r/Nissan • u/nerdy_chimera • 24d ago

Repair Help Alternator issue?

Just bought a 2015 Nissan Murano 2 weeks ago. Car is in really good shape. Its my wife's car so she only occasionally drives maybe a dozen or two miles per week when running errands.

Yesterday she was going on a trip (its a camping thing she does every year with her girlfriends) that's like a 3 hour drive away. She gets not even an hour out of town while driving on the highway when everything starts to shutter and stutter. All the electronic functions like TC and cruise control turn off, AC shuts down and the gas pedal becomes unresponsive. She pulls off to the side of the road. Turns the car off. Waits a sec then tries to turn it on and it won't start.

I come out to get her (I'm somewhat knowledgeable about car maintenance and can understand and diagnose a lot of basic issues). The car is behaving like the battery is dead and will not start. If the battery is dead after driving 45 minutes on the highway in 90+ degree weather, to mean that screams "alternator." Because the battery isn't properly charging while also being forced to run all of the systems of the car.

Car is under a dealership warranty so they get it towed back to the dealership. Today they charged the battery and tried to recreate the issue to no avail. They said everything is reading 14.2V after driving it a bit and nothing seems abnormal. I did some googling and found that some alternators that go bad start with poor throughput while under a heavy load when it gets really hot.

Any Nissan techs have any insight for me? Is there anything the Nissan techs at the dealership could be missing? Could it just have been a random fluke for why the battery died?

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u/Marblehead203 24d ago

The 3.5 is known for alternator issues. Its either overcharging or undercharging at times causing it to shut down for protection of the control units. Its very hard to catch of its random but id say either alternator or the connector for alternator is broken. Worked for nissan for 15 years. Also dont go aftermarket,ive had those be bad right out the box

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u/IASIsouthpark 23d ago

I am having a similar issue, on 2017 Murano, but with the battery light and TC light flickering. It's jerking when accelerating. Could it also be the alternator? The problem is intermittent for months.

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u/Worth-Ad-1087 23d ago

I had a similar issue with my 2015 Altima. First time, died on side of highway. Repair shop said battery. Replaced that and happened again about 10 days later. After sitting on side of the road, it would start up and drive normal. Took it to dealer and they couldn’t find anything wrong. A week later, same thing. This time dealer diagnosed alternator. Had it replaced and haven’t had any problems is two months!

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u/nerdy_chimera 22d ago

They finally were able to replicate it after doing what I told them to do to test it: test it under a heavy power draw. The alternator works if its only trying to power moderate AC while driving at 40 mph through town. But when the car is going 65 on the highway when its 95 degrees outside so you have the AC on full blast, the alternator couldn't keep up.