A friend phoned Wednesday asking if I could check his car (a 2009 Nissan Versa) as both the brake and battery warning lights were on.
The battery was sitting at 11.7x volts and dropping slowly.
The brakes felt fine, and the fluid level in the reservoir was good.
I gave my friend a ride home, pulled the alternator the next morning, and took it over to a trusted local rebuilder. Picked up the alternator in the afternoon and reinstalled it. It's now putting out 14.4x volts. (I turned off the engine and put a charger on the battery for a few hours so as to not stress the rebuilt alternator unduly.)
Strangely enough, the brake warning light is now out.
Per the tech, the alternator had a broken wire inside, and the brushes were almost worn out. The car has 253,000 km on it, so the alternator did OK.
The alternator is up top and easy to get to, though there's a weird trick to removing the mounting bolts that had me stumped for awhile.
The serpentine belt, though, is a real pain. There was not enough room to get my serpentine tool down from above to the hex head on the tensioner, so I had to pull the front R wheel and fender liner, and access the tensioner from underneath.
But anyway, it's all done and good now.
However, I noticed the serpentine belt has some minor cracking on the ribbed side, and the tensioner is a bit floppy. They're not about to fail in the immediate future, but do need to be done.
So, I'll be back in there to replace the belt and tensioner, though likely not until Spring.
Recommendations on brand of belt and tensioner to use? Thanks!
Rebuilt alternator reinstalled
Here's a shot of the harmonic balancer and serpentine belt through the wheel well. The tensioner pulley is above and to the R of the HB.
The battery was sitting at 11.7x volts and dropping slowly.
The brakes felt fine, and the fluid level in the reservoir was good.
I gave my friend a ride home, pulled the alternator the next morning, and took it over to a trusted local rebuilder. Picked up the alternator in the afternoon and reinstalled it. It's now putting out 14.4x volts. (I turned off the engine and put a charger on the battery for a few hours so as to not stress the rebuilt alternator unduly.)
Strangely enough, the brake warning light is now out.
Per the tech, the alternator had a broken wire inside, and the brushes were almost worn out. The car has 253,000 km on it, so the alternator did OK.
The alternator is up top and easy to get to, though there's a weird trick to removing the mounting bolts that had me stumped for awhile.
The serpentine belt, though, is a real pain. There was not enough room to get my serpentine tool down from above to the hex head on the tensioner, so I had to pull the front R wheel and fender liner, and access the tensioner from underneath.
But anyway, it's all done and good now.
However, I noticed the serpentine belt has some minor cracking on the ribbed side, and the tensioner is a bit floppy. They're not about to fail in the immediate future, but do need to be done.
So, I'll be back in there to replace the belt and tensioner, though likely not until Spring.
Recommendations on brand of belt and tensioner to use? Thanks!
Rebuilt alternator reinstalled
Here's a shot of the harmonic balancer and serpentine belt through the wheel well. The tensioner pulley is above and to the R of the HB.
