Silvia 3 gauge DIN and AC rellocation using Maxima control unit

[superficialfilter]

I had some free time and had been wanting to try and do this. Someone else may have already done it before but I thought I'd share.

[jeff420]

details? what year maxima? any wiring changes/modifications?

[zenki-S13]

pretty cool

[mrgreeneyes]

approved by this guy.

never seen that before. good to see something FRESH in the 240 world.. its a rarity anymore

hats off to you sir..

please comment on how you went about this

[kc240guy]

holy high ebrake batman!

[NISSAN240SX12]

b****in!

[Somnambulist513]

details? what year maxima? any wiring changes/modifications?

x2 more details man!

Or a write up would be even better.

[doug810]

As far as i can tell from comparing pix of an S14 and the maxima 96-97 climate control. It is a direct plug n play.

[superficialfilter]

The climate control unit is out of a 97 maxima and it is not a plug n play. Initially I thought it was going to be close to being one but....The first thing I did was trim the maxima housing to fit between the radio mounts. This involved cutting a small section of one of the mounts out to accommodate the fan switch. Then I trimmed the face to fit the radio bezel opening. Now for the fun part...The circuit board for the maxima controls aren't 100% compatible. For one they don't have an output for the Bi-level door motor. So I swapped out the guts from the 240 climate controls into the maxima housing. Again, it couldn't be that simple. The circuit boards for both cars are identical in size and shape except that they are notched differently. So I had to do some notching on the 240 circuit board. I was really careful while doing this because some of the cuts I had to make came a close to the circuits. The good news is that all the buttons line up the same and none of that had to be changed. Well...except for the sliding temperature switch. At first I used the one from the maxima because there is a noticeable difference between the maxima and 240 switch. But it won't work with the 240 circuit board, not unless you like the heat on all the time. I had to modify the 240 switch to fit by trimming its circuit board as well. Even then it won't fit perfectly because the distance between the switch and the AC light which is also attached to the switch circuit board is wider for the maxima than the 240. The only option I had without doing some soldering and cutting was to mount the switch the way it fit. The bulb lines up in the AC slot but the sliding switch is about 3/16" left of center from the slot in the face of the housing. It being that way doesn't seem to affect the temperature on the cold side too much, it still gets good and cold. So that's about it. It wasn't too bad. I think the end result is well worth it. It sure looks better than using the stock unit and cutting the radio bezel or worse... mounting it in the console?
Modified by superficialfilter at 9:11 AM 10/11/2009