Hello fellas

As many of you know, my wipers havent worked since October 2005 due to some crazy short in my car which expanded itself this July by taking away my factory alarm, having my fans run whenever car is on, AND always having my seatbelt light on.

After seeing a video on youtube of some GTi go on fire, I decided to put an end on the shorts before that happens to my car. I've spent $5,300 on it and never even bother to do electrical.

I am taking EVERYTHING out of my interior Friday night, completely gutting it so my g.fs dad can get to the wiring on Saturday morning and check wire by wire. The wires behind my fuse panel are all melted and ugly.

So my question is for those that have removed EVERYTHING *cough*Matt*Cough*
1. Do I need to recover any refrigerant or remove the evaporator at all? 2. Do I need to disconnect the Heater Core at all? 3. Approximately how long would it take to remove everything with intermediate to advanced skills? 4. Are there any tips on removing the dash? Any special tools required? Anything I should look for while in there?

Do any of you know where I can get wiring harnesses beside the dealer and Jy?

Thanks

 

Good luck with all that..

 

on wiring harnesses: come get them. ;x

on shorts: my pass. auto seatbelt doesnt move from the front position.

so come to nashville, and we can do ours together, it would be so cute

 

I've got base model GXE, no sunroof, no ABS, no digital anything. can I still use your SE harness?

 

 

i have sunroof....i think that's our only difference....so IMO the only difference should be not using a few wires on the map light harnesses......speaking of interior, btw.

 

I removed my entire enterior recently, it will take only a few hours. I did get tripped up by the back seat a bit, it helps to have two people to remove it, but not entirely necessary. Remove the nuts in the middle from the trunk, then push up on the three clips encased by the white plastic things.

You cant get the carpet out entirely unless you remove the center frame under the dash which holds the vent controlls, audio, etc... but you can just cut the carpet there if you're in a rush. Also, remove the e-brake handle and the gas cover release thing to make it easier.

Be careful getting the vent covers out from under the windows, those clips will snap if you do it wrong. For the front ones, take out the small center piece, then slide them both away from the edge and lift up gently. For the rears, first get the rear seat out, then the deck cover, and then the vents if you want to... although there is no reason to.

Here are some pics:
http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...8&postcount=38
http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...7&postcount=56

Edit: Your new sn confused me, I think you've seen the pics.

 

Right now I'm wishing I would've used a harness for my headunit...bla so lazy. Thanks for the help so far guys. I think I'm gonna try and make a video of the process for future n00bs. Cant wait to have a fully functional 3rd gen. With $5,300 spent updating it plus the electrical work I'm gonna be set for a while (i hope)

Hey Justin you really wanna do it together? you should come up here and we'll do it here since your car is less prone to setting on fire lol

 

john if you take out the actual dashboard itself lemme know how hard that is and where the screws and what not are while youre at it lol. Hope it goes well too man.

 

I been looking at open my wife's Maxima to fix her heater fan. I am little worried about where to start first. A movie of your project would be a great help. Thanks.

 

If you're changing your blower fan then it should take about 15 minutes, IIRC it has only like 3 screws and its under the glove compartment. Wish my projecct was as easy.

 

IIRC dash removal takes about 30 minutes to an hour, depending on your profiency with tools

 

Power tools=15 minutes

 

Good so I'll have it out in less than an hour...time to make a time lapse video

 

power tools, power tools..... yeah yeah...btw your makita is awesome. ;x

 

So whats up Justin, you coming up here to do it together or what?

 

Alright, so it took about 3 hours taking out the two front seats, center console, dash, cluster, you know, the works I just need to get the rear seats out and the carpet. Hopefully tomorrow all my electrical nightmares will be solved.

 

I have some holes in the wheel wells which soaked under the carpet and its been taking 4 days with fans under it to dry it all out... but i didn't take the carpet right out because like mike said it's a real *****...

the back seats are pretty easy - they just kinda snap in -try lifting under each clipand do 'em one at a time.

there is a wiring harness which runs up the floor on the drivers side - carefull not to pinch it

 

the backseat is very easy to remove. You unclip the bottom cusion first and it comes out. Then on each side by the door where the seatbelt is, there is a 12mm bolt. It would be covered by the lower cushion so you won't see it until you get the lower half out. Undew the bolt and lift straight up. There is nothing to access from the trunk.

 

sorry, couldn't make it john, me and goon are here doing something else together. ;x

IBwaynecomments.

 

Its 10mm and Johnnies swapped seats before :P

~Alex

 

Thanks guys, yes Alex pointed that out. I have replaced my seats with leather seats so thats easy stuff, it all was actually.


So far the update is that the wires starting from the fuse panel inside car had a one wire melt a bunch of others onto it. The wire was a BLUE with a red lil stripe and we traced it all the way to the wiper motor harness, continuity test showed it was same one. Fixed that, wiper fuse (20A) doesnt blow anymore.

So thats ONE problem solved so far. Now when we were testing wipers, we noticed that the harness that goes through the firewall by D side fender had a crapload of burnt wires and one completely bare. Removed fender and we are replacing about 4-6 wires that go from firewall to fuse/relay panel by battery. Will be removing ECU, opening it up and make sure its not fried.

Wipers - Check
Factory Alarm - in progress
Radiator Fans always on - in progress
Seatbelt light always on - in progress

tomorrow morning I pick up my gfs dad and we will continue to work on electrical. Cant wait to have my car back to normal.

