robinasu

Hello all, My father hit a curb with the back left wheel going 45mph well before my last alignment. The tire hit the curb square and popped. In the process I think he bent the frame of the vehicle. The distance from the top of the tire to the left fender is two inches longer than the right... You can see it from the rear of the car. The rear left portion of the frame is tweaked upwards. Anyway, the car was aligned fine before crappy Wheel Jerks recommended an alignment. I knew I should have said no. The bottom line is I had to take the truck back 4 times because they couldn't get it right. It was great before they touched it. My previous dealer must have been able to deal with the bent frame. So, I was driving out of my complex the other day and I hear a bolt and shims hit the ground. On the left side, the front A-arm spindle bolt fell off. The tip of the bolt was stripped! To get the car to go straight Wheel Jerks had to use more shims than spec's and either ( a ) over-tightened the bolt during the work or ( b ) added too many shims, which did not allow the stock length bolt to engage the threads in the frame completely. I have a feeling ( b ) existed and they just over tightened the bolt. ..very frustrating. Don't ever go to wheel works, they are horrible. Two friends have bad experiences with them as well. Questions: 1. How do you repair the threads in the frame? Should I drill it out and bolt it with a longer bolt and new nut? (not sure this is possible) 2. Do you know the ball park $$$ to have a frame straightened? How do they actually fix the frame? Is it like in a body shop with chains, etc? Any advice would be great. Thanks!

I have been wondering how much the O2 sensor could be affecting my mileage - it is original. I need to clean my MAF too. Is the MAF easy to take out? I forget what holds it on the side of the throttle body.

Those service mofo's are on commision.. Did you check the ECU codes? Check them before you commit! Then, GO TO ANOTHER REPAIR SHOP.

Hi skrillaguerilla, I don't think it is normal. It is very hard and the vehicle shifted smoothly when new. Hey 93blkpathr, I did the same with the same results. Do you know if the accumulator A and B are related to solenoids A and B? I know nothing about auto trans's

Were they more specific about the throttle body? Did they mean you need new injectors or something? Maybe the throttle position sensor or the air flow meter? Maybe all that stuff and labor would be 1650...? The throttle body casting by itself would be hard to break. You need to check your ECU for error codes. Check in the sticky threads at the top of the garage forum for more details. It is easy. I ripped the black plastic cover off without taking the passenger seat. My smog problem was fixed by putting the proper sized resistor in my faulty cyl. head sensor harness connector since the sensor is a MOFO to get to. I passed, but it close. Keep in mind I passed with the AIV system (I have a cali model) disconnected, one (of two) slightly dirty injector (you can see drops of gas hit the throttle butterfly at idle, while the other injector creates a nice mist), and original cat. My EGR system is operational. Also, check all the 1/4" vacuum hoses for leaks and cracks. The main thing for smog is to make sure the ECU can get into closed loop operation. Put the ECU into diag. mode 1 and 2 and check the feedback. My bad cyl. head sensor didn't allow the ECU to get into closed loop mode (closed loop is where the ECU controls the air/fuel mixure), instead I was running rich at all time as indicated by the red ECU light being on all the time in ECU diag. mode 2. In mode two you should see the red and green lights flash at the same time.. this means the mixture ratio is good. Red, of course, means 5% or more rich, and the green light only means at least 5% lean. I think this is correct, but I am going from memory. Check the sticky's. Hope this helps..

Too far to ship for me. I give up my claim.

I am interested in the heads. I am in Norther California. Where are you?

The first side was a pain because the lower arm shifted and the bolts wouldn't line up till I figured out to use a jack to force the arm into correct position. The other side I used the jack to keep the lower arm in place; then it was super easy. The lower ball joints sucked because I was determined not to take off the CV axals. I want to clean my dirty injector bad. Any idea on what kind of difference I will notice, if any? It must not be too bad of a deal because I was able to pass smog.

The 1-2 shift is real hard, it does not clutch at all like the 2-3 or 3-4. I tried adjusting the thottle position sensor to no avail. The A/T test procedure reports no problems. Anybody else dealing with this problem?

