1998 Pathy Air Conditioner Hvac Control Panel

[r0x]

The A/C fan motor switch is becoming intermittent. The A/C and fan will cut out and the (temporary) fix is to rotate the switch back and forth. Seems to happen only on the "III" (fastest) setting. BTW, the blower motor is brand new.

 

I've already had the control panel replaced once about 2 years ago and at the time I paid somebody to do it because of the cable control. (Replacement panel was an ebay purchase...) How hard is it to disconnect and reconnect that cable on your own?

 

Thanks, r0x

[FUELER]

a common problem in the HVAC system on 96-00 pathfinders is the blower motor resistor, which is the small electrical piece on the blower motor.

 

 

I know that the symptoms of a faulty blower resistor are that the HVAC only blows on full blast, or none at all. Therefore I do not know if your symptoms are relevant.

 

 

Is your HVAC control panel electrical with buttons or is it with twist knobs? By cable, do you mean the one behind the control panel?

Edited July 5, 2007 by FUELER

[nissandoms47]

He doesnt have the climate control (digital) if he has a cable behind it.

[94extreme]

check for loose wireing and test the switch as it may be at fault here.

[Pezzy]

As Fueler said, typically if the fan only runs on high, it's the blower motor resistor... (common issue)

I believe the fix is pretty easy, grab the part from a dealership, and you can do it yourself.

 

Seeing as yours is an intermittent issue, maybe you have some loose wires.

[r0x]

check for loose wireing and test the switch as it may be at fault here.

 

Thanks to all for replies.

 

The one I have is the manual control type with the cables coming out of the back. This problem came up after I had already replaced the blower motor resistor and the blower motor itself due to failures of those components. What I wound up doing is buying an entire new HVAC control panel from my local NISSAN dealer. ($170. I know that they're available on ebay but those are likely to be just as worn out as the one I had.) After swapping out the old one I realized that I could have replaced only the 3 speed fan motor switch. You can see in the enclosed photo that some of it is completely melted, apparently the melted portion is the part that carries power for the highest fan speed setting. (The photo is of the back of the blower motor swtich after removing it from the HVAC control panel assembly. It snaps out after the control knob is removed from the front.)

 

This is the second time I've replaced the HVAC control panel for the same reason. (The first replacement came from an ebay seller a couple of years ago.) The back of the new fan swtich gets quite hot when the fan is set at the highest speed so I expect another meltdown at some point in the future. Another problem is that part of the plastic around the harness connector that plugs into the back of the switch has melted and evaporated away! Fortunately enough of it was intact to be able to plug into the new panel but I don't expect to be so lucky next time. (EDIT: I feel that the switch and the wiring harness are WAY underdesigned for the current they have to carry. I wouldn't be surprised if there were incidents of electrical fires due to this failure.)

 

So my question is... Does anyone know of a source for just the wiring harness plug? As far as I can tell you have to buy the whole harness assembly from NISSAN if you want just that one connector.

 

Thanks, r0x (riding in air conditioned comfort! ;-)

 

P.S. The HVAC control panel assembly, NISSAN p/n 27510-0W011, comes with the cables already molded into it. There was NO WAY I was going to take the whole dashboard apart to get to where the other ends of those cables go. What I wound up doing is "breaking" the new one just enough to rip out the cables and snaps while still leaving enough plastic in place. The existing control cables in the truck snapped into their proper positions in the new control panel with some coaxing and everything works OK.

Edited July 22, 2007 by r0x