in the hole already on the reman, but the day you get stranded somewhere, you'll regret not biting the bullet and getting the OEM replacement.

Cheers, Nirav

The end of the story,

I did 700 km last w.e. I was nervous because of the warning lights on. So i stopped every 15 minutes to check the voltage with my multimeter. And it was ok to me.

After 1.5 hours driving or so, by magic the lights turned off !!!!

I was happy with that.

The only thing i did was clean the inside of the alternator.

Happy end...

Guess i was wrong, it didfix itself !!

LOL

Mike

That's good news..but I'm trying to picture how you cleaned the

*inside* of an alternator?

Yes, i have not explained very well. I took the alternator out of the car. And then i opened it to see if someting was wrong (10 bolts to remove or so). And then cleaned the brushes, there was quite some carbon powder inside that i removed, but everything else looked good to me. It turns ok and is not shorted. Then i reassembled it, it put it back in the car.

That's it, I think this is a classical procedure to clean an alternator isn't it ?

br, Luc.