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4WD not engaging, Nissan doesn't know whats wrong either


Sharar
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A while back I swapped out the bulbs in the 4wd switcher in my '03 LE and ever since then my 4WD light has been on and my 4WD wouldn't engage but car drove properly. Many months passed by and I forgot about the light but recently I found time to get it looked at and bit the bullet and sent it to Nissan, log story short, they don't know what's wrong either and want to charge me an additional $140 to try and diagnose what's wrong. The mechanic was trying to tell me to sell the car because it's possibly an electrical issue.
If anyone has insight on this and could help point me in the right direction, I'd be greatly appreciated. Kind of at a loss right now118544251_3194134087309183_5517751057421118650659_3194134170642508_7999911252324118616633_3194134123975846_5961146855128
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@Sharar, welcome to the forum.

 

A few things come to mind:

  1. Have you tried things without the new bulbs installed, or with the old bulbs re-installed?
  2. To confirm, the 4wd light is on but the truck doesn't engage 4wd?  Have you been able to definitively confirm if it is or isn't in 4wd? 
  3. How's your technical aptitude, or willingness to learn?  Factory Service Manuals (FSM) are available online, for free, and are an extremely valuable resource.  Not talking Haynes/Chilton, but the real Nissan Dealership stuff.
    1. Manuals found here: https://www.nicoclub.com/nissan-service-manuals
    2. Specifically, look at the Transfer chapter (https://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual?fsm=Pathfinder/2003/tf.pdf).  Your "All-Mode" system is ATX14A, and there's a self-diagnostic mode described on TS-62.  If the dealer inspected the solenoid and it functions fine, you should still confirm if that returns a diagnostic code.  Keep in mind many diagnostic codes don't indicate a problem with a specific part, but part of the system pertaining to the part.
    3. The All-Mode system uses numerous inputs.  Re-iterating my first question, if you have a known change to the system (bulbs), revert that and re-test.  Hopefully it's something trivial, but if it working fine before modifying the switch, then I'd be starting with the switch.
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When you replaced the bulbs, did you replace them with the stock type (I'm assuming they're incandescent, if they're replaceable) or with LEDs? LED bulbs cause weird issues in some circuits. If that's what you did, I'd try incandescent bulbs first--and while you're in there, make sure you got everything buttoned up properly the last time (all the plugs fully seated and all that).

 

I'm not surprised the dealer tech said to ditch it. They're used to working on much newer stuff, and likely regard your '03 as a dinosaur. With their labor rates, the price of having them try and figure it out would get silly quick, especially if they start firing the parts cannon. The manual Hawairish linked is your best bet. Good luck and let us know how it goes! The later manuals tend to be heavy on the "press this button on the diagnostic tool you don't have, now press this button," but there's usually at least a circuit diagram to get you started.

My dad took his Tundra in with parking lights that wouldn't turn off (probably a bad BCM). Toyota quoted something ridiculous to diagnose and repair, so he drilled a hole in the front license plate and installed a battery cutoff switch from the auto parts store. Park, turn the battery off, lights turn off. Fixed. :lol:

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Thank you guys for the help! I went through the manuals and double checked everything and it all seemed to be where it was supposed to be and how it was supposed to be. Today I had some spare time and went down to the junkyard and got out another 4WD switcher from a 2004 LE Platinum and plugged it in to see if anything would happen,m and something did happen!

 

The 4WD light no longer goes on once I switch from auto to 2WD and my dash indicator lights up properly as well when I'm switching through modes. I'm still quite skeptical if the 4WD engages or not, I'll have to test that out this weekend and let you guys know! 

 

Again thank you both for the responses, they've definitely helped a ton and I know more about my car now! 

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On 9/9/2020 at 1:32 AM, Sharar said:

Thank you guys for the help! I went through the manuals and double checked everything and it all seemed to be where it was supposed to be and how it was supposed to be. Today I had some spare time and went down to the junkyard and got out another 4WD switcher from a 2004 LE Platinum and plugged it in to see if anything would happen,m and something did happen!

 

The 4WD light no longer goes on once I switch from auto to 2WD and my dash indicator lights up properly as well when I'm switching through modes. I'm still quite skeptical if the 4WD engages or not, I'll have to test that out this weekend and let you guys know! 

 

Again thank you both for the responses, they've definitely helped a ton and I know more about my car now! 

So what you are saying is that the LED bulbs you used caused this issue? I saw on Nicoclub you did this with your instrument cluster and had the same issue, is this correct?

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On 9/10/2020 at 2:31 PM, R50JR said:

So what you are saying is that the LED bulbs you used caused this issue? I saw on Nicoclub you did this with your instrument cluster and had the same issue, is this correct?

The problem with my cluster is completely different from the 4WD swither. In the cluster, the problem was that the T5 twist leds didn’t fit into the t5 twist sockets in the cluster because of a design flaw in the cluster. That one was out of my hands. For the 4wd, the problem was that the LED might have shorted the switcher or something I did in the process of swapping the old bulbs out. 

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