Slartibartfast

There should be vacuum at idle. It sounds like something didn't seal right or a line didn't go back on. Check the hose for the fuel pressure regulator (back of the intake), it's tough to see and I didn't hear anything when it was unhooked on my '93. Also check your vac lines against the routing diagram under the hood on the off chance you crossed the streams.

I know squat about winches, but I did ask my cousin a while back (he's a Jeeper) about lines and he said he prefers steel lines because he can drag them over stuff and not worry about abrasion.

That means there's still a problem. This means the computer didn't immediately see the issue, but discovered it when it tried to actuate the valve or after the system warmed up. The FSM has a diagnostic procedure starting on page 93 of the EF&EC section for diagnosing your code.

Jerking like a mechanical bull at the county fair is Nissan's idea of a fail-safe? What would a fail-deadly be for a swirl valve? I lost a lot of respect for Nissan with my dad's R50. It also burned a quart of oil every 1000 miles. The dealer said either "don't worry, they all do that, just keep adding oil" or "we've never heard of that happening," depending on when we called. The local mechanics said the shop time to tear into a VQ and do valve seals (if that was the issue) would cost more than the truck was worth. The wrecking yard said their VQ motors had massive compression differences between the cylinders. Also look up the precat failures on the Sentras with QR25DEs.

It couldn't be that difficult to mount an air conditioner clutch pulley to the power steering pump, and rig that to disengage whenever the vehicle is going >5mph. Maybe wire it so the 4x4 indicator locks out disengagement so your power steering keeps working when you're powering through mud up to the door handles. I would want to find a normally-engaged clutch (opposite of an aircon compressor clutch) so that it would fail-safe to having working power steering, but they're probably not that difficult to find. Then again, it's probably not worth the added complexity. The hypermile forum guys seem to think you'd get a 2-3% gain in fuel economy from a full P/S delete, which for a Pathfinder would be, what, 0.5 MPG? I looked up the floor mat thing, and the final report couldn't replicate the issue but did find deficiencies in the ECU programming that could've let it glitch out. I've read about similar problems in Fords and Hondas. My dad's R50 had a malfunction in the electronic throttle as well. It didn't go wide open and stay there (luckily), but if you tried to get on the gas pedal, it would buck, and I'm not talking about a misfire or an ignition issue. It would go as hard as it should've been for how hard you were on the gas for about a second, then act like you'd released the pedal and it was engine braking, then go again, then slow again, until you let off the gas. It bucked so hard the trailer hitch was making noise. The only explanation that made sense was that the throttle was going open, closed, open, closed. It never threw a code. A shop that had seen this happen before and knew what to look for cleaned some carbon out of out a vac line (I don't know how it got there either) and replaced something to do with the swirl valves. That fixed the problem and the truck was drivable again. It didn't accelerate out of control, but if a bad swirl solenoid whatsit was enough to make the throttle wig out, and the computer couldn't see that there was anything wrong, there was something wrong with how that system was designed. I am more inclined to believe reports of cars having issues with a system that I've seen malfunction than I am to believe dealer claims about floor mats and lying customers. Yes, people are idiots, and what they want (and what the EPA wants) drives what automakers produce. That's no excuse for bad cars. People sue for stupid things, but that's no excuse for hiding major safety problems. Auto makers make flawed cars, do everything in their power to avoid taking responsibility for them, and then have the balls to suggest that only their people should be allowed to service their merchandise--at dealer prices. How about no? One final bit of rant... If you want a reliable vehicle that steers itself, avoids collisions, has a very small carbon footprint, makes you look like a badass, has built-in traction control, won't rust, has on-board navigation capabilities, and lasts twenty years or so with routine maintenance, and you don't mind a few non-serviceable parts, you're not looking for a modern car. You're looking for a horse.

