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Barnfind R50 road to rescue.


Kr50
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Hello all. I just bought a 2002 pathfinder with 167000 miles that was sitting in a barn for the last 3 years. Its pretty clean but has a starting issue im trying to diagnose. I just installed a brand new battery and tried to start it but all i hear is one click and no cranking. Im leaning towards the starter but would like to get some ideas here first. I will post some pics when i get a chance to take some proper ones.

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That’s most likely a stuck solenoid on the starter. For a temporary fix you could try tapping it. I was getting that same click-no start issue intermittently before swapping my starter but now it’s gone

 

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5 hours ago, PathyGig12 said:

That’s most likely a stuck solenoid on the starter. For a temporary fix you could try tapping it. I was getting that same click-no start issue intermittently before swapping my starter but now it’s gone

 

I will try tapping it. Starter solenoid comes with the starter as a single unit i assume. I checked on rockauto and theres a seperate drop down for it. Thanks for the reply

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2 hours ago, 03TroutFinder said:

I’m leaning towards the starter too. Nice find. Hope it all works out!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks. After getting it started ive got a lot of cleaning up to do.

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Also found out that the dash lights dont work along with radio. Climate console lights up along with display on the headliner. Just no dash and button lights. 

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2 hours ago, R50JR said:

Check for mice/rat intrusion


Sent from my Pathfinder

I did find that the hood sound deadening has been eaten up in certain spots. But havnt had time to dig deep into it. I will look into it when i get some time

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20 minutes ago, Slartibartfast said:

Does the dash work otherwise? If it's just the lights, try messing with the dimmer control, sometimes they get janky.

Dash works. All the displays work just not the bulbs behind the buttons and gauges itself. Ill try messing with the dimmer. 

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I bought mine at 206k mi and did it around 212k mi but there's been people who've had the issue with the screws falling in the intake way earlier. It's a roll of the dice. You could either be missing screws right now or you could go another 50k before dropping a screw. I'd recommend doing it when you do the IACV gasket.

The 2001 and 2002 Pathfinders have a IACV gasket that gets brittle and eventually fails. When it fails, it drips coolant on electronics which shorts them out which has a chain reaction that shorts out the ECU. Power Valve screws won't work themselves loose sitting in a barn, but the 18 year old rubber gasket keeps aging whether it sits or drives. I would recommend buying the cheap gasket and an impact screw driver to change this first. While you're there, you have access to the power valve screws with just a few more turns of the wrench.

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How common is this? Is it something that needs to be done urgently? Im at 165k

Mine was exquisitely cared for but I didn’t know about this. Lost my 5th screw & the 2nd on one of the butterfly valves before it cost me an engine at 15yrs & 102,000. For 2-3* work or labor cost, I wish I would have known.
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How common is this? Is it something that needs to be done urgently? Im at 165k

Mine was exquisitely cared for but I didn’t know about this. Lost my 5th screw & the 2nd on one of the butterfly valves before it cost me an engine at 15yrs & 102,000. For 2-3* work or labor cost, I wish I would have known.
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18 hours ago, Dbot said:

I bought mine at 206k mi and did it around 212k mi but there's been people who've had the issue with the screws falling in the intake way earlier. It's a roll of the dice. You could either be missing screws right now or you could go another 50k before dropping a screw. I'd recommend doing it when you do the IACV gasket.

The 2001 and 2002 Pathfinders have a IACV gasket that gets brittle and eventually fails. When it fails, it drips coolant on electronics which shorts them out which has a chain reaction that shorts out the ECU. Power Valve screws won't work themselves loose sitting in a barn, but the 18 year old rubber gasket keeps aging whether it sits or drives. I would recommend buying the cheap gasket and an impact screw driver to change this first. While you're there, you have access to the power valve screws with just a few more turns of the wrench.

 

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So finally managed to get the new starter. That was not a fun job at all lol. Now it cranks and engine seems to try to start but seems like no fuel coming in. So i pulled a hose from the filter line and turned ignition on and no fuel came out although i hear a buzzing noise when turning on ignition for about 4 seconds and goes out. I took the fuel pump cap off and kept my hand on it while my buddy turned ignition on but there was no vibration just sound from underneath thats hard to pinpoint. Does anyone have any ideas of what it could be? Any places i could check if the pump is working for sure. 
thanks

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Running for a few seconds when you turn the key on sounds like normal fuel pump behavior. The pump's at the bottom of the pump/sender unit, and it's probably soft-mounted to reduce the noise transmitted to the body, so not feeling it running may not indicate a problem. If you want to confirm that it's running, pull the fuel pump fuse and see if it still makes the noise when you turn the key. If the pump is running, but fuel isn't flowing, it could be blocked somewhere (seems unlikely it would be completely blocked) or just out of gas. I'd add a few gallons, cycle the key a few times, and see if that gets it moving fuel. If that doesn't do it, disconnect the fuel line from the pump to see if there's a blockage between the pump and the first line you unhooked, and if there's still nothing, pull the pump and check for a blocked pickup sock, bad hose above the pump, something along those lines.

