madkiwi

Jim, What is or isn't implied doesn't matter, because the fix I posted is not the fix Nissan came up with. Can you imagine the outcry if Nissan said "To get the correct amount of oil in the transmission you must pull the gearshift lever out and pour it in through the hole"? They came up with their solution, $480 MSRP for the housing and 7.5 hours of shop time to replace it. Figure $1,400. My solution costs $0 (well, 10 cents for a new ziptie). Nissan ignored it as much as possible because to fix all the trucks on the road would have cost them hundreds of millions. Glad you have had no issues so far, maybe you never will. I was going skiing at Tahoe 2x a month back then and was worried about the hill-climbing with oil starvation to the forward part of the transmission. So I would recommend you try to increase the lube in your transmission just for peace of mind. Mark

Folks, I had no idea this thread was still being viewed. I am searching for the original TSB (NTB97-009) but it is not on any of my in-service PCs. I stopped working at the company who's server I used to host the files in 2007, I suppose someone finally deleted it or switched hosts (and that file did not get moved). My "old" Dell is under my desk and not plugged in, but it may have the PDF on it. HOWEVER, I do remember that NTB97-009a superseeds and replaces the -009 bulletin. It contains all the information regarding models affected and the factory remedy. It only applied to R30A manual transmission on WD21 and D21 chassis (1985.5-1995 Pathfinders and Trucks with the VG30 engine and 4wd), Obviously the factory remedy (new transmission housing) is not going to happen for most of us, but filling the transmission through the gearshifter hole with 5.1 liters (5.4 US Quarts) of GL-4 oil is simple. I still stand by the writeup I did 10 years ago- I use Redline MT90, my 1993 Pathfinder 4x4 XE is my winter daily driver and I do not even worry about my transmission. I now have 190.000 miles on the vehicle, and the tranny oil has been replaced once since 2004. I do not care what a Nissan service department says- NEVER use GL-5 oil in our transmission. Do you really think that the service writer who was still in diapers when this transmission was last made really knows what he is talking about? I did a lot of research about this when I did the write-up, newer improved oil standards/additives are not always backwards compatible. Changing the lube through the gear shifter hole takes a couple hours, I actually pulled the drain plug before I started on removing the shifter, so by the time I was ready to refill it was completely drained. I remember that I needed to partially unscrew the filler plug to allow the fluid to drain (vent). When I read that some people say it took a long time for the oil to go in I wonder if they did not pull the shifter out first, because... well you need to. One thing to remember is that when you drain, about 0.2 of a quart will still be in the transmission. So you really only need to refill with a touch over 5 quarts. I figured this out by using the original fill hole to see how much oil went in before it was level there. Although overfilling a little is not going to be an issue. Your friendly admin RedPath88 will update if I find the original TSB.

Well, it certainly kills 300zx injectors- and the fix is a little more expensive than just throwing in some nitrile 0 rings. My question really is- considering both vehicles are from the same period do the injectors suffer from the same design flaw? I call it a flaw, but Nissan's engineers could not have predicted in 1989-90 that the US would start adding corn ethanol to gasoline. Who would do anything as stupid as burning food to propel motor vehicles?

Just was wondering if the 1993 Pathfinders have any issues with ethanol in the gas. I also have a 1993 300zx Twin Turbo, and the 300s from 1994 and earlier have an injector design where the coils are exposed to the fuel, and the ethanol will destroy the injector coils. So it is something I have been thinking about. A set of newer style injectors (plus adapter kit, new rails etc) is over $800. So I only buy ethanol-free Super (which you can still get in most parts of the country, including here in Montana). But that is not an option for Regular. I have been running the Pathfinder since new with regular 87 or 88 AKI, which has had ethanol (at least in winter) for what, 10 years? But for the last 3 years it has been year-round, thanks to that limp-dick George Bush. He signed into law the 2007 Energy Independence Act, which requires so much ethanol to be blended into our gas that by the time it finally is fully implemented (in 2022) all gas will have to be 20% ethanol. That will kill almost every existing car on the road. I have never had any issues with injectors on the Pathfinder, but just wondering if it is something that I should worry about. If there is a history of the injectors being killed by ethanol. Thanks.

HELP!!! I just got the old (Raybestos) shoes off. I take the new Nissan shoes out of the box (part no 44060-28N25) and something looks wacky. There are a total of 4 pieces in the box. 2 look identical and have a DV stamped on them. The other 2 don't look the same as the DV shoes, and have EA stamped on them. The old shoes are 4 pieces that all look identical, the new ones look like 2 pairs. The Nissan factory service manual is little help. Are these correct? If so I presume that one of each is supposed to go on each side, but I cannot tell if one is supposed to be on the front or if it does not make any difference! Please, truck is in pieces, my back is killing me, and I just want to get this job finished. madkiwi

You forgot PB Penetrating Catalyst Far more useful than WD-40 if you have a seized bolt. I could not get my exhaust bolts off from the catalytic converter. I tore the head off one before I stopped, went down to Kragen and purchased some PB. Came home, sprayed it on, waited 5 minutes, then put my longest handled socket wrench on it and heaved. Almost broke my hand on the body, because the bolt came loose almost instantly. I threw away all the WD-40 I had.

