Hi Just after some opinions and thoughts on this one. Went for a cruise today in the sun, noticed it was 25 odd degrees outside felt pretty warm in the 300, so I went for the climate control and noticed my CD player turned off, then on, then off, then I noticed hicas light came on, flickering a bit, then abs light came on, then started to lose power steering, put my indicator on to pull over and the revs started going up and down with the indicator flash. So I figure ok electrical problem ..start turning things off and it goes back to normal idle, and hicas light goes away. I turn it off and go to re start and nothing, it attempts to turn over but not enough juice. Jump out check oil level, water etc.. all fine just to put mind at ease that it wasn't lack of oil. (Just did a service last night) I plugged in Nissan datascan and checked the bat voltage, had just below 11 volts. I let her sit for a while and after about 20min it started and I tried to get her home. Got only about 500m before hicas came on, abs and as I pulled over she died. Tried to start again but not enough juice. Noted the temperature was around water 90 degrees after a few minutes of heat soak with the motor off. I guess my alternator has failed, its was only replaced in feb last year though. I do have a power steering leak from the bottle it appears, I'm thinking maybe some of that has got into the alternator? Could that cause a problem? I was also washing under the engine bay a week ago and cleaning away near the power steering and hicas lines trying to find this leak. Used degrease, some fuel, water etc. Any none bad connectors in the charging circuit I should check? I've got the battery home on the charge, it was dead didn't even show low for a while. I haven't been able to check the alternator circuit the cars still out on the road. Will return to get her home later tonight. What are your thoughts? Just a failed alternator? Could it be a connector? And another quick note. The 300TT takes 3.5lt of engine oil correct? Cheers..Clint
I experienced the same thing earlier this year Clint In my case it was the connector on the alternator. I hadn't plugged it in properly when I was reinstalling it and it had vibrated loose. I hope your problem is that simple to fix. The Z takes 4.2 litres of oil including the filter. Cliff
Voltage Regulator failure, for sure. Exactly the same symptoms as mine. And yes, leaking power steering fluid does find it's way into the Alternator, and fries the windings. Just another example of how Nissan made a great car with silly oversights(why not have the alternator at the top, and the power steering pump at the bottom, as there a relatively few recorded cases of electricity dribbling out and running down, and even less reports of steering fluid leaking upwards.:LOL
Easy to test anyway. Run the car. Get a multimeter on the output bolt on the alternator and if it has 12 volts on it. The alternator is screwed. You can reach it from under the car When the car is running it should have 13.4-13.8 coming out it.