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So made some updates today. I checked the fuel pump connector and the wore with 4 prongs gets power and the 2prong which is connected directly to the wore leading to the pump doesnt get any power. Slight change in frequency when turning the ignition on. So i checked all the relays and fuses that’s associated with the fuel pump and they seem fine. I pulled the back fuel pump relay panel( next to the amp) and found out theres only one relay. Im guessing theres 2 and one conector was just hanging. I bought another relay and connected that and still no success. What else would factor fuel pump not getting power? Is theres a common issue on pathfinder? Im kinda running out of ideas.

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Looks like the fuel pump itself has white/blue and black wires. Black goes to body ground, white/blue goes through two fuel pump relays for some reason, through a 15a fuse, to the battery. EL-698 of the '02 manual has the wiring diagram. Check for power at the fuse, then at the first relay, then at the second relay, make sure both relays are clicking. If you have power to a relay, but it's not clicking, and the relay itself tests good, check for signal. Looks like Relay 2 is controlled by ignition signal (key on, relay on) and Relay 1 is switched by the ECM. If Relay 2 has no signal, I'd expect some kind of wiring fault; if relay 1 has no signal, I'd wonder if some anti-theft bollocks in the ECM might be playing up. Looks like one is switched on the positive side and the other is switched on the negative side, so keep that in mind while you're testing.

 

You can get the EL section here. The diagram I'm looking at is on EL-698. There should be a "location of electrical units" or "harness layout" diagram somewhere in there showing the locations of the relays, ground points, and connectors. The fuse box diagram showing which fuses are which (they're numbered in the electrical diagrams, not labelled, because everyone likes an extra layer of BS in between you and the thing you're looking for) is in the foldout.

 

The pump only needs 12v across the white/blue and black to run, so if it turns out to be a wiring issue, you could just hotwire it to get it going (or at least to test it). If the anti-theft is what's locking it out, though, you might not have spark or injector pulse either.

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7 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

Looks like the fuel pump itself has white/blue and black wires. Black goes to body ground, white/blue goes through two fuel pump relays for some reason, through a 15a fuse, to the battery. EL-698 of the '02 manual has the wiring diagram. Check for power at the fuse, then at the first relay, then at the second relay, make sure both relays are clicking. If you have power to a relay, but it's not clicking, and the relay itself tests good, check for signal. Looks like Relay 2 is controlled by ignition signal (key on, relay on) and Relay 1 is switched by the ECM. If Relay 2 has no signal, I'd expect some kind of wiring fault; if relay 1 has no signal, I'd wonder if some anti-theft bollocks in the ECM might be playing up. Looks like one is switched on the positive side and the other is switched on the negative side, so keep that in mind while you're testing.

 

You can get the EL section here. The diagram I'm looking at is on EL-698. There should be a "location of electrical units" or "harness layout" diagram somewhere in there showing the locations of the relays, ground points, and connectors. The fuse box diagram showing which fuses are which (they're numbered in the electrical diagrams, not labelled, because everyone likes an extra layer of BS in between you and the thing you're looking for) is in the foldout.

 

The pump only needs 12v across the white/blue and black to run, so if it turns out to be a wiring issue, you could just hotwire it to get it going (or at least to test it). If the anti-theft is what's locking it out, though, you might not have spark or injector pulse either.

I will definitely doing this procedure this weekend and let you know how it goes. Also many thanks for the diagrams. It definitely helps a electrical noob like me. If worst case it ends up being something like an ECM thats gone bad. Would another ECM just plug and play from a different car?

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The only common computer issue I'm aware of on the R50s is the idle control frying its mosfet (the thread dbot linked). The idle control mosfet issue shouldn't take out the fuel pump, though. Unless the computer gives you a reason to suspect it, I'd assume it's being troublesome by design rather than actually broken.

 

The computer can be replaced if it turns out to be borked, but I wouldn't count on it being plug and play. You're also limited to '01/'02 for donors, because those are the only years that Nissan made the VQ with a cable throttle. Hopefully someone who's replaced theirs (or an old problem or project thread) can give you a better picture of that than I can.

 

Good luck!

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On 11/10/2020 at 4:20 AM, Slartibartfast said:

The only common computer issue I'm aware of on the R50s is the idle control frying its mosfet (the thread dbot linked). The idle control mosfet issue shouldn't take out the fuel pump, though. Unless the computer gives you a reason to suspect it, I'd assume it's being troublesome by design rather than actually broken.

 

The computer can be replaced if it turns out to be borked, but I wouldn't count on it being plug and play. You're also limited to '01/'02 for donors, because those are the only years that Nissan made the VQ with a cable throttle. Hopefully someone who's replaced theirs (or an old problem or project thread) can give you a better picture of that than I can.

 

Good luck!

thanks. the only reason i ask is because the previous owner tells me he had the TPS go out and took the ecu mosfet with it. he keeps insisting its the TPS and not the IACV lol.either way he sent the ecu out to be repaired and put in a new TPS. it never started after that. he thinks its a faulty TPS. i just talked to him last night and this is what i got from him. 

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