clkindred
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Posts posted by clkindred
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You say the cap and rotor was pretty bad, and so you replaced them. I highly suspect the cam position sensor because it is inside the distributor along with the rotor. It appears to be an optical encoder, a disk with slots cut into it along with the sensor that "looks" through it. A new cam sensor can't be obtained by itself, it can only be had with a new distributor. However, I think a new distributor is a good investment because along with the sensor, there is the ignition coil inside as well. These distributors can fail a number of ways, seized bearings (VERY BAD) coil insulation breakdown, cam sensor and the rotor. If the bearings seize, it can trash the drive gear that spins it, and in turn trash the driver's side camshaft. Or it could cause the timing belt to break.
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Two things that have caused my 98 to not start.
1: Bad camshaft position sensor. (Had fuel and spark, but would not start, spark happening at completely wrong time)
2: Broken timing belt. (No spark, distributor not turning with engine due to broken timing belt. Easy to check, remove distributor cap and note rotor position, bump starter and see if the rotor has moved.)
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Where did you disconnect the EVAP line to find the plug? Was it where the EVAP line comes into the engine bay (driver's side)?
Yep, drivers side kinda behind the throttle body if memory serves. Pulled the little hose off the barb and charcoal came out.
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So it starts up and then dies? Will it keep running if you give it a little accelerator pedal?
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Or perhaps I am misunderstanding what you mean by "The wheels have alot of angle when turned at full lock (I think this means high caster angle?) Mechanic said it was because I had such a high lift kit on the vehicle." It could just appear strange because of the lift. but not actually out of spec?
Did you do the lift and the strut replacement yourself?
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You should be able to take the strut shaft nut off to see if it is wearing like before, the weight of the vehicle won't let the strut go anywhere. Although if the nut is tight that should be enough confirmation because it can't move around and oval out the hole otherwise. Loose cam bolts will definitely cause popping and any alignment it had is out the window now. The same thing happened to me when I installed my AC lift springs, I installed it with new KYB struts and two cam bolts per side, I did not torque the cam bolts figuring the shop would have to loosen them to align it anyway. After a while, clunking noise appeared. After I torqued them to spec I got another alignment and they have not moved since.
Not to knock your shop, but it sounds like you should try a different shop. blaming the angle of the wheel at full lock on the lift sounds fishy to me. If it can be brought into alignment with the wheels strait, everything else should be right too.
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I half deleted mine after it sent charcoal through the evap lines all the way to the intake, plugged up the lines solid. After blowing out the charcoal out of the lines and tapping on the canister until it was empty, I put it all back together. The system does a self test periodically to check for leaks by letting the intake pull a vacuum on the system, if there is a leak like a bad gas cap seal, or something else it will cause a SES light and a code. I'm not sure if it does this test every run cycle or every number of them, but before I discovered the charcoal problem, clearing the code would have it stay gone for a while, a few days to up to a week. This made me think several times the problem was gone, only to have the code come back. Perhaps only certain conditions like high engine RPM allow the self test to happen, so with easy driving you could dodge a code maybe?
I can't recall all the components sending signals to the ECU in the system, but I think there are at least 3 valves and a vacuum sensor to deal with. The signals are not constant, such that the ECU only looks for the vacuum signal when the self test is commanded. There is also a vacuum cut valve that shuts the system off from the intake during engine start so it dose not provide a vacuum leak. I also believe it monitors the state of the valves so if one sticks it throws a code. Much more than I wanted to try to spoof, so I reinstalled everything and the whole system works like it should, only with no charcoal to adsorb fuel vapors. No codes since.
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Yea, no real reason for V8. But it would be nice to be able to pass a slow car on a two lane road at 60mph without needing half a mile of empty opposing lane.
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Yea, and not being connected together with the timing belt, perhaps any contacting part simply pushed the other out of the way. I did not pay attention to say, the cams moving a little when turning over the crank. This experience has made the timing belt change on these engines much less stressful for me. I'm not ignoring the possibility of damage, but the things that worried me before like "the cam moved, what do I do?" Or, "there is no matching mark on the oil pump to match with the crank sprocket, how do I know if this is right?" These worries have been eliminated. The marks are matched for the cams to set their position for TDC, the tooth count from the left cam (driver side) to the mark of the crank sprocket determine where the crank should be in relation to the cam, and tooth count between cams confirms their relation to each other.
My little joke about the V8 swap, while waiting for my parts and considering the top ends could be trash, I went over a few options, replacement vehicle, replacement engine (VG33E), rebuild heads, or replace engine (bigger engine). Although an engine swap with a different engine is probably the least wise path to take, I can't stop thinking about it...
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I'm just happy to have the pathy back. One thing to note, I have read while changing the t belt, that one should not force the cams in either direction while the belt is off. Makes sense because that could create the same contact with the pistons that we all dread. Well, because my timing was all scrambled by the broken belt, I had no choice but to wrench the cams to their timing marks. In fact, I spun both cams and crank around and around checking to see if I could "feel" anything wrong, and to get them lined up. This carelessness of mine also seemed to have done zero harm.
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Bad news.... no V8 swap for me because the PATHY LIVES!!!
I'm thinking about going out and buying a lottery ticket.Put it back together and it fired right up! Runs like nothing ever happened. Getting the timing set up was fun, because the belt broke and scrambled the positions of the cams and crank.
I'm going to go get some dinner because I have not eaten all day.
