Double Trouble... Interior Fan and Bose Stereo

[eddieshore]

**FIRST TIME POSTING -- SO BE GENTLE!**

 

(And I apologize on the front end here if starting this new top breaches any rules or covers any ground that's already been covered... couldn't find anything on this)

 

I have a 2003 SE that has two things going on I don't know how to troubleshoot.

 

1) The heat/ac fan works only intermittently for no apparent reason. It will all of a sudden kick in, I can adjust up or down in terms of fan settings and then it will go for a period of time and stop. Sometimes comes back on, sometimes not. Sometimes won't work at all for a drive or two. Is there anything that may be simple that I can look into? I have the middle dash area removed so the unit is accessible.

 

2) My Bose 6-disc Changer/Cassette/Radio stopped working. Just 'went out' about a year or so ago. Removed it to see if anything seemed loose in back and it simply wouldn't come back on. So I thought I was going to simply get something aftermarket but like having OEM equipment. Today I went to give it a try, plugged it all in and it worked! It was awesome.... And it was only for about a minute and the power went away. Unplugged everything again a retried and it worked again!... For about a minute. Now it doesn't matter if I reconnect everything... it's not powering up. SO! Like my aforementioned fan situation... is there anything that is simple enough to look into? Like figuring out if it's the wiring, the radio unit itself or something else? I believe I've looked at all the pertinent fuses.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance!

[adamzan]

The radio is common to fail. You can have it repaired (not sure if it is worth it), or replace it with a good used one. Personally I would just get an aftermarket. They aren't that expensive and it will stay working!

[colinnwn]

My fan started going real slow, and sometimes not turning on. Without going through troubleshooting your vehicle, the most likely culprits in order are

fan resistor

fan motor

fan speed switch

 

The fan speed switch is part of the entire climate control dash assembly. I had to replace that because the temp knob broke off the actuator cable. Then my fan started going on the fritz. Since the resistor is so cheap, I didn't even bother testing it, I just replaced it. Turned out it wasn't the problem. It was the fan, and I suspect that will be your problem too. Resistors probably almost never fail intermittently like you describe. You could remove the fan, and try applying 12 vdc power to it directly. Mine didn't budge when I tried that. You'd just need two female spade terminals to try it.

 

I got all my parts from Courtesy Nissan, which seems to have about the best price. The resistor was like $20, and the motor and assembly approx $200 each.

 

There are a bunch of places online and on ebay that will repair or exchange your Bose stereo if you want to stay original

https://www.google.com/search?q=nissan+pathfinder+bose+stereo+repair

 

They have such a poor reliability record in general, and I wanted native bluetooth, that I went with aftermarket. Here is my replacement story

http://colinnwn.blogspot.com/2009/06/installing-aftermarket-stereo-in-2001.html

[hawairish]

Yeah, an aftermarket radio—even an inexpensive basic one—offers more features than OE these days. It might be the only place where I struggle to keep things OE.

 

But, that said, I still have my OE Bose unit sitting around if you're interested.