Jump to content
SAU Community

Strangest Thing Just Happened!

Go Go

By Go Go,
in R Series (R30, R31, R32, R33, R34)

 Share

Recommended Posts

Go Go Explorer

Go Go

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hey guys,

Strangest thing just happened to me on the way home from work! Was cruising about 60-70kph on a straight road (had music on quite loud).

Anyways the car just dies, and slowly comes to a stop.....

Tried to start it back up, and the starter motor turns, but it wont start!! All the electrics are working, air con still on so I figured the battery was fine.Got my mechanic mate to come help me out, he checks everything in the engine bay everything seems fine. Fuel is pumping. This is where things get interesting.

Attempt to start the car again - nothing!

Pulled out the ecu harness, waited then reconnected. Then attempt to start the car again - nothing!

A couple mins later, as a last ditch effor, we get our jumper cables out. Connect it up and bam !!! It starts!!

Having said that...

1) if it was a battery issue, why on earth would my car just die like that while cruising?

2) why would all the electrics be working, starter motor turning etc etc?

Not that i think it matters, but my battery is pretty small, I had the music up real loud with the bass crankin. So even if my alternator was fudged, doesnt explain why it would die mid-drive. What do you guys reckon?

EDIT: Car is an R34 GTT :)

Edited by Go Go
Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/248705-strangest-thing-just-happened/
Share on other sites
eeiko321 Experienced

eeiko321

Posted
Posted
Hey guys,

Strangest thing just happened to me on the way home from work! Was cruising about 60-70kph on a straight road (had music on quite loud).

Anyways the car just dies, and slowly comes to a stop.....

Tried to start it back up, and the starter motor turns, but it wont start!! All the electrics are working, air con still on so I figured the battery was fine.Got my mechanic mate to come help me out, he checks everything in the engine bay everything seems fine. Fuel is pumping. This is where things get interesting.

Attempt to start the car again - nothing!

Pulled out the ecu harness, waited then reconnected. Then attempt to start the car again - nothing!

A couple mins later, as a last ditch effor, we get our jumper cables out. Connect it up and bam !!! It starts!!

Having said that...

1) if it was a battery issue, why on earth would my car just die like that while cruising?

2) why would all the electrics be working, starter motor turning etc etc?

Not that i think it matters, but my battery is pretty small, I had the music up real loud with the bass crankin. So even if my alternator was fudged, doesnt explain why it would die mid-drive. What do you guys reckon?

EDIT: Car is an R34 GTT :)

i would say its electrical.......im not a professional auto electrician..........

but generally what happens is.....

when your car is off....whatever you turn on.....fan, radio lights etc.........it uses the battery......

but when the car motor is running...it should transfer to the Altenator...which produces electricity via magnetic fields..(thats why you see copper coils through the fins in altenator) so all devices your using including the motor running is supplied by the altenator. and the altenator should also charge the battery.

unless you were running on your battery only and the altenator stuffed.......

look just take it to an auto electrician.....NOt just any dodgy mechanic.....

and with a few tests with the multi-meter.....they should tell you whats not working

some_cs_student Veteran

some_cs_student

Posted
Posted
Hi guys thanks for the responses so far! :)

So how would a drained battery and stuffed alternator cause my car to shut down mid drive?

My R31 did this, brilliant Nissan engineers decided to put the "ALT" globe in the dash into the circuit. The solder joints just broke again so now my alternator does not work unless it "self-excites" ie. car hits 3500 or 4K RPM.

Until then my volt meter sits around 8-10volts. EDIT: in car volt meter, its not perfectly accurate but it tells me if the alternator is running or not :)

On the above, yes, my R31 starting running rough and stalled after been jump started (got about 5-6mins up the road) and driving it with the alternator effectively turned off (I didn't know about the self exciting thing back then ;)).

MBS206 Grand Master

MBS206

Posted
Posted

Our cars are prone to changes in voltages.

