Slartibartfast

The fender flare was pushed into the tire and rubbed on left turns, so I decided to tear into it. Looks like there's no mechanical damage, so that's good. The lower valance and the bumper weren't too bad, but the driver's side bumper bracket is bent in new and exciting ways. When I get the bracket straight and flatten the fender out a bit, it should look good enough to leave until spring. Any pointers on how to remove a bumper bracket? I can probably just straighten it from the outside but I would like to make sure it isn't cracked or something where I can't see it. Does it run any better cleaned out? (I'd recommend motor or gear oil over WD40, it evaporates pretty quickly.) (Crimp connectors and lots of electrical tape?)

If you have an automatic, then what, put the air conditioner belt around a chainsaw motor and hope for the best? Mine's on its second Carquest starter. My uncle did it the first time, my dad did it the second (about a week later), and I didn't hear a single good thing about the experience from either of them. Apparently taking out the oil filter and the heat shield (on the starter, protects the wires or something) lets you get it out past the transmission fluid lines. Remember to put the filter back on afterwards (we forgot and made a hell of a mess). We didn't bother putting the shield back on; the mounting holes were different on all three starters (the original and both replacements), and having modified it once already, there wasn't enough metal left to drill. That was a year or two ago and I've had no trouble from the starter since. I've heard it's easier on a manual trans truck because you don't have the trans fluid lines running right in your way. Whether to do it at home kind of depends on how much you like working on it and how patient you are. Shouldn't need any special tools.

Does it run well while hot? I don't know much about the TBI setup but I know on the MPFI trucks a bad coolant temp sensor/plug/wiring can give you issues when it's warmed up.

+1, if the starter is spinning and the engine isn't, the starter is more than likely the issue. Mine did that once (the one-way clutch in the starter died) and it made a horrendous squealing noise instead of starting the engine. If the engine is turning over but not catching, then there are quite a few things it could be (with varying degrees of seriousness). Let us know what it's doing and we'll go from there.

Overshot the turn into my driveway (fresh snow over slush) and got friendly with the ditch. :doh:Bent the bumper into the fender, pushed the fender back, knackered the parking light... oh well, I have a spare parking light and the PO dented that same fender long before I got it. Hopefully a little BFH work will put it right. I'd heard that the stock bumpers are pretty weak... now I've seen it firsthand!

I don't know offhand, but the factory service manual will be your friend here. These only go back to 94 but the light wiring should be the same. http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/nissan-pathfinder-factory-service-manuals.htm

Looks small enough to mount to a bike. A 400 hp bike... I wonder, with that much power coming out of something that small, how long it lasts.

IIRC I put 5x7s in mine, cheap Boss Audio units from Radioshack. Installation required modifying the plastic spacer that they screw to (to clear the speaker frame).

Reminds me of the blower motor from my Triumph project... it didn't come on at first when we tried it, so we figured the motor was seized. The motor wasn't the problem... the mice had jammed most of the passenger's seat into the fan housing to make a nest. I'll bet your heater smells better now!

LOL thanks. PM me if you want, I can't guarantee anything (I don't have much experience troubleshooting) but I take this kind of thing as a challenge. This thread just showed up in the "Similar Topics" box below; check out Adamzan's post at the end of it about having a split hose throw the EGR code. If the vac hose was split, it wouldn't hold vacuum, so the EGR valve wouldn't open. The EGR valve probably runs pretty hot when it's open (hot exhaust gas and all), and cools significantly when it's shut. This means that by monitoring that EGR temp sensor, the ECU could check up on the EGR operation, compare it to an expected value, determine that the EGR wasn't functioning, and throw this code that you're dealing with. Given the age of these things, checking the condition of your vacuum lines makes sense anyway. If you find dry rot/cracks, you might have a really easy fix on your hands. Actually, it might be an easy fix to both codes: If you've got a bad vacuum leak, the engine will run lean, and a lean mix can cause knocking.

That one took me a minute... but I think I've got it. The manual says the ECU supplies ground to the sensor, but what you're seeing (and what's indicated in the testing procedure above) is voltage to ground. Which means that the pin coming out of the ECU is - when the EGRC is engaged. Ground on your vehicle (as on most vehicles) is also -. If we assume that the EGRC has a + and a - wire, and that the - one is switched by the ECU, that means the + side is likely unswitched--wired straight to + through the fuse links or something. So when the ECU wants to engage the EGRC, it connects the EGRC control pin to ground. But there's a weird bit (if my assumptions are correct). When it's not connected to ground, the pin shows up as positive. The ECU can't turn the pin 'off,' it can only switch it between + and - (kind of like how the EGRC switches between A and C). I'm not sure if this is by design or just a side effect of the power transistor configuration the ECU uses, but I'm fairly sure it's what you're seeing on the voltmeter. I saw something similar when I rewired my cargo area dome light to the tire carrier switch (the stock switch was worn out). It turned on like I wanted it to but with the ignition off, the carrier shut, and the dome light set to 'auto,' the tire carrier warning light on the dashboard would illuminate. It turned off when I turned the ignition on. This made no sense to me. It turned out that the voltage regulator in the dashboard (which is a + connection when the ignition is on) was somehow acting like a ground, making a circuit between itself and the unswitched + line going to the cargo light. I stopped the regulator from supplying ground (hacked a diode into the wire) and the warning light went back to normal. So when you see battery voltage, that means that the EGRC wire coming out of the computer is not at ground--and it has to be at ground for the solenoid to open. Both wires to the solenoid are positive, so nothing happens. When that pin switches to negative, you have a circuit, and the EGRC solenoid becomes energized. But your voltage tester, hooked between that pin and ground, shows no voltage until the pin goes positive again. As to why Nissan wired it like this... I have no idea. It seems to work, though. Anyway, it appears that your ECU is functioning properly. Now that it's ruled out, I'd check on the EGRC itself. Probably easiest to just unplug it, run power to it with gator clip test leads, and listen for a click when you connect it (engine off of course). If it doesn't click, it's your problem. If it does, check out the electrical plug and the wiring around it. Also, looking through the manual again, I see that there's a temperature sensor for the EGR as well, which I didn't notice when I took a look at mine yesterday. If the EGRC tests fine, you might try and track this temp sensor down and see how it's doing; since it's part of the same system, I suspect a fault with it would show the same code.

