Thread: Weird Problem!

I have a Nissan Sentra 1997 GXE with a weird problem thats been going on.

So what happened was that the car had shut down on me while driving, so i took the battery to autozone and charged it and the car started up fine. when we got it back home my dad took the pulse off the battery and the car had turned off, so we thought the alternator was bad so we got it replaced but even when we put that in the car it still did the same thing.

Also my car's instrument cluster is not working at all Speed,Temp,Gas nothing on the cluster working... so i checked the fuses to find a fuse blown its called the 10A METER fuse but even tho i replaced it more then 5 times it blows everytime!?......

What is going on with this car?! someone please help me!?

If it's blowing repeatedly, it's likely that you have a short someplace. Although, could this be caused by an alternator putting out too much voltage? Try disconnecting the alternator and seeing if it still blows.

Our cars are known to have bad alternators; even the re-manned "new" ones are frequently bad.

Edit: Note, this isn't likely to be an issue, since the fuse was blowing before the alternator swap.

check your fuzable link. that red block thats on your battery theres 2 wires comming out of that block. make sure the short wire is not broken that wire is made to break under heavy voltage...also usually when your alty goes bad you will get battery plus break light glowing together on your cluster

I don't have a cluster because its not working because of the METER 10A fuse that keeps blowing out when i try to put a new one in. How would i know anything the car is saying without the cluster?......

Also i got the car back home by using my dads truck battery. so its outside right now...

It sounds like the running issue is caused by a bad alternator, if you were able to drive home fine with your dad's battery. I know you just replaced it, but like I said they are notorious for being bad. You might want to bring it in and have it tested.

As for the fuse blowing, that might be tricky to diagnose. My first recommendation would be to remove the gauge cluster (unplug it, don't have to pull it out totally) and see if the fuse still blows. This will tell you if it's being caused by something in the cluster or by the wiring itself.

Have a look at this thread: Gauge Cluster

It's pretty easy to remove it and unplug it. Don't worry about all the lights and stuff in that thread, just use the first few steps as a guide for cluster removal. It's especially easy being that you have an electric speedometer.

Alright update, I have removed the cluster and replaced the fuse "10A Red METER fuse" but it still blow even without the cluster plugged up. So something else is causing it to blow out?...

Anyone know what's going on?

You have a short somewhere. You're just going to have to find it, or re-wire your cluster power.

OK, this should help out. Found it finally!

The 10A fuse in question goes out to a YELLOW wire in this diagram below. The yellow wire(s) connect to a bunch of components as listed to the right in the brackets. I don't know what all the abbreviations mean, but if any of those parts is bad, it could cause this problem. Also, I see one marked CHARGE. If this is referring to the alternator, then whatever's causing the short is also the reason you can't charge.

Hold on, I found a list with the abbreviations described.

Edit: Okay, here's what I found. Looks like CHARGE could be for the alternator????

In short, there are a lot of parts connected to this system, it might be tricky to find and disconnect all of them.

LKUP -
BACK/L - Rear Combination Lamp (LH and RH)
A/T,RE - A/T Fluid Temperature Sensor, Overdrive Control Switch, A/T Control Unit
A/T,RL - Shield Wire (Throttle Position Sensor), ECM
METER - Combination Meter (All meters and turn signal lamps)
WARN - Brake Fluid Level Switch, Washer Fluid Level Switch, Fuel Tnak Gauge Unit, Seat Belt Switch
VSS - Part of Cluster
SRS - Air Bag Diagnosis Sensor Unit, Front Door Switch LH
ASCD - Part of Cluster, Inhibitor Switch, ASCD Control Unit, Hold Relay, and Main Switch
ABS - ABS Control Unit, ABS Relay Box, Shield Wire (All Wheels)
DTRL - Daytime Light Control Unit
MIL/DL - Data Link Connector For Consult and GST
CHARGE - Generator

Ok, it looks like the Yellow wire is for the CHARGE warning lamps, so I don't think it's causing an alternator problem.

Edit: Ok, I'm gonna be nice and try and trace some of these out in the diagrams and see where the wires go. I think most just go to the meter.

LKUP -
BACK/L - Rear Combination Lamp (LH and RH)
A/T,RE - A/T Fluid Temperature Sensor, Overdrive Control Switch, A/T Control Unit
A/T,RL - Shield Wire (Throttle Position Sensor), ECM
METER - Combination Meter (All meters and turn signal lamps)
WARN - Brake Fluid Level Switch, Washer Fluid Level Switch, Fuel Tank Gauge Unit, Seat Belt Switch
VSS - Part of Cluster
SRS - Air Bag Diagnosis Sensor Unit, Front Door Switch LH
ASCD - Part of Cluster, Inhibitor Switch, ASCD Control Unit, Hold Relay, and Main Switch
ABS - ABS Control Unit, ABS Relay Box, Shield Wire (All Wheels)
DTRL - Daytime Light Control Unit
MIL/DL - Data Link Connector For Consult and GST
CHARGE - Generator

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