leojharris

PROBLEM SOLVED! And thank god it was what it was! ... So the knocking I was hearing (see the sound file in first post) started getting louder and louder. When I ran the AC, it even got worse. I was sure my pathfinder was croaking. Sure it was a 'deathrattle' of some kind. Anyway. Long story short. It was my original Nissan drive belts which were losing 1 to 1.5 inch chunks along their length! When these gaps hit the drive pullies, I'd hear that pop/knocking noise. Yes; for the past month or so; I got seriously . ... ... Hilarious. Anyway. Thanks for the posts. Belts are changed as of today. My ride has never sounded so quiet!

Thanks for the ideas and comments everyone. As of this morning the noise seems to have disappeared. The only thing I did yesterday was check the oil and finding it needing a quart ... added a quart. I haven't heard the noise today. But I will say that yesterday, when it was happening and when leaning over the engine ... the knocking was definitely emanating from both sides of the engine, around the valve cover area ... and it was happening in this sort of "out of phase' stereo affect. I'll keep my ear out for it again and will see if I can better isolate it with a stethescope of some kind. Thanks again ...

If lifter related then what is the usual scenario to repair? Is it a possibly terminal (as in engine death) problem or just noisy? Expensive to repair?

Thanks for the replies ... I'll go through your suggestions this week sometime. And regarding the question of whether it happens all the time or no ... First, I just noticed it today .. and second, I would have to answer that No .. it doesn't happen all the time. After driving a few miles earlier, and upon arriving home, it had ceased. But later it started again. weird.

It differs ... on the slow and mild accelerations, it definitely does increase ... but on the last and much harder/faster acceleration, there is a bit of a delay before any change is heard in the clacking noise ... Very strange. Thanks for the comment ... I'll check the shroud (I did notice the other day that it is torn/coming loose at the bottom. Another thing I forgot to mention was that last week I put a new distributor in (salvage pull from a 93) but the trucks been running fine since then.

Hey .. So just today I noticed a rather definite knocking/clacking noise coming from under the hood. Leaning over the engine compartment seems to indicate the sound is coming from under both the right and left valve covers, sort of an offset right left stereo clacking if you will. But I'm not sure... Anyway ... I hate it and don't know what it is ... Here's a link to an MP3 I just recorded in the driveway; the sound is quite discernible in it: ... MP3: The noise my truck is making! ... If anyone can comment on what that possibly is, please do so. The truck was a quart or so low on oil, which I remedied, but the knocking is still there. Thanks in advance. .joel

Thanks, that's what I thought. Anyway, I think my problem is that I stripped some distributor gears when trying to get the old rotor off. The rotor was positively FROZEN on the distributor shaft and I was pretty wreckless with twisting and pulling it. Seems with the rotor lock nut in place and everything, I've now got about 1 full inch of left to right rotational play in the distributor axle (that the rotor rests upon) and a little manual re-aligning got the car to start fine. But I still think I'm going to need to change the entire distributor now ... Has anyone heard of this happening before? I mean, destroying a distributor by twisting the rotor to much? Sucks but at least I got it running halfway decent ... the rotor will most likely get more and more out of sync/line as I drive it but will have to last for a week at least ...

Hi ... Just picked up a new cap rotor and wires and have replaced everything with the new components but now the truck won't start... I just turns over a few times and <THUNK!> freezes. Does this each time with a very pronounced <THUNK!> noise after about 4 or 5 turn overs. If I remove the coil wire from the cap, the truck just turns over without ever stopping or <THUNKING!> ... but as soon as I put the coil wire back it exhibits the same problem. I'm pretty sure I got the spark plug wires all attached to the corresponding number designated on the new cap (1,2,3,4...etc.) ... but not sure. When standing over the engine, at the front of the truck, I am counting the plugs like so: front most left =1 front most right =2 middle left =3 middle right =4 rear most left =5 rear most right =6 ... Is that the correct number designation that I should follow with the wires from the cap? Really wierd problem. Thought it would be a no brainer type operation ... Thanks for any quick assistance; I've got it torn apart in the driveway as I type ...

Much gratitude. I was so freaking at the beach. We thought we were going to have to drive 100 miles at 40mph ... (not real sure how fast you can go for sustained periods in 4x4) Thanks again ...

I don't have manaul hubs ... don't know if that's the impression I gave ... But otherwise ... I just switched back to 2 wheel drive and started driving. Are you saying I should change to REVERSE after switching back to 2 wheel drive? Thanks for the comments BTW.

My tranny has been hanging in the high end of the first two gears of late. Takes a long time for it to shift ... uncomfortably long. This has become more pronounced after a surf trip last weekend when I used the 4X4 drive in some rather deep sand for most of the day; also, same day, upon taking the tranny back to 2x2 drive ... it remained stuck in 4x4 for about 10 minutes. Anyway, today I checked the tranny fluid (engine warm and running, ran the shifter through all automatic gears and then left it in PARK while running as I checked it): the dip stick shows levels about a half inch over the indicated HOT levels. It shows this same thing after each check. 1. Does the above stated process of checking the tranny fluid look correct 2. What sort of adverse affects will too much tranny fluid cause? Does anyone have a ballpark what it might cost to have the tranny serviced and flushed at a Nissan dealership? My truck's got about 150k miles on it and I'm beginning to stress about the transmission ... Any comments would be appreciated. .jbh

i haven't used my rear wiper since buying my 95 pathfinder about a year ago. this weekend, i decided to put a fuse in and begin using it (there wasn't a fuse installed). as soon as i turned the rear wiper on, it began working as you'd expect, but as soon as i tryed to turn it off ... nothing happened, it just kept wiping. to get the wiper to turn off, i had to actually turn the car off. any ideas? bad switch maybe?

