So pointless.... Go to a different garage. He almost got you in real deep man.

 

Agreed, I would think tightening the belt would be the first thing to try for a reputable mechanic.

 

Answer obvious



x3 on getting a new mechanic. The fact that he didn't even try to tighten/loosen the belt to see if the noise went away screams that he was trying to screw you over.

ALSO, alternators for this car are cheap, I paid $130 locally (IN CANADA, where everything is normally 10x the price). So if you are paying more than that in the states, you need to shop around

 

True, i have an alternator I'm selling cheap actually, i think i have 2


I had issues with squeal after replacing belts several years ago - it turned out to be a bad idle pulley. Far more common than alternators on this car.

 

I think the man is right. Check the belt tension and the tensioner. I have over 105K miles and still have the orginal alternator.

 

Well there were 2 cars occupying his lifts at the moment. (total loss due to flood)

He were not able to remove them from the lift.

Therefore, he weren't able to inspect the car fully.

The way we work is; he tells me what needs to be done and I go and buy the parts online after a research and mostly taking advice from you guys

Actually he called me the next day and told me not to buy an alternator as he weren't able to inspect it fully.

So yea, we might suspect his abilities but not his friendship.

But at the end, this forum and you are the best !!! I used to drive German all my life, know a lot about them. However, this forum teaches me a lot.

 

That's good to hear!

 

I include my g35drive app in my toolbox!

 

Hello all,

I have prestige alarm system on my car. It was on when i bought it actually.

Car did not start today, the power shut off completely so i guessed it was the alarm system. So i pulled both sides of the battery and put them back on. The alarm came in and i shut it with the remote. I had to try this multiple times.

The reason i think is a valet tried to open the door with the remote were you have to wait around 2 seconds for them to be unlocked after pressing the button. He tried a couple times and he opened with the key. It worked fine there but after the first shut off, it never came back on again.

Here is my question, as you know there is an alarm indicator on the front panel, next to the analog clock.

1) when i lock the car, it becomes solid, on and not blinking

2) when i unlock the car, before putting the key in it is blinking

3)when i start the car, it completely goes away.

Is this how its suppose to be? Because i was able to start the car with the light on and drove like that.however it did not start afterwards.

I dont remember when was it like before.

Any other suggestions, permanent solutions?

Is prestige piece of crap? Should i just throw it away?

Also off topic but my 3rd brake light does not work sometimes. Any ideas on that?



EDIT: I just tried it again. No it did not work. The car shut itself off again. I had to put in the valet mode. Should I replace the alarm system with a better one? Is it where the problem is?

 

still need help. bump

 

Hello all,

Couple days ago, I opened the door and put the key on ignition but the car lost power completely.

I disconnected both sides of the battery and when i put it back, it was fine.

I figured it was my prestige alarm system. So i put it on valet mode.

Today my lights went out for a sec and vdc light came on just for a second also while i was driving.
Also the car barely moved after a stop. I stopped at a parking lot.
I saw that the shifter was ok with p/r/n/d but not showing m mode on the screen.
When i tried to start, it was cold dead. So i had to disconnect the battery again.

I have three questions about it.

1) do you have any idea about this?
2) is it my stupid alarm interfering with the whole car?
3) also my battery connectors are not super tight. I can pull them off with a very little force. Since i've been putting them on and off a lot recently. Is this the cause of the recent problem maybe?

Thank you

 

if you disconnect and reconnect your battery and everything is fine, i'd say #3 is your problem

 

Does this still happen when you have both battery cables tight on the battery? If your entire vehicle is completely losing power, then I would suspect that your battery cables are not properly contacting your battery posts.

 

I would say that would be the first/easiest question to eliminate

 

RESOLVED: Yes, tightening the battery terminals solved the problem.

I had to take off the pads to get a better grip.

Should I use "battery terminal protector" ? Do you recommend it?