HankG

If I expand my search areas there are definitely more options, but the next closest areas are all about a 6+ hr drive away. I haven't wanted to make the trip just to find out there's something wrong with the truck and have wasted the gas money/12 hrs of driving, especially since I'd want to bring along someone to help me look over any potential vehicle. I could be wrong, but my understanding is that the T100s only came with V6s and in 95 switched over to the newer 3.4L v6. Honestly, I'm getting a bit impatient since the Pathfinder just keeps having problems and I'm getting tired of it, so I may end up spending a bit more than absolutely necessary. KBB value on the truck is $4,800 in fair condition. It'd count as poor, but they don't give values for that, and I know KBB is always higher than you actually want to pay. However, if that really seems like way over the top for needing a new headgasket, I'll keep looking.

Some of you may remember I posted a while ago about truck buying advice. I still haven't found a ranger or frontier with what I want and can afford in the area, but a T100 was just posted on craigslist which I find intriguing. After doing some research, they're only 6-10 inches longer than the Rangers, have a somewhat better power:weight ratio, and get similar gas mileage. However, I really don't know anything about them. Are they reliable? Are they comfortable? Are they decent off road? Do they feel bulky on the road, or are they relatively agile? Is this a decent price for one? Here's the link: http://humboldt.craigslist.org/cto/1585005253.html Thanks for any help.

For a while now the Pathfinder's clutch has been giving me problems. In the mornings, it is fairly unresponsive. I push the pedal down and it stays down and I have to pull it back out with my foot. After driving for a while it mostly starts working. Unfortunately, it has gotten worse recently. I was on the freeway the other day trying to downshift, pulled it out of fifth, and couldn't get it to go back into gear. I had to wrestle with it and finally got it into gear with a bit of grinding. When I got home, I coasted into the driveway in neutral and couldn't get it to go into first when I was parking. It just grinded badly every time I tried, and I haven't driven it since then. Today I called my brother for help, and his first thought was air bubble in the system. So I pumped the pedal for three to five minutes, and it started working normally. However, we couldn't find any leak at all anywhere in the system. Everything is completely bone dry even after all the pumping and holding the pedal down for a while, and the fluid level in the reservoir is full and not going down at all. So my question is, how is air getting in but fluid not getting out? Is there any other trouble shooting we should be doing? Is there a part that commonly fails that could be doing this somehow? I don't really want to start replacing things without knowing if they're bad, but the Pathfinder isn't really drivable currently. Thanks for any help. Edit: Since posting this, did more research, and it seems like the clutch damper is a common fail point. We bypassed it and the clutch feels very nice, but I won't really be able to tell until it sits overnight.

Well, based on your guys' recommendations and a lot of research, it looks like my best bet is an early first gen frontier. Nissan reliability, either 4 cyl which has a power:weight ratio similar (if not better) to the pathfinder and gets decent mpg, or a v6 with the same hp as the pathy but in a much lighter vehicle (and same fuel economy ). They're also a lot cheaper than Toyotas (which I don't really want anyway due to their insane popularity around here). Second best bet would be a third gen ranger. Decently sized engine in a fairly light truck, fairly inexpensive parts, and about the cheapest 4x4 truck. I'm just a little leery about the ranger due to the issues I've read about, but it would probably be fine. I think I'll just keep an eye on local sales and just grab the first really good deal I find. Thanks for the help everyone.

Asking this here because of how knowledgeable and relatively unbiased you all are (as long as no one mentions Jeeps or Hondas). I've been really missing having a little truck and am thinking of picking one up. I have a pretty specific wish-list combined with a somewhat tight budget, so I'm not sure I can actually get what I want for the money I have. What I want: Small truck (hardbody, tacoma, ranger, etc) Extended cab (or any variation of as long as it's two doors and has room behind the seats) Power windows/locks Air conditioning Manual transmission Decently powerful (it doesn't have to be hugely so; I just don't want it to be slower than my pathfinder) 4WD and fairly capable off-road in stock condition with some good tires 6' bed I'd like to keep it below $3,000 if at all possible. I can do, or get help with, a decent amount of work, but I would prefer not to have to actually replace any of the major components if possible. As far as looks go, it doesn't have to be the prettiest thing, but I don't want a beater either. I prefer older body styling, but I'm not sure if the older trucks had everything on the list. So, if you had this wish list, and this budget, what truck would you choose? Thanks a bunch for any help.

To answer your question with a little more directness and fewer references to an event you know nothing about, thus telling you nothing and not answering the question at all, you can't really get a SFD at the moment. There are no companies that make them and the few that are around have either been made by members or custom done by a person's local fab shop. The members who have made them in the past are not currently making them, and have given no indication of making them in the future, so your only option really is to get a local shop to custom make one. I can't really give a price estimate, but I think I recall $2,000 being mentioned as the entire price for the shop to get the vehicle, figure out what needed to be made, make it, and install it. However, there are at least pictures if not also measurements on this board, so maybe you could just give the specs to a shop to save some money, although it'd still be quite expensive, I'd think.