Interesting... apparently SVD was an Aussie thing, but the only data I found was for Pulsars. If it's real, I wonder what the mechanical differences were. Somebody posted this picture of a body kit a while back. The bumper looks like a dead match to me. Of course I don't remember the specifics of the post I screenshot this out of...

I've passed some newer rigs with proper HIDs (or what I assumed were HIDs that weren't blinding. A few of them are pretty bad though... I suspect it's because the light is so concentrated where it leaves the lamp, unlike a standard reflector setup where it's spread over a larger area. There's much less tolerance for misalignment. I ran across a Chevy part on a surplus site the other day that ties into the front suspension to automatically level the HIDs... seemed like a good way to do it, but also a lot of special equipment to support a headlight bulb.

The pothole bit might make sense... if you're going slow enough and the potholes have a bit of roughness around them, driving by braille might work out alright. Now you've got me wondering, though... maybe if you took a fish finder, adjusted the range a bit, and screwed it to your front bumper...

I had a look at mine, did some reading, and then spent far too long thinking about it. This is what I've come up with. Port A off the EGRC solenoid goes to the middle of the intake hose. It's not intended to be a vacuum source. Vacuum is created by a restriction and a sucking force. The engine's a sucking force, but the only significant restriction before that point is the airbox. Unless your filter is badly clogged, you shouldn't see much vacuum here. Port B off the EGRC goes to the EGR valve. The EGR valve opens with vacuum and closes without. It's a little more complex if you have a BPT valve (brings exhaust pressure into the equation), but you don't, so let's stay out of that. Port C goes under the intake hose and then hooks into the throttle body. The throttle body exists to restrict air flow, so unless it's wide open, it'll pull a vacuum. So why the two inputs? The EGRC is a three-way valve--not a valve like a thermostat that allows flow or doesn't. (If you're familiar with electrical relays, think of it as having an normally open, a normally closed, and one common.) It hooks port B to either port A or port C. With the power off, it connects port B to port C, allowing throttle body vacuum to suck the air out of the EGR diaphragm, opening the EGR valve. With the power on, the EGRC connects port A to port B. Air from the intake is drawn into the EGR diaphragm, vacuum is lost, and the EGR valve closes. If the EGRC simply closed off port B, vacuum would remain in the line, and the valve would remain open. That's why port A is necessary. It's a source of air to fill the vacuum that the throttle body created. That's all it needs to be. I suspect it's only connected to the intake because 1) the air is filtered (remember it does end up going into the engine) and 2) it's right next to it anyway. Hopefully that clears it up a little.

The only way I can see a dead bulb significantly raising the voltage to the other is if there's a bad ground/overloaded wire/weak battery that can't pass enough current to keep both lights at full voltage. With proper wiring I don't imagine the remaining bulb would see much difference. I suspect that one goes out shortly after the other because headlight bulbs are sold in pairs and used in pairs... stands to reason they'd last about the same amount of time.

There was clearly something wrong with your old motor, but the EGR is the last place I'd look. The EGRC solenoid is controlled entirely by the computer, so I don't imagine it requires vacuum. It's also the only component of the EGR to which the computer is connected (so far as I can tell), so a fault with it is likely causing your code. I would unplug it and probe the connector with an ohmmeter (or hook it to with power to and listen for a click). If the circuit inside is broken, the computer can't work the valve, and I imagine that's about the only thing that could make it throw an EGR code. If the solenoid is fine, check on the plug and the wiring around it. If I'm reading the manual correctly, a dead EGRC solenoid would mean that the EGR was on all the time (no cut off at high or low RPM), which might decrease peak power a little and make it idle poorly, but I don't see how it would cause knocking. I'd sort out the EGR code, reset the computer, then see if the knock code returns. If it does, you have another issue.

The picture looks like the two guys are having some kind of martial arts fight.

^+1, you probably had a dead high beam for a while before the low beam died. A bad ground could make a bulb not light up, or make it flicker, but I don't see how it would blow filaments.

I seem to remember reading about someone replacing a bad seal on one, and then there's this guy's chain, but other than that I don't remember reading about many wear issues with these. If it's not leaking, the oil doesn't come out with chunks in it, and the shafts move when they're supposed to, I'd assume it was fine. If you do decide to pull it apart, the FSM has full disassembly instructions and specs for tolerances.

Ah, well, good thought. Sounds like you have to do it like tail light bulbs: by braille, from the cargo area. You might try pulling the tail light on the hinge side out first, though. I don't know if you could reach in through the hole very well but at least you'd have some light in there.

In the dungeon!

The easiest thing I can think of is to remove the tire carrier button (right next to the latch, should be a single Phillips screw). Unplug the switch from the harness and throw it in the glove box.

Hopefully it's covered! There aren't a lot of R51 owners on here to give advice. You'll probably get more/better advice on Nicoclub or other forums with more late-model Nissan trucks. You might find discussions of warranty repair as well.

The flares are easy enough (if you remove the wheel first). The fender itself isn't not going anywhere unless you're prepared to take a grinder to it.