Sounds like the oil passage to the #1 lifters is clogged. You can look up the Youtube vids (IIRC they were titled things like "what happens when you don't change your oil") to see how they cleaned it out, IIRC they just went at it with scrapers and solvent. The risk is what happens if a great wad of the dislodged sludge finds its way into an oil passage (or pump) and clogs that up instead. You might try just removing the lifters that don't seem to be getting oil, cleaning them, and cleaning as much gunk out of the heads as you can. There are a few videos on Youtube showing guys doing this in shops, so you might watch those for tips. I imagine doing it properly would mean dropping the oil pan and cleaning out the crank case as well, but I'm pretty sure you have to drop the front diff to get at the pan. You might get away with flushing it somewhat from the top end and seafoaming the bejeezus out of it. I talked to a machinist a while back who was rebuilding a Ford motor (out of a late-model Ranger IIRC) that had died a sludgy death. He was actually drilling the hardened gunk out of the oil passages to make sure he'd gotten it all. I got the impression that he was going to be at it for a while.

I removed the inner and outer transfer case boots from mine once and drove it into town like that. I thought the hair was gonna burn off my leg.

Tail light bulbs two filaments, a bright one (wired to the brake lights) and a kinda dim one (wired to the parking lights). Something has connected your tail light wire to your parking light wire. If you had to splice in new plugs to run the LED bulbs, check your wiring first. If it looks okay, remove the tail light bulbs, hit the brakes again, and see if the front parking lights still come on. If they do, you've wired something wrong. If the bulbs were plug-in replacements for the old ones, I'll bet you've got turn signal bulbs in one or both of the tail light housings. IIRC the housings are similar, but tail lights have two nubs at the end and turn signal bulbs have just the one. The one nub of a turn signal bulb could bridge the two connections in a brake/turn socket and cause the problem you're having. If the bases are correct, you might have a defective bulb with a stray connection between the two circuits. A problem in a trailer wiring harness could have the same effect, so if the bulbs turn out to not be the problem, check that too. If you've got an auto trans, that click is probably just the shift lock disengaging so you can shift out of park.

Come to think of it, maybe that's what's going on here: cars are so needlessly overcomplicated, and therefore fragile, that even poking around under the hood is likely to set off three DTCs, put the stereo in "I've been stolen" mode, and cause some vital control system that's been improved from a simple linkage to a mass of sensors and servos to whack out and kill someone. That unintentional acceleration there? No, sir, that wasn't the drive by wire acting up, that was, uh, the floor mats! Yeah, the floor mats. The aftermarket floor mats, installed by someone who wasn't certified, that's your problem right there. Copyright infringement and unauthorized personnel killed those people, ladies and gentlemen, and there should be a law.

Electric power steering seems like a reasonable concept for fuel savings, though I question whether the added complexity is worth it. The drive-by-wire, on the other hand... there is no possible way that's a good idea.

My understanding is that the hydraulic lifters are supposed to make valve shimming unnecessary. I would suspect an issue with a lifter, especially given the sludge buildup you found. The sludge you found under the valve cover could easily have found its way into the lifter and gummed it up, or it could be preventing oil from reaching the lifter in the first place. I've seen Youtube vids of people trying to clean out sludged motors with scrapers and solvents. Didn't look like fun. Hopefully yours goes back together without too much hassle.

How hot is the trans getting as you drive around town? Where do you feel the heat? I don't do gobs of city driving (not a lot of city around here) but I've never noticed excess heat from the trans, even when I was running the stock cooler on its own. A cooler would probably help yours dissipate some of that heat but I would want to know what's making it get that hot to begin with. My '95 does the hard 1 -> 2 as well. From what I've read, a lot of them do it. I did a little research into the grinding issue and couldn't find a similar case, so it's mostly speculation from here down. A sprag is a one-way clutch, so it lets something turn one way but not the other. Autotragics apparently use this alongside the clutch packs to determine which bits spin and which bits don't, so a failed sprag would take out the gear(s) it controlled. I remember the one-way clutch in my starter making a terrible squealing noise when it failed, so a wounded sprag making a scraping noise as it slips a little sounds plausible. I did find a mention of sprags making a clicking noise as they start to fail. I haven't found a report of a Nissan with this issue, but then again I haven't found another report of your shift noise either. I'm not a transmission guy, and my experience with the auto trans is pretty much just that I've driven one, but I would be pricing a used trans rather than putting money into one that overheats and grinds. Maybe a fluid flush would clean some crud out of the sprag and make it work again, but if there's enough crud floating around to cause that kind of issue, that doesn't inspire confidence in the clutch packs.

Looks better than when I tried to TIG weld!

The next time the automakers fail, let's just let them go under. That's absolutely terrible. I'll ride a lawnmower into town before I buy a vehicle with some ridiculous copyright protection on it. (Partially because I could afford a lawnmower, but that's beside the point.)

