All electrics died after putting air in tires - WTF!?

[InfernalVortex]

Originally Posted by Spice_Rack

Thanks for the responses fella's!


Adunaphel, I did post this on a 350Z board a few days ago that I frequent but haven’t got a response… but unfortunately it seems to me that half the guys on the forum are just tools and don’t know much about mechanics anyway.

Hahaha, I think it depends on a combination of how reliable a given car is and how old it is. I would bet a lot of 350Z/S2000/new Corvette/Ferrari etc owners probably dont tend to turn wrenches often. Probably dont need to. Thus the owners generally dont know much about the nitty gritty to how they work yet. With newer cars you'll find a whole lot more threads debating what wheels to buy than how to change a clutch.

I know on my Camaro boards they're absolutely filled to the brim with epic gearheads who can rebuild these things from a pile of parts, because, at this point in their lifetimes (the newest Camaros of my generation are approaching 20 years old) that's generally what we have to do to keep em running anyway.

But I would bet most people who own 350Z's probably dont need to turn wrenches very often. It's a newish high-end Japanese sports car - why would they need to? These are people that if they want to go faster they just sell the car and buy somethign else.

Give it another 5 years... they'll know a lot more about 'em by then as things start failing and needing rebuilt.

In the meantime, I think you've got some solid advice in this thread.

[Spice_Rack]

Very valid point InfernalVortex... anyhow I've tightened the battery terminals, added water to the battery since it was about half, and changed the A/C and power steering belt and tried to not make them too tight. The weather has warmed back up this weekend a bit so I won't know if the belts stop squealing in the morning until its below 50 deg F. I'll let you all know how it works out.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[Spice_Rack]

I'm just following up on this... I finally got sick of the belts squealing so I bought new ones and installed them, much tighter. I went to Schucks autoparts and out of curiosity I had the guy come out and check the belt tension, and he said they were way too slack. Which is annoying because the techs at Nissan dealership said it was fine and should not be squealing. Bah... Anyway, new belts on and nice and tight, no more squealing on cold starts and I can put the top up/down with no squealing as well... Glad I finally did that before one of the belts snapped.

Since then i've also tightened my battery terminals, had it tested (at 2 autozones and a schucks) and all said the battery was healthy and appeared to be charging fine. I've made sure the cell tops have water as well. I'm still having the occasional issue of revs dropping to 500 RPM after coming to a complete stop, although it doesn't seem as bad now and doesn't occur as frequently. A few weeks ago I had the car stall on me twice after I had started it back after it being off for a few minutes. The idle is normally around 750 RPM.

So what could be causing the rev dropping issue? It's never done this until the electrics failure scenario I had that caused me to post this thread. Could I have a stressed and worn alternator/generator now?

[Spectre]

Dirty idle air controller or fuel injector/filter issue.

Also, loose belts could cause the water pump to not be driven properly if it is mechanically driven.

[Spice_Rack]

I can check the first three pretty easily but as for the water pump...

I've been looking through the Nissan field service manual for my car and it appears the water pump is driven by the timing chain. That seems quite strange but i'm not an engine person so I don't know.

[jayhawk]

I will have to reiterate again that I have never seen the problems with the belts and tensioner and possibly alternator that you have; never once have I looked up a tensioner for a 350Z, or for that matter, a VQ35DE.

Be offended or not, but your car is weird.