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Hello. My name is Michael S. I'm 60 years young. I've owned a 1996 Pathy, which got totaled by a teenage girl driving her Daddy's Cadillac, running a stop sign. My next car was a 1999 Pathy which I just totaled on 10/03/22 after driving it for 15 years. Partly my fault and partly the Kentucky farmer pulling a cow trailer at 25 mph, not looking in his rearview, with dust covering the turn signal so I couldn't see it, who eventually, slowly, started turning left into his driveway, just as it was too late for me to stop or slow much, from the passing lane I was in. I chose to swerve right and hit the empty cow trailer as opposed to hitting his driver side in the passing lane. Made contact at a 45* angle going right, with wheels locked and skidding. Continued skidding thru a shallow, wide ditch, thru a barbed wire fence and 40 or 50 more feet into a farmer's field. Ya, I was doing about 70 in a 55 zone, but even if I was doing 55 I would have still hit him, just not going as fast at impact. I estimate I was doing about 55 at impact. Could have been a different result if his trailer blinkers weren't so dusty or if he were looking in his rearview. He would have seen me in the passing lane well before he started turning. Anyways, I just replaced the 99 Pathy with a 2010 Xterra and am quite pleased with my find. I plan to re-build the 99 and was searching for parts when I found this site. Glad to be here. I'm also considering buying another 99 Pathy that I found while searching for something newer, just for a spare vehicle. Since I've found so many sites with 99 Pathy parts available, I believe I'm gonna buy the 99 with 173,000 miles. $3500. So, I'll have my new Xterra, the "new" 99 Pathy and my old 99 Pathy (to re-build). Wish me luck. Happy Pathing to you all. Mike S. P.S......Maybe later I will upload pics of the wrecked 99 and the new Xterra. Too late now. Good night.

Hey new member here! Just recently purchased an R50 this week and I had to tackle this exact problem! My fuel level sensor was working correctly as well but I think it's a win/loss no matter what issue you run into. The fuel level sensor looks like an expensive part while the instrument cluster is technical but cheap. I will say my fuel tank seal did NOT want to go back in place. It had stretched out so much I couldn't fit it back in the grooves. I was looking for the fuel tank seal online and was struggling trying to find one that wasn't outrageous expensive. There is one on rockauto and I believe I found a cheap part #. The Carter PTS2043. Anyways I took apart the instrument cluster and you really want to just take everything apart. The LCD screen just pulls straight up. Wiggle it out if you need to. I have always been terrible at soldering, especially electronics but I tried this and I believe I fixed it on the first try. I focused on the resistors you mentioned while also touching up others. Multiple of my bulbs in the instrument cluster were out. They are the Toshiba v-2. A quick Google search shows that you can pull the bulbs out and replace them with #74 mini bulbs. (2-pack at AutoZone for $6). I ended up grabbing them with pliers and destroying 2 out of the 4 I was replacing. A YouTube video that shows using a thumbtacks to remove the bulb just ended up breaking the plastic holder. I may end up switching to LEDs in the future but this worked out for me since I wanted to complete the project that day.

Welcome to my up-to-date (2022) 2002 Pathy build! Bought this 5 speed 2002 SE with 370k km (180k km on the engine) for a work wheeling trip and decided to keep it after its superb performance...