There are definitely good and bad of both. We have one mechanic who has been working on the family vehicles for like fifteen years and always gives great prices and does excellent work. However, I had to replace a wheel bearing on my rear axle, and he was unfortunately on vacation with his family (his son(s) are the other mechanics at the shop, so the whole place closes down when they go on vacation). I had to take it somewhere else since I didn't have the necessary tools, and the ****** DIY attempt that looked like it involved a hammer and chisel by a previous owner was quite possibly why I was having to replace it so soon. I had disassembled it so I could just bring in the shaft and have them put the bearing on to save money over bringing in the whole vehicle and was expecting it to be reasonably cheap. When I called the private garages, all of the quotes were in the $120-150 range which seemed ridiculous to me. I called up the dealer, they said they'd do it for $40. So I took it to the dealer and it was done reasonably quickly (I had to wait for a part to get overnighted since a previous owner, or maybe their shady mechanic, had completely mangled the job last time) and by someone with the Nissan specific tools and experience, and, despite the complications, they still stuck to the $40 they quoted me. I still trust the family mechanic more and will probably go to him next time I can't do something myself, but this incident definitely left a positive impression of the Nissan dealership here.

Was driving home yesterday and saw a woman talking on her cell phone. A very common sight, but this woman was having trouble talking and driving at the same time. She spent more time on the shoulder than in her lane. Moral of the story?

Damn, glad to hear you made it out OK. Not to make light of the accident, but it is pretty funny that the car in front of you just happened to be the most hated car on this forum and the Pathfinder totaled it. I feel bad for the Prius owner since he got fskced as badly as anyone else, but it's still great that your Pathfinder's last act was to take it out. Hope you get some enjoyable pain meds and enough cash to buy a new Pathfinder with left over for mods.

Is that the official Nissan tool or something? Iirc, I picked up some generic o2 sensor socket at Kragen for like eight dollars that did the trick.

I don't get how this happened either. At first I figured it must have happened at night and they were camping in the car until help could come, everyone fell asleep, something changed (maybe the water level rose) and then they just didn't wake up, but this was during the day time and in a fairly short time span. From about.com: Mild headache. Nausea and serious headache. Fairly quick recovery after treatment with oxygen and/or fresh air. Symptoms intensify. Potential for long term effects especially in the case of infants, children, the elderly, victims of heart disease and pregnant women. This is the symptom progression prior to loss of consciousness. How do you not notice this and get out of the car? Were they all hopped up on drugs or drunk to the point that they couldn't tell? Wouldn't the car be visibly smoky in order to due that kind of damage in that amount of time? I think there must just be some very important facts missing here.

Grats on passing.

Ya, beside making sure you know any formulas you need, practicing is really the only way to prepare for a math exam.

Not that I condone what the kid did, but damn, that was some pretty good driving. Fifteen and he was out-maneuvering all of the cops with ease. The host talked it up like a big victory due to police efforts, but if he hadn't broken down, I don't think that would have ended 'til he ran out of gas.

Awkward. It's not like it was just a brush either.

The only one I've liked enough to save definitely wouldn't meet the family friendly requirement.

I think I get around 14-15 mpg avg, but that's really inefficient driving. When I'm driving efficiently, I get around 18-19 average with an 90/10 highway/city split. It might be a little higher since I'm not sure if I'm supposed to adjust the mpg with just 31x10.50s.

Ya know, every single time I see someone say that, I turn my sound way down. Every single time, I am glad I did.

I do believe it was this he was referring to.

That's good to hear. Sounds like I can get to work tomorrow.

Yes, I filled the oil before use and, judging by the oil in the driveway from when I was revving it up, the mechanism works.

Your parents seem to have serious trust issues with you as this is not the first time you've talked about your parents forcing you to pay a dealership for something you can do yourself. I know that you are limited in what you can do, but when your mom is forcing you to pay $750 more to fix her car and you are letting her do it, I think it might be time to start asking yourself some hard questions.

The chainsaw says 40:1 on it, so doubled it to 20:1. I'll try cleaning it out and diluting the mix to a normal ratio. Been playing around with it more. It went through the biggest thing I have to deal with (~13", it's a 14" bar) pretty easily, but there were a couple oddities. For one, the chain got hung up a couple times and I had to back it up a little then resume. I don't think it was binding, but I didn't put much effort into arranging the wood before cutting, so it might have been, or I could have been trying to go too fast. Either way, I was happy with how fast it went through. However, the saw is making a weird noise. I only hear it at idle, but it's possible that it just isn't loud enough to hear it under throttle. It's hard to describe, but it sounds almost like the hissing of high pressure air. Not sure if it's something to do with the exhaust or what. Also, the smoking has stopped.

Ya, I played with the carb a bit and it didn't change anything so put it back where it was. Just got it running a bit but it was smoking a lot. I expected it to smoke a bit since I had more oil in the mix, but this looked wrong. Turned it off, and it kept smoking. Pulled it apart, and turns out it was oil burning in the muffler. My brother said to use double the oil for the first few uses, but I'm starting to wonder if that is causing some of the problems, or if there's something else going on. Should I dilute the mix to bring it back in line with the normal ratio? Snapped a couple pictures. This is after running maybe one minute total in its lifetime: http://pages.suddenlink.net/hank-g/IMG_1054.JPG http://pages.suddenlink.net/hank-g/IMG_1055.JPG

It seems I spoke too soon. I haven't been able to get it to start again after that initial test. Now when I try, the saw tries to start up, I see a bit of exhaust, but it doesn't actually get to idling. I'm going to try adjusting the carb and see if that makes a difference.