One of the main issues M30 coupes face is the digital climate control (Convertibles have analog controls). The digital climate control has a variety of issues with most being:
- No display, but function.
- Display, but limited function
- Sudden on/off fan and display
- Digital unit randomly comes on or turns off
My first M30 I got in 2005 had a dead unit. I contacted Infiniti in Fife/Tacoma, then Lynwood and then Bellevue and everyone told me they don’t have a unit available and if they did have a unit available, it would be $1000. I couldn’t believe it.
NICOclub’s Q45 group had the same issue, but NICOclub and the Q45 owners were very organized and had many resources. Many of the owners sent their units to a person named Jerry Tucker. He charged I believe $80 to $100. Jerry Tucker had an exchange program as well.
I contacted him and he said while the M30 unit is different, he would figure it out. I never sent it out to him because I had been waiting for an M30 to hit the junkyard and that took a long time. Shortly after, I started to save units. I always tested my spares and swapped out my old unit with a good one.
At the time, I sent money overseas for JDM parts, so I decided to test my soldering skills to save money. I took apart my old unit and hit up Q45 guys and of course my brothers here on F31club. One of the Q45 guys had taken it upon himself to fix his unit and sent me info on what he did.
While I noticed the vacuum tube display had “smoke marks”, a Certified Nissan mechanic that was on NICOclub named Nistech told me it is like that from the factory.
I noted where I saw cracked solder and also noticed some “burnt” connections. I also seen some components were broken.
So I went to Fry’s electronics and matched the parts I needed. After some LONG hours of soldering and re-soldering components and connections, trial and error and frustration… it finally worked. It worked so well that I’ve been using it in my current M30.
Renny (Onevia) has been putting in some REAL research and has been testing Mark’s spare dead unit with much success. Renny cautions that he wants to see how well it does long term.
Renny uploaded a video of him cycling through the buttons. I tried to download it, but I wasn’t able too. So here is a screen shot of the video.
I chalk my fixed unit up to change and replace strategy, which is inefficient. While Renny has TRULY tried to narrow down the problem —-and does a proper/professional approach to solving this issue.
What’s the conclusion? I didn’t make a write up when I was younger as I didn’t fully grasp what I was doing and I feel that I was lucky to get it done right.
Renny is currently working on these units and troubleshooting the various issues (he has multiple units). Hopefully the M30 community will be able to hit a new milestone by having working units again.