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my mate went and drowned his MK
and ever since it came out of the water his fuel filter light and his alternator lights have been on constantly whenever the car is running.
does this wean water or mud has gotten into his fuel filter? and how can he stop it happening again?(other than not driving into bogholes!)
also
does the alternator light mean that the alernator is not charging? and is it easy to pull the alternator apart and clean it?
:
The alternator on the SD33 is an absolute pain!!! I replaced that many, both 2nd hand and new... tried all diffrent options but in the end it was just steering clear of mud as it would stuff the brushes.
The filter light is on cause there is water in there... pull it out...
Charge light is on cause alternator is not working, strip it down, clean it out and try again
Thats not deep water. you fellas need to get down to tassie and ill show you deep water and mud. But seriously mq's alternators are to low in the engine bay and they do suffer a little bit when in deep muddy water. plain old water doesn't bother them to much though. Yea pull it appart and stick in some new brushes and carry some spares for long trips away from home.
pull apart the alternator - the brushes will probably be full of crud, theyre supposed to be spring loaded, free them up with some wd40 so that they slide in and out freely, be careful when re-assembling not to break the brushes with the guts of the alt...
Ive had it happen a couple of times to my shorty, when the alt stops charging the alt light and the fuel filter light come on, so get the alt charging and it should be fine.
If the filter light stays on after that, then check that out, but i'd bet dollars to pesos that the brushes are stuck and not returning....
To pull it apart first disconnect battery, then remove vac pum from the back - three screws, then remove alternator, undo the four screws holding the cases together and the brushes will be in the back half, free them up and give it a good spray of wd.
when re-assembling i slid a cable tie into the back housing on top of the brushes so that as i slid the stator in the slip rings pushed the cable tie which pushed the brushes in, - a bit fiddly and hard to explain so take your time with it
good luck
There are no stupid questions, but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots
I think out of the 7 or 8 times ive had to play with those alternators, the Filter light just came on for no reason and went straight out when i fixed the charging problem.
If water / mud got into your fuel filter etc. YOU WOULD KNOW ABOUT IT. ud get that crap into your motor with the fuel and probably do some damage, at the very least clog the injectors.
The charge light being on means no charge is coming from the alternator, so just clean the brushes as said above with some CRC CO CONTACT CLEANER ( works better than WD40 ) and then put her back together and both lights should go out.
screwy
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i had the same problem this weekend i went into a big bog hole and for the rest of the day the fuel filter and charge light was coming on and going off got home and notice oil pissin out the back on the alternator simply replaced it with a spare alternator now lights are out and im chargin at 14v
mud will distroy any alternator being diesel petrol etc best bet it make cover all the holes in the alternator make it as water tight as you can wack a breather line on it and hook up an air line wire it to your alt pwr soon as you kick over air pressure bulids up blows air into it keeps it cool (remember you have sealed it up) and the air pressure runs out the breather line which you would mount high within the engine bay like diff breathers etc making plates to prevent water are useless once your stuck in i nthe mud a plate will only prevent a splash
anyway thats my 2cents and heres a picture of my mq after i hit a big hole and run my diesel underwater pretty much
The answers have all been pretty well spot on as to the original problem
but .........
The issue will arise again and you'll find yaself re-doing what you've just learnt about rebuilding clogged up Alts the next time you take her for a swim......
Having seen this issue on heaps of MQ's & MKs there are a couple of things one can do as a preventive to lesson the chances of the exact same thing happening over n over again ........
I've seen quite a few Alts that have been re-located higher up on the engine, this isnt as simple as it sounds but its well worth the effort to do as it moves the Alt up out of the water for starters. A couple of new plates and an arvo with the drill n grinder should see it sitting high n dry for the next time you go swimming.
The other less thought of problem is the "spray or splash" effect from the actual engine fan, obviously one should "tie" tha fan so it cant spin when doing water crossings and in a perfect world that should happen but the opposite is often the case.... we are simply too lazy to stop n do this.
So ......
While you are fabing up new mounts for the Alt, do yaself a favor and make a splash guard, a piece of 1.6mm - 3mm acting as a guard and fitted between the front of the Alt & the radiator / engine fan will greatly diminish the splash effect yet wont impeed on tha Alts ability to cool its self. Idealy the splash guard should have the same diameter as the Alt is at its widest point to gain the best result.
I've seen and made both the "improvements" I've listed and they DO work and make river / deep water xings a much happier experiance and without the need for a rebuild after a day out swimming.
With the 350 Chev in one rig & a holden V8 in the other both Alts are mounted high up on the engine anyway and to date neither has given enough trouble to warrant me making a splash shield...... so far that is !
Kingy
[color=blue][size=150][b]And your cry-baby, whinyassed opinion would be.....? [/b][/size][/color]
So was there not a stock high mount alt found in MQ/MKs? I thought there was a factory high mount found in the late years of production.....maybe I was just thinking modded high mounts were stock.
There was a bloke up in Sydney that made a "kit form" setup but that was a bloody long time ago..... not sure if Nissan ever addresed the problem itself in any way but I've never seen anything that I would call a "genuine factory part".
Kingy
[color=blue][size=150][b]And your cry-baby, whinyassed opinion would be.....? [/b][/size][/color]
The Filter warning lamp is wired to the charge warning lamp circuit via a Diode, so that both will come on if the Alternator is not charging but water in the FIlter will only make just the Filter lamp come on. Most likely will be worn brushes, but can be bad exciter/output diodes.
V8Patrol wrote:There was a bloke up in Sydney that made a "kit form" setup but that was a bloody long time ago..... not sure if Nissan ever addresed the problem itself in any way but I've never seen anything that I would call a "genuine factory part".
Kingy
do ya know of anyone that made these high mounted alt would love to see pictures on how they went bout it
V8Patrol wrote:There was a bloke up in Sydney that made a "kit form" setup but that was a bloody long time ago..... not sure if Nissan ever addresed the problem itself in any way but I've never seen anything that I would call a "genuine factory part".
Kingy
do ya know of anyone that made these high mounted alt would love to see pictures on how they went bout it
know anyone that can weld?? would be a piece of piss to make them up
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i'll do it myself just wanna see how other people have gone about it i would use the mounts that are there with a few extensions new hoses for the oil vac etc
just wanna see how other people have gone about it
