I have has multiple emails on the Navi install on my 2003 maxima via taking out the ashtray. The Navigation Model is the Magellan Maestro. It matches the TE edition perfect as you can see it is also silver and black just like most interiors in the SE family.
All I did was run the power from the rear socket spliced it in, then cut a small hole in the side of the ashtray holding container. Taking out the ashtray was simple you just unscrew the center screw in the middle of the ashtray, then pop the whole shifter cover off (holds ashtray) and there will be 4 screws that hold it in place, take those out and the ashtray box will come off with ease.
There are tabs on the side of the ashtray that will allow you to take the slider off with ease, then just go ahead and cut the side of the case with a warm knife, and slide the power connector through.
Photo’s of an Infiniti G35 Rear Spoiler installed on 5thgen Nissan Maxima. Overall, looks nice and clean. Fits great as well. The spoiler is a little heavy so you will need to beefier rear trunk struts.
Old Photos (Poor Photo Quality Due to Original Size)
Alright, as my final HOW-TO on the .org, I am going to be detailing how one can black out your headlights and add the newly coveted Audi LED effect to your headlights. Without much adeiu, let’s begin!
ITEMS NEEDED:
Flexible LED strips from Oznium ($40)
Amazing Goop from Home Depot ($4)
About 5 hours…this is actually a pretty quick mod
STEP #1
Remove headlights. I am not going to detail this, there are two screws to remove that are exposed at the bumper level then just pull out…HARD.
STEP #2
You’re going to need to remove some hardware from the headlights before beginning. All rubber components, bulbs, and any screws that will come out. One universal item the bulbous thingie that was a beotch to remove in the previous step.
STEP #3
Obtain a flat baking sheet and a large towel. Wet the towel so it’s wet, but not dripping wet. Drape across the entire length of the sheet. TEST FIT THE SHEET WITH THE HEADLIGHT IN POSITION. Once you’re comfortable with the fit, preheat the oven to 250F. Place the headlight facing UP.
STEP #4
Bake for 10-12 minutes, ONE AT A TIME. Feel free to nervously pace the kitchen floor. *DING* That’s the sound of opportunity! Take your headlight out. I recommend using leather gloves, you’ll need the dexterity. Start by removing the two screws where the bulbous thing is…they are easier to remove once the adhesive is at working temp. Pry your headlight apart by using a flathead screwdriver to pry the mechanical attachment points open. Then pull…I only did 10 minutes and pulled…hard.
STEP #5
Remove the chrome components from the body. Here’s a shot of the only two screws for the 5th gen. The 5.5 gen will have more, sorry, I have limited pics of the 5.5gen. NOTE: Your lens portion will need to be warm for the 5th gen shroud to be removed; this allows proper expansion…believe me, it ain’t coming out otherwise.
You’re going to want to tape the chrome sections you want to retain. This is actually easier then it sounds. Use small pieces when going around the corners. TIP: Take the tape and slowly walk it across the contours…you will have 0 difficulties if you do so.
STEP #6
Paint using Duplicolor’s High Temp Engine Enamel. Do 3 coats; two light coats at about 12″ distance, very quickly. Do a third “wet” coat; you can do multiple light coats, but I’ve used close to 100 cans of spray, so I have an unfortunate familiarity with how it behaves. Allow 2 hours cure time, then peel away.
STEP #7
Cut your LED strip to size and attach it using the double-sided tape included. One the 5th gen, you’ll use 21 LEDs. The 5.5 gen is considerably more, just cut to size. NOTE: The array on the strip is in denominations of 3, so you must have a multiple of 3 in order for the full length to light!!! (i.e. 36, 33, 30, etc.)
STEP #8
Drill a small hole to allow for wire passage…I did mine as seen here on the 5th gen…I recommend going toward the turn signal as it is less readily seen below:
STEP #9
Now this is what I consider to be the hardest step. In order to properly reseal, we need to reuse the existing sealant. SO, back in the oven we go…ONLY PLACING THE LENS AND BODY IN THE OVEN. Do so at 250F for 10 minutes. You’re going to want to leave the body face up as the channels will likely contain the largest portion of sealant. Remove when the adhesive is glossy, meaning it’s at working temp.
STEP #10
While everything is hot, QUICKLY reassemble. Be confident, you can do it. You’ll need to do this for the proper seal. Push the body and lens together, making sure the mechanical tabs properly latch. Route the wire behind the lens shroud, you can drill your own hole or use the vent line aperture.
STEP #11
*WHEW*, ok, so you got the lenses probably 80% sealed. Time for some GOOP! Add some extra sealant, we’ve done all this work and don’t want to blow it now.
