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Bulk update for the past weeks of "What did I do..." Truck's still apart, coming up on a month now, but it's pretty close to being back together. Maybe all done this weekend. Here's how things were looking... Transmission was nasty. I bought myself a pressure washer at some point and zapped this clean. I can't believe don't have a pic of the cleaned unit with the 4:1 case installed. I did do this, though... Maybe it'll make for a nice junkyard find one day! Cleaned out the underbelly! What a mess. Was loaded with Sedona red clay. You can't see it, but I also sheared a flex plate bolt at the 6 o'clock position. That sucked to extract. I had intentions to replace the RMS, but like many people have discovered, it's not the seal, but the stupid gasket strip of the seal bracket. After reading up on what all it actually entailed, I said screw it. Cleaned up the area and laid down some gasket maker all over it. Should be fine/I'll regret it some other day. I did pull down the lower oil pan to clean up all the oil build-up over the years. Everything's way cleaner now. Once I had the transmission attached, I changed out the motor mounts. Almost didn't because of how terrible access is on the passenger side, but I'm glad I did... Installed a transmission cooler... Ran into a snag with some crappy catalytic converters off ebay last weeked...they absolutely do not fit the truck. After numerous failed fitment attempts, I eventually built a jig with the OE assemblies and fitted the new stuff into the jig to see how bad was and maybe if it could be reworked...nope. It's terribly misaligned, practically every component of it. The amount of incompetency feels deliberate. OE units jigged up: New units on the jigs. Holy gaps/alignment/crap! Since the upper cats weren't marked L/R, I tried every combination and rotation possible. What you see is the "best" combination, and also the only one that was close to being feasible. At this point, I'm just planning to clean up the OE units and put them back on. I'm past the return date, so these are a loss likely. Not even worth the effort to rework; the catalytic honeycombs are probably crap anyway. The OE units are probably still fine, but this main overhaul was just to totally refresh everything, since I kept throwing a P0430 (catalytic converter efficiency) over the years. The upstream O2 sensors were the original sensors, and judging by their condition, it may be the real cause of the code. L to R: LH & RH upstream (both OE), LH & RH downstream (both aftermarket). I don't blame the previous owner for never changing them. They're such a pain. The heat shields alone probably added an hour to the job, because they block the sensor hex. I still need to get the cats and a new exhaust on...hopefully no surprises there. The other day I also realized that t-case shifter arm is different between an R50 and a WD22 Xterra, which is what my donor t-case came from. The Xterra arm is longer, which prevented shifting into 2H. Swapping the arms was a bit of a pain...the pins that hold the arm onto the shaft are wedged in place. Took penetrant, heat, and a hammer and punch to get it out. I was able to get them swapped tonight, so shifting operations are back to normal.

Also had the engine torn down to change out the thermostats, gaskets on the rear water pipe, knock sensor, rebuild the fuel injectors, PCV, valve cover gaskets, etc. If you're going to rebuild them, get a kit with o-rings, pintle caps, and filters. Also get a filter removal tool; I was unable to remove a filter without one. Carb and choke cleaner with one of those pulse controllers off Amazon worked well to clean them, but it was a little on the messy side. And while not a Pathfinder, I tore down my Frontier on Sunday and got it to the body and paint shop. Time to bring it back to life! These pics are of the "good" side. The hood, roof, and passenger bedside are really bad. Paint shop will also do a spray-in bedliner (had a drop-in). Should have it back in a month, then will put new windshields, lenses, and rear bumper on. Btw, driving it without windshields is a blast. Driving without mirrors...not so much.

Hi Folks, New member from the Central Coast in California. Here to absorb knowledge and share my daily. Specs: 2003 Pathfinder LE Auto Transfer Case & Transmission Front Lift: AC 2in lift coils, KYB extended Struts Rear Lift: NRC9449 Springs, Bilstein 5100 extended Shocks Wheels: U.S. Wheels Series 304, 15x8, -19 offset, 3.75 backspacing Tires: Falken Wildpeak AT3, 31x10.5 Instagram: Robertiko_138 My other car is: 1989 Volvo 240, dropped on BNE Dynamics coilovers Next Mods: Underbody Protection, Front Locker, Rear LSD, Sliders Images are from recent trip to Anza Borrego State Park

Thanks so much for your thoughts! I did have a small coolant leak in the thermo element of the throttle body. That seems to be a relatively common issue. Not sure if that would be a big enough deal to cause overheating under heavy load -- I wasn't losing much coolant -- but perhaps it impacted the pressure in the system. I've replaced the oring and sealed everything with RTV. (Great how-to here: https://www.clubxterra.org/threads/thermo-element-idle-sensor-rebuild.38432/). Would have replaced the whole thermo element, but that part is shockingly expensive. Hopefully that will solve the coolant issue. The fluid itself is still very new, as is the water pump and thermostat. Regarding the low power frustration -- I'm glad to hear that this is probably just a result of the engine being underpowered and the transmission being frustrating. Next time I'll try turning off overdrive and just being willing to run at a higher rpm for more power. Maybe that will also help the fan run a bit faster, and higher speed will help airflow over the radiator as well. I'll post an update and let y'all know how it goes!

