I'm going to ramble some here, so if you're in a hurry to get to The Good Stuff, drop down to "A Small Job".
I own a 2001 Maxima with 176K miles and travel about 200 miles one way to Eastern WA roughly weekly. After hearing infrequent clangy, crashy but subdued noises coming from under the hood for awhile, 20 miles out of town on my way back I noticed that my voltage had suddenly dropped to 12 from its normal 14+ (my Fuzz Buster monitors system voltage). I was running on battery, so I returned to town to check the belt and alternator. It was a bad alternator and I thought "Well, yes, my failing alternator had been making the noise".
Wrong, not the alternator. Shortly later, at the end of a return trip while waiting for a Jack burger, I again got the crashy, clangy, grindy noises under the hood, but loud, for a minute orless, and I thought "No, not the alternator, the radiator fans". Right. So I ordered a Radiator Fans Assembly for $82 Free Shipping on E-bay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fits-2000-2001-Nissan-Maxima-Radiator-Condenser-Cooling-Fan-Assembly-/271772846442?fits=Make%3ANissan%7CModel%3AMaxima&h ash=item3f46ec896a:g:n7MAAOSwU~FWEHP5&vxp=mtr.
When received, I called my Car Whisperer Guy but he couldn't do the work for a week, so I decided to do it myself and have a reliable car while saving some money. Here's the process.
A Small Job
The Radiator Fans Assembly is a square plastic unit attached to the back of the radiator with 2 10mm bolts at the top and 2 triangular plastic tabs at bottom that fit into slots. I removed the bolts. I then unplugged the 2 wiring connectors. These are plastic"sleeve" fittings with a small, green plastic tab on top that must be depressed while GENTLY prying the piece apart with a small blade screw driver or similar. The screw driver tip should be quite thin. The wiring is attached to the Assembly with a zip-tie-with-prong that fits into a hole in the top right (facing the car). Carefully work/pry this out. It may break. Mine didn't. It is then necessary to loosen the plastic air intake scoop (2 plastic Phillips screws in sleeves) and to disconnect the top right (facing the car) radiator hose. You'll get some leakage. Move both out of the way. There are also 2 small rubber hoses attached and running along the back of the assembly in quasi-open brackets, one at the top and the other at bottom. Remove those with your fingers. Then the old assembly is pulled up and out. Reverse the process with the new assembly. Upon reinserting the 10mm bolts, I noticed that the holes through which they were attached were too large and so I inserted larger but thin aluminum lock washers, the ones with "teeth". That worked and other than that the fit was good. I replaced the radiator fluid loss with distilled water.
Done deal.
I own a 2001 Maxima with 176K miles and travel about 200 miles one way to Eastern WA roughly weekly. After hearing infrequent clangy, crashy but subdued noises coming from under the hood for awhile, 20 miles out of town on my way back I noticed that my voltage had suddenly dropped to 12 from its normal 14+ (my Fuzz Buster monitors system voltage). I was running on battery, so I returned to town to check the belt and alternator. It was a bad alternator and I thought "Well, yes, my failing alternator had been making the noise".
Wrong, not the alternator. Shortly later, at the end of a return trip while waiting for a Jack burger, I again got the crashy, clangy, grindy noises under the hood, but loud, for a minute orless, and I thought "No, not the alternator, the radiator fans". Right. So I ordered a Radiator Fans Assembly for $82 Free Shipping on E-bay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fits-2000-2001-Nissan-Maxima-Radiator-Condenser-Cooling-Fan-Assembly-/271772846442?fits=Make%3ANissan%7CModel%3AMaxima&h ash=item3f46ec896a:g:n7MAAOSwU~FWEHP5&vxp=mtr.
When received, I called my Car Whisperer Guy but he couldn't do the work for a week, so I decided to do it myself and have a reliable car while saving some money. Here's the process.
A Small Job
The Radiator Fans Assembly is a square plastic unit attached to the back of the radiator with 2 10mm bolts at the top and 2 triangular plastic tabs at bottom that fit into slots. I removed the bolts. I then unplugged the 2 wiring connectors. These are plastic"sleeve" fittings with a small, green plastic tab on top that must be depressed while GENTLY prying the piece apart with a small blade screw driver or similar. The screw driver tip should be quite thin. The wiring is attached to the Assembly with a zip-tie-with-prong that fits into a hole in the top right (facing the car). Carefully work/pry this out. It may break. Mine didn't. It is then necessary to loosen the plastic air intake scoop (2 plastic Phillips screws in sleeves) and to disconnect the top right (facing the car) radiator hose. You'll get some leakage. Move both out of the way. There are also 2 small rubber hoses attached and running along the back of the assembly in quasi-open brackets, one at the top and the other at bottom. Remove those with your fingers. Then the old assembly is pulled up and out. Reverse the process with the new assembly. Upon reinserting the 10mm bolts, I noticed that the holes through which they were attached were too large and so I inserted larger but thin aluminum lock washers, the ones with "teeth". That worked and other than that the fit was good. I replaced the radiator fluid loss with distilled water.
Done deal.
Senior Member
Good fix.
Good find on the fan assembly too. That part runs close to $200 if you get it locally.
I usually recommend just replacing the fan motors but it sounds like the assembly was bad.
I'd test the fan motors and keep them as backups if you have the space to keep them. The Chinese replacements are sometimes low quality. If one fails it's an easy swap to put a working one in the assembly.
Good find on the fan assembly too. That part runs close to $200 if you get it locally.
I usually recommend just replacing the fan motors but it sounds like the assembly was bad.
I'd test the fan motors and keep them as backups if you have the space to keep them. The Chinese replacements are sometimes low quality. If one fails it's an easy swap to put a working one in the assembly.