95 pathfinder 180,000 miles but "old faithful" (dealer serviced first 120,000mi, then sts serviced). About a year and a half ago I had a alternator go while visiting 80 miles from home. Battery light came on after starting the car and I had a voltmeter with meso Iused it toverify no charging voltage. Stayed overnight and had a local mechanic check and replace my alternator the next daywith what he said was the best quality rebuilt unit. Ok, normal repair I thought - the vehicle is old. Just before his 90 day warranty was up the battery light wouldcome on after I drove the car for a while, maybe 30 mins to 1 hr. Let it cool down and it's good again. Bought a accessory outlet plug in type voltmeter so I can steadily monitor the voltages. I would watch the charging voltage at 14.3ish when starting out. After driving the 30 mins to 1 hr, I'd watch the voltage drop incrementally til it reached about the 13.3 mark and then very quickly go below 12 and I knew at this point I was on battery alone. The battery light would come on on the dash by this point andherewe go again. Decided to make the 80 mile trip back to the mechanicand he honored the warrantyafter testing the alternator. He said the wiring was all good butthat I might need a new battery as older batteries could cause alternator problems. Even though my Sears Die-hard was only 3 yrs old and tested ok, I bought one from him being happy he replaced the alternator at no charge. Was good again for maybe 6 months but then the same exact symptoms started again. Since I only work about 5 miles from home I let it go for a while, trying to research the problem and carrying my spare battery if needed. Within about 2 weeks it went from being able to drive 30 mins until the symptoms started, to driving 5 to 10 minutes. But the wierd thing was that after it cooled, it would be fine again and start the cycle over. Since the warranty was up I decided to visit my local auto zone and get a replacement and do it myself . That was last September. One thing I noticedin testing the new alternator is the voltage would start at 14.2andwould drop to 13.3 with all accessories on while revving about 2000 rpms. I thought the alternator should keep up above 13.5 so I worked with the alternator mfr tech support to try and analyze any other problems before time went on. They had me check voltage drops between the alternator and battery terminals (to verify good cables) and resistence between alternator case and frame (for ground) and all readings were very well within theirlimits. They agreed it seemed a little low but couldn't figure it.Figured I'd live with it since I rarely run all accessories and as long as it didn't drop below that 13.3 mark on full load...This past January,on aunusually warm winterday, I was driving about 20 mins from home in a little stop and go traffic when the old symptoms happened again- dropped to not charging at all. But the engine wasn't running hot or anything. Went into to the store I wasdriving to. Came out 30 mins later to go home andwas charging normally again at 14.2 volts most of the way dropping onlyto about 13.9 by the time I got home (not much traffic on the way back).Have just beenusing the car locally since thenuntil 2 weeks ago(March). Happened again. Last week I made a rather long trip with no accessories on and no real traffic and had no incidents. When I got home I decided to seewhat happened when I turn all accessories on - fan on full, lights,rear defroster and radio. It dropped incrementally as more power was being drawn to no charging voltage with all on. Turned the accessories off and it stayed at no charging. Stopped the car a few minutes, restarted and chargingreturned to normal til I repeated the testwith the same results. I retested the wiring voltage drops, resistence etc and all were within spec of the alternator rebuilder tech support publication saying it's not a wiring issue. So long story short - in about a year and a half, I've been through 3 rebuilt alternators, 2 batteries, new belts,basic wiring checked by myself and the first mechanic. I can't figure it and can't find anyone familiar. Everyone says "cheap alternators" but if a mechanic tells you it's the best rebuilt - does that mean only Genuine Nissan New is the only good alternator and that American rebuilts are garbage? I had no replies to this post so edited it today to make it current. If no one replies, I'm going to try to get a replacement under warranty as the auto zone says it's a lifetime warranty. Only problem is, it is intermittent so it's hard to prove.

 

Update - Last night on the way home from work after only about 3 minutes of driving, I went down to no charging voltage again. It was the nicest day so far this year - topped out at about 70 degrees F. That's when this seems to happen. Went to the auto zone and they honored the warranty. Put the new one in (newly rebuilt) and all is fine again. This one starts out at 14.6v charging voltage when cold. Now this is the thing that makes me wonder. Upon turning accessories on, the charging voltage drops incrementally again depending on what's on. With all on I go to about 13.5 v. It doesn't totally stop charging (which is good) but I thought the voltage regulator was supposed to sense the need and boost the charging back up to the 14 range. Compared this to my work van where the charging voltage stays relatively constant with accessories on. Wish I could get some input on this but I guess not too many people are familiar.

 

I am having the same problem, i have a 95 pathfinder XE 4x4 with the VG30E, i had my orginal alt seize up on me so i replaced it, the one i bought was tested good, at autozone, now i installed it and i was driving around by my house and the truck died on me, i tried starting it and got the infamous click, so i waited a couple of minutes, let the battery build up, and it started really slugish but started, i had to drive home doing like ten miles an hour, cause of the low charge. got home and tested the battery with it running, was getting like 6 volts, no charge on it, so i pulled the alt and got another one from a junk yard, had them test it, then took it napa and had them test it, good, so i put that one in, and i still had no charge. i checked my wires and fuses, bought a nissan manual from a dealership, with detailed wiring schematics, traced lines, nothing, fuses good, but still no juice, so i tried something somewhat stupid and "jerry" wrigged, i took the alternator regulator plug off, white and yellow with black line, off, i snipped the yellow and black and ran a direct line from the battery with the truck running and got 14.4 volts so i wired it to a toggle switch and turned it on and off when ran, but it was a short fix and ended up doing it again, so i am assuming its the ignition switch, according to the schematic the wire goes to the ignition switch, no idea about the heat for yea tho