Maxima Forums - View Single Post - need help crazy weird thing happend on trip

vinco · 01-07-2009, 05:07 PM

For the love of all things holy, be SURE to disconnect at least the negative battery cable before you get into the dash.

FWIW, it's the same procedure for many Nissans. I had to do it on my '95 240SX. I did a little write-up on the procedure for the S14, but it should be much the same on the Maxima:

So, the revised FSM procedure for this operation (and I do mean major surgery) should be as follows:

1) Unhook Negative Battery terminal
2) Remove dashboard from vehicle
3) Hire one (1) anorexic, pygmy, double-jointed contortionist for disconnection of heater hoses at underhood firewall connection.
4) No, we're really not kidding: the entire eff'ing dashboard, completely out of the car.
5) Remove Cross-bar behind dashboard in order to just barely wiggle the heater box out from behind it.
6) Don't see the crossbar yet? Refer back to step 4 with greater emphasis.
7) Remove old heater core from heater box, and compare with the hard-fought part you got from the junkyard for only ten bucks, on the sworn testimony of your parts-store buddy that it's the same part number from 1989 all the way through 1998.
8) Place telephone call back to parts-store buddy to inform him of his computer system's incorrect parts cross-reference information, while remembering the reason you went looking in the junkyard in the first place. (OK, so maybe I'm just a cheap bastage, but I've bought new heater cores for dozens of different vehicles in my life, and the most I've EVER paid for one was about forty bucks. Try $171 for the cheapest one of these little jewels that I could find.)
9) Close up the car for the night, 'cuz you aren't getting any farther on it.
10) DOH!!!!!!!! Not so fast! You have to get the heater box back in place so that you can get the cross bar back in place, so that you can close the door.
11) Lord, help you if you had the windows down before you started. You've got 25 loose plugs, 600 wires, and an airbag or two staring you in the face. Go ahead - Make My day. Hook that battery back up!
12) Find and install adequately-sized tarp, in the event that Step #11 has occurred.
13) Installation is the reverse of removal.

01-07-2009, 05:07 PM	#31
vinco Senior Member 2KSE Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Hot Springs, AR iTrader: (2) Posts: 160	For the love of all things holy, be SURE to disconnect at least the negative battery cable before you get into the dash. FWIW, it's the same procedure for many Nissans. I had to do it on my '95 240SX. I did a little write-up on the procedure for the S14, but it should be much the same on the Maxima: So, the revised FSM procedure for this operation (and I do mean major surgery) should be as follows: 1) Unhook Negative Battery terminal 2) Remove dashboard from vehicle 3) Hire one (1) anorexic, pygmy, double-jointed contortionist for disconnection of heater hoses at underhood firewall connection. 4) No, we're really not kidding: the entire eff'ing dashboard, completely out of the car. 5) Remove Cross-bar behind dashboard in order to just barely wiggle the heater box out from behind it. 6) Don't see the crossbar yet? Refer back to step 4 with greater emphasis. 7) Remove old heater core from heater box, and compare with the hard-fought part you got from the junkyard for only ten bucks, on the sworn testimony of your parts-store buddy that it's the same part number from 1989 all the way through 1998. 8) Place telephone call back to parts-store buddy to inform him of his computer system's incorrect parts cross-reference information, while remembering the reason you went looking in the junkyard in the first place. (OK, so maybe I'm just a cheap bastage, but I've bought new heater cores for dozens of different vehicles in my life, and the most I've EVER paid for one was about forty bucks. Try $171 for the cheapest one of these little jewels that I could find.) 9) Close up the car for the night, 'cuz you aren't getting any farther on it. 10) DOH!!!!!!!! Not so fast! You have to get the heater box back in place so that you can get the cross bar back in place, so that you can close the door. 11) Lord, help you if you had the windows down before you started. You've got 25 loose plugs, 600 wires, and an airbag or two staring you in the face. Go ahead - Make My day. Hook that battery back up! 12) Find and install adequately-sized tarp, in the event that Step #11 has occurred. 13) Installation is the reverse of removal.