I know I read it somewhere but can't remember where. The switch in the up position seems to have blue lines and in the down position it doesn't.

 

it's the "fresh air ventilation lever". the bottom position is "normal." use the top position (with the 3 wavy lines) when you don't want heated air to come out of the face vents.

 

read your owners manual. it's explained in there.

basically it blows cool, fresh air from the dash vents to the driver's face, supposedly to help keep the driver more alert.

 

Hmmm.... i think the one with the wavy lines is when you want air to come out of those vents, and the other position block all air from coming out of the top vents at all. I do believe its used so you can close off all of the vents instead of closing them off all separately.

 

I thought it just let in fresh air from out side(cowl vents?) with it in the position with the 3 wavy lines it lets air through no matter what setting you are using. If I leave it open in the winter when I use the defrost and floor it will blow freezing air(sometimes a little snow) through the face vents... which really sucks. If I'm putting warm air through the face vents it mixes with it.

 

so if i want to maximize the coldness of the A/C, I should leave it down which closes the outside vents right?

 

If you want to maximize coldness of the A/C, you should close the outside vents (the switch in the down position) and also punch the "recirculate" button.
Sheesh, doesn't anyone own an owner's manual anymore?

Hey, I have this lever on my steering wheel that seems to turn on the windshield wipers... what does it do?

 

you're correct!

 

well duh! everyone knows about the recirculate button. It's just that when I run the A/C, I always had the switch in the up position (vents open as I now know). I just thought that the blue lines on the up position meant colder air from the A/C. But now i know. Thanx for the insight and the insult.
And as for my owners manual, not all of us were lucky to be the original owners of our 3rd Gen Max's, so i guess i'll have to settle ,with the fact that i'll have to learn how to drive my car without an owners manual.

No owners manual

 

How to drive without that buttOn? And what does it mean when its misSing?

I suppose here is again a poof of stealeship work 'quality': this car has add on A/C, ordered during purchase [installed here at nissan stealerShip]] if I remember right... Maybe the mech threw those tingies to ? trash... so whattodo to wipe that snow off my face?

 

Try an ice scraper.

 

Now this was a direct hit: dunno if its an insult or joke... Cannot use scraper as it may scratch my helmet.

And besides, this is no laughing matter: how about IF there's one flapping tingie inside dash, without any control - what should I do for it? If it opens at 100mph and I get six feet mossquitoes on my face, scraper is lost?

 

lol.............

 

Well, how did we get in here? This is serious, well documented [there's the pic!] problem...

 

that lever is screwed onto the side of the unit, so it's obviously an add-on thing that nissan decided to put on later.. or maybe just for the US-spec models or something..

 

As there is a lever, then there's a wire. Wires tend to have two ends...

---> is there available any pics or illustrations of the other end, mechanism/flaps this wire is used to adjust? If I recall right, even FSM is shaky on this issue. I juts to want to get it closed/opened on demand.

(my max A/C was added on later; it came without from factory)

 

it makes noise when you move it

 

...err my imagination fails: move what? Nonexistent lever?

 

the ac switch on the ac the goes up or down. Left hand corner on the manual climate conrtol i beleive that auto has it too.

 

C'mon. Please read the whole thread FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, and show me FROM MY PIC that ctrl...

Where it is? So far Never seen THAT during 2yrs I've had my max...

(the issue HERE NOW is that the flap is there -where ... pics)

 

ok seems that you dont have one my bad.

 

FOR THE RECORD:

The switch located on the sides of SOME A/C Units. (the switch that clicks up and down) is used to supply fresh air from the outside of the car to the face vents only.

the intake vent is located in front of the steering wheel under the windshield wiper on the outside of the car.

when the switch is up, (with the blue lines) fresh air from outside is put through the face vents. therefore, if it is hotter on the outside of your car than the inside, and you're trying to stay cool..leave the switch down, so you don't take hot outside air in.

in the winter, when you want heat, leave the switch down so no cold air is brought in.

if it happens to be a nice cool day and you're regulators dont work on your windows, or you just dont feel like putting them down, i suggest moving the switch up to the blue lines to get some of that cool air.

 

I love my up/down switch, another example of Nissan engineers over-engineering this car (to our benefit). Its great in cold weather climates, when your feet are still freezing after ten minutes of driving. The passenger compartment will be too warm, but your feet still need another ten minutes at high heat to warm up. Flip the Up switch and get some cooler air on your face and upper body, while still blowing hot air at your feet. And something no one's talked about yet, its a variable switch. The switch can be moved to the middle positions to let in less of that cold outside air. I say "cold" air because the only time I use it is in cold weather. Now that I'm in California it doesn't get used. I've never seen it in on any other cars, and it's a great feature (for cold climates). Is it also on the 4th and 5th Gens?

 

on the UK maximas I've been in, they also did NOT have that fresh air vent

wiking - check your pdf FSM
look at page HA-10 and you'll see the tubing called fresh vent duct. I would suspect that you dont have that. Also look at HA-12 and HA-70

Here's what the FSM says:
Fresh Vent
When the fresh vent lever is in the "ON" position, a small amount of air flows directly from the evaporator outlet to the vent (face) duct, bypassing the heater unit. This provides a small amount of cool air in the occupant head/face area even though warm air may be discharging through the foot or defroster outelts.

 

LOL I know what you mean.

I wondered for ages what it did too, and then one day I flipped it while moving and I was like "OH!" I'm was used to GMs where you move the horizontal slider to open the vents.

 

so whats the recurculation button do? does it give a good explanation on it in the FSM?

 

The recirc button usually halts the intake of outside air into the heater / cooling system, and instead takes air from the cabin and "recirculates" it throught the heater / AC. This is used especially when the temp outside is extreme, either hot or cold, easire to heat 40 degree air than 20, ect, ect, ect

 

so when it takes air from the cabin, it intakes it through the vents or something?

 

if you run your fan on high then you should hear the recirculation over near passenger's feet area. it sucks air back up down there. its loud when you have fan on high

 

Thanks, that uk comment helps a lot. I'll take my stealeship accusation back from this nuance... It could even be that this feature is given only to US models... I'll check the FSM and edit comment here.

Thanks.

 

I was wishin for the FSM pic. That was on haynes crap -level... the fresh air vent is not correctly drawn, but both hot and cold seem to become mixed... sucks.

Anyways, now I maybe know where ths uk flap is -or- is not: see the green arrows... Will go and look it in the nature...

Here is the pic with some editing... correct me if smtg is wrong.

 

I have one in my car. Just continue to wear your helmet and you should be fine.

 

 

...no, never will forget that kinda craps. In the FSM there are even more pics? that will NOT explain anythin. Parts floating around like on baghdad street, baathist snoitanalpxe.

 

I feel so humbled... 'cause have to rotate horns down; (theyre loose already). ...horns rip my roof upholstery.

 

Do you have an alarm on your car? If so, hook up the auxilary output to your helmet so that the horns rotate down everytime you unlock the doors.

 

he would need to beef up his alternator and battery since it would take alot of electrical current to move those big things, and the stockers just can't handle the job

 

Kind of...but not quite.

When the switch is set to the top (with wavy lines) it lets fresh air in from the outside of the car. (Regardless if the heat or A/C is on...it will blow in air from outside.) When the switch is down (no wavy lines). It is strictly blowing air from the heater or A/C.

 

Nissan FSM pic tells all; air comes in...Always through cooling unit's evaporator.