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Thanks for the replies, I received my parts and I'm in the middle of putting the new w pump and t belt in. The old belt had literally broken, snapped, with what looks like half an inch missing. The two broken ends did not "fit" back together.
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Thanks for the prayers! I was able to twist the belt 90 degrees between cam sprockets, that's how I determined the tension.
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Well guys, I was driving to work and the engine died. No warning, no drama, just stopped. I coasted over the top of the hill I was on and over to the side of the road. I quick look for obvious problems turned up nothing. So I called in to work saying I would not make it in, and had it towed back home. Looking first at either fuel or ignition problems because there was no indication of mechanical problems. Pulled the #1 plug and checked for spark, nothing, no spark.
I had replaced the distributor not too long ago with a Nissan unit, I pulled the cap off to look for signs of the coil arching, or just issues with the coil in general. The coil looked good, and ohm'd out the same as the old coil I had out of the old dizzy. (The old dizzy had a bad cam angle sensor, coil was still good) although I realize you need a high voltage tester to really find issues in coils unless the winding breakdown is major.
It was at this point I found the rotor was not spinning with the engine, I'm thinking "that's not good" So I pull the whole dizzy out to check to see if it is seized and broke the drive gear off the bottom. Again, everything looked great. After re-confirming that the dizzy does not turn with the engine, I figured the timing belt had broken. I ordered a t-belt and water pump kit manufactured by AISIN thinking the quickest way to tell if the valves are trashed is to put a new belt on and try to run it. I can't really compression test the cylinders without the cams turning it time with the crank, at least not that I know of.
Now I get to the teardown onto the timing cover, which was fairly quick because I had been in there before a few years ago to do the water pump and t belt. I confirmed a broken timing belt, kinda made a mess in there with belt fibers all over. The original t belt and water pump were replaced at 127,000 miles. 27,000 miles overdue, but other than the leaking water pump, the t belt looked fine, although not as tight as a new one. The water pump and t belt were local auto parts store sourced, I think the w pump was beck arnley and I can't remember the maker of the belt. I'm at about 198,000 miles now.
So now I'm doing three things, waiting for my parts to arrive, hoping I did not trash the valves, and pondering what could be the cause of the belt breaking so soon. I noticed the replacement w pump had started to leak, as well as the passenger side cam seal. Could those sources of contamination ruin the belt?
I'm holding out hope on the top end being OK, I did not notice any mechanical banging, clanking or clicking when it stopped. I recall different opinions regarding the VG33 being an interference engine or not. Perhaps it is not and a broken t belt is not an automatic scrap metal maker. Or it is, and luck may save you?
Anyway, sorry for the long post, I will update the fate of the engine when I learn it.
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Are you getting the lift springs? Different shocks are not really needed with that lift, I did not get any, and if you do get longer shocks you will need to extend the rear brake lines IIRC.
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WOW! I grew up in Grand Junction! Dang, GJ makes the trip out to Moab soo much easier. I remember taking trips over into Utah to ride dirtbikes and mountain bikes in places like green river, rabbit valley and such.
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Where in Colorado are you located if you don't mind saying? One of your pics has some distant mountains that look REAL familiar.
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I seem to remember a split boot kit being almost the same amount of time and effort as pulling the cv's and putting on real boots. They are a real headache, particularly the inner because it's way up next to the diff where you can't reach.
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Hello and welcome! I think your best bet is a junkyard, even if you have to travel a bit to get to one. Another option would be custom made brackets. The brush guard is not supposed to be strong enough for mounting a winch on, so mounting the guard is a little simpler than an offroad bumper. You can also increase your odds by posting pics of your vehicle
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Cool! Glad I'm not the only one who managed to get the pathy out for Labor Day.
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I'll reply to bump this but I don't have any experience with your tranny, but just to be clear, yours has the electronic knob/switch for 4WD operation right?
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Shoot! I had an unplanned wheeling trip on Labor Day, sorry not to have invited anybody, but I thought I was going backpacking for one night. It was cool to see snow still on the ground in spots. I posted some pics in a member's thread in the pic forum.
http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/40536-adventure-time/
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Mine failed a while back, it was the camshaft angle sensor that is inside the distributor that stopped working properly. The distributor looked to be in VERY good condition given its age, but that sensor flaked out. Others have reported coil pack breakdown and failed bearings to be ways it can also fail.
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Ah, I just thought this was the reason for looking for replacement wheels, and affordable replacements. Nothing lasts forever
97 won't start
in 96-2004 R50 Pathfinders
Posted
Dang, sorry to hear the new dizzy did not fix it. The one I got was from Nissan FWIW. So if we stick to the fuel option, what can effect fuel delivery? How do you know you have fuel OP? Are your sparkplugs wet with fuel when pulled? Can you smell raw fuel out the tailpipe when trying to start it? Did you check for fuel pressure at the fuel rail? Can you hear the fuel pump hum for a couple seconds when the key is first turned to the "on" position?
If you have gas soaked spark plugs when inspected after a minute of trying to start it, then that settles it in my mind. It's getting fuel all the way to where it needs to be. If not, then how far is the fuel "making it"? If pressure is present in the fuel rail, then I think the injectors are not being triggered.
Does anyone know if the cam position sensor in the dizzy also determines when to fire the injectors? It seems logical that not only does the computer need to know the position of the crank to determine ignition timing, but injector timing as well. My thought is PO had the dizzy out and did not put it back in timed correctly. Replacement dizzy is placed in same bad timing.
9wire, does your rotor point to the #1 cylinder wire when engine is set to TDC?