It's fixed. It's not so complicated but there's one big pain in the ass: You have to remove all 4 gauge needles which means you'll need to calibrate them later. Step 1: Remove the instrument cluster. This is the easy part. Follow this video: Disassemble the cluster. There are no screws, just plastic tabs everywhere. Start by taking the clear plastic cover out first, then the black plastic frame. It's all pretty straightforward. You'll end up with this: Now you need to take the needles off. I strongly recommend the 2 spoon method. Google how to do it. Don't worry about marking their position or anything, no matter how careful you are, you will have to calibrate them so don't waste time, just take them out. Once the needles are out, you can pry off the cluster graphics and put that aside. Turn the cluster around (facing the back side - be careful not to place the exposed front on a hard surface!) and bend the 2 white tabs holding the circuit board in place. Pull it straight out, towards you. Be careful with the odometer's LCD as it's connected with long, thin leads which could bend or break. In mine it stayed in place but if I had to do it again I'd remove the LCD first. With the circuit board exposed, you'll need to follow pins 17 and 23 and find any resistor along the way. These 4 were suspicious (labeled 161 and 181). No matter how closely I looked, I couldn't see cracked solder but I added some more while also reheating the existing solder. I also inspected all other resistors and retouched a couple more, knowing how ****** they are in Nissans and how hard they are to find. Once you finish with your soldering/inspection, it's just a matter of reassembling everything back together and testing. As for calibrating the needles, it's better to do it with the cluster plugged in and the key in ignition (waaay easier if engine is cold). Turn on the ignition and lightly push in the speedo, tach and temp needles making sure they are touching their resting posts. Turn off and on the ignition a few times to make sure they don't move from there (when they receive power, they will come alive and try to jump to their zero position). Don't install the fuel needle just yet. Here comes the headache: To calibrate the fuel needle you'll need an ohmmeter to calculate the fuel in the tank (unless your tank is full or completely empty, if so just place the needle accordingly). Disconnect the large plug (4 contacts) from the fuel sending unit and read resistance from terminals 2 and 3 (diagonal to each other). A full tank is ~5 Ohms, empty is ~83. Considering the resistance changes linear (more on this later), every 1/4 mark would be in ~19.5 Ohm increments. Example, if you have 3/4 tank, resistance should read about 24.5 Ohms (5 + 19.5) Alas, according to the service manual, 1/2 tank should be ~33 Ohms, which means the reading is in fact not linear (otherwise 1/2 would be (5 + 19.5 + 19.5 = 44 Ohms). I assume this is to account for the tank shape (narrower at the top). Taking that into account, it's better to consider the calculations separately, one for full to 1/2 and another for 1/2 to empty. If so, 3/4 tank would be 19 Ohms (5 + 14), 1/2 tank 33 Ohms (5 + 14 + 14) and from then on 1/4 tank 58 Ohms (33 + 25) and finally empty 83 Ohms (33 + 25 + 25). This is a good time to test if you actually fixed the issue. Either disconnect the fuel sending unit plug and feed it 80+ Ohms (pins 2 and 3) or unscrew the whole fuel sending unit with the wires still connected and pull it out slightly, just enough to allow the float to drop to its lowest level. The latter is easier but super risky given that you have your fuel tank exposed and the car in ignition. Do this at your own risk. If the issue is still not fixed, then rinse and repeat, check, reheat, resolder resistors. If that still has no effect, then your problem is elsewhere. Hope all this helps someone at some point. Surprised nobody had attempted to fix it if it's that common.

It is the door lock timer box itself. Mine did it as well. Only in the cold weather, it was due to the solder joints cracking on the board. I re flowed the solder on them and never had another problem. IIRC it is behind the panel in the drivers side cargo area. Just have someone actuate the locks and you'll hear it.

Ya, Dumb. Literally, with all of the 30yo plastic in this thing that is cracking/breaking, in many instances, I'm not going to take it apart if I don't have to It seems, based on my reading of other things, the California models do have the light and label.... probably causes cancer too...

I know some of them didn't come with the bulb for the engine light or the label for it, but apparently if you take the cluster out and fill in any missing bulbs, one of them is actually the engine light. Dumb, I know.

Yes, on page 2-34 it states not to load the luggage rack with more than 100 lbs. I'm sure some of our fellow R50 owners have more than that on their luggage racks, as to how much weight you can get away with putting up there I'm not quite sure. I have seen others mount a rooftop tent and awning without having an issue. Just try to be mindful of how much weight you're adding up there that's all.

