Alternator Keeps Dying - Automotive Wiring and Electrical


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Alternator Keeps Dying

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Kapurnicus
New User

Nov 11, 2007, 4:32 PM

Post #1 of 3 (1814 views)

Alternator Keeps Dying	Sign In

Hi, I have a '98 Nissan Frontier, 4 cylinder. Every couple of months my alternator dies (this is my third dead one). I'll be just driving along and the first thing that happens is the meter lights seem to dim and then my air bag light comes on. A couple minutes after that the radio will die and the headlight will start to dim. If I try to speed up the radio comes back on, but if the headlights are on the car starts to buck back and forth like it wont let me go any fast above 45mph, but when I turn the headlights off it allows me to get upto about 60 before the car will buck. The battery is fine, its been checked at an autozone and charged by them. The car starts okay. Like I said normally I would just say bad alternator, replace it and wouldnt be a problem, but this is the third one in a year that has died, so something must be killing them. Never had a fuse blow, dont think theres a short in there. Never not been able to get it started, that battery is almost new and is great. Its just the alternator that seems to be self destructing and I dont understand why. Any suggestions?

DrElectrics
Enthusiast

Nov 11, 2007, 7:14 PM

Post #2 of 3 (1808 views)

Re: Alternator Keeps Dying	Sign In

This is extremely rare, but it does happen. Some after market ALT's have production faults. Where a certain part of the ALT is useless. For instance, her in Australia, aftermarket ALT's for a VS commodore came out, there were so many failing (fail rate was 150 per month) they analysed it and found the regulator to be faulty. I would suggest taking your car to an auto electrician and ask him to check the regulator. If thats bad, replace with genuine one.

Kapurnicus
New User

Nov 12, 2007, 8:37 AM

Post #3 of 3 (1800 views)

Re: Alternator Keeps Dying	Sign In

So have I just gotten really unlucky and gotten a few bad ones in a row? This one was new, and I have a warranty on it so replacement is not an issue I'm just trying to find out if there is something killing these things because the odds of this third one going out in a year is really slim. But it could happen, Ive seen weirder things.

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