Got an odd issue. 2001 Maxima GLE with automatic climate control. When I cut the air on and if I hit a bump on the road, the A/C seems to cut out. The air could be on full blast, but after the bump, only barely blows. The air is still cold. If I happen to hit another 'right' bump or smack the left side of the center console (near the A/C control unit) it usually cuts back on. Is the blower motor located there? Or could it be a loose wire?

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

Bump...I can't be the only one with this issue. Anyone?

 

Have you tried taking it out to reseat the connections?

 

No, but I will probably try that soon.

 

Be proud of yourself - you're the first one .

Seriously - what the fan speed indicator shows when it 'cuts off' after the bump? Does it show the speed reduced? Does it show speed back to whatever it was set originally when you smack the climate control unit?

Assuming fan speed indicator doesn't change its value I'd look into contacts of the 'blower motor resistor' unit or new blower motor. Both are located behind glove box next to each other. You can try slight tapping of the 'resistor' to see if it would cause your problem while having car parked, engine off, ignition - rightmost position and having blower fan set to full speed.

 

LOL...Nothing on the display changes at all. If I had the fan on full blast (all 4 bars on the fan), then it'll stay that way after it cuts out. It still blows as cold as before, but verrry reduced, almost as if I was blowing air out of my mouth. After I smack it, nothing changes either, same display, just much much more air flow. If it's just a resistor, if I could find out the value with my DMM I could just re-solder another onto the board.

Also, I only ever use my A/C on AUTO, I've never really used ECON. Great suggestions, BUT, by having the car in Accessory (rightmost position on ignition barrel) and trying the A/C then at full speed, what would that diagnose? Is the resistor bypassed when the car isn't ON? Thanks for yours and any other suggestions guys!

 

'Resistor' is just a name for that unit - it's actually quite big, approx. 60x60x10 mm. As I understand it takes signals from AC control unit and converts them into correspondent voltage to feed blower motor. In your case AC control unit seems to send correct signal (based on fan speed indicator) so the only components left are 'resistor' and blower motor.

I was asking to do the test to better isolate the source of the problem as engine won't be running so the only noise you'd be hearing is the noise of the blower motor. It would supposedly make it easier to detect change in that noise when you'd start tapping on 'resistor' or blower motor. I couldn't also imagine you driving and tapping at the same time .

 

OK cool...And for about 6 months I had a problem in which right after I cut the A/C or the heat on, for about 15 seconds (only initially) the blower would make a pretty loud buzzing sound. It would happen only when I first cut the A/C or heat on though and would stop, but the A/C and heat would blow perfectly fine. Shortly after this problem disappeared, the new "smacking" problem showed up...any correlation you think?

 

It is not only correlated it is the same problem. Unfortunately it is still unclear to me which part is at fault as I haven't got it myself and both of them located closely. Try the light tapping test as I described, it should help to pinpoint the faulty part.

 

Thanks again man! This post here was also a lil useful to me, others may need it too:

http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...-take-two.html

 

Oh pictures, great - if you're any good with soldering iron pull 'resistor' out and re- solder all its soldering joints, there aren't that many. If this won't help - you need new blower motor. Please disregard what that thread says about how 'resistor' actually works but the pictures are very good.