jovialtrice

I am a sort of old member. Never posted but read a ton.

Recently my alternator blew on my 99 Altima. Typical signs occurred: Odd loss of power, e-brake and battery light coming on etc.

It's January in Boston. I cant replace it myself in this crap weather. So I decided to just bring it to the dealership instead of buying a new alternator and dropping it in myself.

Now they are telling me that the alt is directly linked to my instrument cluster which was working completely fine before I brought it there. They are also saying that the car won't run without me replacing both.

1.) As I said, before I brought the car in the instrument panel was working fine.
2.) What sort of crap engineering would directly link the alternator and the instrument panel together?
3.)WTF?

Is this legit? Thanks so much in advanced.

rps180

The only thing I can think of is the electronic load sensor being in the gauges.
That is what is controlling how much voltage the alternator will put out.
I do know if you leave the gauges disconnected, the alternator will not charge
the battery.
It isn't difficult to replace either, so why not just have the alternator replaced
first and see what happens. Or, ask if they even tested the alternator. If they
don't have a tester, have them remove the alternator, and you can take the
alternator to a local Pepboys or Autozone and have them test it. If it fails,
there's your problem.