DISCLAIMER: THIS PAGE IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT ONLY! IT SHOULD NOT BE USED AS INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO REPAIR YOUR CAR. ANYTHING YOU DO TO YOUR CAR IS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!
Friday, January 11th, 2002
Hello! Today I got home about two hours before my wife would get home. I was a little bit bored and very curious to see what makes the interior of my Altima tick, so I decided it was time for a tear down! Take a look as I tell you how I did it.
The first thing to go was the cover to the auto climate control. There are no screws holding this cover on. If you grab it on the drivers side and the passenger side and pull very carefully, it just pops off.
I decided to next remove the dash piece below the steering wheel. It was easy to do, by removing two phillips screws. One is next to the console, and the other is behind the fuse box door. Now pull from the bottom. When I pulled, the decoration ring around the ignition popped off. Behind this dash piece, you will find the temperature sensor, where the auto-climate control measures the temperature inside the cabin.
After removing this dash piece, I removed the shift boot plate. There are no screws here either. It is easily removed by pulling on both the drivers side and passenger side very carefully. Here is a picture of the under side of the boot!
Now is the time when the shift mechanism is first seen. It was interesting to find out that the shift cables are on the inside of the car.
The next step I took was to remove the center storage box. Once again, no screws. Just grab on either side and pull. Be very careful, because there is a short wiring harness attached to the hazard button and the 12V accessory outlet on the back. I had to un-hook the wiring harness and for kicks I took out the hazard switch. Here is what the storage compartment looks like out of the car!
This has now exposed more of the shift mechanism.
Now the center console can be removed. It is heald in place by 5 screws. Two are locate just below the climate control. The third screw is found below the cup holder rubber piece. Just pull the rubber piece out of the console to find it. The forth and fifth screws are on either side of the console near the back end of it. You will find it easier to remove these screws by sliding the front seats forward a little bit.
Once these screws are removed, barely pull up on the console from the back seat. Below the storage compartment in the console is a wiring harness for the other 12V Aux. power source. Un-plug it from the console. Now slide the console out over the shifter mechanism. Turn the shift boot plate so that it will fit through the hole.
Now, take a look at some pictures of the console out of the car! Notice the small piece toward the front near the passengers foot is a seperate piece. It just pops off the console.
Here are some pictures of the under side of the console just below the cup holders.
Here is what the car looks like without the console in there!
This is now the best view of the shifting mechanism. Once again, you can see that it is cable operated. The left cable moves in when the shifter is pushed to the left and out when the shifter is pushed to the right.
The right cable goes in when you push the shifter toward the front of the car, and pulls out when you move the shifter to the rear of the car. The right cable is mounted to a bracket that is welded to the shifter arm. Take a look!
Up near the shifter is a white-pluged wiring harness that is to the left of the shifter, and un-used in my car. I have no idea what this is, but I would guess that it is used in Automatic Transmission cars to light up the shift indicator, and to sense what position the shifter is in.
Below is a shot of the wiring harness behind the emergency brake mechanism. Note the square metal box with the orange sticker on it. This is the air-bag brain that controls the air-bag deployment.
I was now able to answer one of the questions that I have been wondering about since I bought the car. Does the wiring harness in my car come pre-wired for electric seats? Well, sitting there, un-used, are the two plugs for the heated-seats switches that are not present in my car. Here they are.
Since my car is pre-wired for heated seats, I began to wonder if there is anything under my seats to plug into. I looked under the drivers seat and found an un-used plug, most likely for the heated seats. You know, if you think the cut out in the carpet for the fuel door release handle is bad, look at the cut out for the rear passenger floor heat vent!
With the drivers seat having the electric position controls, I thought it would be easier to remove the passenger seat for a better look. This is very straight forward. There are four bolts at the four corners of the base of the seat. Remove these. Before you pull the seat out, notice that there is a single wire attached to the bottom for the seat belt warning light. You have to disconnect this wire to tip the removed seat back. Take a look at the bottom of the chair!
I was a little sad to find that the seat does not have any place to plug in to for the heaters. I was kind of expecting this, but always looking for a surprise.
The floor below the passenger seat is a little more exciting though. The smaller white plug is for the seat belt warning light, and I was told by my dealer that the larger plug was a diagnostic plug in.
As you will note, there is a velcroed shut "door" in the carpet that hides the wiring harness for the heated seats. It is a yellow plug with two wires; a yellow wire and a yellow/black wire.
After getting to this point, I knew my wife would be returning soon, so I just reversed the process and went about putting the car back together. I felt like I learned a lot about my car and I am now trying to figure out if it would be worth it to add the heated seats. If I don't add them I can possibly still use the heated seat wiring harness to add some other accessory. We'll see!
Sunday, January 20th, 2002
There has been some discussion on how to replace the radio, or if a changer can be added to the car, so I decided to look behind the radio. Find out more on PAGE TWO!
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