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supreme_1
10-26-2010, 03:08 AM
i've searched the internet and found many ppl with the same problem as me, but i havent found any thread with a remedial answer.

so i shall give it a try.

i've got a 98 q45, in the 8 months i've owned it, the car has managed to burn up two alternators, the first smoked profusely from the inside, and the smoke billowed out from the cooling slits in the casing. thinking it was just my alternator going south i swapped in another from my parts car.

since then i havent really driven the car much, but today after finally doing my s14 suspension swap i took it for a spin. on my ride home, my lights flickered every once in a while and i had to sometimes twist my battery cables on my terminals to get a better connection in order for it to start. when i got home i smelt a electrical burning smell and shut the car off. this time the alternator was extremely hot, but it was melting my single wire with the insulator boot over it.

my question is, what may be causing this?
-simply two faulty alternators?
-would a bad battery connection cause the alt to burn?
-grounding out?
-would it be safe to run my car to check the output of the alternator?

i was going to test my alternator and battery tom, but i was wondering what other tests i could do?

what exactly could cause an alternator to do this? single power wire grounding out on the casing via a cracked plastic landing? internal regulator going bad?short circuit in another part of the car? bad ground?

Sileighty_85
10-26-2010, 05:28 AM
I would check the main alt power wires for unwanted grounds

MotleyS13
10-26-2010, 04:22 PM
ive seen this before at my nissan dealership. make sure the plastic part going to alternator is installed correctly. if your not sure flip it around. ill post up pics if i get a chance

supreme_1
10-26-2010, 05:07 PM
thx for the input guys. what do you mean by the plastic part?

is it that piece that isolates the power wire from the body of the alternator?i think its a black plastic circular piece

supreme_1
10-26-2010, 11:29 PM
ok, well i dug into the engine today and found what i think was the problem, somehow the nut holding the main wire in managed to get loose and it looks like it was sparking up a storm under the rubber boot, the bolt was burned and most of the threads were missing.

other than that i put a hyper ground kit on the car that i had lying around. has anyone ever experienced this, but when the original battery cable which attaches to the battery is unhooked and only the hyper grounding kit is on the negative terminal, the car acts as if the original ground terminal is still hooked up.

so this means all lights work, car starts and acts as if the negative battery terminal is attached.

help?

supreme_1
10-27-2010, 02:33 AM
never mind i answered my own question.