MountainM

it did not get really warmed up before hand. It growled while being in gear and being driven. So you think its low fluid. It shifted gears nicely and the clutch felt really good... Is this a truck I should stay away from? Thanks, Doug

It does shift very nicely. So that metal stripping that bubble rusts I have to get from the dealer and is expensive? This seems to be a common problem with the pathfinder of this age. As for the tranmission/muffler noise if you push in the clutch and give it gas it doesn't growl at all.. so that makes me think it is something to do with transmission...

So I'm looking at buying a 2001 Pathfinder SE, manual transmission Car is in not bad shape, the standard rust along the window trims, and one of the step up bars rusted on the underside pretty good. Can that weather stripping be replaced easy? Also the engine sounds like it has a bad belt or a bad tensioner because is was a little squeeky on start up. The other noise that I couldn't tell what it was, was when you got driving and had load on the transmission (acceleration) it growled, kind of like a muffler but, only when load was put on transmission. It shifted beautifully and shifted in and out of 4x4 no problems. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am planning on getting mechanic to take a look but wondered what you guys though. Thanks for the help, Doug