Don't know if anyone cares... but, what I think is the neutral/reverse switch on my 5sp manual transmission was leaking. I'm not sure that was the source, but that was the only item around besides the tranmission itself that could be leaking. So after some responses on this board, and some help from Dan, I found the part had no serviceable parts and should be sealed. There was an o-ring around it and it could be removed with 1 screw.

So I haul myself over to the Nissan dealership and pick up the $20 part... I figure even if it doesn't fix the leak, I didn't spend a fortune. I also go down to the local Kragen's and pickup 5 quarts of GL5 transmission fluid.

I go over to my friends house, wait for the transmission to cool off (after being on the freeway), and then we proceed to take off the switch. I suggest that we disconnect from the connector end first, so we trace the wire do so after removing the airbox, maf, resonator, etc... While tracing the wire, we found that it goes THROUGH what appears to be the driver's side engine mount. We unplug the connector then my friend tugs on it from below as I try to guide the connector through the maze that it must go through to get to the bottom of the car. We hit a road block. Apparently, the wire must've been run before the engine was installed in the car at the factory. It doesn't fit through the engine mount passageway that was cut out for the wire... Ok, now what. We try all we can to no avail, the connector is just too big. So my friend suggests we cut the connector off the old sensor/pickup assembly and pull it out, then re-route the new wiring elsewhere. Well, before we got that far, I suggestted that we just take the o-ring off the new unit and put it on the old unit, put it all back together and see what happens. So no we're going to wait and see if it still leaks.

Now if anybody has the FSM, can you tell me how we were supposed to replace this assembly in case I need to do it again? The part number is 32005-17E11.

Thanks.

-V

 

This may be the "right fix". If you could buy just the O-ring it would be an inexpensive fix too. Maybe Nissan won't sell the O-ring as a separate item but there are lots of places to buy O-rings. Try a home improvement superstore (Home Depot, etc.).

 

I was actually thinking of just buying the o-ring as per your advice after letting me know that the whole unit was sealed by a single o-ring. However, after calling for the price of the part, $20, I decided to purchase the whole unit because I would have to take out the assembly to check/replace the o-ring, at which point, I would have to remove the o-ring to check the size, then go and purchase the o-ring or defective assembly.

You advice is definitely the way I should've gone, and saved my self $19... let's see if the fix works! The old o-ring looked fine, so I don't know if this will even fix it!

-V

btw, this was one of those repairs/replacements that looked easy on paper, but had little snags that made it into a more time consuming project than it should've been!

 

This is a common story. It is one we learn over and over again. Every job has a snag. It's a good idea to start a repair job with this in mind. Then, when the snag shows up, you won't be discouraged or thrown off stride.

 

Thanks Dan, I'll sleep better knowing that I'm not the only one with such bad luck

BTW, it was a good thing I decided to start from the connector end and not the assembly end... imaging taking everything apart, just to find out you can't get the part out

-V