I am so sorry, I thought I had my links all sorted out but I had the file names wrong! Links are now fixed. Precise1: Word is that it's only the throwout bearing. Of course they have to pull the tranny and double check that before I can say I dodged a bullet, mostly because of my fear of this oil starvation issue. So I am getting a new clutch and flywheel resurface, plus they will replace the crank seal while they are there. Estimate was $1200, considering the cost of labor in the San Francisco area that's not too bad. I bought my own Red Line MT90 (5 full quarts and a half bottle I had left over from the top-off I did last year) to them, and made sure they know to put all of it in. hardwaretoad: I work for WC&S and run the computers etc. We have more space than we need from our host, so I set up a little part of it to hold stuff like this. Yeah, it's an export company. madkiwi

Everyone who has a 1986.5 to 1995 4wd Truck or 1987-1995 4wd Pathfinder should be aware that the FS5R30A manual transmission up until 1995 does not provide adequate lubrication to the main and counter drive gears. If you are experiencing transmission whine in every gear except for 4th, you have a problem. You should park your truck now and have the transmission rebuilt, the alternative is that the transmission will eventually grenade, and a $500 rebuild quickly becomes a $3000 replacement. The tsb's show a diagram with the "fixed" transmission case, the only difference being that the fill hole was moved up 0.97 inches! That increased the oil capacity by 1.5 liters from 3.6l to 5.1l Here are the TSBs, I'll leave them up until someone sues me. TSB97-009 *Link Broken* TSB97-009A If you have one of the covered transmissions, but you don't have the symptoms, you should still add the extra 1.5 liters of gear oil to your tranny. I decided the simplest way was to go in through the top, through the gear shifter. (Some people have tried parking on a slope so the fill hole is higher, others have tried squeezing in the extra with a bottle then quickly getting the plug in before it drains out. ) How to add gear oil through the shifter hole Pull up the carpet from the passenger side to free the gear shift, and remove the shifter boot. Cut off the zip-tie holding the gearshift dustboot, and pull it up from the shifter assembly. You will then see a snap-ring underneath, remove it (you do have snap-ring pliers, right?) and then remove the gearshift lever. Pour 1.5 liters (1.6 US quarts) of new gear oil into the transmission. Replace shifter, snap-ring, dustboot, shifter boot and carpet. You are done! Note, shifter should be in neutral, and be careful when removing and inserting it as there is a plastic swivel thing on the end. (It only goes back in correctly one way, so if you are not sure it's right, make sure) You need a long replacement zip-tie for the dustboot, I think an 8" works. Final note, do not use any gear oil rated GL-5 in the Nissan manual transmission. It says in our manual to use GL-4, and there is a difference. GL-5 oils have additives that destroy the soft bronze synchros in our transmissions. I use Red Line MT90, and it works very well. madkiwi

Would that data sheet also say how much ATF to put in my 1993's transfer case? TYVM madkiwi

If it is 4wd then it is 3 5/8 US quarts. I don't know what the 2wd is, I assume it is the same, but no guarantees. madkiwi

Precise1, Here is a post I made on 4x4parts.com about the transmission on the 1987-1995 Pathfinders (manual transmission, 4wd). The post includes links to the TSBs. In a nutshell, the input bearings were running dry going uphill, especially when towing. The fix involved moving the fill hole on the case up by 0.97", thereby allowing an extra 1.5 liters of gear oil to be added to the transmission. I'll let you know what an expert says about the noises. madkiwi

Precise1 No noise anytime except when in gear AND coasting. Letting the clutch out stops the noise. No problems or strange shifting. The noise starts maybe 2 seconds or so after depressing the clutch, I only noticed it Saturday because I was coasting to a stop sign that was downhill and about 100 feet away, so there was time for it to start making that grind/squeel noise. Over on the 4x4parts.com forums the responders are leaning towards a bad input bearing. If so that would tick me off no end, I know about the issues with the FS5R30A transmission where the oil level was too low, and added 1.5 qt of oil 18,000 miles ago. Saturday was the first indication anything was amiss. Also ticks me off because I started using the Red Line 60,000 miles ago because I wanted my transmission to last forever. Any idea who would be the best place to take it to? If I go to the dealer I'll probably need to take my own Vaseline. While I have it apart would it be a sensible thing to have the clutch replaced at the same time? darn. madkiwi

Yup, it's GL4. That's why I use it, practically the only one you can readily find in synthetic.

Precise, If I read you right, then the noise should be there whenever I have the clutch depressed. However, I only hear the noise while the vehicle is coasting with the clutch depressed, and in gear. If I put the stick into neutral the sound goes away. If I stop moving, the sound goes away. This is driving me nuts. Symptoms don't seem to match what others have said about a throw-out bearing. Today I opened the fill hole for the tranny just to make sure I had plenty of gear oil in there (I did, and I use Red Line MT90). Anyone else ever had this noise? madkiwi

Hi guys, Just today I'm driving along in 2nd coming up to a stop sign, and I push in the clutch, coasting. I hear this weird grinding noise. I put the gearshift into neutral, the sound goes away. I experimented a bit, the sound only occurs with the clutch disengaged, and (so far) I only notice it when it is in 2nd and 3rd gear. It only happens while the vehicle is still rolling. A friend told me it sounds like it is the throwout bearing. Someone here was saying that when the throw out bearing is dying it makes the noise when the clutch is just being engaged/disengaged. Mine happens only when the clutch is fully depressed. My friend thinks I am ok to go for a 500 mile round trip to Reno next weekend, does that seem right? Any better guesses? It's a 93 Pathfinder, I have 110K miles, manual tranny (obviously) and no slipping on the clutch. The tranny and clutch are original. Thanks, Madkiwi