Obviously the molding tech for that part was a transplanted floridian.

TimR





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CaverX (thanks for the pics),
Doesn't look like yours has been drilled yet. I have now figured why I made this mod confusing. My X was made in Nov. 99, and all of the squares on my X have holes in them already...so I guess some of the X's came with these grates non-drilled? Can anyone back me up on this? I do have the screens under the grates on the passenger and driver's side, but I can see through them right now (meaning I can see the screen underneath and into the area behind the firewall and dash). I guess it's not necessary for me to do this mod...

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2000 Yellow SE 4x4 5 Speed

"Never judge a person's horsepower by his exhaust."

Congrats, yours was made correctly. I tend to think that the ones that look like mine have a molding flaw, whereas if you don't have the pieces inthere (like yours), those are made correctly.

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blah!

The early Xterras were done that way. There were several changes made to the 2000 production line. There are several notes in the ESM referencing "early production model"-specific differences.

Brent

if you are concerned, try attaching a small piece of screen to the palstic underneath. That would server to protect the plenum from trash.

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Pains heal,
Chicks dig scars,
and glory lasts forever

On the passenger side, almost all of the "holes" were blocked and needed to be poked thru. On the drivers side the half closest to the middle also were almost entirely blocked. After pushing these thru with the drill, the temperature really went down and is just slightly warmer than the outside temperature. When the temp is over 90, it still blows hot air unless you turn the AC on. This really works great! No need to have warm air blow thru when it is <70 degress out.

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'01 Silver Ice SE 4x4 Automatic V6

Wow.

Most of mine are open or at least "semi" open. I'm gonna ream 'em out and see what gives. It would be nice to get some cool air on these cool summer mornings.

I LEARNED something useful today!

Wa-hoo!

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"Xterra Pride"
"all your beer are belong to us"

I found punching worked better than drilling. I used an allen wrench.

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My Makita died on me while doing the mod, but I kept punching it through with the drill bit anyway- it worked fine AND...

It's nice and cool with the fan blowing now!

I really wondered why it had been blowing so hot- my old Nissan P/U was never that hot. This was one of the only things about the X that bugged me. Solved. Great!

-Lars

Thanks for this tip!!

I used an Xacto knife, and labouriously trimmed each tiny square. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and it certainly extended my beer-drinking

I figure my vent-squares were 70% blocked by lousy molding. Trimming went easily.

The difference was very noticeable, say after work. Incoming air was no longer noticeably warmed. Nice!

However, if I park at a store for a few minuts, something seems to get heat-soaked. Then, the incoming air is warmed up, just as it was before So, under "hot-restart" conditions, I still have to run the A/C for a minute or two in order to eliminate whatever heat-soaking is happening.

Overall - I like cheap mods like this.

-GordP

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Question?? If I leave the button on the A/C controls pushed in... (The button that allows recirculated or fresh air in the cabin).. and the AC and Fan off.. I get NO hot air coming in.. My question is Is there any harm with leaving that button pushed in all the time??

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Go back to your local Nissan dealer and look at all the Xterra's on the lot, when I did I noticed that NONE of the squares, openings, whatever they are were molded the same. Seems like some poor QC in that area of the plant. I have an early model 2k however all the X's I looked at were 01's....so I'm doubting that this problem was ever corrected in the later models.

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2000 Solar Yellow XE V~6 4x4 that runs like a dream and has had zero problems ever

Aloha,

With the recirc on and the fan off, you're blocking all airflow through the system. Either the fan or the outside air pressure will cause air to come from the vents. The A/C button has nothing to do with it.

No harm.

Brent

[This message has been edited by OffroadX (edited 07-04-2001).]

Why is this thread showing new when it hasn't had a post in nearly 2 months (until this one)?

Brent

I believe this was a thread from the past...
But MY 2000 has ALL the little squares OPEN..never had a problem, never saw a problem, I think many of (us) saw a defect in manufacture, and ignored it.. 2000 early ship- OK----,
pictures available on request
jb johnbayne@hotmail.com

check this out http://www.nissanoffroad.net/frontier/cowl/default.asp

Ok so I have been putting this off for months now and I finally got around to doing it on my own Xterra. I saw open holes in the 2002 models at the dealership today so I decided to just do it.

All and all I would say it works well. I think my numbers came in a little higher than they should since I had been driving the truck for some time before doing all this work. Maybe I will measure again in the morning to see if the temps get closer to ambient. Anywho, these are my measurements from a thermocouple. (Error +/- 2F)

Tests conducted 9/7/01 11:45pm
Ambient Temp: 82F

BEFORE punching out the holes
45mph Vent OPEN - 102F

45mph Vent OPEN with A/C - 64F

AFTER punching out the holes
45mph Vent OPEN - 91F

45mph Vent OPEN with A/C - 52F

Not that spectacular but still nearly 10 degree drop by punching out the holes. I will try again when the Xterra isnt so hot.

Xavier, did you remove the piece to do it or not? Which method did you use, drill, exacto knife. Let me know as I will likely be doing this one tomorrow.

I cleared mine out yesterday with my RotoZip. I'll tell ya, that thing has become my X mod savior tool! Took me about 5 minutes to clear mine out. I figure they were almost 90% blocked! The long drive last night was noticeably much cooler!

Thanks for the reminder DVS1, I've had my rotozip for over a year and only used it a couple times. I'm always looking for ways to justify my tool purchases. I guess I just found one more.

I followed the Frontier link noted above and viewed the pictures ...

On my '01 X, there are NO holes in any of the molded squares ... you can see where the holes are 'dimpled', but they weren't punched through to open them up ...

Do I need to take the cowl pieces off to drill them out or can I drill them 'in place' ? ...

Secondly, if drilled in place, will the debris caused by the drilling and left in place under the cowl lead to future problems ? ...

I'm sure this is covered somewhere in the multitude of posts, but could someone just give me the Readers Digest Condensed Version ?? ...

Thanks

[ 09-09-2001: Message edited by: pepper kay ]

Pepper Kay,

I just punched the holes in place. I didn't drill em, just poked them through with a small phillips screwdriver and they have stayed open thus far. Also, no problems to date with outside debris getting into the system. However, I think if you drilled them, the debris would just wash out with rainwater (hose water) through the exit channels down by the front mudflaps.

I just saw this post and ran out and punched my holes with a screwdriver. I can't tell a diff. yet.

I ended up having to wash the X from the plastic being blown all over by the RotoZip. With the wind and today's rain, I haven't noticed any debris leftover from yesterday.

not to be a tech geek, but even the 2002 vent is poorly designed. they obviously were trying to save $ by intergrating the metal screen & plastic vent but holes that small become very inefficent at higher speeds. even as is, the surface area covered by plastic is huge compared to the open '00 design.

the higher the speed, the bigger the holes need to be to suck in air. true, the base of the windscreen is a high pressure zone but i think if you still punched out the holes and added a metal screen you would see even better a/c & venting performance.