pieterm

Hello to everyone. I am a new member having recently inherited a Nissan Maxima. I am told it is a Gen4 A33 registered 2000. With 273,000kms on the clock it drives remarkably well no doubt due to the k's being country. However, it's age does mean a few issues need to be looked at so I am asking a little help ...

First issue is the fan blower and/or resistor pack (not sure what it is actually called but is held in by two philips screws under the dash on the passenger side). This was hoped to be an easy fix as it seemed easy to replace. When first installed, everything worked like it should ... aircon was great! But the part got incredibly hot ... way to hot to touch. After a short time it ceased to function. Having been told I'd fried the part, I shorted out the cut-out on the PCB to enable further testing and it worked again though sizzling hot as before. I wisely went no further and removed said part from the vehicle.

I would very much appreciate help from anyone who can put me in the right direction as to what is causing all this ... with summer on it's way, aircon is going to be a decided advantage

Thank you for your help

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

To start with, your description of "it is a Gen4 A33 registered 2000" is incorrect.

Gen4 means 4th generation of the Maxima series and refers to the model years 1996 through 1999. The 4th gen Maxima is also called the A32.

The body style was re-designed in 2000 and the cars were called the 5th generation, A33. The 5th gen Maxima year models are 2000 through 2003.

I am going to guess that your car is year model 2000, making it a Gen5 by your description.

That means that you have posted your question in the wrong forum. You should be posting in the 5th generation forum.

But when it comes to your specific question, the 4th and 5th generations are almost identical.

First of all, the part you are talking about is called one of two things. It is either a blower motor resistor or a fan control amplifier. These are actually two different parts that do the same type of job in the 2 different types of heater/air conditioning control panels used in the cars. They are not interchangeable.

But because they do a similar job, they have similar traits. When the fan blower motor is running, they get very hot. It must have air blowing on it or it will burn up. Guaranteed. When you have the part screwed into the place where it goes, the air from the blower fan is blowing air on it. If you are running the fan with this part hang out by its wires, it will burn up. Guaranteed.

Did you have it hanging out by the wires? If this is what you did, there isn't any problem. You just didn't know of the precaution you had to do.

Now, which one of the 2 parts do you need? The blower motor resistor is used on the heater/ac controls that you set the temperature by sliding a lever. We call this "manual controls." If you set the temperature by turning a **** and the display panel shows you a number, then you have the "auto climate controls" and you have to use the part called fan control amplifier.

pieterm

Thank you very much for your prompt response. It is very much appreciated.

"Googling" A32 A33 differences, I can confirm you are right insofar as it appears to be a gen5 A33 (noting grill and side indicator differences).

You are also correct insofar as I probably cooked the part. Yes, I left it dangling, albeit for a short time. Having said that, I did screw it in place after and it still worked. It wasn't until I started the car the next day I noticed it wasn't working any more. But, no doubt, the damage was already done.

Thanks again for your help and I'll now direct questions to the Gen5 group.

Kind regards,

Pieter

fredbanks

Hi, I'm posting on this old thread because I've been trying to find some information on what i think might be the fan control amplifier you're describing above. I've got a '96 Maxima GLE with the auto air. The compressor locked up, and after replacing it, the compressor will not engage with the a/c switch. It does run & cool fine if I manually jump it at the a/c relay socket. I've gone through the troubleshooting in the FSM for this, and it mentions the A/C auto amp, and also calls it the thermo control amp. From the pictures, it looks to be located behind the glove box towards the driver's side. I removed the glove box and looked for a connector with the same number of pins that I saw in the FSM. The only similar connector I saw seemed to be for the blower, and the pinout didn't seem to match up with the amp pinout I saw in the FSM.

I'm attaching a picture with that connector unplugged, but I don't think that is it. Can you point me in the right direction so I can find this part and test it? I tried to search for information on this, which is how I ended up on this thread. When I call the Nissan dealers here and ask for this part, they don't seem to be able to look it up, and keep giving me a part number for a thermister.

Thanks in advance for any guidance!