QuestionI have a 2000 nissan maxima. the electronics go out, the car starts stalling and finally quits, the battery is dead, charge the battery and car is fine for about 8 hours of driving and then the gages stop working and car stops, dead battery again. The car has a new battery and the alternator is testing good.
AnswerHello Dick,
This is a common problem, an alternator can test good, and still be bad. The problem you have is that when the battery is charged, it runs the vehicle, however, the alternator is probably not charging the battery as it is running, so the car is running only on battery power and the battery isn't being recharged as the car is running it down, which ultimately will kill your battery.
The easiest way to test for a problem at the alternator is to do the following.
Start the vehicle.
Open the hood and with the vehicle still running, remove ONLY THE GROUND TERMINAL from your vehicles battery, if the vehicle dies, its your alternator, if the vehicle continues to run, then there is a different problem going on.
ALSO
Ensure that your battery has adequate fluid in it. Open the two covers on the top of the battery and look to see if they are full with fluid, if they are low, refill them with water.
Even though the battery is new, if it has died and been jump started multiple times, that could be a problem also. A NEW battery will go bad very quickly if it is jump started too much. Jumping a battery forces it to deep cycle, which kills the battery over time, most batteries cant handle more than a few deep cycles before they start to go bad and stop holding a charge or start discharging what charge they have/get, so take the car to an auto store and have them test the battery just in case. Most places like advance and auto zone wont charge for this.
Try this first and let me know the results, from there we can go further into the diagnostic process.
Thank you, Good Luck and keep me informed of all your progress.
