A Couple Quick Car Projects...

The Altima has been a great car.  We haven't had to do a thing to it except change the oil, since we bought it over a year ago.  So, when the driver's door power window started activing funny, I figured it was about time for something to go wrong with this otherwise perfect car!  The Altima has an one touch auto-up and one touch auto-down feature on the driver's door power window.  Which mean you just hit the button in either direction once and it will either full open ot close without having to keep holding the button.  Shannon and I both love this feature, however the auto-up feature stopped working the other day.  It wasn't a huge deal, because the window still worked, but I didn't like having a broken part on the car.  I did some research online and this is what I found:

Window Programming Instructions:

1. Push the ignition switch to the ON position.
2. Open the window more than halfway by operating the power window switch.
3. Pull the power window switch and hold it to close the window, and then hold the switch more than 3 seconds after the window is closed.
4. Release the power window switch. Operate the window by the automatic function to confirm the initialization is complete.
5. Perform steps 2 through 4 above for other windows.

It turns out that the window just got de-programmed!  After following the above directions, it was back to normal!

I had one other part on the Altima I needed to install.  Sometime during the winter, the engine splash shield had got cracked and broken and was hanging in pieces under the car.  I called the dealer and they wanted $55 for the part.  I didn't have any luck finding it used at a junk yard or on eBay, so I did a Google search which landed me at RockAuto Auto Parts.  They had the part I needed and shipped to my door it was only $20!  The part installed easily and fit great, I just needed a couple retaining clips from my local Nissan dealer, which they gave to me for free!  You can see below that old splash shield has seen better days!

The Suburban wasn't exempt from any repairs this time around either.  The retaining strap (or prop rod) for the right rear barn door, wasn't working any more.  This would prevent the door from staying open and would just keep closing on you while you were loading it.  It turns out the retaining strap had the "U" shaped end broken off of it.  The dealer wanted $45 for it, but I found it at O'Reilly Auto Parts for $23.  The installation took about 15 minutes and the door is back to normal!