Just a heads up, Bilstein 5100 bushings aren't sized for our rigs. Not the end of the world but you're gonna have to make a choice for the upper shock mount. 1) Mount it on the original mount bolt with some slop 2) order some bushings/sleeves to fill in the gap 3) Drill out the bolt holes on chassis with a 1/2" bit and mount a 1/2" bolt through the upper shock mount. I used option 3 and it's worked great for over 2 years so far.

Well I got to thinking about what Startibartfast said and thought I'd take another look at the crankshaft seal. I mean the oil pump shouldn't just start leaking like that when it had not before. It was hard to get in close enough to see it well so I took a few pictures and looked at them. It seems the seal is buggered up at the top lip so I will be replacing it. Saved me some work I was not looking forward to by dropping the pan. So thanks a lot man. I sure am glad you replied and I will post again after I get the new seal in and put it all back together to let everyone know how it went.

Found this thread late, but BDS doesn't seem to support anything Nissan, based on their website. They don't make lifts for the R50 either. @Jotegir's advice above is great. Old Man Emu makes suspension, the aforementioned 2928 is a great part number. Dobinson also makes good stuff. Ironman4x4 and Automotive Customizers also makes springs for these. If you snoop around here you should be able to find builds that utilize these different options. I had AC coils, but I'm also a big proponent of the OME and the Dobinson equipment. Here's a really nice build that you might take some inspiration from: If you're not familiar with Land Rover coils as an option, those also work nicely in the rear. That's what the above build features. See what your shop likes, but if they're mostly familiar with Toyota's, our front end is not built the same way a 4runner or Tacoma works, ours is much closer to a typical sedan. You'll probably need camber bolts to get your front end alignment dialed. Here's my personal analysis of a lot of the front end coils:

Thanks gamellot. I’ll be getting some vacuum hose to put in my kit. My rig ran fine, but just the issue with the CEL when stopped. These issues that pop up now and then just give our rigs more character!

The switch itself doesn't do what you need, but if you've got a relay and some wire, I think you can make it work. The square-dash cruise control switch is like an ignition switch. The brown wire (pin 1 in the manual) is your common, that'll get wired to power. The black wire with the white stripe (pin 2 in the manual) is your run position. And white with black (pin 3) is your start position. Pink/blue and pink/black (4 and 5) go to the dash lighting circuit. EL-81 of the '90 manual shows the pin numbering and the wire colors. Note that the pins are not in numerical order, because that would be too easy. If you don't have the '90 manual, you should be able to buzz out what's what with a multimeter. Run a wire from ignition-switched + (or your amp control wire) to pin 1 on the switch. Then wire pin 2 to one of the relay contacts (30 or 87). Then wire pin 3 to the other relay contact, and to one side of the relay coil (85 or 86), and also to your power antenna wire. Then ground the other side of the coil to the dash support. If you're using a five-pin relay, you'll have an empty pin (87a), and that's fine. Pin 1 gets power when you turn on the ignition, or the radio if you wired it to the amp. If the switch is off, nothing happens. If the switch is on, pin 2 gets power, but still, nothing happens. There are two sets of contacts that can connect pin 2 to the antenna amp, but they're both open. When you turn the switch to start, pin 3 gets power. That triggers the antenna amp and the relay. The relay closes the other set of contacts, so when you release the switch to the run position, the relay holds itself closed, keeping the circuit live and the antenna up. When power is lost (switch off or key/radio off), the antenna goes down, and the relay contacts open, resetting the circuit back to where it was at the start of this paragraph. If you decide to try this, draw the circuit out first and make sure it makes sense. It makes sense in my head. So have a lot of other things. Might be a good idea to add a snubber diode across the relay coil so it's not feeding the antenna amp EMF each time it loses power. There's probably a cleaner way of building this circuit using transistors, which wouldn't have that problem. I went a much simpler route on mine. I wired the amp turn-on through a toggle switch. It's a bit clunky, but the switch fills a hole in the dash, and I only listen to the radio a few times a year anyway.

