Screwed Alternator?

[GTAAAH]

Hmm so tomorrow my cars going in to have a walbro installed because according to the guy who checked it out its either that (causing misfires stuttering) or the timing belt is mis-aligned by a tooth. (am paying $270 for the pump and 70 for installation which sucks some serious ass because the guy i was gonna get the pump kit off, on this site sells them for $170)

Any way tonight driving somewhere gave it a little gas, watched it die out harsh at about 3k and start back firing huge, and had no power by 4krpm etc, kept doing it then i ended up at my mates house. Had the car running turned on lights heater, noticed the HICAS light flickering then listened and noticed a loud knocking sound coming from somewhere under the bottom (sounds down the bottom end of the bay) Is it a frigged alternator that could be doing this?

When i dont have any lights or anything on it doesnt happen.. Coil packs can cause the problems im having (missfiring at high revs stuttering at 3k) Would a frigged alternator cause my coil packs to not be getting the power they desire to run well and therefore be the cause of my troubles? (side note this only happened tonight and i have installed a sub into my car and amp only a week ago, so its a big coincidence)

(Installed the FMIC and it got alot worse then replaced the fuel filter and its gotten a crapload worse since replacing that so idunknow)

Edited June 15, 2006 by r32 gts-turbo

[Craved]

got a multimeter to test the voltage on the battery?

should be 13.8V or close to that..

if its well below that and it stays low even when revving it up it could be a loose belt or an issue with the alternator

[GTAAAH]

neighbours arent gonna appreciate the noise but meh, brb testing

K tested it idling for a minute with headlights on stereo pumping demisters windscreen wipers heater cabin lights all on full, dropd from 12.35 - 12.2 (was at 12.38 when off).. Strange, hate problems that occur on and off. Break and stay broken demit. Will try drive it to mechanics tomorow regardless of whether that sound happens or not, thx. Cant believe how difficult it is to diagnose that damn missfiring at high rpm thing.. crazyness

Edited June 15, 2006 by r32 gts-turbo

[Thunderbolt]

^^^ That is low, and would normally show signs of a stuffed alternator, but:

- That sort of voltage is the normal voltage you should get when starting up with just the battery and no alternator. So would tend to say to me that your alternator has been working previously unless you had the battery on charge.

- Your battery light would normally come on if the alternator is not charging the battery.

I suspect your sound system must be using too many resources. Don't know much about sound systems, so some audio fellows may need to help you out on this.

Just a sidenote: Could be that your battery is on the way out. Dosen't normally take too much to start the car, however you could notice it like you have when you are asking a lot of it at the same time.

Edited June 15, 2006 by Thunderbolt

[GTAAAH]

nah seems pretty quick to crank n jump over still. Its strange then that the battery light doesnt come on. Did it this morning in traffic, heater + lights + stereo on low = HICAS light flashing == loud knocking noise. If the engine wasn't getting the spark it needed i guess this could cause the knocking? Sucks that its already at the mechanics because this sort of convinces me that my cars been having spark issues not fuel pump related problems, oh well

[Fixxxer]

I have no idea about the knocking sound or the voltage, but you are running 0.8mm gapped plugs right? Your signature says 12psi, you'll need them gapped down to run that psi.

Fixxxer

[mad082]

not too familiar with 32's, but could it be the ingnitor pack has given up?

[GTAAAH]

mm running 10 psi now, since it started frigging up (didnt help though unfortunately), my plugs are the iridium tipped ones everyone uses for these (got the serials off this site) NGK's i think cant quite remember what i chucked in.

Seems that theres no mechanics around who will be able to give me a straight out affirmitive answer to my problem. Can see some huge bills coming

[Fixxxer]

Do the small things first, I had iridiums in my 32 and they missfired like crazy, swapped them for normal copper BCPR6ES plugs, gapped at 0.8mm and solved the missfiring issue (apart from a slight miss at idle).

Do it.

'Nuff said.

Fixxxer

[Beer Baron]

i would say almost 100% it's the alt. you really need to test it. it should be putting out 13.8V. I had this same problem in my 32 GTST. hicas started playing up (light coming on) powersteering sometimes went heavy. And a loud banging noise (i think solenoid opening and closing), and eventually it just killed the battery. put a charged one in to get car home and it killed that too. rebuilt the alternator and all these problems went away

[GTAAAH]

eyyy, just replaced my original ones though (plugs, 3 weeks ago), things cost me like $125 @ trade price, not to keen on re-replacing them, didnt seem to make any difference to my problems when i put the new ones in.

Thats sounds alot like it baron, dunno how much an alternator is worth on these things, probably 500 installed or some crazy figure like that, damn imports. I'll leave off doing it a bit as people dont seem to think its the cause of my other problems (stuttering, no power, louding backfiring noises)

thx

Edited June 16, 2006 by r32 gts-turbo

[blind_elk]

eyyy, just replaced my original ones though (plugs, 3 weeks ago), things cost me like $125 @ trade price, not to keen on re-replacing them, didnt seem to make any difference to my problems when i put the new ones in.

Thats sounds alot like it baron, dunno how much an alternator is worth on these things, probably 500 installed or some crazy figure like that, damn imports. I'll leave off doing it a bit as people dont seem to think its the cause of my other problems (stuttering, no power, louding backfiring noises)

thx

Nissans are extremely susceptible to voltages. Bad voltage equates to bad running.

Get the alternator tested; if it's a dud, replace it.

[Thunderbolt]

Thats sounds alot like it baron, dunno how much an alternator is worth on these things, probably 500 installed or some crazy figure like that, damn imports.

FYI - I had my alternator overhauled recently (for 180sx) including new brushes, bearings and servicing and a repair to a burnt connection (which was causing no charge to battery - PFC was reading as low as 11volts at one stage). Lets just say it cost about half of the price you mentioned.

BTW: With these problems, I had few driveability issues, although I was babying it around a bit. The Walbro was making different humming noises than usual, but otherwise no unusual noises or other such problems.

[Traditimeour]

my alternator died on my ceffiro two weeks ago, the previous owner put in a dodgy underpowered rebuilt one. Anyway a new one would of cost $460 dollars

Similar price to rebuild the one melted.

Got a second hand one going in today.