Last weekend I ripped the front end of my 88 pathy apart.. why not I said. Anyway.. I had planned to swap out all the bushings with new poly units, replace all the ball joints, idler arm, clean the injectors, and give it a tune-up. I was able to get the bottom ball joints off without taking the front half-shafts out. You do have to remove the snap ring from inside the locking hubs so the shaft can slide out quite a bit. With some creative jack and stand work, it can be done. I had to tighten my wheel bearings because the jackass that put on my new rotors a while back didn't follow the correct procedure. He most likely didn't have a correct socket to tighten the hell out of the hub to take out any play from disassembly. After you tighten the hell out of it you release and tighten to like 2 foot-pounds.. then rotate forward just enough to fasten the lock ring. I just rotated the nut to the next lock ring position on both sides and there was no play from the hubs or suspension. I was nice. The bottom ball joints were the original units (280100k on them) and they were pretty loose. The bottom balls have all the weight on them, so it makes sense that they would be shot. The top ball joints were fine, so I returned the parts I bought to save some cash. The top balls only keep the wheels verticle, so not too much force there. I didn't replace the upper A-arm bushings because there were still solid and I was getting tired. The lower A-arm bushings were good, too. Although, I was pissed that the energy poly kit I bought didn't include the shells for the lower A-arm bushings... it said to re-use the stock shells. Well, that would be cool IF the stock shells COULD be re-used! The stock lower A-arm bushings are MOLDED to the shell, so it is impossible to use them. Talk about slackers. Just a heads up to anyone thinking about do a similar job. My compression bushings were SHOT. The thing is they didn't look too bad. The only thing that hinted to their condition was that the vehicle could not be aligned properly. I also adjusted the vehicle posture by tightening the bars up. I set it at 12 inches to the front of the lower A-arm bolt. Maybe a bit high, but everything looks even. I expected to swap the idler arm out because it was loose and the shop I asked to replace the idler arm bushings said they couldn't find where to put them. I swear repair shops are a JOKE these days. I figured out how to do it in 3 minutes. I greased it all up and it is nice and smooth now! I retured the idler arm for more cash savings. I didn't get to the injectors because I didn't want to drain the coolant. I tried to remove the injectors without removing the throttle body, but it is not possible. Anybody know any tricks? I changed the spark plugs and cap/rotor.. He runs great now. One of my injectors is spraying drops, so I will clean them up when I swap out the water pump, cylinder head sensor, and timing belt. No more pinging. I think the NGK v-power plugs I bought are colder than the bosch units I had before. I would have checked compression but I was darn tired. Besides, it's not like I am going to do anything about that. Maybe I will when I replace the water pump. I greased the brake caliper slides, as well. All in all, it was worth the major pain in the hiney that is was.

My pathy V6 does the same.. white smoke till the vehicle is warmed up. My coolent level is solid, but I burn a bit of 10-40 oil. I passed smog in Cali a couple of months ago, as well. Not sure if it is normal but it doesn't seem to be hurting anything.

I forgot to mention above that my AIV system is totally disconnected and the beast still passed. If I remember correctly the AIV comes on during certain situations.. decel and idle?? I think it comes on during typical rich mixture situations and adds air in the exhaust to burn off the fuel that escapes combustion in the rich situations. I forgot exactly and I don't have the book in fron of me. My point is that the AIV is not a main player in the emissions control game. I think it is there to shave off a couple of % points.. same with the PCV. Even leaky injectors may not be a main component assuming the ECU is getting into closed loop mode because the O2 sensor should detect the rich condition and adjust the injector PWM frequency. Although, if the leaking injectors are just DUMPING fuel the ECU may only be able to adjust the PWM a fixed amount. I think it is either the cat is bad of the ECU is not getting into closed loop mode. I am curious what happened in this case, give us an update if you can!

I just swapped in 6 NGK V-powers, bosch cap/rotor/wires.. after I patched up the cracked 1/4 inch vacuum hoses and timed the beast she ran very smoothly. Hey, what is up with spark plug heat? My old plugs came out really white, which I gather indicates overheating or an overheat. I did overheat one time BAD pulling a trailor up the I-10 grade right before Palm Springs in 95 degrees.. man that was a close one. No fluid left! The Pathfinder V6 really is bulletproof. ..all caused by a cracked radiator cap seal... luckily I was able to coast down the grade and to a gas station. Anyway, I saw the sevice manual had part numbers for hot, normal, and cold.. What do you guys recommend? Hot plugs will cause pinging, right?

Is there a special tool for precision?

How do you guys tighten the front bearing lock nut? Is there a special tool, did you make one, or did you use the old screw driver trick?