Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Some months ago I noticed the rear AC doesn't appear to work.

This weekend I opened up to look for the problem.

Symptoms
Rear passenger airconditioning unit blower fan only works on setting 4 of 4. Speeds 1, 2, and 3 the blower fan remains off. AC unit works just fine on speed 4, with nice cool air.

Locating the problem The aircon unit is hidden under the left rear trim of the Patrol. After removing the smaller panels it was obvious all the trim will have to come off.

It seems the best way to remove the panels would be to start from the top and remove the upper plastic portion first. I thought it might be possible only remove the bottom half, but it is attached at the top with clips hidden from view under the plastic panel.

Seatbelt removal. Both the third row and second row seatbelts will have to be removed for the whole panel to come out.

It's necessary to remove both attachment loops and the second row seat belt clip (not the one for the third row). The accessories socket remains in place, the wiring harnass is unclipped from the back of the panel.

Fortunately, in typical Nissan forward thinking they marked the spot and what we want is under the giant X.

These four wires plug into the resistor board which is held in place with the two visible screws.


Repairing the problem The damage to the board is easy to spot, even through all the dirt and what looks like corrosion.

I expected the damage to be the fused link, but what looks like corrosion and heat damage caused the track from the input to disintegrate.

A short section of the track was cleaned on either side of the damaged portion and a few mm on either side bridged with a piece of wire.

Testing continuity.


Most of the time spent on this repair was removing and installing the trim to get to this board.

Great post Paul, thank you for sharing!