http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050718/.../nissan_recall

 

Alternator dying causes car to crash?!?

Could only happen to a Nissan driver.

 

What?! The car that looks like a big clown shoe has a problem??? Gitouttahere....

 

After a short time, the engine would go into a condition that limits the vehicle's speed and stop running, creating the potential for a crash.

"...After a short time.."? What's "short"?

"...limits the vehicle's speed..." Could it be, that engineers are trying to save the engine (and/or other parts) in an attempt to cut down repair costs?

NO WAY. I'd want FULL POWER until the engine dies ON IT'S OWN, thanks!

 

If the alternator dies then the vehicle will run off the battery until the battery is drained too.

That's probably how long the 'short while' is. Thing that would suck is that I doubt most people would realize that they were running on battery power only until the whole rig shut down.

But good grief... manual steering, manual brakes... I know they require a lot more effort, but is it really that hard to keep from crashing?

I'd rather have that happen than what happened to my father in law's 2004 Tahoe LT Z71 a couple months ago when a leak suddenly sprung in his brake booster and his brake pedal went all the way to the floor on the highway.

GM acted like they didn't even give a crap, either... he had a hard time even getting them to cover a tow truck to take his vehicle to the dealership.

Apparently this isn't that uncommon of an issue, either. Any recall issued on that, yet?

 

I've had many GM alternators fail without warning (no lamp was illuminated, and of course voltage gauges are getting about as rare as condors). The last time it happened, my car just died while rolling through an intersection, after starting without a problem only a minute earlier. It was kinda weird, to say the least. In that case, it didn't cause an accident, but I could see how it could happen in the rarest of circumstances.

I'd be more concerned about getting stranded out in BFE by a dead alternator, to be honest. For a Murano owner, that probably means the far end of the mall parking lot.

 

[QUOTE=Threxx]If the alternator dies then the vehicle will run off the battery until the battery is drained too. ...
QUOTE]

That would be my guess. But every car I've had (until now, I can't say for my 02SS, as it's never given me electrical trouble to judge by) has illuminated big, bright idiot lights to tell me I was "on the battery". Thus, I knew right away when it happened. Of course, I know that not all drivers check their dash...

I guess the problem is really (yet more) poor wording in a news article. It would be nice if the text had included more, such as "...when the battery is drained.". They could have gotten more info from the maker before running the article. (Not that I expect much out of the press these days...)

 

By my approximation I'd say fewer than 1 in 10 people would notice a dummy light on their dash inbetween the time their alternator failed and the time their battery died. And out of those 1 in 10 people... only 1 in ten of those would go so far as to care enough to react immediately, and/or know what to do.

 

As an interesting side note to this whole discussion, back when I first started driving my friend had a mint 1994 Cobra with 40k miles on it that we used to cruise around in highschool. He only drove it for a total for 15k miles on it before selling it and buying a convertible (the he later supercharged).

Well his original Cobra never really had any specific problems that I can recall except that it used to randomly flat-out die occasionally during ordinary casual left hand turns (maybe only one in 20 left hand turns would it die). Still pretty darned embarrasing and somewhat dangerous to be taking a curve on some back roads with a couple of hotties in the back seat, or making a turn into a restaurant parking lot or into your dates driveway and it just dies.

We never ever found out what the problem was and that was including with his cousin looking at it several times who's a sponsored drag racer as well as master mechanic at one of the local Ford dealerships.

 

Threxx, you are about right. I dont know how many people come in saying that they are having to be jumped every day for the past week (its not like they come in after the first day...), and that it might be a battery cause there is a little light on.
AHHHHHHHHH! Had about 3 of thoes people today...
You can see that whomever wrote the article probably doesnt know what the battery light means either.

 

Considering the average driver I see on the interstate drives 80+ mph within 15 feet of the car in front of them, I'd say it would be pretty hard to keep from crashing.

 

And to add to Jed, manual brakes are different from power brakes that loose their "power." That is more like NO brakes. Big difference. And very unsafe.

 

Also keep in mind that many new cars (most new nissans included, actually it might be all now) use electronic throttle. Soooooo, if your electrical system starts having issues, so will your throttle. I suppose if the voltage was borderline you could have a situation where the throttle intermittantly sticking at wherever it happened to be at the time, or perhaps going to some predterimed 'failsafe' (idle perhaps).

Just some thoughts of a former Nissan/ Infiniti tech.

 

My GS4 and 4Runner both have electronic throttles but both also have manual throttles as backup in case of an electrical system failure or any other throttle system-related failures. Kinda like how it has been in airplanes for quite some time now. Same thing with the brakes and steering of some models... electronically controlled, but with a manual failsafe system for backup.

 

That would be a great idea, but alas I have never seen it (Nissan/Infiniti/Mazda). On those brands its either a cable or electronic. I personally would prefer a cable connecting my foot to the throttle blades.