Sounds like a bad coolant temp sensor to me, the truck thinks it's negative Hoth outside so it richens the mix to where it barely runs. Any codes?

There was a guy who twin-turbo'd a WD21. It looked like a tight squeeze (and a fair bit of custom work I'm sure) but he made it work.

My '95 sensor was disconnected when I got it, and when I went in to fix the sensor I realized the part was badly designed to begin with and not worth the trouble. I ended up re-wiring the hatch sensor wire to the tire carrier sensor (through a diode to prevent the dome light circuit from lighting up the tire carrier light on the dash when I took the key out). It was a fairly easy mod and it hasn't given me any trouble. The odd thing is, I don't think either of my trucks have the main dome light or the footwell lights tied into the cargo light. The only time I had my dome light flicker was when the hinge pins were so knackered that the door wasn't closing right.

2001+ Pathy or Xterra have the heavy-duty transmissions from what I've read, and the 3.5l started in '01 in the Pathfinders, so I assume the heavy duty trans came with the bigger motor.

One thing you might try is removing your cluster and cleaning/tightening the screws at the back--I've heard of this reviving gauges where the electrical connections have gotten lousy over time, maybe you'll get lucky with yours. The key thing makes me think it may be a wiring or ignition switch issue rather than an issue with the dash. Do the power windows/radio go out when the dash isn't working? Bad mileage can come from a number of things. IIRC unhooking the O2 sensors would make it run a little rich, but it might be an improvement if the sensors are in fact buggered. If you have/know someone with a scan tool you might be able to have a look at fuel trims or sensor data to see if the oxygen sensors are in fact the problem. I would also have a look for vacuum leaks (particularly the connection to the fuel pressure regulator) and the coolant temperature sensor. Hopefully someone with an R50 can come in with more specific advice. Also, you can download the service manual here: Some of it's more technical than you need, but it's got troubleshooting procedures that can be helpful. I'd start with the EF&EC section for the fuel issue and maybe the EL section for the cluster.

Yeah, the two doors look nicer IMO but climbing over the front seats must get old. There was a guy who crammed a VH45DE in his R50. Oh, and on the strut mounts, you might want to give this thread a read through for what to look for.

There's a bit that goes between the bolt and the bearing to make up the difference. Wrecking yard or a forum part-out might be your best bet. Failing that, or for a short-term fix, you might get away with sleeving the bolt with a bit of oil hose or something.

Take a look at the front strut mounts (they rot out on the R50s). Also see if he knows anything about when the timing belt was done last, sounds like a long shot though. So, VG33 in your 88 or LS in the 96?

It has to move somewhat for the suspension to flex, right?

I would not be surprised if you could run a 4L60E off the Nissan computer. I saw a guy on Youtube running a 4L60E with three light switches mounted to his dash, one for solenoid A, one for B, and one for converter lockup, and I'm pretty sure the Nissan slushbox has the same connections (though the sensors might require swapping over). If the throw of the Nissan shifter is different from the Chevy shifter, maybe the Chevy shifter could be modified to fit. The speedo on an 88 is cable, so that could be interesting depending on how the 4L60E's speed sensor is set up. The round dash Pathfinders use electronic speed sensors instead of cables, so if you did a dash swap, you could eliminate the cable entirely and just use a reed-switch speed sensor. If the ratio's not right, you can get speedo correction kits that'll take the wrong signal and convert it. The headache I've heard about with the GM transmissions is that they hang their transfer cases off the passenger's side. The Nissan case and diff are on the driver's side. IIRC there's an adaptor somewhere that allows you to use the Nissan case on a Chevy trans (someone was trying to sell one a while back?) but short of that you're looking at a solid axle swap if you want 4x4.

That's quite a build! I'll bet nobody guesses what's under the... well, place where the hood would be. The button on the shifter limits it it to 3rd, not 4th. Basically locks out overdrive (4th). It seems to change when the torque converter locks up too. +1 for using it on hills, mine tries to go up mountain passes in overdrive otherwise, and it just doesn't have the torque to pull it off. It does much better when limited to 3rd. The power switch on the dash changes the shift points and is also quite helpful for hills, if that's hooked up on yours.