freyspath

Come to mention it... Mine actually does it when I turn and apply the brakes. I know that because I was backing into my drive way ( I park nose out) and when swinging the wheel around I tapped the brakes to slow my reverse. My strut bearings have 100,100 miles on them. Same with the struts and strut components.

Hey guys, I need of some help here.... Lately I have been noticing when I turn at slow speeds I get a thunk from underneath in the front suspension.. Any ideas?

A manifold cat is a catalytic converter basically on the header. From what I learned today, our PF's have 4 cats. Two down stream (before the pipe goes into one) and two upstream right after the headers. Here is a pic below: This picture below isn't the exact same one our car uses, but you get the idea.

^^^ Im hoping thats all I need. I went today to my local nissan dealer and one other "JDM" mechanic shop (not affiliated with the nissan dealer). They both said it was my "manifold cat". The CAT on the manifold costs nearly $1200 from Nissan and the corner shop wants $865. Either way im looking at almost a grand to get this working again.....

Hey guys, major UPDATE today. I was driving my PF to the beach just cruising at 35mph (cop was behind me for most of the drive), as I was driving I noticed the SES (Service Engine Soon) light came on. -- For the first time in my life I was happy to get a code haha. I came home, ran the OBD scan and got P0420 - Bank 1. What is that? O2 sensor? Cat? I did a google search "P0420 Nissan Pathfinder" and the bottom line looks to be that 2 O2 sensors need to be replaced, AND the ECU needs to be reflashed. Being that I am over my 80k emissions warranty looks like I get to fork out the cost for the dealer to reflash the ECU... not looking forward to that. Any insights? Cheers, J

thanks guys, I will definitely see whats up with it when the tank runs dry. I haven't gone through a tank yet with her since she isn't my daily driver. Ill try putting some fuel injector cleaner in it with the next tank to see if that remedies it. As for my MAF and SES. The SES light works, I see it every time the car is put into the "ON" position. The MAF sensor will be cleaned tomorrow, because I haven't done that since I sold it to my cousin almost a year ago. He drove it all the time on the freeway, like 90% of his driving was freeway. He would fill it on average 2-3 times a week. Yikes! What crossed my mind tonight was the fuel grade. When I bought it, back in December of 2009, I always filled it with 91 "premium" octane gas. I did that all for the year I owned it. When my cousin took it over he only put the 87 regular gas. Now that I have it back, i've been also just using regular 87 octane fuel in it. Mainly because here in SoCal gas prices are off the wall. ($3.89/gal for 87 and $4.05 a gal for premium)

Hey guys, Lately i've noticed a big drop in MPG from my NPF. Its an 03 LE 4x4 (I always drive it in 2wd). I fill it up with regular fuel (89 octane) and seem to be getting really bad mpg. So far I am at about 1/2 a tank since I last filled it and have only gotten 68miles! I used to be getting back before I re-bought the car 220miles to a tank. I haven't driven it yet to empty since I bought it, but this is starting to scare me. I sold it to a cousin a year ago with 85k on the clock. Now with 100k and 1 year of time having gone by im starting to worry. Everything work on the truck, no CEL or SES lights, all fluids were flushed last week, and my mechanic told me it was all looking very good for a truck that had 100k on it. Any one know of something causing this?? I dont have a lead foot, nor do I drive my car hard. I generally keep the tach under 2.5k, and dont take off rapidly from stops. Cheers, James

^^^^ YES! It is that thing! THANKS SO MUCH

I was just doing my oil filer and fluid change when I noticed a small leak! The leak seems to have been here for some time, much of the dripped areas are full of grime. It looks to be coming from the left of the oil filter area. (left being your looking at the car from the front. otherwise better said its on the passenger side.) Maybe its from the Oil pump? I did notice it was leaking onto the inner CV joint and the only thing above are two hoses and a pump looking thing... Thanks guys

Hey guys, So here in socal its been raining and raining, we even got some now at the 400 elevation level, pretty narly! Anyhow, with all this rain, the pathfinder has developed another problem. The drivers side carpet is wet. Not like puddles wet, but just like someone took 3 cups of water and spread it around the entire foot well. The windows were up, the sunroof was closed and well I cant think what did this to it. The sunroof hoses were cleaned and the fender drains were vacuumed out prior to this rainstorm. The A/C hasn't been on in nearly 1 yr so its not the A/C drain pipe. Anyone have this problem too? Thanks guys!

Hey guys, So I just hit 100k last week, and wanted to know from you guys what I should do or look out for. So far I am noticing the following: - When going from Reverse to Drive if I dont wait a second, or slowly take off, I will get a thunk from the bottom of the car, as if something is loose. Is that normal? - Transmission hasn't been serviced since 60k, and I've been meaning to do it, but from what i've been told its tricky since the trans has "self sealing" bolts?? Do I need to get new bolts after I replace the trans filter and replace the fluid? - When on the highway at 60+mph if I turn the 4x4 knob from 2wd to Auto (aka AWD) I start to feel a vibration coming through the cabin. - When on highways (over 65-70 mph) I feel a slight vibration coming through my seat. (Almost feels as if my seat has a vibrator in it lol) The car is in 2wd, AWD/AUTO just makes the vibrations spread to the steering wheel. - My brake pedal seems limp. Maybe its because the gas is so sensitive. I feel it goes in a good 3-5 inches (1/2 way down) before any braking is felt. I had my brakes inspected and was told they where all "good". - Interior lights are very dim, even with the dimmer switch to high, the lights inside are very dim... Any way to improve this? - As for other maintenance, I have already replaced the transfer case oil, front and rear diff, P/S fluid, radiator fluid, oil and filter, brake fluid (complete flush), air filter, and the spark plugs were replaced. Thanks guys, feel free to let me in on stuff I didn't look at, or things commonly to look for after 100k. As for the motor, it starts up great like day one, trans is strong, and this young buck still feels like its in its teenage years!

Hey guys, I have an 03 Pathfinder LE 4x4 which I am the second owner too. I bought it with 80k and it drove fine. Now at 100k I am starting to baby it a little more. First thing I want to do on it is suspension. I already have replaced the control arms (both front and back) as well as the PITA rear bushings. Now im going to tackle the struts but don't know exactly which ones to get. This Pathy is 97% of the time driven on paved Socal roads. It tackles potholes, cracks, bumps, etc on a daily basis. This is my second car, I don't drive it daily and mainly use it on the weekends. (My daily driver is a Prius... I drive 3k a month, so the gas savings is substantial) The pathy goes 1-2x a year up to the mountain where the 4x4 gets used. Maybe once a year it goes off road onto an empty lot (I am a real estate agent, so sometimes we have to drive through unpaved terrain to get to the lots.) Nothing hard core, take a look at the pics below: http://www.awtec.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/trail.jpg http://www.greatnorthwoodsatv.org/Trails_2005_GPS_Cowen%20Hill/Trail%202.jpg Trails dont have anything big that a regular suv cant handle. Many of my customers have sedans where they cant go through this terrain. So back to the question, What struts would be ideal for everyday driving, that last long, are reasonably priced, and are direct bolt-on/fit. Any suggestions?? Thanks guys!