Canadian Nissan Truck Club

If you have a Nissan truck, your alternator is in the worst possible position for offroading. It is not uncommon for people to be on their 3rd or 4th alternator after 10 years of ownership.

Greg and I have looked at the options, and relocation is a no-go for several reasons. We did however find an good solution which I may have to try (because my barely 1 year old alternator is going already).

The Audi 4.2L engines particularly the Q7's came with a sealed alternator. There are two fittings on this alternator you can connect to a small external radiator. The sealed unit also has a built in regulator and I am pretty sure it generates more amperage when necessary than the stock alternator. They sell for about $100-250 USD used and the small rads are like $50-100. There is only one issue, and that is you have to make a mounting bracket (8mm steel recommended) that will bolt into the stock holes and allow the new alternator to bolt to it (should be easy for a competent welder).

What do people think?

Rugged Rocks has open that is supposed to be sealed.


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Also need to ensure the pulley matches and is lined up.

By comparison RR's unit is $470US.

Perhaps sealing the engine bay with better wheel well gap guards would be a better option. The pathy's came with decent ones from the factory. I never had issues with mud/water in the engine bay until my body lift, when the gap guards didn't fit anymore. It would at least help in the interim.

The Rugged rocks one is expensive for sure and is not sealed, it is just waterproof. The coils can still accumulate mud and dust. After the bracket and initial cost for the rad, basically your cost should the alternator ever go bad is just to replace it (in theory less likely to happen now) and maybe drain the rad fluid once a year or every two years.

I looked into the possibility of creating a dust shield of sorts, but I would need to see it jacked up or on a hoist.

GM had a few liquid cooled alternator options. They don't look too bad for price either.

Adam, you can get new gap guards for a BL from 4x4parts

Indeed, the RR alternator is damn expensive.

Just to further this discussion , Creating a bracket to work with a different alternator is a non issue , its actually easy . Lining it up also easy as it goes in the same place as the original alternator , just with a adaptor plate for mounting it. The pully itself on the other hand i beleive the audi ones are the same circumferance to ours but if its not its not entirely difficult to change the pully out for a different one.

Saying that , me and Phil look at several options to see what was out there and a seal liquid cooled alternator is the only real option for a second gen xterra . Expense and then the adaptor plate and pully will still run you less than a rugged rocks one that as we know has issues with voltage and still can get mud and dirt and dust in there which can cause issues.

Either way its an option.

The GM liquid cooled ones are not sealed either. Apparently my alternator was fine, my battery needed to be charged but everything tested right, no parasitic losses. Not sure why my battery wasn't getting fully recharged though.

PhullD wrote:The GM liquid cooled ones are not sealed either. Apparently my alternator was fine, my battery needed to be charged but everything tested right, no parasitic losses. Not sure why my battery wasn't getting fully recharged though.

What they seal the coils and liquid cool them then leave the brushes and electronics exposed? That's dumb.

Look it up, I did and was unsure why they designed them that way.