Towncivilian

Wiring: The light aiming is really crappy. They top out right at the area between fogs & brights. I'll try to get a picture of the light output after aiming them. There's still quite a bit of vibration, but I can live with that.

Here are some pics, with the plate removed: Inside: (this has the transmission computer installed, but not secured) Hope that helps. I'm having a hell of a time trying to find a 5/16" rubber grommet. Harbor Freight has a set, but they're sold out, and both Lowes and Walmart don't have any. Will have to check at Home Depot or wait for HF to get stock of it, or just drill a larger hole; I saw a 3/4" neoprene grommet on the Home Depot site. Unfortunately the only metal drill bit I have is 5/16".

Try swapping your taillight relay with another one.

Finished painting the light bar and mounted it on my roof. Even with extra brackets there's still considerable vibration, but I'll live with it. Still need to aim the lights and hide the wires a bit better. Removed clutch plate on the firewall, drilled a 5/16" hole in it. Sanded the hole down a bit, sprayed primer and paint on it so it won't rust. Gonna get a rubber grommet for it tomorrow then run some wires that are currently run in the door jamb.

How's fluid level and condition? What does turning overdrive off when it's stuck in a gear do? Maybe try unplugging your negative battery to reset the ECU (dunno if the transmission "learns" your driving style or something like that).

You don't have to pull back any carpet. If you look to the right and underneath the brake master cylinder, it's an easily visible black plate. Remove the two 12mm nuts holding it on. Then look underneath the dashboard, you should see light poking through. You may need to unscrew the transmission control unit (two 12mm nuts and 1 12mm bolt) to get easier access to it. If you want pictures, I can provide some. I'll get a rubber grommet tomorrow, then run the wires through.

I drilled a 5/16" hole in the firewall clutch plate then painted it to prevent rust. Do I need to use some sort of rubber grommet, or can I just leave the hole bare? I'll wrap the wires in electrical tape at the contact area for now.

I wasn't able to find a sensor at the local junkyard. I checked a Quest and all four Pathfinders in the junkyard. There may have been one on the Quest, but we were unable to pull out the washer fluid reservoir to try to get a closer look. Might try again later. I did take a couple washer filters from some Maximas, but their shape is incorrect to fit a Pathfinder, and there's some plastic that gets in the way from seating properly anyway (which would be easily ground down, but the shape is still incorrect). The Quest we looked at didn't have a washer fluid cap, and thus no filter. I'll keep an eye out for other Quests or Villagers.

Does anybody happen to know whether the US R50s have the washer fluid switch (part 27490) present, but unconnected? Courtesy Parts does not list this for my 2001 model on their exploded parts view, only for the 95-99. The part for the earlier PFs is not even listed when a general search is done. It would appear that certain vehicles include this switch for all models according to the diagram label, such as certain year Frontiers and the 93-97 Altimas, and it's also not listed as a Canada-only part. The Altima part looks identical based on the exploded parts view, so I'm thinking of scouring the local junkyard to try to find one of those switches and see if it'll work in my R50. It's probably a hassle to actually get to this switch in any vehicle though, so it may not be worth the effort. Guess I'll have to find out the hard way. I'll also get the fancy washer filter thing that's underneath the filler cap, if it'll fit an R50! The Quest's looks especially beefy...

You can try calling your local Nissan dealer, they might have a definitive answer for you.

Sounds good then. Once I've got the bar all done I'll post some pics.

Yeah, if you've never had your spark plugs changed now would be a good time to do it. The spark plugs last 105k per the owner's manual and FSM, so they're getting close to the change interval. There's an excellent guide over on NICO if you want to tackle the plugs yourself and save the $255 Nissan would charge. You should probably change the fuel filter if it's also original or not been changed for a while.

I see, that makes sense, thanks a ton for the pics. The added metal helps reduce vibrations and increases stability, right? Looks pretty easy to do.

Got half of it painted (ran out of time to finish). Will need to finish painting some other time. I also got some bolts that fit the stock slider things that the tie-downs screw into. I couldn't quite grasp what you meant by adding more steel to reduce vibration though, a picture would help a ton here.

