Hello everyone! I'd like to start by thanking you all for making these forums a fantastic source of knowledge for me and my truck. In just a couple short days of lurking, I've nailed down all the wee niggly details that came with my otherwise perfect Pathfinder when I bought her a week ago. I think I'll start with a picture, just in case you don't know what a WD21 looks like
As you can clearly see from the photo, my truck is perfectly level while the neighbors houses are all sinking to the north. Also, it is a dark blue XE with all the trimmings. Power locks, windows, mirrors, A/C, tow package, LSD, rear tire carrier, and gorgeous premium blue cloth seats. Okay, so the original owner didn't spring for leather or a sunroof. For 2500 bucks, I can deal with it. Especially considering it came with brand new rubber (though for some reason they were mounted backwards, I can read the lettering from here) and only 167,000 kms on the odometer. That's just under 104k miles for those of you that speak American. Also just as staggering as the low mileage is the lack of rust. According to the last owner, he bought it from a little old lady who garage kept it and barely went to the grocery store. I have no idea what a little old lady needs a limited slip differential for, but I'm confident her eggs and milk made it home every time. And from her story, apparently she bought it from the manager of the dealership that sold it in the first place, which might explain the base model with extra goodies. Regardless of its humble origins, its found a good home in my driveway and I couldn't be happier. Especially since I wasn't even shopping for a Pathfinder in the first place! My faithful Wrangler TJ was getting a bit crowded with a new son, a large dog, and everything else that plagues a young family. And even though we have a designated Swedish Family Hauler, once in a while the wife has the Volvo out with friends and I'm left trying to fit a car seat, stroller and groceries into a truck the size of a shopping cart. So the search began for a good deal, and this almost pristine Pathy showed her face on the interwebs! Here she is again, in case you've forgotten.
You can see the TJ hiding in shame in the background, as she knows her time is short. Also, ignore my lawn. The snow just melted up here and the goat is still hibernating.
My wife is the one who actually pointed the ad out to me, and got very excited as her mother had a Pathfinder and it was the truck she learned to drive standard on. In addition, she swears it would still be on the road if a fuel line hadn't melted and the truck caught fire on the side of the highway. Votes of confidence aside, I went out after work last monday to inspect it. I couldn't believe how clean it was! The only cancer I could find is hidden in the rear driver side door well, and its just a bit of surface bubbling. I will deal with that as soon as time permits (just like my grass). I took it for a spin around the block, fiddled with all the widgets and doodads, and (almost) everything was in perfect working order! I was amazed! So I did the only sensible thing; I said no thanks, and walked away. The seller was asking a bit more than I wanted to pay, said he was firm on the price, and that if I didn't want it there was a very interested party coming the next evening. I wished him luck and went back to my search. The weekend hit, and the truck was reduced in price. Apparently his interested party was a no show. When the end of the month came, the truck was reduced again, so I struck in with my offer and drove it home that night. As pleased with myself as I was for getting a seemingly good deal, I had no idea how much of a bargain it was until I put a few more miles on her. I love this truck! The old school cloth interior felt a bit dated at first, but the more time I spend in the drivers seat, the better it gets. I'm already having Pathfinder dreams, and if my wife lets me keep any of the money from selling the Jeep this weekend, I can start making them Pathfinder reality.
My son is very excited about this, even if I look sour in the reflection.
"What do you mean he can't ride in the back? Look how happy he is there!"
So the good news is that everything works! The bad news is that not all of it works as well as I'd like it to. The power windows are already improving with some regular use, though the drivers switch cluster seems unable to roll up the passenger side windows, even if it has no trouble rolling them down. I'll clean the contacts and try again. The A/C unit works great but makes a horrible racket, so at present the belt is off. Suspicions are a worn bushing for the pulley, I'll have to do some 'vestigatin. Brakes are a touch on the soft side, I'll be pulling the wheels off this weekend to give them an inspection, and likely a bleeding. Getting a bit of a squeak from the front end, I'll put new bushings on my To-Do list for the summer. And that god awful steering stop screech! I panicked the first time I heard it, backing out of my parents sloped driveway at full lock. Thank you all for clearly identifying this noise for me in other posts, my heart started beating normally again when I got home and read about it. I'll get some grease on those suckers ASAP. I also have that sing-song ticking from my passenger exhaust manifold for the first block of my morning commute. Clearly, replacement bolts are out of the question. You know how dealers like to charge for those OEM parts, especially pricey bolts like that. Smart money is in new headers, clearly Then I get the bolts for free.
Crawling around my front end this morning revealed two torn CV boots, so I'll replace those before I need to replace joints. My door lock cylinders are a bit sticky, but work as they are told to, not of their own ghostly accord, so that's something. My wife, however, had a harder time with my "just wiggle it a bit" advice, and ended up forcing the drivers side cylinder out of whack and now it just rotates in the hole. Oops, I guess I'll be opening up that door panel after all. Finally, and perhaps the reason for the sellers motivated pricing, I found a small puddle of coolant this morning under the truck. It had been parked for two days, and was very minor, but closer inspection is looking like perhaps the water pump seal. If I am in there that deep, I may as well replace the thing while I'm at it. Cheap insurance, right? I already planned to get an aftermarket transmission cooler, but just in case the rad is in need of replacement, I'd appreciate a nudge in the direction of an aftermarket one that would cover both issues, if such a product exists.
After all that is taken care of, I can start to think about the fun things. Because who can say no to a face like this?
As its mostly a commuter to work, the grocery store, and the dog park, I won't be going crazy. I would like to do 2" of lift, and slip some 33" tires under those lips, but with brand new rubber on it already, I might be waiting a year. I know (or have read here) that SE rims will fit 33x10.5 without lift, so I'll try to find some cute masculine aftermarket rims with the same dimensions as a jumping off point. I'm not really one to subscribe to the "the tires stop rubbing after they bend the fender out of the way" philosophy
Thanks again for making such an awesome place to get help and advice on my new-to-me 17 year old truck! Here's an "End of my Truck" shot for the end of my post.
