Towncivilian

5W-30 is fine. You want as thin as possible, but as thick as necessary when it comes to engine oil (and of course within the manufacturer's recommendations - don't run a 0W-20 in a VQ35, for example). Just a random idea, maybe disconnect the negative battery terminal to reset the ECU and see what happens?

P1320 is the only stored code?

Man, that sucks. How did the drain plug manage to fall out?

Well, running higher octane can make it run worse or get worse gas mileage since higher octane is more difficult to ignite.

US R50s do not have torsion bars.

Doesn't matter either way as long as there's something in there, really. Just add enough distilled water to get to the MAX line to have some buffer for any potential air pockets, small amounts of coolant lost due to evaporation, etc.

Interesting. I wonder if it's worth the trade off of bulbs dying more often. I'm happy with the cheapest Sylvanias, so I'll stick with those. I'd keep a spare set of bulbs in the glove box if I were you, whether it be an identical pair of expensive headlights or just the cheapest Sylvanias. Unless I'm blind, the retaining clip is not listed on this exploded parts view.

Man, that sucks. Sounds like a PITA. Just take a break and find a good flashlight, I'm sure you'll find it Speaking of that, there's a 10mm deep socket rolling around in my engine bay somewhere still... The bulbs that claim "brighter and whiter" by xx% have shorter lives generally. I changed from OEM bulbs to the cheapest Sylvania bulbs from Wal-Mart and they are still brighter than the 11 year old OEM bulbs. I sure hope they last a few years, at least. I'm just curious, are the $80 Sylvania bulbs that much brighter, etc than what you had before?

I'll try to remember to take some pictures tomorrow and maybe try to draw up an MS Paint diagram. I would highly suggest doing a pan drop in addition to the cooler line exchange & filter install, just to get rid of any and all crud collected in the bottom of the pan and on the magnet and change the filter/strainer. Maybe even add another donut magnet if you can find one. After the pan drop, put 5 quarts in, then perform the cooler line exchange and install the filter. You'll probably need 3 or 4 gallons of ATF to do a thorough exchange - the 10 quarts I used was borderline IMO, but I'm short on cash. I used the Beck/Arnley filter/gasket kit from RockAuto. I'd trust the Wix filter/gasket kit as well, and will probably use that next time. It's about $17 + shipping. A Magnefine was $22.55 shipped for me, so that's somewhere around $40-45 before fluid. I'll be doing another pan drop around 150k (probably in about 2 years; have 129k now) and will be replacing the Magnefine as well. Since the Magnefine has its own donut magnet, I'll be unscrewing it, taking pictures, cleaning the magnet, and putting it in the trans pan. Why waste a perfectly good magnet? As for the results of my cooler line exchange last night, the fluid is a little low - gonna pick up 2 more quarts of Castrol IMV to achieve the proper fluid level tomorrow. Don't know how it ended up being low, but oh well.

I think a new IAT is around $26 (link). It's pretty cheap, why not try replacing it?

I did a cooler line flush with 10 quarts of ATF. I wasn't liking how the current soup was shifting. I hope this current fill of Castrol Import Multi Vehicle is better. The hot fluid level looks low, need to correct that ASAP.

Actually I just did a cooler line exchange not two hours ago. I started with 10 quarts of Castrol Import Multi Vehicle ATF. I disconnected the cooler return line, pointed it in an empty gallon milk jug, and had a helper turn the car on. Once it was half full I shouted for him to stop and emptied the jug into a larger collection jug. I poured two quarts of fluid through the dipstick, then repeated this process until I was out of fluid. After 10 quarts, the fluid was brighter red coming out of the milk jug, so I assumed I exchanged the vast majority of the fluid. At idle, there was not much pressure. I could have left the hose in the jug without issue. Also, make sure you disconnect the correct line - I disconnected the stock cooler's outlet by accident and puked a small amount of fluid on the underside of the passenger side by accident. Heh. Disconnect the negative battery terminal if you change any of the transmission fluid. This will reset the TCM and it will re-learn how to shift according to your driving style and to match the qualities of the new fluid (different friction modifiers, etc). You can dispose of the old transmission fluid at any place that accepts engine oil. The only fluids you shouldn't recycle there are brake fluid and engine coolant, these don't mix properly and will make it harder to deal with for the recyclers down the road. But people probably do it anyway.

