Towncivilian

I found a pic of a 2WD 2001 RE4R01A: Here's what the FSM says about the temp sensor: As far as I can tell, it doesn't have one. Something that looks like a couple black wires are visible, but there is no sensor. Am I correct?

Repositioned the Magnefine in-line transmission filter to have less of an acute angle for the cooler hoses, and easier to access for future changing. I still think I'm overfilled though, the transmission dipstick is impossible to read sometimes. Why is it curved?

Yep. To access the instrument cluster, undo the two screws, pull the black trim surrounding the cluster out, undo the four screws holding the cluster in, and you have access to the cluster. Depending on how small your hands are, you may not even need to remove the cluster to access the twist bases. I didn't, in my case. I replaced the five illumination (one for each gauge, and one for odometer) bulbs with the aforementioned and linked tri-LED SMD bulbs. See pictures here. If you wish to replace any of the indicator lamps, you will get the best results from obtaining LEDs with the same color as the actual item - i.e. the oil pressure and battery lamps have red filters, so get a red LED; if you use a white LED, you will end up with pink.

My LEDs are cool-white tri-SMD for a 360 degree viewing angle - specifically these. dududuckling, your rear defroster switch has a dead bulb. As you can see in my pic, I tried fitting an LED in there but it didn't go so well with regards to viewing angle. If the damn switch wasn't impossible to reassemble I'd put a stock bulb back in there.

I didn't need to pop the knobs off. As I said, I pulled out the stereo cluster like so, unscrewed the HVAC controls, pushed it toward the front of the car and under to access it from the now-empty stereo cluster area, and used pliers to twist the bases and swap the bulbs. Much easier and less chance of breaking stuff. Yes, the bulbs are #74. I have two 74-CWHP3 in my HVAC controls, they look a little yellow in person:

It's possible to replace both the manual and auto HVAC control bulbs with LEDs (or just new incandescent bulbs, doesn't matter). See here for auto units. For the manual control units, all you need to do is unscrew the control unit and push it down and out of the double DIN area where the radio would go and replace the bulbs using some pliers to twist the bases.

Do you have auto or manual controls?

They are 2 ohms, not 1 ohm. For the rears, you can just bypass the stock wiring by removing the rear amp, cutting a few wires on its wiring harness and soldering them together. I can give you a list of which wires to solder together later if you wish to do this.

If upgrading to aftermarket speakers, either run your own speaker wiring or bypass the amps entirely. The FSM has wiring diagrams and schematics to make this very easy. I bypassed the amps in my Pathfinder. I think it's the better way to go, since if you use that amplifier adapter your output will be quieter I believe. I still have my Scosche adapter if you choose to go this route, I'd let it go for the cost of shipping.

Here is the parts list for replacing the PCV valve for a 2001 or 2001.5 Pathfinder: 16175-4W000 GASKET-THR (throttle body gasket) 14033-4W000 GASKET-MAN (first of two upper intake manifold gaskets) 14033-4W010 GASKET-MAN (second of two upper intake manifold gaskets) 14032-4W00A GASKET-ADA (gasket between upper and lower intake manifolds) 11810-31U00 VALVE ASSY (nonthreaded PCV valve) 11812-41B00 INSULATOR- (grommet that goes around PCV valve) All of these parts are required. I paid $69.82 after tax at my local dealership (I get net/wholesale prices). For 2002-2004 R50s, I believe the PCV valve is threaded, so it will have a different part number. I do not know if the grommet/insulator is required since it's a threaded PCV.

I will be picking up the Pathfinder tomorrow. I dropped by earlier today and they replaced the front & rear oil pan lip seals and RMS again with Nissan OEM parts, they're keeping it overnight to ensure no leaks. They said the bottom of my engine was spotless, which is nice to know. I got one of the old lip seals and will post pictures of it soon. They lost about a quart of coolant during the process and will top it off with universal, but it's such a small amount I'm not gonna worry about it.

Also try replacing your gas cap with a new OEM one.