Painted half of my light bar black. It didn't help that three different cans of different "color" black spray paint were required; the first one ran out and the next clogged. The can in use now is glossy, while the previous two were matte finish. Will need to finish painting tomorrow. Went to the junkyard and got a full set of door switches, a hazard/rear defroster switch, some button covers, all clips from the driver side cargo room trim, and a couple small switch bulb assemblies from a pre-facelift R50, and an ancient Midland 77-099 CB Radio with microphone for $10 found atop '94 green WD21's mostly complete engine bay (it looked like it was just missing a battery, really). It took a bit of retrofitting to get the door switches to work in my newer R50 (swapped out buttons and harness connector). I've never before heard the car beep with the key in the ignition and the door open, or with headlights on and door open w/ no key; it's glorious yet annoying. Sprayed the rusty bit of my tow hitch with some black paint to hopefully stop further surface rust. Removed stock Bose amp in the rear, and fixed broken trim clips. Finally sits snug and flush back there. Tested the junkyard hazard/defrost switches in my R50. They function, but they don't light up (except the "on" indicator on the defroster switch) and they don't fit my trim. But spares are always nice, since if the hazard switch dies the turn signals no longer work. I still need to test the CB radio. Assuming it works, I'd have to get some non-rusty screws for its case, solder in some new length of power and ground wire, and of course get an antenna and a mounting bracket. Then I'd have a redneck cellphone on the cheap.

Made a quick and dirty light bar to mount some Hella 500FFs! See here. Filled up my tow hitch receiver with expanding foam to hopefully protect the inside from further rust. Had a little bit of issue getting the lock through, but it wasn't impossible. But it looks like the exterior of it is already starting to rust a little bit, I guess I missed some spots when I was repainting it. Spray paint sucks big time!

Try cleaning your MAF sensor and running some fuel injector cleaner? I've read anecdotes that some fuel injector cleaners can help with a poorly functioning gas gauge sender unit (whatever the thing is called that floats in your gas tank, anyway). Also be sure your SES bulb isn't dead by engaging the parking brake, then setting ignition to ON and checking for it to light up.

Well, once it gets painted it should look better. Really just wondering whether I can minimize the road vibrations and whatnot affecting the light (some sort of rubber grommet?), and also questioning the sturdiness of the stock tiedowns. They seemed fine for a short 2 minute stint of highway driving at around 60-65 mph, but dunno how it'd hold up long term. Perhaps I'll take a tiedown to Lowes or something and try to find a lengthier bolt to use rather than the tiedown.

Well, a bit ghetto, but for $18: Bought a 6 foot angled steel bar, cut it around 40 inches, widened some holes and there's the bar. Secured with the stock tie-downs (and it doesn't seem extremely sturdy that way). Road vibration, bumps, etc are easily visible when driving cause the light shakes. Anybody have any ideas on how to improve this? I need to take the bar off to paint it anyway. The lights are 2 Hella 500FFs with some 100w "xenon" bulbs in them. Took me 30 minutes to realize I had to upgrade the 5A fuse to a 20A before the lights would actually light up. I had to make all my own wiring, and every wire is red. Heatshrink color determines the wire's function though, and it's not difficult to figure out anyway.

I have all the wiring done, I just need to make the rack and mount the lights. I only saw two or three useful pictures of the bar itself in the entire thread, but it's enough to get the idea. Thanks!

Yep, I saw both pics of the bar area and it doesn't look too difficult to duplicate. Guess a pal and I will have a crack at it tomorrow, will post back with results!

Yeah, they are easily changed. Finding another crossbar would probably be the hard part, but I never use them anyway. I'll just make a light bar then if it'll reflect a lot from the roof/hood.

Got any more details of its construction? Or a few more pictures would suffice probably, too.

Did most of the wiring for a pair of Hella 500FFs I'll be mounting on the stock roof rack. Was too lazy to run switch wiring through the firewall, so just ran it out of the side of the hood and taped the wire on the door jamb. Got +12v from the factory CD changer harness and ground from the hood release bracket. Used 14 gauge red wire for everything, along with soldered quick disconnects and electrical tape, then colored heatshrink (to determine wire function) over that. Blew several fuses for the switch before swapping out the switch itself, a faulty lighted Wal-Mart switch. I think at 15A fuse worked, but anything smaller just blew it. A brightly lit red switch from a Hella FF50 driving light kit worked perfectly. I mounted the switch next to the dimmer switch. Also figured out that both of the front door switches for the "door open" warning light are broken; the spring inside the switch does not decompress to push the switch out, making the switch completely inoperable. This probably also hampers the function of the anti-theft system. Gonna go to a local junkyard to hopefully find a working pair before shelling out $14/each at Nissan.

Is this what you're looking for? I bought a replacement at my local Nissan dealer for $82. The new part number is 27150-0W714, while my factory original was 27150-0W712. Looking at Courtesy Parts, none of the 27150-0W714 are specifically for the R50, but whichever one Nissan gave me works fine in my R50. It's also $47-ish there, I should have bought it from CP rather than my local dealer. The 27150-0W712 is also available, but it is "uncategorized". The actual R50 part that I found looking through Body Electrical -> 270 Heater & Blower Unit is [27077] HEATER SWITCH RESISTOR, 27150-R50001 for $59.60. For an R50, would I just remove the blower motor resistor pack and the in-cabin microfilter and vacuum stuff out of there, or is there more involved?