BRAKE and BATTERY light comes on at the same time after ignition - Engine overheating - Nissan Rogue alternator belt (or "serpentine belt") issues

 If you start the car and it looks like the BRAKE and BATTERY symbols light up at the same time on your Nissan Rogue - theres some stuff to watch out for before you hit the highway and why you should take a minute and pop your hood.

STARTING SYMPTOM:

• BRAKE and BATTERY light come on at the same time

This indicates that your battery is discharging faster than its charging - which also tells us that the alternator is not working well and feeding charge back into the battery.  The problem gets worse for your battery the more electrical components you turn on - lights, AC, radio, etc.

Sometimes however this can indicate a more serious issue, which is what I'll cover in todays post since it happened to me.

Note: these symptoms are not always accompanied by a CHECK ENGINE light!

WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR:

First thing I noticed was driving a couple of minutes my engine temperature started to rise. 

I have never seen that happen before so I chalked it up to some sensor malfunction because it seemed absurd that a battery charge issue would overheat the engine. However as soon as the temperature went to maxtemp - ie where it says "HIGH" on the engine temperature guage, the car took self-protective measure and started stalling/ interrupting the engine. You can also LOOSE POWER STEERING! Fortunately I was on a local road coasting at 20 MPH so it did not jeopardize us however I can imagine at highway speeds this can create some significant safety scenarios.

IF YOUR ENGINE TEMP IS HIGH AND THE CAR STARTS TO STUTTER OR STALL ..

Please pull over. You must shut down as soon as possible to avoid overheating as well as potentially losing power steering etc.

AFTER ENSURING ENGINE IS NOT OVERHEATING / YOU'RE SAFELY SHUT DOWN..

Pop open the hood and take a look at your coolant fluid. if you see its way over the level where it normally is, it indicates something about the alternator fan belt (aka "serpentine belt") or something in the same area is interfering with the transfer of rotational power from the engine to remaining parts that do things like:

* power steering

* coolant circulation

* air conditioning

* recharging battery via alternator

* etc

Once the engine is off, if you see that the coolant level is falling back down to normal levels, then take a look at the 

SERPENTINE BELT (aka ALTERNATOR FAN BELT) SETUP

In my case, it looks like my belt had a clean break:

alternator belt broke, no longer powering spin in various car systems!

 As you can see above, my situation was quite obvious once i thought to pull on the serpentine / alternator belt after seeing my coolant level dramatically change once overheating engine was shut down. The belt popped right up and i could see it was broken.

Another thing that could happen to you is that the belt might be in tact, but LOOSE. There is a tensioner pulley towards the bottom of the car which can be tightened or loosened in order to adjust tension of the alternator belt. 

IF BELT IS NOT ON PROPERLY WITH RIGHT TENSION, IT WILL NOT PROPERLY TRANSMIT ROTATIONAL ENERGY TO THE REST OF THE SYSTEMS OF THE CAR.

Heres a diagram of the rogue belt system I used as reference;

REPLACING THE SERPENTINE/ ALTERNATOR BELT:

Expect to pay north of $50 for original serpentine belt, and then whatever labor cost is for servicing to get it replaced.

It isnt much work (about 20 minutes if you know wht you're doing) to replace it yourself using a jack and some tools , but I myself did not have enough time to put in to the discovery process so thats where the largest expense went - servicing labor.

Here's a very helpful video though if you want to learn how to do it yourself (I do not know the author, but the video was quite helpful to me when figuring out what i wanted to do once I saw that the belt was broken):

(Youtube) Replacing Nissan Rogue 2009 serpentine belt

AFTER REPLACING THE BELT

Make sure you drive around a bit and see if any check engine lights come on. In my case it did, and I had to manually clear it.

LESSON LEARNT - CHECK THE BELT EVERY YEAR FOR WEAR/CRACKS/AGING

on a yearly basis, even if you get an inspection done, its a good idea to take a second look at this seemingly simple belt that has such an outsizedimpact on the operation of the car if it breaks down.

 Check if its too loose (tensioner needs fixing), look underneath the belt surface to see if it showing signs of cracks or aging (needs replacing)

Doing this and detecting a problem early can save you from some nasty and potentially unsafe surprises - heres generaly what mine ended up looking like before eventually breaking:

2020 - CV boot leak on drivers side Nissan Rogue 2009

A testament to the engineering of this car , besides the few things Ive mentioned in this blog this Nissan Rogue 2009 has pretty much kept running without any major mechanical / electrical issues for over 11 years. I will also admit that I havent put much into maintaining this car either beyond the occassional oil change and windshield wiper fluid replenish.

Now however I do have a new situation, this time its with the driver side "CV boot" leaking grease when driving. 

What is a CV boot leak? What is a CV boot in fact?

Basically, a cv boot looks like an accordion sleeve. One side is wide and one side is constrained. It sits over a joint of some sort - and the gears in the join help move wheels forwards , backwards or sideways etc depending on which joint it is. The CV boot is supposed to hold in grease over the joint. The grease is dark sludgy, and helps the joint structure from wearing out or slipping.

When the grease starts spilling out, this is called a CV boot leak.

How many cv boots are there?

There are multiple CV boots along the way from the center of the vehicle where the main shaft powering the wheels forward or backward, following alone to end up at the wheel of the car which has a more complicated joint since it can also turn side to side.

What does the CV boot leak look like?

In my case, the CV boot that was leaking was from the center of the car, and here's a picture to help showing the leak. You can see that due to the car's axl rotation , grease is flung out as the wheel rotated and is hitting other parts of the car.

Note, this is under the car from the drivers side, looking up at the driver's seat. On the left hand side is the driver side wheel.




Why did this leak happen?

I was told that likely the reason for the leak is due to a crack in the CV boot, or loosening of the seals somehow. I also think maybe due to some of the rougher roads I took last year driving around and in some cases through some bad potholes, its possible I unintentionally did some damage.

Is it Dangerous?

The very first question the car mechanic asks is  - do you hear any clicking sounds when you turn the steering wheel ?

If you do, then the joint is dried out and bad things can happen. What kind of bad things?
Depends on who you ask. If you ask the car spot next to a BP gas station they will say "your wheel will fall off on the highway". If you ask the seasoned mechanic you've been going to for years who suggests repairs only when you really need them, they'll say it will wear down your joint and then the whole axle will just need to go if not more.

The other factor at play is - which CV boot is leaking. If its a center one like mine, the shaft that is protected is just driving the wheel forward and backward. Its not involved in any other range of motion/plane . This means it will last  a bit longer in the current situation and the outcome of a worn gear/slip isnt significant.

If however (I was told) if the CV boot is near the wheel, where theres also turning involved, now we are talking about some significant added risk, and therefore a shortened timeline to fixing.

In my case, I hear no clicking sound, however the amount of grease leaking is significant so I will likely do something about it.

What can be done to fix?

This is an entirely budget driven discussion.

if budget is low, some people will opt to replace the CV boot sleeve after regreasing.

if can afford, some people will replace the axle which comes with its own cv boot, because the assumption is unless you catch the leak very quickly, its been going on for a while and some amount of grease/dirt has gone into the joint and done some damage already - and its just a matter of time before you'll need a replacement anyways.

What will it cost?

Labor is the largest cost. The cv boot sleeve is roughly $15, the axl with a new cv boot sleeve is about $45. Local garage wanted anywhere from $250 to $800 for labor if axl replacement is involved (and neither offered to simply change the sleeve).