Thermostat Location? 1995 Max

dcarswell · Mar 26th, 2005, 12:59 PM

About a week ago I started getting only cold air through my AC/heater regardless of what temperature I set it to. Now my car overheats and when the temperature is very high, the RPM will drop to 2,000 and if I push the accelerator it will "kick" back to 2000 and the effect is similar to something my dad used to do as a joke, stomping the gas and removing immediately, making his old VW Rabbit "hop."

But anyhow I sort of assume it's either a safety feature to keep the engine from expoding, or that the engine can't put out a useful amount of power in that state. Either Way....

Where is the thermostat located on the 1995 Maxima?

I'm a newb here but I'd love your support

DRUNKHORSE · Mar 26th, 2005, 09:51 PM

look at this: http://autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker...3d801f4c66.jsp

im assuming that u have the VQ30DE engine.

brianw · Mar 26th, 2005, 10:49 PM

Follow the upper radiator hose to the engine. The part it attaches to on the engine is the thermostat. IIRC it's a $20 or so part. Just three 10mm bolts, pretty easy to get to with the right socket extensions. My friend and I did his Maxima in about 2 hours, including running around like monkeys losing tools.

dcarswell · Mar 27th, 2005, 05:02 PM

Thanks a lot! It took me just under 2 hours to remove the offending thermostat, although over an hour of that was spent "running around like a monkey" and trying to brainstorm new tools that would do the job. My dad was helping me and he was cursing the crazy Japanese with their cramped engine compartments, so I cheered him up with the fact that my car was built in Michigan...

brianw · Mar 27th, 2005, 05:20 PM

If your dad thinks that was cramped, tell him to try changing the water pump on a 1st generation Saturn.

DRUNKHORSE · Mar 27th, 2005, 11:34 PM

damn

2 hours !!! it took me about 30 min not even 45 min to do it.
but i guess running around like a monkey took a lot of time away lol

brianw · Mar 28th, 2005, 12:27 AM

Actual work on the car was about 45 minutes, including draining and refilling coolant.

A great deal of the time lost was dropping the only 10mm standard socket we had and losing it for 5 minutes at a time. Naturally due to the location of the thermostat we couldn't always use the 10mm deep socket, but just for good measure we'd drop it and temporarily lose it too.