Electrical Issues with 1997 Maxima when it rains

Key specs on my car: 1997 Nissan Maxima 3.0L V6, 150K miles

I’m having a problem with my car and I could use thoughts and advice from the experts, as I have taken it into the car shop and they couldn’t find anything wrong with it.

The issue started a few weeks ago when it had rained fairly hard during the day while my car was parked outside. When I came out from work, it was completely dead and wouldn’t turn over at all. There was a flicker of the door light when the door was open – and it was like there was some kind of flicker of power that I was getting – but it wouldn’t even try to turn over.

I got it towed to the auto shop, and the next day – it started fine. They ran tests and didn’t find anything wrong with it – and it drove fine for a couple of weeks.

Same thing happened 2 weeks later – but this time I tried connecting a jumper cable that wasn’t connected to another car to just the black connector on the battery – and when the clamp would touch the battery connector surface, I had power. That leads me to think that maybe it’s a grounding issue.

Well – it’s a few weeks later, and it has rained here for 2 days – and my car was fine. The rain has stopped and now it’s just humid – and once again, I’m having problems. It will sit in park with the AC going and everything, but when I put it in drive – it just dies.

I give it gas and try to let it idle high, but it does this weird hesitating at around 3,000 RPMs.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what the issue might be?

Any help would be greatly appreciated – and let me know if you need any additional information. start by disconnecting the battery cables and use a wire brush or fine grit sandpaper to clean the battery terminals and the cable ends til there clean and shiny, then hook them back up and make sure there good and tight. while your at it, make sure the other end of both cables is clean and tight.

allso check the 'hot' wire from the alternator down to the starter motor to make sure its tight, and theres no breaks, worn insulation, etc. on it. theres some 'fusible links' attached to the starter motor that look something like this:



check those for signs of burning or melting. if they look ok, pull on it gently. if it stretches out like a rubber band it needs to be replaced.

it would allso be a good idea to run by autozone or another parts store and have them do a 'load test' on both the battery and alternator. theyll do this for free.

if all this checks out and u still got a problem, let us know.Car Repair Talk's forum.