The Family Vehicle Has Problems Now.

[Martman]

I have been focusing on the stang for the most part but now the good ole minivan is having problems.

2008 Nissan Quest with the 3.5 and this is the base model.

Van has new battery as the other suddenly went dead. Radio has not worked or worked intermittently for a long time. We thought it was the radio itself. After replacing the battery the radio worked but then stopped again.

The other day we went to start it and it acted as if the battery was really low when cranking but it did start and then the radio worked again. However, the gauge cluster showed some problems. The needles were all buried and shaking and it seemed that most lights on the dash came on until it started.

I am thinking this is an alternator problem since I believe these also have the voltage regulator in them.

Last night I went out to roll the windows up and it was like the battery did not have enough juice to roll them up. Went to start it and had same problem as before with slow cranking and gauge cluster. Windows did roll up when started.

Here are two videos from this morning with the behavior. Would appreciate any help in what could be wrong. I am a pretty handy with cars and do most if not all of my repairs when I have time. I don't just start throwing parts at them though so maybe someone has suggestions.

One thing to note I put a volt meter on it while running and it was showing between 14 and as I turned everything on it did drop to 12.99 once or twice. This was Thursday and it started fine when I did that.

I am wondering if something is draining the battery while it is sitting but I wouldn't think the gauges would do all of that shaking and buzzing like that.

Thanks in advance.

Video 1 (first start today)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57c3FeQ8iLQ


Video 2 (right after the video above. My wife was doing these so she basically turned it off and then went to restart again)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yGS2Hu3Ow

 

[Noobz347]

Not just a voltage regulator but a diode that keeps the battery from trying to crank the alternator like a starter when the engine is off. It sounds as if this diode is bad.

There are two things you can do: Replace the diode or replace the alternator.


On another note: Whichever device you used to create the post above, is infected with Adware.

 

[Martman]

So the alternator was what I was thinking so I will probably go that route.

In regards to the adware, does the forum software discover that? I just cleared my temp internet files and such and posting from the same device that I did the first post. My real time scans are not seeing any adware so let me know what it is and I will take care of it.