Well, shit. It was still leaking out the weep hole. I dropped it off at AAMCO and they replaced the RMS again with a Nissan part this time, and they also concluded that my aluminum oil pan gasket is leaking so that's another $448 + tax down the drain to replace - they're using an OEM gasket for that too. I'll be picking it up again tomorrow.

Check the vacuum hose for leaks or pinholes:

When I used silicone spray for my rear hatch weatherstripping, I stuck the red tube of the aerosol can into each small hole and sprayed a bit. There are quite a few of them though and doing this for every piece of weatherstripping would take a while.

Follow this guide. My experience was caused by my mistakes alone - poor work area, forgetting to disconnect the most important hose of this job, running out of intake cleaner halfway through (I was a bit overzealous with cleaning the UIM)... this would have been a 3 hour job otherwise, I think.

So, today I replaced my PCV valve. It took 7 hours. Here's why: I obtained the four gaskets for the upper and lower intake manifolds, the PCV valve itself, and the grommet that goes around the PCV valve a few days ago. Today, a friend and I started work on it at about 1 PM. It was raining, so we moved some crap around in his garage and I pulled the front end of the PF in. This gave us very little room to work in. So anyway, I remove the plastic engine cover and start work on the passenger side, by removing the two brackets that hold up some wiring harnesses. That took all of 2 minutes. I then began removing the various hardware atop the upper intake manifold - accelerator bracket, etc. I'm short, so I had to climb in and crouch atop the top radiator support to gain access to some bolts... this becomes a recurring theme. With that stuff off, it's time to remove the air intake tube and throttle body. To further complicate things, there's a bunch of immovable stuff up pretty much everywhere in the garage, so to access the driver's side, I had to go through a labyrinth involving walking over and around stuff constantly. My tools were also on this side, so this got tiring quickly. The air intake tube and throttle body came off easy, as does the upper intake manifold. Bolts/nuts get labelled with masking tape and a sharpie. Now the real problems start. As some of you know, the lower intake manifold collector has a support bracket on the passenger side corner, right up against the firewall. It's impossible to get tools back here pretty much. The uppermost bolt came out pretty easy; the other, not so much. For some reason, both were already pretty loose (a blessing or a curse?). It took 30 minutes fiddling with a box wrench, sockets, etc to loosen the bolt enough to spin it out by hand. Why is this thing back here?! The top 2 bolts and 2 nuts on the manifold are then removed. So at this point, I'm drenched with sweat since it's over 9000 degrees out. It stopped raining, so it's ridiculously humid. Sweat doesn't help. We lift the lower intake manifold off, and what do we find? A PCV valve snapped in half. I forgot to move the PCV hose aside, and the undue stress caused it to snap. It took probably 30 minutes with some pliers to actually pull the remaining half of the valve that was still inside the valve cover, since a good majority of it fell in the damn valve cover. After carefully applying pliers to remove the largest chunks, I, uh... felt around with my index finger to retrieve any remaining significant chunks of residue. Not fun, let me tell you. At least I didn't need to pull a valve cover. So, now that that's over, we wrestle with the new PCV valve and grommet for 10 minutes trying to fit it in... the grommet and valve are a very tight squeeze. We eventually get it in, I slap the new gasket on, and we take a well deserved break. We spend an hour trying to reposition the lower intake manifold back on the engine, which was a troublesome task due to the cramped engine bay, cramped working area, and the extremely stiff PCV hose that needed to go on before the manifold could be set in place. We call a buddy over and he helps us, and we finally maneuver the thing back on and I start buttoning things up - ensuring to use the proper torque spec and tightening order, mind you. The damn support bracket bolts were not torqued with a wrench; the easier-to-access one was tightened with a box wrench, and the other one was just as snug as I could get with my fingers. I complete reassembling the manifolds. I loosely install the throttle body, then realize I still don't have the proper hex bit to torque it to spec. I removed it using an 8mm Allen key, but my 154-piece Craftsman toolset doesn't have an 8mm hex bit. Oh well, tightened using the Allen key in the proper tightening order, hope it'll be fine. More annoyance strikes during reinstalling the intake tube. The stiff vacuum hose on the firewall side gives us trouble, but by this point we already had installed and tightened the damn tube (d'oh). We remove it, and wrestle with it some more... we're done, right? I check over hoses, etc and start it up. We hear a high pitched noise, and I shut it off. The damn air intake tube wasn't flush at all with the airbox housing (hey, it's dark, and we're sweaty and tired by now). We remove the thing again and put it on properly this time, and all is well. But wait, there's more! I ended up with an extra part: one spacer. No idea where it came from. It was resting on top of the rearmost wiring harness support bracket on the passenger side (the one with the stud for the engine cover), but it obviously shouldn't have been there since the nut for the engine cover couldn't be screwed on with it there... Whoever buried the PCV valve under the intake manifolds should be shot. I sure as hell hope I don't need to do this again any time soon. And I thought putting threadlocker on the power valves was tough... hah. They all look fine, by the way. I think this is my longest post on NPORA. And I bet I'm the only one who fingered their Pathfinder. I need some :coffee!:

PCV valve was $13 or something, I need to replace 4 gaskets and the grommet that goes around the PCV valve. Somebody buried the PCV valve under the upper and lower intake manifolds

The mofo's still leaking, so unless it magically stops by Monday, I'll be taking it back to AAMCO in the morning. On Saturday I'll change the PCV valve (4 hours of work + $69 cost in the valve, its grommet, and 4 gaskets).

Perhaps if one keeps the parking brake cable well lubricated and constantly in use it wouldn't freeze up... but I'd imagine that depends on the ambient temperature, too? I dunno.

Damn RMS is leaking again, gotta go back on Monday to have them see wtf is up

I believe there is only one parking pawl in a transmission, not multiple. Mine was parked only by selecting P for 9 years (then I started driving it), but then again there are no hills in Florida, so of course mine probably has hardly any wear on it.

R50s don't have that fancy e-at switch. Also, has anyone ever heard of a parking pawl actually wearing out from normal use, i.e. not something ridiculously stupid like using only the transmission to hold the vehicle on a very steep hill, etc? I mean it's certainly a possibility, but so many people don't park the "right" way, and they're fine. I've only read of a few instances where the parking pawl actually broke.

Indeed, do not use the parking brake in frigid weather - myself, being in Florida, obviously have no need to do so. Thanks for that tip! If you will be doing a significant amount of towing, definitely install an auxiliary transmission cooler. I also strongly suggest either an in-line filter or a spin-on filter mount no matter what. I personally run a Magnefine in-line filter on the transmission cooler return line, and have installed a B&M 70268 aux cooler, even though I don't do any towing. Heat is the biggest killer of transmissions, may as well minimize heat and particulates for a modest ~$100 investment!

Keeping overdrive off around town will result in increased engine braking (for obvious reasons) but will probably result in poorer gas mileage due to higher RPMs. I turn overdrive off when going up bridges and with it off, I generally don't need to brake down bridges or at the foot of the bridge to keep my speed constant. I leave overdrive off until I pass the next intersection directly after the bridge, since if it turns yellow or is red I can still use the increased engine braking to coast toward the light. I've also read that one should have overdrive off when towing, but I've read mixed anecdotes about it. I'd figure it's fine to tow with it on, but having it off helps in engine braking and with any sort of load behind you, the more braking you can get the better I'd say. No personal experience with towing, though. I would suggest doing the following when parking: 1. Come to a complete stop (duh) 2. Shift into neutral 3. Engage the parking brake 4. Let go of the foot brake 5. Wait for the vehicle to settle completely 6. Now shift into park. It sounds annoying, but it becomes automatic (ha) after a while. This will make it easier to shift out of P, even on flat surfaces. The reason for this is that the vehicle's weight will no longer be resting on the tiny parking pawl inside the transmission (which does have the possibility of breaking), and will instead be resting on the rear drum brakes. Most of the time, I select another gear before disengaging the parking brake, but that probably doesn't matter much either way. No experience with wheeling. 2WD, open diff, highway tires, and 128k mile worn suspension can't go too far wheeling.