This setup should serve you well! Cool to see you got it all put together. Props to lokka on the 5 month shipping... lol. I think another lokka writeup would be great to have - there's so many details and moving parts, especially if you're coming into this as a novice mechanic.

Update Pt2 Way back in April 2021 I ordered a Lokka and finally received it in December. Due to work killing us slowly with overtime, I just started working with in in June. I wanted to go the route that @PathyDude17went by getting a front 4.636 diff and a rear 4.636 lsd diff to pair with the Lokka. Rear diff I did some homework on NPORA and FSM about choosing and removing the diff, so I set out to the junkyard with tools and found a 2001 Xterra with the orange "LSD oil only" sticker. Door jam said HG46 so I started wrenching. Never bothered checking backlash or runout on the ring gear, but I couldn't see or feel any issues with it. Install went pretty smooth. I of course used a new gasket, and lsd additive. One thing i noticed is that there doesn't seem to be any torque spec for the brake line where it attaches to the drum, so I just went by feel on that. Front diff I found a 2000 QX4 that had the HG46 indicated on the firewall plate so I grabbed it from salvage. Removal is pretty easy if you know how to crack loose the driveshaft nuts and remove cv axles. The front diff, I verified runout and backlash before I started getting too far into the lokka install. Installing the lokka wasn't too awful, it was just time consuming and the printed instructions aren't worded very well. Thankfully Tyler has his install video on YouTube to show us how it's done in normal english with good visuals. I went ahead and ordered the associated items from the links on his YouTube channel and found the punches very handy. I ended up not using most of the oil seals from the parts order because I didn't see any evidence of oil leakage on the donor vehicle and removing the seals was going to be a time consuming pain. I stupidly put my house up for sale on the market while I had my pathfinder on jack stands, oil on the driveway and diff parts on my work bench, so I really had to kick things in gear and get this put back together before people started showing up to check out the home. From what I remember, there were some diff parts that were particularly tough to separate that Tyler didn't have trouble with and a part or two that came off really easy where Tyler had to get creative to remove. I suppose no two diffs are the exact same. I did have to shim mine to get it into tolerance. My gap was too large so I cut up some .005" shim stock with scissors to make some spacers to get the unit in spec. The hardest part about the diff was installing into the subframe, that was definitely a two person job without using a trans jack. With the Lokka in the diff and the diff in the Pathfinder, the unit seemed to perform as expected by turning wheels and driveshaft by hand in the various scenarios. With the humble house being turned into a public showroom, I would have to wait to test it on the trails for a couple weeks while I waited for life to settle for a bit. Results: The HG46 diff set made a noticeable difference in acceleration. Acceleration wise, it felt like i went back to my 31.6" tires from my 32.87" tires When I was rushing to get the Pathfinder put together and moved for house selling, I did notice the LSD stiffness was about 50-60 ft lbs by feel. How I figure that is by having the rear axle on jack stands, tires on, torque wrench set to 100 ftlbs (lug nut specs), I could get about halfway (my super calibrated arms) to 100 ftlbs on the lugnut before the lsd would give in and let the wheel slip. Obviously, i'm measuring a couple inches out by pulling on the lug nuts and not the center of the axle, and the torque wrench angle plays a factor and my arms aren't a measuring device but a weak speculative data point is still a data point. It has only rained once since I swapped diffs so I don't have much wet street experience, but I did take it around the neighborhood when it did rain. wheel slippage didn't occur on gentle driving. I did intentionally stomp the gas for a turn and both tires lit up to my delight. Offroad, the lsd has exceeded my expections. I usually don't dare driving 2wd on Ozarks river rock because I sunk my tacoma pretty good doing that before, but I figured I'd see what the lsd would do. I could feel the rear tires slightly slipping and digging. All it takes is one tire to become the one wheel wonder for a single rotation and you're sunk. The back tires worked in unison and we kept chugging forward. Further on the trail, I kept it in 2wd and cleared some familiar spots that are prone to back wheel spin, but none of that happened. With the star of the project being the Lokka, I drove deeper into the trail to find the tricky stuff. There's a spot where you flex out and 3 wheel it that requires momentum if you're working from bottom to top of trail. Lokka crawled at the slowest possible speeds without issue. I made efforts to climb to rock steps. I had mixed success with that. Video shows the lokka working, but the driver needs more IQ/effort and the tires need less air pressure. Descending trails with lokka is normal unless you stab the throttle while turning, then the lokka lets you know it's there by resisting the steering wheel inputs. Climbing trails with lokka is different because there's times it tells you it's in charge depending on the terrain, steering angle and throttle input. Turning radius can be increase at times with the Lokka. I found that using 2wd is more rewarding with the LSD because it has easy steering, However, the Lokka will let you get the highlight moments of wheeling that you're going to remember the rest of the year. Hopefully after some real estate transactions, I can go back to the trails with 20 psi in the tires and more time to get a better feel. Also, I have tons of detailed photos of the Lokka install, included shim installation. If there isn't one already, anyone want a post with tons of photos for a Lokka install walkthrough?

