Alternator woes

[John L]

Gidday all. John L new member. I have a 2002 Patrol 3.0turbo. I am the 2nd owner and the car has done 135000kms. You guessed it it is white. Roof rack, uhf, alloy front bar, snorkel, drawers in the back, dual batteries 6 stacker cd. Goes well. Recently I had the alternator pack up on the run home from the Sunshine Coast and after getting a new replacement and doing the swap myself discovered why the auto electricians wanted the deeds to my house for doing the job. Reasonably straight forward by very awkward to get to a couple of the bolts. Took 3 hours out and 3 back in. Still all good now and looking forward to hitching up the camper again and heading off. I have read some horror stories about the 3.0 turbo diesel but I sort of feel that some guys think they are a formula 1 car and also take them into places that are really tough on the vehicle. Does anybody have any comments on the 3.0 diesel and apart from water and oil levels and regular services is there anything I need to keep an eye on.

[Woof]

Hey John, just moved your thread to the correct section mate.
You may want to post up an introduction mate, just gets everyone on side immediately.

[YNOT]

Have a read of this thread; http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/showthread.php?4421-Caring-for-your-diesel&highlight=gren02

Tony

[John L]

Done that - thanks

[Silver]

Hey John, just moved your thread to the correct section mate.
You may want to post up an introduction mate, just gets everyone on side immediately.

I think that one was a combined intro and question Dogman :-)

It is irritating esp with 4wds that they are made so that the engine is easy to work on, provided it hasn't yet been installed in the vehicle :-)

[Yendor]

Hi John.

I have to agree with you, changing the alternator on a ZD30 with dual batteries is a PITA.

The scary thing is that they only seem to have a life span of just over 100,000Kms.

I wouldn't stress to much over the horror stories, yes some have had issues but there are also plenty out there that have had no problems at all.

I would recommend following the advice and mods posted by Tony (YNOT)

Cheers Rodney

[Finly Owner]

Hi and welcome to Nissans Nut House John


Tim

[John L]

Thanks it was a combined intro and question but I have posted a separate intro anyway. All good cheers

[guterra]

The scary thing is that they only seem to have a life span of just over 100,000Kms.

The factory alternators have a centrifugal clutch on them to prevent "bind up" when coming off throttle to save fuel and engine stress I guess... Not overly sure about the later...

Anyhows it's this clutch that usually ends up causing more issues than good. Just slap a generic on. 1 less thing to worry about.

[John L]

Thanks everyone for the input. It took me a while to figure out that my secondary battery was stuffed. But everything seems to be working ok now. I get 14.4 on the terminals at 1500rpm on both batteries and the Anderson plug for the camper. Question.....would a bad earth on the secondary battery have caused the sulphur smell I was getting and would that have cooked the battery?....That's two questions but from what I've been reading no one will mind.

[Finly Owner]

A bad earth can cause all sorts of dramas. If the battery boiled, this would cause a sulphur smell.

Tim

[Evolution]

Might be worth putting an amp clamp over the two batteries while they are charging in the vehicle. Can't always diagnose battery/charging faults with voltage readings.