Sounds like when the bulb popped, the filament bridged the high and low beam circuits together.

I recommend using this tool https://amzn.to/3TxoIXe used it on my personal R50 works for rear coil springs too!

You can easily do the job with the 2-piece compressors.

Ya, if you want 3.75 backspacing, you almost always have to go down to a 15" wheel or add spacers, its just not a spec that's readily available on 16 and 17 inch wheels for the most part. Interesting, I haven't seen many at -11, but it's basically equivalent to a -12. 4.03 vs 4.07 BS

I fixed it after your post, just a day or two ago. It was super useful, although I haven't calibrated the fuel gauge yet. I figured I would fill up the tank to full and calibrate it that way. But when I removed the fuel level sensor i noticed the gas was very low and when I put the cluster back together it had the "low fuel" symbol lit up for the first time. This makes me think that the issue has been fixed, but i will confirm later on. I saw the smoked bulbs but just decided to replace them regardless because I didn't know where to get smoked bulbs. Though maybe giving them a light coat of black spray paint would smoke them? Either way the new bulbs light up the cluster way better than before so I have no complaints.

Cant speak for what is local but the VG33E out of a 1st Gen Xterra will bolt in. The VG33E is rated(depending on year and only because of tuning) 170-180HP and 196-202FT LBS. The belt drive in the Xterra is a little different but closest to the Pathfinder. It has higher flowing heads and a not so agressive cam compared to the VG30E. There are a few thing you have to swap from one to the other to make it work, but overall many have been happy with the swap. I already have a donor engine for my 93 that I nees to go through.

Welcome...! for your day time running light, I have seen often the issue with the welds inside the box where they connect on the R50 2001-2004 it is behind the battery....but I have no clue if it is the same of the 1996-2000 ones...

Barry's my name, bferg is my handle. Have a 1999.5 Pathfinder, owned it since 2003 (was just in off lease with 28,000kms) Currently 299,900 kms. Great vehicle, very few problems and quality of the mechanical part have been solid. The previous owner must have driven it on lots of Canadian salted roads as it has lots of rust under the vehicle and two or three spots on each quarter panel. Replaced the timing belt back around 180km as per recommended service, that was a fun experience. Performed some rust restoration on two of the three fenders under the wheel well flairs. The brackets that the flairs clip onto hold mud that accelerated the rust. Also need to rebuild (wire mesh and JBWeld) the rear brake splash guards as the original ones rusted right through. New batteries, few sets of headlights, one rear bulb. Love the BOSE cassette deck (still works), power antenna did fail a few years ago. Searching now for intermittent Day Time Running Lights.

Got this resolved. One of the bulb housings were corroded. Took out the bulb cleaned the contacts the best I could. Now they are operable. I only cleaned the driver side housing and it fixed both.

Lift After that adventure, which included scraping the bottom along rocks for hours straight, the first thing to do was a lift. I went with the classic: LRD 9447s + Bilstein 33-185552 in the rear OME 2928 + KYB Excel-G struts and strut mounts front + 2x K90474 camber bolts total. I bought the fancy proper strut spring compressors and other than one 14mm camber bolt head shearing (after the nut was off) and a bunch of drilling things went pretty smoothly. In the rear I got an extra 2.5" unloaded and and extra 2.7" when loaded with ~150lbs. Not sure what the front ended up as but I'm super happy how it sits (irl the bodyline angle isn't quite as much as seen here). I also have 1" spacers for the front and rear but I'm not sure if I'll ever install them. The ride is great... other than the front shock topout. I had read about this briefly on some other pages but not thought about it too much as its rarely mentioned. If I was to do it again I would go with the OME MD or even light duty springs front front and just pair it with a 1" spacer. I find the topout really annoying when bombing down a 4x4 road and don't really understand why more people don't complain about it. I suspect they might just drive slow offroad. Hopefully the front will sag a bit to give me more travel and I can make a 0.5" spacer for the front to compensate