STEP #12
FIRE IT UP! Test with a 9V to enjoy the awesome effect. These things are BRIGHT!
This is our favorite style lip spoiler for the 4thgen Nissan Maxima 1995-1999. It used to be sold by Paradox back in the days. The good news is the Spoiler King is now making them
Installed R35 GTR vents today. They are fully functional and provide some additional airflow through the engine bay. You can find these on eBay between $85 to $180. Some are better made than others. Some are just carbon fiber overlay while others are full carbon fiber.
Took us about 2-3 hours. We measured very carefully. I used a harbor freight cutting wheel.The vents clear the HR Motor Manifold and my strut bar. I love the way everything came out. Should also get some better cooling now. Need to align the passenger side a little more but will do that once I’m ready to silicone them in.
Now my6thgen and 7thgen have R35 GTR ventsWill be doing my 4thgen next.
This mod provides power all the time, with doors open or closed. I have this irritating habit of forgetting to close the rear windows and I didn’t like having to put the key in the ignition and turn it on in order to operate the power windows. So I decided to undo years of governmental nanny state-ism and have the windows work the way I want them to, not the way some bureaucrat wants them to.
Turns out this is an easy mod to do. You don’t have to take anything apart if you don’t want to. I did in order to get better photos. In stock form, Nissan uses a relay to supply the power to the window motors. This relay is energized when the ignition switch is in the “ON” position. So all you need to do is to remove the relay and add a jumper in the relay socket.
The Power Window Relay is located on the right side of the in-dash fuse panel. Remove the access cover to the fuses and you will see the blue Power Window relay on the right side. Look on the lower corner of the relay and you see the locking tab that you must push in on in order to remove the relay.
With the lower dash panel removed (you don’t need to do this), you can see that there is all kinds of room. FYI- the black thing to the right of the relay is the turn signal/hazard flasher unit.
Power Window relay removed.
You need to make a jumper wire. You want to use at least 14 gauge wire because this wire will carry a higher amount of amperage that most other wires in the car. 12 gauge wire is what Nissan has in the wire harness and if you intend to operate all the windows simultaneously, then you better use 12 gauge wire for this jumper. And if you do use 12 gauge wire, make sure the spade connectors can accept that size wire. I cut a piece of wire to be 1 1/4 inch long. I stripped 3/16 of an inch of insulation off of each end and soldered a 1/4 inch wide male spade lug connector onto each end.
Bend the jumper into a U shape and plug into the lower half of the relay socket.
The instructions below will help you program new key fob’s on your 2002-2003 Nissan Maxima. A few days ago, I thought I left my keys in the car. It didn’t turn out to be the case but I decided to key an extra key and some additional key fobs. The key fobs are super cheap on eBay. I purchased two of them for under $8 bucks shipped. Always good to have an extra set because you never know.
This only works if you have the original key fob and key. If you lost your keys, then that is a different story that will require additional work.
Programming Instructions
Before entering programming mode, you need to have all of the key fobs/transmitters that you will be using on your car (including the original FOB). Once you program the transmitter, all previous codes will be erased from the memory. The other transmitters will not be functional until you program the transmitters again.
Close and lock all doors with the driver’s side power lock switch located on the driver’s door panel.
Insert key into the ignition (DON’T TURN) and remove it from the ignition key cylinder at least 6 times within 10 seconds (this will need to be done at approximately one second intervals). You may need to insert and remove the key up to 10 or 12 times until your hazard lamps flash. PLEASE NOTE: Withdraw key completely from ignition cylinder each time. If this procedure is performed too fast or too slow the system will not enter programming mode.
Insert key into ignition and turn to the ACC position.
Within 5 seconds, push the LOCK button on the keyless remote. Your hazard lamps will flash. PLEASE NOTE: Do not press the button on the remote more than one time or the programming will not be successful.
If there are any remaining remotes (including working ones), Unlock then Lock all doors using the switch on the driver’s door panel. Within 5 seconds of locking and unlocking doors press the LOCK button on the next remote. Your hazard lamps will flash. Repeat this step for each remote (including any working remotes).
When all remotes have been programmed turn the key to the OFF position, remove keys from the ignition, unlock doors using the driver’s side power lock/unlock switch and open the driver side door. Test all remotes.
A few days ago, I went to start my 2009 Nissan Maxima in the evening. I came to find out that the car would not start. Initially, I thought it was the battery so I switched it with another car. Same results…. car would not just start. The dash and radio also were not coming on. The car has over 200K miles. My biggest concern was having to get the car towed!!! A bit frustrating.
