My car has lost it...

i'm not sure if there are insane asylums for cars, but if there is one my aughta go tomorrow. all the sudden today i turned on my car after a movie with my girlfriend. on the way to the movie everything was fine, no lights on, turn it on to go home and check this out:

Sensor warning
Break warning
Break Lamp warning
Headlight warning
Charge warning
Gas Warning
Coolant Warning
Windshield wiper fluid warning

aside from the fact that the battery somehow dropped to about 10.5 Volts, the rest of the warning lights are dead wrong. anyone have any ideas as to why?

a drop in voltage like that would usually mean a bad battery...

go and use a multimeter and test the battery with the car off. should be at 12.2 volts(give or take .3 volts) and than around 14.4(give or take .3 volts) when the car is started.

as for the lights...NO idea.

At least yours is not posessed like mine, hell mine won't even run right now. As for the warnings, try resetting your ECU...

reseting of the ECU... i'm a noob i know, but how exactly? unplug the battery for X ammount of time?

Dude, mine did the same thing after driving thru a puddle... WD 40 and check all the grounds and connectors... safest bet to start there. these cars are wierd with wiring and grounds.

Yeah mate sounds like a bad battery and/or alt, dont worry about the lights untill you replaced the battery as its more than likely that there on just because of the low voltage most of cars do thism i would think as amost every car ive driven has done so with low power

How about if i tell u to check your belt and if its bad and not tite that will happen

lights will dim
all lights inside go on
your temp goes up
check for that b/c that was my problem

same thing happened to me when my alternator went out. just barely made it home.

hmm sounds like a alt haveing a internal short, go to a schucks and have them test your alt

shit, you figure my alt's going? or a loose belt? aaah **** you 200. i've been driving her, but maybe i aughta lay off.

easy way to check the alt is fire it up and put a volt meter on the battery posts and watch for drop. On my 240 when the alt was going it wouldn't light up any idiot lights, it would just dim and die. It turned out that the brushes were gone. This sounds like a short some where to me.

easy way to check the alt is fire it up and put a volt meter on the battery posts and watch for drop. On my 240 when the alt was going it wouldn't light up any idiot lights, it would just dim and die. It turned out that the brushes were gone. This sounds like a short some where to me.Same happened to mine when it went last year...turned out my problem was the diodes...The warning lights I never got like what Geoff is talking about though...god these cars are weird sometimes...

do this... start the car and then disconnect the neg terminal if the car dies its the alt if it still runs it something else

do this... start the car and then disconnect the neg terminal if the car dies its the alt if it still runs it something else
This only sometimes works....when three of my diodes went in the alt, and we disconnected the battery the alternator still charged the system enough to keep it running...This is why we were led to believe it was not the alternator causing the problem when it was.

Well these all sound like solutions but i had teh same exact prob he had ok lets see if the car runs fine for 10 min while idle and it does not get hot then its not the belt. So thats all

But then again thses cars have 1 new prob every day

i think it very well might be a loose belt, as i have a lot of squeeling going on now - but giving it 10 minutes to get hot wont work where i am (winter in canada).

I suppose the easiest way to check this without tools, is the voltmeter on the dash. I would just check for an increase from Standing Voltage @ KOEO (Key On Engine Off) to Running Voltage @ KOER (Key On Engine Running) You should see some type of increase after the momentary drop in Voltage from the Starter Cranking.

However, If the all the same Instrument Cluster Indicators that were on prior to the Engine Running are still on, That's a pretty good indication that the Alternator's had it.

The belt squeal is from either the belt being too loose, or the Alternator seizing up and the belt slipping on the pulley. You can try spitting on the belt to see if that helps, if the squeal goes away, then the belt is glazed.

lol@me. don't hate me but check out the problem - no alt belt. lol. i'm wondering if it's ok to hook it all up and run it to charge the battery? my buddy said to charge the battery first as running it to charge after it's gotten so low may damage the alternator...?

before i go out into the cold i'd like to have a good handle so i can do this quickly and quietly. any tips on replacing this belt?

It's pretty easy (CA18ET)....

Loosen top bolt on alternator, slide alt towards engine - put belt on, then use a screwdriver to put some pressure on the alt, and add tension to the belt - then tighten up the nut whilst still keeping pressure on with screwdriver....

Using the screwdriver as a lever ;)

Sorry its not a great description, but it should be pretty clear when you come to do it.

Should take only 5 minutes (CA18ET).

5 minutes? lol. took me a little more than that. had to take off the water pump one first and everything was seized in place, so a hammer was in order. runs beautifully now.

yeah nissans are funky like that. but if your gonna drive an older nissan make sure to check the grounds, because nissan grounds almost all used to suck. infack ive relocated almost all of mine and i put custom ground cables on. but that wont las for long seing as im putting a ka24 into it.