2004 G35X 117k miles

Everything was fine cooling wise until yesterday. All of a sudden at a gas station the car started blowing hot. Started driving and it was blowing cool again.. At the next place I stopped for a while, I noticed the heat gauge showing almost hot and started driving right away with the A/C off and it cooled right down again. Pulled over and checked the fans and they weren't blowing. Fortunately, it was freeway all the way home so no further heating issues. Hopefully i didn't blow the head gasket.

I've been reading here and seeing that ANOTHER issue with this model Infiniti is bad radiator fans. Before I buy a new fan assembly, I'd like to test them but, looking under the hood, it seems as if the wiring heads under the car (where I can't get) so I'm not sure how to check. I checked the fuses and they are ok. Don't see the relays I saw on youtube. The only thing by the battery is the fuses... 40 amp X 2.

I notice that there is a plug on the fan itself where I can reach it but I can't figure out how to get it apart so I can try to hot wire the fans. I hate to take it to my mechanic to get it diagnosed only and I hate the idea of buying the fan and then not needing it. Hard to imagine both fans going out at once and all of a sudden. Any advice, guidance or feedback would be appreciated. I've spend a long time reading posts here on the subject and watching youtube videos but can't get clear guidance on where to look or what to do.

On a side note, I must say... I'm pretty disappointed with Infiniti right now. Was very excited when I first got it but after dealing with the famous front end rattle (struts, control arms, stabilizer links and a rack and pinion assembly) and now this, my original belief that the Infiniti is a well built car capable of giving Lexus a run for it's money.has gone the way of santa and the tooth fairy. My old subaru outbacks were more dependable than this thing turns out to be. Why are people so attached to them?
... just wondering.

 

You're disappointed that a 14 year old vehicle has problems?

Your relays are located inside the IPDM which sits next to the battery, remove the weatherproof cover to access everything inside, you can easily test the system since you force it into HIGH every time the air conditioner is turned on so you don't even need to wait for the engine to be up to temperature.

There are 3 relays total.

 

I looked at the IPDM but there is no fan relay in it. Here is an image of it. The two relays you do see are for the horn and the back up lamp. The fan fuses are the two on the far right. Both look OK. Not sure where else to look. I checked rockauto and I don't even see a cooling fan relay but I'm sure there has to be one somewhere. Looking at images online of other same model Infiniti IPDM's (2003 mainly) and they are all a lot bigger and do have the relays mentioned.




Yes I am disappointed... I also have a 1996 Mercedes C220 with 179K on it that I bought new and the front end is still tight and there's been no mechanical problems to date. I expect some things.. but after reading these forums the past few months.... what troubles me is not that my particuar car is having issues.. it's that the issues it's having are widespread and well known issues that began when the car was still young.

 

That picture isn't the IPDM, it's just a fuse block. You have to remove the battery to get access to the IPDM since it sits BEHIND the battery.

You can lift the front of the vehicle and remove the undertray to get access to the fan connectors if needed. It isn't exactly rocket science, but if you can't figure out how to unclip an electrical connector, your best bet is to take it to a mechanic. At the end of the day though, your fans are probably toast.

Cool story about your Lexus and Mercedes. Every car has their own list of "common" problems. The issue is that forums in general are here to help each other trouble shoot issues, so it's a little easy to suddenly think that every car on the road all have this laundry list of troubles. I don't post a running log of "my car started today" posts, only post up the handful of times I've actually had a problem. Looking at post history, does that mean my car is unreliable? No, it means a 12 year old car (06 6mt) with 264,000 miles occasionally breaks things.

Good luck getting help here while making generalized slams against every member of this forum.

 

Thanks for the additional input... and I'm sorry you think I was slamming infiniti owners.. nothing is further from the truth. I was simply expressing my frustration with this car and wondering what the qualities of the Infiniti are that make people enthusiasts.

 

My Mazda 626 V6 was far more troublesome than my Infiniti. But when the fans on it went, only 1 was actually bad, the other one (failed a month later) was just a $7 relay.

Infiniti never has really tried to be Lexus, its a more sporting brand. Firmer suspensions can be noisier. And with older cars, the previous owner(s) can have a lot to do with how reliable it is for the current owner. I got lucky, I found a 1 owner car, got all the service records, the maintenance log was filled out and the local Infiniti dealership (Sewell) pretty much over-serviced the car. $$$ for the original owner, great for me.