Sills

Hey, I imported a Nissan S14 Silvia several months ago and when I got it everything worked good, However after driving it for a couple months I started getting strange responses from the electrical system.

The first time I started getting these issues was actually after I got my vehicle back from my mechanic who had installed side marker lights and DRL's so that it could pass safety. However that might just be a coincidence.

The primary symptoms are-

-Radio will make a high pitched "Squeal" which will increase in intensity with higher volume on the unit as well as rising in pitch with the revs.
-Hids will flash and die when coming to a stop, wont turn back on until I physically switch them off, then drive at around 2k rpm and put them back on. However if I have the car parked and idling and I put the hid's on they will run until the car starts driving and comes to a stop again. Also the left HID sometimes wont even turn on. All the dash lights dim during this aswell.
-Most recently the car cranks slowly and its sketchy to start it up.

This is not due to the DRL/marker lights as I have them removed now since passing safety. Also the alternator was squealing for a while and I believe it had been seizing intermittently as there was a strong rubber smell coming from it at times and the belt has lost a couple ribs. I did recently replace it with a Sr20det alternator, it has stopped the squealing however not the issues.

I have not tried using a different battery however the one in it is a 670cold crank amp battery purchased under a year ago that I used to run in my daily driven Honda Accord Turbo.

I have also pulled all fuses and they all seem to be fine. However my Climate control fuse has burnt out twice since owning the vehicle? It was slightly abused driving around in Canadian winter on several occasions and thats when that happened however...

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, and will save my future hearing c:
Thanks!

dbeiler

If you smelled burning rubber, your alternator belt was too loose. Did you replace the belt with the alternator?

The loose belt allowed the alternator pulley to slip during operation. The alternator wasn't being driven fast enough to sufficiently recharge the battery. Your car was constantly operating on very low battery power. The battery never got fully recharged and was always running on the low end of it's capacity. This will destroy the charge capacity of any battery, even a deep-cycle.

Your alternator has been replaced but electrical issues still remain. The battery is likely junk.

The left HID issue is probably caused by a weak wire connection. Check the wire splices where the HID connects to the factory harness. I bet one of the splices is failing and the wires are about to separate.

You'll need to track down the current draw on the climate control system. Are any aftermarket electronics tapped into the climate control wiring? Do a visual inspection of the wires. Is any insulation cut or missing allowing an electrical short?

Sills

Thank you for the reply and information, I suspected the battery was toasted from the old alternator aswell so its good that you suspected that aswell. I put a cycle charger on it about an hour ago and it instantly dropped showing the battery was under 25% charged. Ill see if it accepts a charge- if not its still under warranty from the store at least! Ill let you know if this is the fix.