I decided to do some research online and found that my symptoms were related to the infamous “Electronic Steering Column Lock (ESCL)” recall. I found some very helpful information online that allowed me to get the car started and ultimately remove the risk of this happening again. The fix was simply removing the 10A Steering Wheel lock fuse in the engine after getting the car started. All the information is posted further down below.
Nissan did offer an extended warranty on this but my car was……..way outside of this.
Your Nissan vehicle is equipped with an Electronic Steering Column Lock (ESCL) unit that locks the steering wheel when the vehicle is parked and the ignition is turned off to help prevent theft. On some vehicles, due to a manufacturing irregularity that has since been corrected, the ESCL may malfunction after the vehicle is locked and could prevent the engine from starting. This condition, should it occur, will only occur when attempting to start the vehicle, and not while driving.
Although Nissan believes the majority of owners will never experience this unique condition, to assure your continued satisfaction and confidence in your vehicle, Nissan has decided to extend the Nissan New Vehicle Limited Warranty, as it applies to the ESCL unit, from 3 years / 36,000 miles to 6 years / unlimited miles, whichever comes first.
Models Impacted:
Nissan Maxima: 2009, 2010, 2011
Nissan 370Z: 2009, 2010, 2011
Nissan Altima: 2008, 2009, 2010
Nissan Cube: 2009, 2010
Symptoms:
The car won’t start and you will see the following key light.
You dash lights and radio won’t come on.
You try to jumpstart car and no power still.
How to Fix:
Make sure the car is off. Remove the dash cover underneath the steering wheel to get to the steering column.
This is the module that you need to tap.Tap at the steering lock itself GENTLY with a small hammer or plastic mallet…while you press the start button. You need to do both continuously various times. I used a ratchet from my trunk toolset. You can use anything you mind, including a rock.
At first, you may think this is not going to work but keep trying. It took me about 25 tries of tapping the steering wheel column and hitting the start button.
Finally, the car turned on. OMGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!
Next, you need to locate the 10A Steering Lock fuse in the engine bay (photos below). You need to ensure the car is running before removing the fuse (otherwise the car will never start). Also, don’t perform the procedure above without the fuse. You need to get the car started first. Put the fuse cover back on and turn off the car. Restart the car and confirm everything this good.
Back in Action….
While you can later replace the steering lock module, I decided to just keep the fuse off. I’ve been driving for many miles and have not noticed any issues or bad symptoms. You just saved thousands of dollars. Without this information, you would have needed to get your car towed, taken to a shop and they would have likely replaced the steering wheel column module. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. I was able to resolve this issue at ZERO costs and the car is functioning 100% fine.
Hope this helps someone! Please leave a comment below if this has helped you.
Member Credit: Angel Peña, Jose Rivera & Azeem Malik
When you first glance at the 2019 Nissan Maxima, you’ll quickly take notice of the updated exterior headlights and tail lights. Now if you already own a 2016-2018 8thgen you’ve likely already asked the big question…. will the 2019+ Maxima headlights and tail lights fit my car? Below is what you need to know:
Front: The headlights do fit fine. But as noted in the pics below, there is a small gap under between the bumper and headlight. But the good news is that if you swap the bumper, headlights and grille… you will be all set. This is exactly how the 04-06 6thgen Maxima’s swapped to the 07-08 refreshed bumper and headlights. It also appears you may get a “headlight error” on the dash after the swap. When we get more info, we will update this post on how to resolve it.
Rear: Direct Fit. Plug-n-Play. Will not throw any error codes.
Note: For the rear, you may need to get some resistors to avoid hyper-flashing if you have upgraded LED bulbs. Resistors are just a few bucks and a quick fix. You can get the on eBay for $5-$6 bucks. Search for 50W 6ohm Load Resistors. The headlights themselves are around $800-$1K for the full set.
We saw these 7thgen 2009-2015 Maxima LED Light Tube Projector Headlights on eBay and wanted to capture how they look installed. They are a direct fit to your original halogen OEM lights (not OEM HID). They cost approx. $259.99 (depending on seller). The headlights come with either chrome or black housings. Not a bad deal especially if you need to replace your headlights. We personally think they look great!
Note: These are halogen lights and not directly compatible w/ factory HID headlights. However, you can make it work or convert these to HID if you are mechanically inclined.
Manufacturer Part Number: 260609N00A, 260109N00A Bulbs: Low Beam H7/ High Beam H1 Bulb LED Type: SMD LED
Tap at the steering lock itself GENTLY with a small hammer or plastic mallet…while you press the start button. You need to do both continuously various times. I used a ratchet from my trunk toolset. You can use anything you mind, including a rock.
