Need help with belts
 

i just changed the accesory belts on my G35

the reason was, because the alternator charge light was on and i noticed the belt was somewhat cracked so i thought i'd change them

before the light would come on and off

now the light is solid and wont' go off so maybe i thought i didn't tighten them enough


hwo tight should my belts be?

at the moment i can' twist them 45 degrees

is that to loose?

It's hard to say how tight it should be if you've never done it before, lol.

45 degrees with some resistance should be okay. Maybe your alternator is done. However, try tightening it abit more to see if the light turns off. Did you knock off any plugs off the alternator?

Why don't you follow the torque specs as specified in the manual? that will be the safest way to go.

^ hmm that's a good point i don't think the manual says that, for most things it just says go to dealership.


and no i didn't knock anything off the alternator

In that case, check the alternator's performance to see if it is within spec.

iirc general rule of thumb is 1cm deflection/foot?

I'm sure can look it up.

^ What he said, couple reasons why the charge indicator would illuminate if the alternator is failing or about to, first would be excessive voltage is produced and secondly no voltage is produced or not high enough.

But before that, make sure both your belts are not loose, you can find out by hearing an audible squeal everytime you start your car. So if that's the case just tighten it up a bit more until the squeal goes away, you can always compare tension between the 2 belts and see which has the less tension. If you have a tension gauge, the specs for your car would be 98 N (10 kg, 22 lb.)

If you found out the tension's good and the charge indicator still illuminates, look for a multimeter so you can use it to measure the voltage at idle. According to your alternator's specifications it should be around 14.1-14.7V at idle.

Secondly if you have some sort of charging system equipment that you can apply load to your alternator, raise the vehicle's RPM to about 2500 and it should be able to produce approx. 92A while loading the voltage down to about 12.6-13.6V.

Hopefully some of that helps.

wow you did your research thanks!

You're the guy who works at CT right?


anyhow i guess i'll have to get my friend to do a charge test on the car, being that i don't have any testing equipment myself.

i don't have a tension gauge, but i compared them to 2 other vq's with original belts and they seem good

i think defection is 3-4mm.

anyhow thanks for the help guys, i'll get that load test done.

perform a load test on your battery first to confirm that it's good, but more than likely your alternator is shot

i did a load test on both the battery and alternator, it passed at 14.4v


was working on a 350z and the belts were SUPER tight and didn't squeal car only had like 40k so they're probably original, afterwards felt my managers belts too and they too felt tighter than mine.

so i'm going to try re tightening them until they squeal.

Use a torque wrench! doesn't Nissan has factory specs published? perhaps you should go to a Nissan / G35 specific forum and ask?

Since you have the alternator out.. you mind as well swap the voltage regulator while you are at it..

Is your charge indicator still on? Or you're just experiencing belt squeal now?

belts are super tight.
charge light is still on

dims after a good drive. but stays on.

i might just go to the dealership.