If you have a loose connection say on the alternator, when it's dropped out, the battery is running the show. Add to that the big "fat beats" you were "pumping" when the sub kicks, it draws a lot of amps, and as such, the batteries dynamic voltage will drop. It could have dropped down to around 9 or 10 Volts dynamically, which is not enough to keep the ECU happy, and it shuts off.

When you're stopped and measuring the volts, it may read 12 or 13 volts, then when you crank it, it will drop to around 8 or 9 volts. Hence, again it's not enough to keep the ECU happy enough to start the car, but JUST enough to get the motor cranking.

Check your alternator out, and all connections.

Go Go Explorer

Go Go

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Our cars are prone to changes in voltages.

If you have a loose connection say on the alternator, when it's dropped out, the battery is running the show. Add to that the big "fat beats" you were "pumping" when the sub kicks, it draws a lot of amps, and as such, the batteries dynamic voltage will drop. It could have dropped down to around 9 or 10 Volts dynamically, which is not enough to keep the ECU happy, and it shuts off.

When you're stopped and measuring the volts, it may read 12 or 13 volts, then when you crank it, it will drop to around 8 or 9 volts. Hence, again it's not enough to keep the ECU happy enough to start the car, but JUST enough to get the motor cranking.

Check your alternator out, and all connections.

I've checked my alternator, seems fine. All connections and wiring seem O.K.

Is it possible there is faulty wiring in my stereo and is draining too much power for the alternator?

GTR-32U Mentor

GTR-32U

Posted
Posted

what size Amplifiers are you running to power the whole sound system ? I mean if its one really huge MoFo

of a sound system then you could be using more power than the alternator is capable of putting out. When

you drive the car at Nightime does the Bass dimm the headlights and inst cluster lights to the Beat ?

madbung Grand Master

madbung

Posted
Posted

If you have a multi meter, check across the battery terminals at idle and with revs, should be 13-14volts for both.

Also check the field (f tab-wire on alt) should be @ 12 constant.

If you get those readings at the battery and field you're alt is a ok.

Just clear up some mis-imformation

but when the car motor is running...it should transfer to the Altenator...which produces electricity via magnetic fields..(thats why you see copper coils through the fins in altenator) so all devices your using including the motor running is supplied by the altenator. and the altenator should also charge the battery.

The alt charges the battery, the car-engine-acc ect draw power from the battery...very simple

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • MBS206
      Mistakes were made, my R34 Story

