This is an easy (but a little messy) fix, thought I would post a quickie how-to.

First, get or order the part from Nissan or online. Rock Auto charged me about $20 and it was an exact replacement for the OEM part. Here is a picture of it (the pump in the package is actually the old one that I took out). When you look at the new pump you'll get an idea what you need to do.



1) Put the front of your Max up on ramps or jackstands. Chock the rear wheels for safety!

2) From the front, slide under the car and just behind the passenger front wheel look up. You will see the cover the you will have to work around. You don't have to remove the whole thing, just one screw on the bottom and one screw in the wheel-well, and you will be able to push the plastic cover to the left (to the middle of the car). You will probably need a stubby phillips screwdriver to get the higher one out because the tire will be in the way.

3) This is a good project to do while you are changing the oil, BTW.

4) Once you have the plastic cover pushed to the left you will see the washer fluid reservoir and the pump, something like this:



Don't try to remove the electrical connector yet, it is too difficult to get to right now but there is enough slack in the wire that it will be easy when the pump is off the reservoir.

Here is where it gets messy. You will need a large flat-tip screwdriver to pry the washer pump away from the reservoir. You do not have to unscrew or remove anything else. Just gently pry away the pump from the rubber washer (see the arrow in the above picture), but when you get it out all of the remaining windshield washer fluid is gonna dump out on-a-your-face.

Have a flashlight handy. Once all the fluid is done spilling out. you can see how you have to press the clip on the electrical connection down to pull the connector out of the pump. Slip off the tube that goes to the washer nozzles and the old pump is now out.


Installation is just the reverse, pretty easy to do.

 

bump for a good how to!

 

Thanks for this writeup i to have to same problem but thought u had to remove the windshield motor on the firewall lol. I had removed one at the junkyard and didnt kno wat it was lol

 

It's a simple part but annoying when it goes bad. Especially on icy/foggy mornings and bug filled nights. Thanks for the write up!

 

appreciate the writeup, I replaced mine today and it was very easy with this. First time its worked since I bought the car 2 months ago!!!

 

I was just wondering.. Out of everyone that has replaced the pump, did that correct your problem? If not what else did you do to correct the issue.

I looked at mine today and noticed it was leaking fluid and it was rusted on the bottom. I dont hear the motor or pump at all when I try and use the WWF. Does this sound like to you it would be the motor...

Thanks in advance for any information!!!

 

Just replaced the pump today on my wife's Maxima. We heard the motor running and yet the washer fluid wasn't shooting out. Probably related to why the first motor burned out in the first place, but used a small needle to clean out the little washer fluid spouts. For a moment I was worried I had the polarity wrong on the wiring. But after the needle trick, we had washer fluid spraying nicely. So maybe that is something to look at? Also if the motor is not running, maybe hook up a multimeter and make sure you have voltage, aka verify the wiring is good.

Which as a side note, I cannot recommend getting the OEM part enough. We just picked up a part from the local autoparts store and not having the wiring harness connector and just bare wires is a huge pain to work with since the wiring in the vehicle does not come down very far.

To the original OP, thanks for posting this. Your quick read is what made me feel comfortable replacing this myself. Took me way too long though dealing with the wiring.