Cant wait til thursday, should have my electrical nightmares taken care of and will also have my instrument panel buttons bulbs all replaced with LEDs/resistors by a fellow org member from the 4th gen section. My baby's gonna be a lot closer to my goal after this. Come to think of it, all I'll have left will be to replace power antennae (spelling?) ,front motor mount which is getting replaced tomorrow assuming Brian has it, new radiator (leaks about 3 ounces every month) and voila! I'm done with my mechanical restoration and can finally proceed to the bodywork!!!

Alright brb, gonna go snap some pictures of what I've got so far

btw, anyone want some J30 headrest?

 

Best of luck man, sounds like a nightmare. If I were in your shoes, i'd find a parts car and swap the whole works. But if you can get away with singling out bad circuits, go for it, especially if your girl's Dad is doing it for you. Sounds like a very nice guy, either that or he just doesn't want his Daughter to get burnt up..

 

lol its both! beside I've been with my girlfriend 5 years going on 6 years this coming February (since we were 15). Her family wants us to get married. I usually help him out whenever he needs any sort of help cuz he's so nice to me...so whenever he needs help I put **** aside cuz I know he'd do the same. And yes my original plan was to get a different wiring harness off a donor max but bla time and money! His expertise is electrical troubleshooting on cars anyway so I've got the right person helping me. He's taught me and given me advice with the other work done on my max, only thing he doesnt do is rebuild electronic trannies and bodywork. Come to think about it, he'd make a kick *** father in law.

 

Check out the barewire with no insulation!

Blue/red wire that started it all

Kentucky Fried Wire

AH YES, WORKING WIPERS!

 

That bare wire once again but in different location

some of the stuff to be used

hopefully addressing the rest of this soon ^

my dirty engine

 

nice goin john. Everything back to normal now?

How bout the clock was that a wiring problem or typical maxima soldering problem?

how hard was it to get that fender off

 

good luck with that. wiring takes an unbelievable amount of paitence. Props to ur girls dad for helping you. If it wasn't a 3rd gen I'm sure he'd tell his daughter to find another guy!

 

lol He's actually a Toyota specialist. but yes, I'm sure he doesn't mind the Maximas. His daughter and her BF both have one so he's gonna have to if he doesnt He taught me how to change T-belt and all the goodies

When I got mine 09/2005 he mentioned all the work he's done to 3rd gens over the years as a mechanic and its funny that he mentioned everything that I've done and thats super common. Studs, injectors, MAfs and the common stuff, he already knew what to look out for on em so it was cool

 

don't forget to wrap all the wires when you are done and to find out where the wire was shorting out so it won't happen again

 

Yea got it, thanks. We've got enough sauder, heatshrink, and electrical tape

 

My car has an odd electrical problem too.

When i first turn on the car after a good period of not driving it. Only the front speakers work. It usually takes 7-20 mins for the back right one to slowly crackle to life (afterwhich it's fine, smooth bose sound), and the back left just comes on when it feels like without crackling. it just, pops on. Once they're all going you can hear my car from 2 blocks down, but it's just so odd about the uh.... conditions my rear speakers agree to work by.

Not meaning to get off topic, i cant post threads or use the search option yet. And this is an electrical problem thread.

 

so you've got bad bose
replace it

 

Ugh john,what task you have going here..

If that happened to my car,it would be my new parts car,and i would be on the lookout for a new VE5..

Best of luck..

 

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nch/car/438089658.html

john I think enjoys the learning process too much.

 

Yeah,i am somewhat familiar with the process he is going through,a few years back i agreed to rewire a 91 dodge conversion van that suffered a similar wiring short as johns car,the main harness had at least half the wires melted together from the battery,all the way through the dash. 5 days later i called the guy back and told him to come get van before i set fire to it with gasoline!

Never again..

 

personally I would never do the type of rewire he is doing.
it's insanity in my mind

 

i admire his tenacity. And I too am crazy enough to tackle a job like that. It's my first and only car... I don't want to just let it die for a couple of crossed wires. Yeah I get upset when stuff doesn't work like I want it to.. but I keep at it until it's either to my standards or totally messed up..

 

Guys as I told Brian earlier...I do this not only to have my car working properly but for the learning experience itself. I love learning and mastering anything that I feel capable of mastering. I know most quitters would have just gotten rid of the car or parted it, but for a couple of wires (as capedcadaver mentioned) its not worth getting rid of IMO. I've got too much money, time, and blood invested and I love this car to death. Its what I've learned to work on and has taken me to where ever the **** I pleased within the last 2 years, I'm not gonna just give up cuz of some lil problem. I'm a lazy **** but in no way a quitter.

Alrighty guys so we're getting closer and closer to having everything close to perfection. We're taking our time to make sure we fix everything right and ONCE. So far the wiper fuse isnt blowing anymore, but the wipers only work on full speed unless you give it a little push when they're on low.

The seatbelt light is still there but when you set the wipers on full speed the light goes away (still in progress)

The radiator fans have been fixed and are no longer always on!

So at the rate we're going I think we should have this done in a day or two, its ok though...I've gone for 2 years without wipers I dont care for a few more days.

Brian I apoligize for not stopping by for the motor mount, I figured we'd be done by tonight but I guess things didnt go our way. I still want it and will get it from you so hold it nearby As for the VE5 for 1800...not bad from the pics but a little out of my price range at the moment.


Do you guys think a damaged time control thing can cause the wipers to only work at full speed?

 

well, the time control unit is only in play for OFF, Intermittent, and Wash. Pins 13, 15, and 18 go into the time control unit, and at NO TIME to any of those wires connect directly to the motor. I gotta go to UPS and ship out that tach to Khemraj. I'll analyze the wiring chart more closely when i get back.