rgallant

Master is left hand side, you will see 2 one for the brakes and one for the clutch - sorry I don't remember which is which but I think the clutch is smaller.

Nope you don't want grinding stuff will fail, but the clutch is hydraulic so it should be easy to put in literally no worse that your brake pedal. My bet is the clutch is reaching end of life, a worn out throwout bearing is not helping. Reverse just pause, I have the same problem when I try to shift too fast. Grinding is very very bad, once a while all standard drivers do it, but it should be very uncommon 1 shift in a 100. Pay the money and get your transmission fluid changed, should be $50 to $80, and make sure they check for metal fragments. If you have a bunch you may have some problems.

It's a Canadian thing,when you start the vehicle the headlights come on in a low power mode. You could try CDN tire there is an aftermarket kit for vehicles imported from the US, it thought was pretty cheap.

Take a look at your tail pipe,when it is cold is there a lot of soot in there ? If your oil rings are iffy or shot, you can burn oil and not see any blue, but the cats will get clogged with it. If you wipe your finger around the inside of the pipe and get a lot of black could be those. The problem is your compression could be perfect, but the oil rings still be shot. Also take a look at the rear of the valve covers, both of mine leaked back there. But I agree a quart or liter every 600 miles is a lot. My 97 has a leaky valve cover gasket one the left side and I go through maybe 1/4 - 1/2 a liter every 3000 KM

Ah but try and find a used manual transmission, they are hard to find and of unknown quality. The closest thing I have found is 1200.00 US before shipping for a rebuild or 900.00 for an unknown. I don't have anywhere to do the work so I still get to pay the mechanic. Overall the repair works out better, there maybe another 100 -150 in parts but still cheaper than a used transmission. Overall all the other gears are smooth as silk as was 1st, but seeing as Nissan changed the fork I suspect it was prone to failure. I had considered the replace the transmission route, but the cost is just too excessive, at the price difference a rebuild would be the only way to go and I can have a lot of the guts replaced for that cost. It is a couple of weeks to get the parts, I will keep this updated.

Does it happen only when accelerating and decelerating, not softly but a little more aggressively. Mine does that too, always did. It only seems to be noticeable in second the shift lever seems to move backward then forward. I find when I give a lot of gas it appears to move backward then go forward, otherwise nothing If it happens at a constant speed with no changes that would be more worrying, but I would crawl under and check all the mounts. Having just lost a shift fork I have some new knowledge, the critical thing is that it does not pop out of gear, if it just seems to move that is most likely engine or transmission movement.

Well that was my thought too. But with 260000 Km on the odo, and it happened at the end, last 80 km, of a 3850 km road trip. Most which was on forest service roads about 2600. It is pretty hard to get bent out of shape, I figure the universe is just keeping me honest. These trucks have enough bottom end to start and get moving in second, so I am mobile just no serious offroad.

Well talking to the mechanic it would appear the 1st/2nd shift fork is done - $70.00 part 1000.00 labour, 4 week back order from Nissan. There is a MasterCard commercial in there somewhere.

At the end of a 3000+ km off road trip (last 60k offroad), I can no longer engage 1st gear, it appears to go in and then pops right out. All other gears are fine and work well, so getting home was not an issue, a couple hills required 2nd and low range but no biggy. Any suggestions, I am thinking synco is gone, but it will not hold if I try with the engine off clutch in and then try again, still pops out. No indication of failure 10 minutes before 1st worked fine, then 6 k down the road it did not. I will be calling the mechanic on Monday but any suggestion woudl be helpful, this one is new to me.

You could try bleeding it, it should come back up for a shift or 2 unless the one of the cylinders is completely shot, it will not hold of course. You may be able to tell from underneath, see if the operating cylinder moves out and then returns to it's normal position, when someone steps on the clutch then releases. It is on the right hand side, near the front of the transmission. I had a Cortina about a 1000 years ago that had the same problem, it was the master that went. I have a standard myself I had the clutch done at about 230,000K, it was just starting to slip a bit.

It is a ton of work, you can find aftermarket clutch parts. But if you are already slipping you need to open her up and see what is shot. Prices are all over http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/1998/nissan/pathfinder/clutch/clutch_kit.html The big concern is if your flywheel is scored, that adds another 60 bucks or so. Also the clutch is hydraulic, so take a look at your cylinder and the condition of the fluids if you have it ripped apart and they are iffy you can do them too.