      By MBS206 · Posted

      All I hear is ROADTRIP!
    • sunsetR33
      Unpeeling the Orange

      By sunsetR33 · Posted

      Update 3: Hi all It's been a while. Quite a lot of things happened in the meantime, among other things the car is (almost) back together and ready to be started again. Things that I fixed or changed: Full turbo removal, fitting back the OEM turbo oil hardlines. Had to do quite a bit of research and parts shopping to get every last piece that I need and make it work with the GT2860 turbos, but it does work and is not hard to do. Proves that the previous owner(s) just did not want to. While I was there I set the preload for the wastegates to 0,9bar to hopefully make it easier for the tuner to hit the 370hp I need for the legal inspections that will follow later on. Boost can always go up if necessary. Fitted a AN10 line from the catch can to the intake hose to make the catchcan and hopefully the cam covers a slight vacuum to have less restrictive oil returns from the head and not have mud build up as harshly in the lines and catch can. Removed the entire front interior just shy of the dashboard itself to clean up some of the absolutely horrendous wiring, (hopefully) fix the bumpy tacho and put in LED bulbs while I was there. Also put in bulbs where there was none before, like the airbag one. I also used that chance to remove the LED rpm gauge on the steering column, which was also wired in absolute horror show fashion. Moved the 4in1 Prosport gauge from sitting in front of the OEM oil pressure gauge to the center console vents, I used a 3D printed vent piece to hold that gauge there. The HKB steering wheel boss was likely on incorrectly as I sometimes noticed the indicator reset being uneven for left vs. right. In the meantime also installed an airbag delete resistor, as one should. Installed Cube Speed premium short shifter. Feels pretty nice, hope it'll work great too when I actually get to drive. Also put on a fancy Dragon Ball shift knob, cause why not. My buddy was kind enough to weld the rust hole in the back, it was basically rusted through in the lowermost corner of the passenger side trunk area where the wheel arch, trunk panel and rear quarter all meet. Obviously there is still a lot of crustiness in various areas but as long as it's not rusted out I'll just treat and isolate the corrosion and pretend it's not there. Also had to put down a new ground wire for the rear subframe as the original one was BARELY there. Probably a bit controversial depending on who you ask about this... but I ended up just covering the crack in the side of the engine block, the one above the oil feed, with JB Weld. I used a generous amount and roughed up the whole area with a Dremel before, so I hope this will hold the coolant where it should be for the foreseeable future. Did a cam cover gasket job as the half moons were a bit leaky, and there too one could see the people who worked on this car before me were absolute tools. The same half moons were probably used like 3 times without even cleaning the old RTV off. Dremeled out the inside of the flange where the turbine housing mates onto the exhaust manifolds so the diameter matches, as the OEM exhaust manifolds are even narrower than the turbine housings as we all know. Even if this doesn't do much, I had them out anyways, so can't harm. Ideally one would port-match both the turbo and the manifold to the gasket size but I really didn't feel up to disassembling the turbine housings. Wrapped turbo outlet dumps in heat wrap band. Will do the frontpipe again as well as now the oil leak which promted me to tear apart half the engine in the first place is hopefully fixed. Fitted an ATI super damper to get rid of the worn old harmonic balancer. Surely one of the easiest and most worth to do mods. But torquing that ARP bolt to spec was a bitch without being able to lock the flywheel. Did some minor adjustments in the ECU tables to change some things I didn't like, like the launch control that was ALWAYS active. Treated rusty spots and surface corrosion on places I could get to and on many spots under the car, not pretty or ideal but good enough for now. Removed the N1 rear spats and the carbon surrounding for the tailpipe to put them back on with new adhesive as the old one was lifting in many spots, not pretty. Took out the passenger rear lamp housing... what do you know. Amateur work screwed me again here as they were glued in hard and removing it took a lot of force, so I broke one of the housing bolts off. And when removing the adhesive from the chassis the paint came right off too. Thankfully all the damaged area won't be visible later, but whoever did the very limited bodywork on this car needs to have their limbs chopped off piece by piece.   Quite a list if I do say so myself, but a lot of time was spent just discovering new shit that is wrong with the car and finding a solution or parts to fix it. My last problem that I now have the headache of dealing with is that the exhaust studs on the turbo outlets are M10x1.25 threaded, but the previous owner already put on regular M10 nuts so the threads are... weird. I only found this out the hard way. So now I will just try if I can in any way fit the front pipe regardless, if not I'll have to redo the studs with the turbos installed. Lesson learned for the future: Redo ALL studs you put your hands on, especially if they are old and the previous owners were inept maniacs. Thanks for reading if you did, will update when the engine runs again. Hope nothing breaks or leaks and I can do a test drive.
    • Kapr
      What brakes on R34 GTT(Europe)

      By Kapr · Posted

      No those pads are DBA too  but they have colors too. I look at the and imo the green "street" are the best.
    • wizlb
      Who has a Infiniti Q60, Q50 (V37)?

      By wizlb · Posted

      I’m not sure what happened I told them about sonic tunes free OTS tune and the next the I know .. I was booted..   To funny 
    • Kinkstaah
      Starting again

      By Kinkstaah · Posted

      Yea - I mean I've seen my fuel pump which is decades old and uh, while I'm not saying this with real knowledge... but I sure get the ick at using anything in the fuel system that produced the state of that pump. Many years ago I went through multiple pumps (and strainers) before I dropped the tank to clean it out with extreme violence. I'm talking the car would do maybe 50km before coming to a halt, which resulted in me cleaning out the filter with some brake cleaner and going on my way. None of my stuff ever looked like what came out of your fuel tank. I don't think I'd be happy with it unless every single component was replaced (or at least checked/cleaned/confirmed to be clean here).
×
×
  • Create New...