Aftermarket parts are SUCH @!*%E these days. It's so hard replacing things on my '95 because you end up returning it 3 times before you get one that fits. My original starter died last summer and they went through 3 units on the tester before I got a good one... Kept the oem one and had it rebuilt at a shop as a spare. Those o2s are a little past their prime lol. I had a 5mpg increase on my 2002 xterra after changing the primaries. Couldn't believe it. Can easily get almost 20mpg on the freeway now driving nicely. Before the thing couldn't go past 15mpg no matter how slow or gingerly you drove it.

Just ran across this forum. Hoping i can learn a few things. I am kind of new to owning a Pathfinder/Teranno. I've had many Nissans over the years, 520, 620, 720, D21, Sentra, A60 first Gen Titan, currently own a 2nd gen Titan XD and now I found a JDM Nissan Teranno R50 R3mR 4x4 with the Td27Ti engine. This is my first small diesel. I was a Nissan dealer tech for 17 years and for the next 18 I have worked at Nissan North America factiry as an engineering technologist. My only real experience with a pathfinder was on the USA version from what the customers brought in. I have a lot of things I would like to do to mine as time and money allows, and that was a long time ago. Hopefully I can get get back up to speed.

Not sure it's your cup of tea, but I built something, I call a "deer guard" that incorporates a front receiver and will be the start of what I build skid plates off (my thinking is once it's all tied back & integrated to the missing link, it will add strength and rigidity as a system). I did not want to cut or remove my bumper so my plan was to use a removable winch carrier (may come in handy to pull to the rear??) I'm ready to paint, but haven't run across what I want (big can of commercial Rustoleum satin black, over spray bed liner), supply issues?? I'll add pics after I paint it.

Yeah the 3.3 I had was a solid engine, but boy she screamed when having to go at high speeds haha. The 3.5 has an extra like 100hp which shines there.

Hi all. How are you?

Many thanks for the feedback Slartibartfast!

Update: Both Tire Carriers have been sold. Glad I was able to save them from the scrap yard and they're going to good use! In the meantime, I have an r50 OEM brushguard for sale as well. Asking $150, it's in great shape and I believe is aluminum (based on the weight - it's slightly lighter than it looks however not 100% sure). Contact me if you or someone you know is interested, open to shipping however buyer will pay shipping costs. - Carl (310)469-8971

Thanks again everyone. With the coolant and evap leaks fixed, overheating seems to be less of a dramatic problem. Pushing it hard on a super hot day still made the gauge want to tick up slightly, but overall it definitely feels like it can handle these uphills much better. Thanks for the tip on an easy bleeding too - that'll help as well. Turning overdrive off didn't fix the aggressive downshifting - I guess it wasn't making it all the way up to that gear. But letting the transmission do what it wants to do seems to be pretty manageable. When it downshifts, it will hit 3.5k rpm and accelerate for about 5 or 10 seconds to get the speed back up, before shifting back up again. Without having to worry about overheating, this actually feels fine and is much more fun to drive. Thanks for the help!

I've heard of people doing it. No drag until you need it, unlike the clutch fan. You can turn it off for water crossings, so that's cool, if that's a thing you do. But it's got more parts to fail, and if the fan motor itself dies, you can't bodge it to limp home like you can with a clutch fan. It's an additional load on the alternator. I've read they struggle to move as much air as the clutch fan. I've considered an e-fan for mine. It would be nice to free up a little power and get rid of the vacuum cleaner howl at high revs when the clutch is locked up. But the fan clutch is there already, and it's reliable.

Looks great! I somehow get trail rub in the rear that caused me to break some of the fender flare clips with 31X10.5 tires, 3.75" backspacing, and 33-185552 Bilstien 2" extended shocks... I'll be interested in seeing what solution you come up with.