Long distance trails this year about 3400 km over 7 days minimal pavement less than 400k with luck - rocks and mud are just obstacles on the way. Everything else is prep work for the long trips or get to an isolated place to fish.

When my old Xterra Dist went it was the same symptoms all of a sudden, no warning. Would startup when cold (sometimes) run fine until I shutdown then would not start for again until it sat for a could of hours. Other times it would run for a few minutes then start to get rough and quit.

Decently quiet, a bit of the offroad tire hum, but not drown out a conversation loud.

I run the ST Maxx, as has been said pretty solid off road tire AS long as you are not a mudder. They are ok in mud but if I played in mud I would get a mud tire. Wear seems pretty good, not sure how many Km I have on them but still lots of tread. Zero issues with leaks. Not sure on mileage, but my Pathfinder pretty much always gets the same mileage I bought them to get a more aggressive tread and so far I have been very happy. I cover a lot of ground on forest service roads, where the condition is better than some paved roads to goat track, so far I have zero issues with traction other than 1 patch of black slimy mud. That took more aggressive gas pedal use but I got clear. I don't tend to air down, and so far have had no punctures or loss of air,and some the trails I have been on have some pretty sharp bits of rock. I guess the biggest plus I can give is that I would buy them again.

Really dumb question are you sure you have an LSD, other than that if it acts like an open then the friction plates are likely shot. So that becomes a rebuild, assuming the oil you put in is correct.

Thanks very much

Which of the 4 sensors is this I am thinking passenger rear ?

Ignore the knock sensor code for now that is a symptom from the other codes. Take a deep breath, when my distributor went I had exactly the same issues. Put your new distributor in clear the codes and see how things are. One thing at a time more than that and you will drive yourself crazy and waste a lot of time and money.

My understanding of the new automatic transmissions is any significant water entry is the end of the transmission it is a matter of how long before failure. You may want to do some research and ask some professionals, I will check with my guy in the morning. I drive a manual so no bad cooler design, not bashing Nissan here it is a pretty common setup. You might get lucky with a flush, you might not it depends on how long and how much water got in. Wee update most of the info I can find suggests running cheap ATF, and keep changing until it is perfect, at least one person used 10 quarts. Hopefully you will get lucky

That is pretty wild are you sure it is not the spare tire winch chains bouncing. Sounds too tinny for it to be the transmission, almost like a little bell.

Hey Bluewulf, I would leave well enough alone with the knock sensor I think it is symptom of your problem rather than the cause. I just wanted to ask have you ever had an issue with starting when your pathfinder is warm. Basically it runs fine you stop shutdown and 10 to 15 minutes later try to start and it just will not start for about 1/2 an hour. In my case it was the distributor that had failed, and while I know you replaced it it sounds a lot like a heat related electrical issue. Something is getting warm and then failing. I will pop in and ask my local Nissan guy what he thinks, if you were a little closer I would suggest taking the time to have him look at it, but Mission is along way to come if he has no luck.

Just to add the pic would not load for me so I can not see if it was the shaft or joint that failed. But regardless of the lift the shaft itself should not break on a basic trail, now if you are climbing rocks, playing in mud or just plain going warp speed maybe. But the failure point is generally the joint. You are not going to get a CV that is much stronger than what Nissan used, nor should you need one as far as shaft strength is concerned. If you have a spring based lift with spacers and money is no object convert to a SFD and get rid of the bad angles. The springs only lift is going keep giving you problems with CV joints because of the angles, on road is not too bad. Once you get off road it will be much worse. If you feel you can get away with the lift you should buy a spare set of CV's and keep the tools and CV 's with you when you are off road. They are pain to swap on the trail side but you can do it, and beats the cost of tow from nowhere to home after walking to cellphone reception.

Just to add bad shocks and springs, and offroad travel will accelerate the wear in the trailing arms as well. As I found out the hard way.

Just remember you still need the DRL, you can get a VI (Vehicle Inspection) ticket if they are out. That requires repair and correction at a licensed facility. I know it is unlikely but it does happen.