Hello everyone. I love this site. I finally joined the org and finally bought my second Maxima a couple of weeks ago. My first Max, a 1991 SE, now has to be parked on the street so I can park my new 2005 SL in the garage. My new baby has everything except Elite package and Satellite radio. As you can imagine, I'm still getting to know her. She's really a great car. One thing that takes a little getting used to though is the turning radius. I always considered myself an excellent parker with my old car, but with the 2005 I feel like I have to teach myself how to parallel park again. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon.

Anyway, I have a question about some switches which are not illuminated when the headlights are on. I noticed that my power window lock switch and the homelink buttons on my rear view mirror don't light up. Are they supposed to light up or not? Please let me know the status of your switches. I'm not sure if I have a problem or not. Thanks.

 

I haven't noticed any light on the power window lock switch, which doesn't affect me (no young kids riding in the back at night).

You are absolutely correct in that there is no illumination of the homelink switches on the inside rearview mirror. In my way of thinking, this is a very serious oversight. Both my wife and I have been most frustrated by this technical blunder.

When arriving home after dark, I fumble in the dark trying to 'feel' for the middle switch to open the gates, but end up opening one or both garage doors 300 feet away.

After finally getting the gates open, and passing through, I end up closing the garage door(s) trying to close the gates. I finally get the gates closed. Then, approaching the garage, in trying to get the correct garage door open and the other one closed, I look in the rear view mirror and realize I have reopened the gates.

My mind reels with the stupidity of having three (actually five, counting the compass control, etc) unlighted switches that feel exactly alike rowed up along the edge of a mirror, with the rest of that edge also feeling just like the surface of the switches.

There is no way to have any cabin light directed at these switches. It has reached the point where we automatically open the glove box and pull out the flashlight when approaching our property.

In this one instance, I am tempted to say: 'Stupidity, thy name is Nissan'.

 

Neither the power window lock switch or the Home Link light on my car

 

Why not take a bottle of White-out and put a small dot on the relevant home-link switch so it's clearly visible? There should be enough ambient light to illuminate it.

 

Better yet...and more clean...get some lumincent tape or glow tape. If cut right, you can place it in the place you want and it will look good. We use the stuff all the time in the military for "cat eyes" on the back of our combat helmets (although it's sewn in that case).

I'm also new the the Maxima.org, but was a former owner/member of a 2002 VW Passat GLX with b5club.com. There was a mod that would put a LED light just above your door handle that would match the lights on the display and such...I'll have to look at my Maxima...but this mod might work well and not only give a nice, but not bright glow to your door handle but light up the buttons below. I'll take a closer look. This was an excellent mod with VW's...

Jimbo

 

lobewiper and MAJ_Jimbo - I will try both your ideas, plus any others I can think of.

I tend to have my eyes on the roadway/driveway when I am using these switches, as a flotilla of deer often flies across our driveway, headed for the woods, as we arrive home after dark (after having made another meal of our landscape plants). Because of that, I might also try attaching a little clear rubber/plastic bumper to the middle switch, so I could know which switch I am touching and work from there.

Your input has inspired me to overcome this problem. I will let you know what works best for me.

 

Light...

I make a point of reading each of your posts as I find them informative and a little "tongue in cheek". Perhaps it is because we seem to be amongst the more "elderly" members of this forum?

I had a bit of a chuckle while reading your earlier post in this thread, as visions of "Gone With the Wind" and "Tara" popped into my head as I read about the gates and the herd of deer. I smiled upon picturing acres of rolling meadows at your home south of Atlanta. Sounds idyllic. The though occurred to me that it would make a wonderful site for a "meet".

If I was ever visiting that part of the country, my Max and I would be thrilled to drive by.

Happy New Year!

 

Thanks for the input guys. I can rest at ease now. I think I will look into the glow tape solution as well. I didn't know there was such a thing as glow tape. I guess I can find that tape at Home Depot huh? Thanks again and Happy New Year!

 

Not sure if it's at Home Depot...I know I can get it at military PX's (post exchanges). Haven't bought it in a while, but it comes in strips of about 3 to 4 inches by about 1/2 inch, about 2 to 3 in a pack under a couple of bucks.

Also these websites offer it:

http://www.browntapeproducts.com/DMI...php?code=PGD-8

http://www.tapemonster.com/glow.html?source=overture

I'll check if the PX still sells it at Fort Carson where I'm stationed on Tuesday when I'm back at work. I'm looking into this as well. My previous car, 2002 VW Passat GLX had all the buttons light up in the vehicle...front and rear. It is a nice aspect, especially at night. I'm looking into the glow tape option or a good LED light option...still have to look into it more and how the vehicle is wired up. There's way's of doing it, but it takes time...for instance I have heard of people with other types of vehicles drilling out/cutting out a window switch, glueing a colored piece of plastic inside and installing a LED light for it to glow...now that's extreme and don't think it would look well in the Maxima's.

Hope this helps...

Jimbo

 

jc53 - thanks for the kind thoughts. If you are ever down in Fayette County, GA, ask how to get to Hopeful Community, then take Rivers Road until you see a brick home about 300 feet across a centipede lawn, with two flags on a tall flagpole.

Don't know about a 'meet', though; we have converted our east yard to woods, and our meadow usually has tall grass, unless we have cows or horses in it. If the cows or horses are there, I don't have to tell you where not to step (or park). The proper nomenclature involved would be 'cowpods' or 'road apples'. My grandad said the term 'road apples' for horse manure was in very common use back in the 1800s.

The mowed portion of the lawn is plenty big (four acres), but if there has been rain within the past week, it won't support vehicles.

Unfortunately, most car meets around here are at places like the Taco Bell parking lot. The rage in Fayette County is antique vehicles. There are several local clubs. It is rather common here to see beautifully restored cars from the 1920s and 1930s tooling up and down the highway in amidst the SUVs and new Maximas.

When my next-door neighbor died a few years ago, the club he belonged to had over seventy vintage vehicles in his procession. I feel sort of an emphathy looking at cars that (like myself) somehow survived the depression of the 1930s.

As us old folks tend to do, I have wandered all over the place in this post. Time to do something constructive and see if there is an automatic cutoff for the heated seats in my Maxima. I would hate to forget and leave them on, then find the battery drained. The Owner's Manual hinted at that possibility.