Hi All
Had a strange one the other day in my 2.5 D40. Was driving at night & had the battery & brake idiot lights come on. Had a look & could see nothing obvious So I phoned the lease co. to arrange NRMA to check. Guy tells me alternator is stuffed & not charging at all.
Next morning drove car hoping to get 100km to home & found no idiot lights on & Nav running fine. Checked under the bonnet after driving & find alternator post at battery hot as hell & melting plastic all around it.
As it's a lease & still under warranty I took it to the Nissan Stealer who at first had me up for an alternator & wiring harness, at my cost because post had been used for canopy light power source, unfknbelievable.
After a little more investigation a more junior mechanic found the real prob.
A layer of surface oxidization on the post was restricting the current from the alternator. Sufficiently at first to cause no charge & subsequently enough to cause melting of everything around the post. They are going to replace all damaged bits under warranty.
The annoying part of this is the Nav has always been dealer serviced (Lease) & they have obviously never looked at the terminals. Alittle squirt of WD40 occassionally & prob never occurs. I know I will be doing this in the future. I'll also trust my instincts & not the NRMA service guy in future as a squirt of WD40 was the first thing I thought of but was told was a waste of time.
Lesson learned.
Had a strange one the other day in my 2.5 D40. Was driving at night & had the battery & brake idiot lights come on. Had a look & could see nothing obvious So I phoned the lease co. to arrange NRMA to check. Guy tells me alternator is stuffed & not charging at all.
Next morning drove car hoping to get 100km to home & found no idiot lights on & Nav running fine. Checked under the bonnet after driving & find alternator post at battery hot as hell & melting plastic all around it.
As it's a lease & still under warranty I took it to the Nissan Stealer who at first had me up for an alternator & wiring harness, at my cost because post had been used for canopy light power source, unfknbelievable.
After a little more investigation a more junior mechanic found the real prob.
A layer of surface oxidization on the post was restricting the current from the alternator. Sufficiently at first to cause no charge & subsequently enough to cause melting of everything around the post. They are going to replace all damaged bits under warranty.
The annoying part of this is the Nav has always been dealer serviced (Lease) & they have obviously never looked at the terminals. Alittle squirt of WD40 occassionally & prob never occurs. I know I will be doing this in the future. I'll also trust my instincts & not the NRMA service guy in future as a squirt of WD40 was the first thing I thought of but was told was a waste of time.
Lesson learned.