Side note: While I had the cluster disassembled I thought of adding some metal rings to the gauges. I did it to my BMW E39 a long while ago and ended up looking great so why not do the same with the R50? Here's an example (this is a Maxima): I took measurements and contacted a guy on eBay and since it's the first time he will fabricate rings for an R50, he's going to send me the first set to test. If they work then he will create a listing for them. Just in case anyone is interested. I will definitely create a new post with pictures once I install them and a link to the eBay listing. These will only work on 2001+ R50s (VQ35), not <2000 and not QX4s. Those have different clusters.

Welding BBs can mess stuff up, but I would be surprised if one managed to sever a wire. It might mess up the insulation, which could theoretically allow it to short to another circuit, but I would expect that to blow a fuse on the other circuit rather than take out the ground. Wouldn't hurt to check the work area for obvious burn marks, though.

Very nice write up and investigating. It's refreshing to see a post from a Pathfinder enthusiast. These lift questions from users that can't afford a 4runner are getting old.

Hey, just got my first Nissan (91 Pathfinder xe). I live in Olympia, Washington. I've been working on cars sporadically for the last. 20 or so years. Still no where near an expert though. Haha I've been an IT professional since 2009. I've done a bit of everything as far as IT is concerned....anything from networking to telephony and most things between( minus programming stuff). So that's where most of my expertise lands now a days. I have recently gotten back into mechanical work when I obtained a 1965 Plymouth Baracuda Commando. Anyways my Pathfinder needs a bit of tlc and am looking forward to getting her to 100% and beyond(modding and lifting and stuff.).

Glad I've found what seems to be the best forum out there for the Pathfinder platform, currently in the UK and just started my Pathfinder conversion from a standard unit to what I hope to be a full off grid expedition vehicle, I would love to take this thing everywhere abroad and just travel in it! It's a 2006 manual and I absolutely love it, all i have done so far is do some maintenance, new clutch and put some Davanti Terratoura tyres on it with a gd few trips round north wales and a weekend in the lakes planned later this month, hope to see you guys out there!

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After getting back from the trip with a solid high center, torn up tires, and a bent frame + barely intact power steering line I decided to keep it, lift it, protect it, give it real tires, and maybe some more?

Damn that’s a sweet looking R50 brother. Sent from my iPhone 8 Plus using Tapatalk

The plug wells are supposed to drain into the area under the lower manifold, but the drain is usually blocked with casting flash that they couldn't be bothered to clean out. I cleaned mine up a bit when I had my intake out In hopes that it would make life easier if/when I was in there again. You want real fun, try getting a compression tester with a bent hose to thread into #6, with the intake on.

A little before and after. Cleaned up the rig from last weekends trail run with @RainGoat

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First clean-up in probably 6 months from my last trail ride Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey everyone, I recently added the rear window opening switch to my 1995 XE. I essentially guessed my way through the whole thing, but all went without any real hangups. it's quite a simple procedure if you have a donor truck. If anyone is interested, I could attempt a wtite-up. Just let me know. I may be incorporating the power lock for the hatch as well in the near future.

once set you may find that your stock springs have sagged rear can be measured as E-S= H E = measure ground to the center of the bolt on the stock sway-bar end S = measure ground to the center of the sway-bar anchor on the axle H = Your "ride height" +/- 0.375" of zero means you sitting stock. Negitve numbers beyond that Indicate ammount of coil sag. And yes in this case Positive numbers are a close indicator of total lift in the rear

FWIW I noticed that the console in a mid 90's Pathfinder was two pieces screwed together and that the upper part looked like it was about the size of the depression in the stock console in my 89. I took the 90's console apart and cut off the bottom section until it was the correct size and then attached it to my 89 console and now I have cup holders and the entire install only took a couple of hours. Not quite as nice as the OP, but it works for me. Tom