Build update! Man, it takes forever to get upgrades on this thing. The 31.6" General Grabber AT2 tires were about 8 years old, getting close to the wear bars, cracked, chunked and starting to leak. While I recommend Grabber all terrains, I wanted to change things up so I went with the Milestar Patagonia MT. Went up a size 33"x11.5" (285 75r 16) Front tire fitment Driving home from the tire shop required a 7 point turn to get out to the street and then I had to route home using left turns so I could swing wider due to severe rubbing. It did successfully clear the strut with my 4.0 backspacing wheels. I had to cut over an inch of the front bumper and up to an inch on the fender to get it to become driveable. It still rubs, so there's more trimming to be done. With this particular setup, the passenger tire rubs the sheet metal shield that protects the brake lines in the passenger wheel well at full lock. I'm going to have to keep and eye on the guard and be prepared to step in with some new ideas if it starts to let go. Rear tire fitment: Rear tires fit great for city driving. They will even tuck during some urban flex testing, but the trail fitment is another story. First wheeling trip started snapping fender flare clips after some immediate unavoidable hard rubbing. It appears to rub and pull the flare from in from of the tire... or maybe it's on the back side by the mudflap? It's not hitting the upper portion though. It ultimately caused me to lose a flare on the trail. So I'm debating either going flareless or finding some black flares from salvage since finding bronzed gray colored pathfinders is impossible. Tire performance The Patagonia MT's have a center strip of tight knight lugs that provide a smooth quiet contact patch. Since the tires are rated for a stupid amount of air pressure, I filled them up to 40 psi (checked a couple months later and found 45 psi?) and sure enough, they are no louder than the bald all terrains that I just tossed out. You can hear the side lugs contacting asphalt with their typical MT growl if you corner or brake hard enough to squish the side walls, but typical cruising is silent. One thing I noticed is that at high psi, the agility for quick turns or swerves is very poor. Feels like you're trying to corner with marshmallow tires. At lower psi, it's slightly improved, but more noise is present as your contact patch includes more side lugs. Wet weather performance is good. Trail performance is good thus far, however I haven't tested these at low pressure yet. At 40+ psi, I did a few miles on rocks, dirt and mud and had no issues finding traction, likely due to new/deep tread and expections set to the previous tire set's performance. Second trail run, I had them at 30 psi and found that 30 psi wasn't quite wanting to grab and hold the rock ledges that I wanted to climb, but other than that, they performed as expected. One thing to note is that every other lug will pick up gravel about every stinkin' tire rotation so keep that in mind if you have cars with expensive windshields driving behind you.

I've checked out theirs. Not bad. Kinda close. Maybe not quite so hi of clearance. Keep the washer rez and breather box safe. Plus I dont like the round blinkers. Lol And most of all... Maaannnn!! I dont want to build my own. This ain't tinker toys. If I'm paying that type of money, I would think it should come ready to bolt up. Am I wrong? Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

Truthfully, 90-95% of Pathfinder owners are not the target market. That’s the reason why there isn’t a market for stuff like this. Most Pathfinder/Nissan owners would own a Toyota or Jeep if they could afford it. Very few people are actual Nissan fans and simply buy because they’re cheap or couldn’t find something else. Buying roof rack that is 1/4 of the value of a car may not even be a smart decision in the long run. Still, I’m sure the amount of work OP has put in was exhaustive.

Check fuse 24 (7.5A, column 1, row 6). This supplies power to both the Smart Entrance Control Unit (which controls lighting and door locks) and the gauge cluster at all times. Each has a 2nd fuse that supplies power when the ignition is at ON or START, which explains why nothing works when the truck is off, and why the trip odometer resets when turned off.

I put a ram/cold air intake i put slash as it doesnt pick up direct cold air and a exhaust and picked up about 3mpg to make 17 with the over sized tires

You can make it a little more efficient. Look into an exhaust. Karmann has a nice sounding mangnaflow? (I can't remember the brand) and I know the VG motors response very well to a cat back exhaust. Well have to ask him if he saw any MPG improvements from his exhaust. You can replace the O2's if they are original (just fronts, rears don't affect milage) it might help. And yeah, having drive train fluids served can marginally help too. Checking universal joints along the drive shaft can also be a worth while venture, if they are worn due to corrosion, for example, that can cause excessive strain on the engine. But by far the best mpg mod for the pathfinder is manual front hubs. You lose the option of 4WD on the move. But I've had mine for a few years with no issues. I had about a 2 mpg increase before the exhaust issues. So if I were you, I'd look into manual hubs, they definitely help. -Kyle