thanks ...

hey there. i just put a new set of door speakers in my 95 pathfinder. they are fairly cheap components (forget size, fit perfectly in door). what i'm wondering is this ... are the crossovers used for the door speaker and the tweeters built into the original pathfinder speaker that i took out of the door or are the crossovers actually seperate and in line before the tweet and door speaker? i simply hooked the component speakers up where the single mid was originally located in the door; didn't touch the wiring a bit. the tweets are still running. i'm not getting very good reproduction through the mid ranges is why i ask ... but some serious and definite low end tones ... i'd hate to just be sending mids/lows to these new components as they also incorporate a tweeter. thanks in advance.

anyway, after checking the plugs and running the truck for another 20 or so miles, things seem to be clearing out of the system; i also put in more gas as it was running around a 1/4 tank, just to cut whatever remained of the additive. it's running back to mostly normal now ... idle and overall running seems to be way 'smoother' than before ... another thing i did was remove the cap from the cap/rotor assembly, the contacts in the cap had this wierd white flaky build up on them ... pretty thick and so i just sanded each contact till i saw silver. same thing for the arm contact on the rotor ... don't know if that contributed to anything or not.

yep. the plugs say ngk on them ...

i'm not going to do it today, but may this weekend; can you tell me where the brake booster line is? i read about this on the seafoam bottle. i've also got a repair manual that might tell me .. it's a 95 XE that i'm working on ... thanks for the input. joel.

ooohh, like busting stuff loose from inside the tank itself? right ... i was stuck on thinking about the additives functions within the post-filter system, valves, etc. .. will probably change the filter again just to be sure . joel

i'm not the most savy of mechanics, but is the above quoted text correct? by my reckoning, which is oft times way off btw, it seems like the additives affects would not impact the fuel filter. i thought the flow through the gas through the filter would be something like this: [tank] ----> [filter] ----> [engine/combust] ----> (exhausted) if this is correct, how could the junk loosed by the additive affect the filter? want to make sure before i replace the filter again. thanks, joel.

check out the plug i just pulled; what's up with that wierd notch down the middle of the contact?

here's what's happened: a week ago i ran completely out of gas; after filling up the truck ran like hell, wouldn't idle without stalling; rps dipping up and down to 0; ran fine at high accelerations and when flooring it. a friend suggested i change the fuel filter in case junk got sucked up into the line and clogged it. i did this and the truck ran like a new one; i also added a can of seafoam additive to help clean things up. today, not a week after putting in the new filter, the truck is running freaky again, stalling at idle, sputtering, and noticeable *black* smoke during the sputtering points. smoke smells sort of like that additive burning or some other sort of slight chemical smell (not oil, to be sure). the black smoke is what's different about a week ago ... anybody have any suggestions on where to start digging? i'm going to check the plugs today. also, another mechanic i know said the additive i put in might be knocking carbon loose from within the fuel system and this could be passing out of the system. does this sound possible? thanks for any assistance, joel.

hi . i have a screwed up gas gauge. after a fill up (and $55 bucks or so), the gas gauge reads half tank after just 50 miles of travel. the last half of the gauge dwindles away over the remaining 240 miles or so that i tend to get out of a tank. when i first got the truck and after the first fill up tihs really freaked me out. anyway, it's a livable situation but would love to find out what i might do to make it register or progress along it's course of showing diminishing gas reserves in a more regular and accurate fashion. any tips? thanks. joel.

I haven't changed the tranny fluid as it was at level and looked real clean, so figured it was alright. the timing belt comment is sort of wierd, don't know the mechanics of how that would work. i've had the truck for about a month and i figured the timing belt had been changed as the belt cover nuts all had a little shine on the edges like they'd been removed recently. i'm not sure, though. otherwise, the shifit is alright; just in that super steep, high RPM first to second jump i get the stutter. what's a shifter solenoid anyway? I have a repair manual if that helps.

hey there . just a quick question regarding the shifting on a 95 XE V6. 110k miles or so. when flooring it from around 5 miles per hour, in the tightest power band gear or whatever, as it shifts from 1st to 2nd (may be 2nd to 3rd, dunno) I get a slight sort of double jerk or something before the gear finally changes and torque is properly applied. it only happens on that most aggressive of accelerations and never at any of the more moderate accelerations and gear shifts; since i don't floor it like that too much, i haven't thought much about it. anyway, sort of wierd, not violently jerking or anything between gears, just seems to be trying to make it's mind up for a second and then it's fine. the whole thing, between gears, lasts about .25 seconds. is this a regular pathfinder phenomenon? does it <shiver> harken the demise of my tranny? otherwise, the tranny feels fine through all gears, except maybe reving just a bit to high and long before shifting. thanks. .joel.

Bolts are a new idea for me. What is the benefit of bolts? Will bolts work with the existing manifold? If I get headers, what sort of bolts should I purchase? thanks . .joel.