A drain & fill is 4 quarts. Use a new crush washer. The torque spec is 22-29 ft/lbs for the drain plug. Installing the Magnefine shouldn't take more than 20 minutes and a foot or two of extra transmission cooler hose. Finding out how to secure it in a way that doesn't interfere with the stock plastic undercover is more difficult. In my case, I have it directly after the auxiliary cooler, secured under the grille so it's easy to get to. This is difficult to describe without pictures, so if you want some let me know.

3/8"

I suppose that's a reasonable plan regarding the PCV valve, due to the baffle issue. Keep up with oil changes though, and hopefully this won't ever be an issue for you. As for your next project, a small, simple, and relatively inexpensive one would be to replace the dash lights with LEDs.

Well, the pipe/hose that the excess fluid spits out from is right above the bell housing. The mechanic said that it spit fluid all over the bell housing and he was a bit annoyed because he just cleaned it off real well before the test drive. Maybe some fluid collected in a grooved area or something and slowly made its way down, I dunno. I'm not losing any trans fluid as far as I know - I've checked the fluid level on the dipstick several times and have checked the bellhousing/trans pan area frequently for the past week. It's completely dry now.

Turns out the weeping was just trans fluid. I spoke with one of the mechanics who worked on my car and he said he overfilled the trans accidentally (he thought more got lost than what really was) and it puked some fluid out on the first test drive. The weeping is almost gone now and it does appear to have a red tinge to it, so it's probably just residual trans fluid in the bellhousing working its way out.

Heh. Thanks for the answers guys. I probably grease it too often (4-5 pumps every ~2000 miles out of boredom), but I'm sure it's not harming anything. And I want to get rid of this mediocre Wal-Mart grease. And yeah, I don't know why this is the only grease fitting... but one is better than none, I guess.

I just finished replacing the O2 sensor. It came out pretty easy with the help of a light hammer tap, no PB Blaster needed. The hard part was removing all the clips that secure the wiring harness - there were five of them. Three were in the engine bay and not too difficult to rip out, but two of them were between the transmission bell housing and ... some other large immovable item in the way, which didn't give me much room to fit wire cutters into to snip the clip. I ended up cutting the wiring harness of the old O2 sensor near the connector in the engine bay to remove it easily. The new O2 sensor had some grey anti-seize applied already, so that's what I used. My 1/2" drive torque wrench's head was too large to work around said immovable item in the way, so I had to settle for using the 1/4" drive torque wrench which goes up to 200 inch pounds (~17 ft pounds), but the torque spec is 30 to 44 ft lbs. I'll have to see if I can get it torqued at a shop tomorrow. All in all it took somewhere around 2 hours but my buddy and I started this when it was already dark - I guess we just like to challenge ourselves. I haven't driven the vehicle yet, but starting the engine and revving a bit didn't result in a CEL so far, and I don't hear any exhaust leaks. I used a Bosch OE-style sensor (part # 13651) which I got from AAP for $53 after discount code and tax. I also greased my driveshaft and tightened the transmission drain plug to 25 ft/lbs since it was weeping a little.

I was greasing my driveshaft just now and I noticed a bunch of grease above the driveshaft. I guess excess is flinging out. Is this normal, or am I pumping in too much grease? I'm trying to use up a tube of SuperTech Moly-Lithium grease, I have a tube of Valvoline Durablend waiting for the grease gun. But since this is the only grease fitting on my Pathfinder, one tube lasts a long time.

I threw away that lip seal. Oops. Anyway, it's still weeping a tiny bit at the weep hole, but after all this work I'd expect it to be &^%*ing spotless. I wiped it off several times and it came back in short order. I think I'll ask AAMCO to put some dye in the oil to see where the hell it's coming from. Also, they overtightened the oil filter, and tightened one of the transmission cooler hose clamps so much that the rubber started chafing into the holes of the clamp (hose clamp looks like this).

Do you see any metal flakes or other debris/contaminants when you wipe the transmission dipstick on a paper towel? Do you have an in-line or spin-on transmission filter in addition to the cooler? I assume your stock cooler is bypassed, correct?

I went to the junkyard and found an early '00s Subaru Legacy wagon. The door switches are Nissan parts My driver door switch had a torn cover, so I replaced it with one of the "Subaru" ones. I now have 4 spare door switches. They have the brown connector used in pre-facelift R50s, but they're easy to retrofit to work with my R50. I found an early '90s Hardbody there too. Owner was a smoker, yuck. Nothing interesting inside, but it was surprisingly on its own four wheels still.

How's the transmission fluid level & condition? Have you serviced the fluid regularly?

Check for melted wiring harnesses and try removing all turn signal bulbs, then trying the flashers - this would probably tell you if it's a bulb or a wiring fault.