Slartibartfast

Sounds like fun! You can host pics on Photobucket or another hosting service, click the 'insert image' icon (below the smiley icon above the reply box) and then paste a direct link to the pic in there. Can't wait to see what this beast looks like.

Update for anyone else with this problem, my dad took it to a local shop and had both resonators (turns out they're not cats) removed, welded up, and put back in, $150 out the door and it sounds right again. His research suggested that the patch kits don't hold up.

I'd check first and see if the bulbs in the new lights fit the old housings. If they do it'll save a whole lot of mucking around and look better IMO. If they don't, it's probably less effort to get the right bulbs for the old lights than to hack the ovals. If you like the ovals though, I see no reason why you couldn't dremel off the the rounded mounting bit (that's what's hitting?) and secure the lights to the factory brackets. I'd probably make a thin sheet metal bracket (out of an old spray paint can or something) that would cradle the light from behind (lots of surface area for epoxy) and then give you something to bolt/rivet/weld/ziptie to the brakets.

Dafuq? Sounds like he took it in, they poked at it a bit, the issue (clogged injector or something) cleared up on its own, and they wanted to say they'd done something. I dunno why they'd try and blame it on spacers of all things... maybe they figured it was the last changed thing, and have no idea how cars work. Or they're jerking him around because he works at a dealership and should know better. I hear muffler bearings are on sale this week...

I straight bolted mine to the bumper and haven't had any vibration related issues. In fact I would expect a rubber block to let the light vibrate worse (whipping around with wind or on rough roads). All the stock lights are hard-mounted to the body, and they hold up just fine. A rubber strip between the light and the bumper might help for corrosion prevention though, so you don't have water wicking in between two metal surfaces.

Looks like the front end's a little more curved than the WD21, so you'd have trouble adapting the ARB even if the width is correct. If you can find an engine for it and put it back together you might get enough $$ out of it to buy a proper bumper/tires/etc for your Pathy. If you're parting it out you might try and find a Montero forum, the trim and bits might be worth something to someone.

Well, crap. If the plug is out, I'd try to vacuum out the cylinder (shop vac, duct tape, small-diameter hose, whatever's at hand) in case aluminum shavings from the buggered threads fell in. Not the end of the world if you can't, but the less crap in there the better. This would also be a good thing to do before installing the new plug, as whatever you do to re-thread the hole will probably kick more metal in there. If you have to drive it, I'd disconnect that cylinder entirely. Unhook the wire from the plug (if it's still in the head) and unhook the injector so you're not wasting gas and torching your catalytic (or spewing raw fuel out the open plug hole, or risking blowing out a stripped plug). I imagine it'll run like crap, so go easy on it. Back roads, low speeds, probably good to keep the revs down as much as possible seeing as how it's limping. If that fifteen miles includes highway, find a different route! Good luck getting to the plug hole to tap it. Hopefully someone else who's stripped a head has a good way of doing that. A mechanic did mine so I'm no help there.

For putting the new plug back in, I've heard you can stick it in the end of a bit of rubber hose and stick it in that way, then twist the hose to start the threads.

IIRC the ratio differed with auto vs manual trans (usually). Check the info plate in the engine bay (passenger's side, back towards the hinge) for your ratio, it'll say HG and then two numbers. Mine says HG46, meaning 4.6ish:1 gearing, as opposed to the 4.3ish:1 on some rigs). If the donor's tag matches yours, you should be good to go.

My battery's all over the place today. The two harnesses in the pic (the bits you could completely unplug from the system) are fuse links. If you follow the harness behind the battery, there should be a plug with a brownish wire coming out and then going back in, which is apparently a separate link for the headlights. The no start/click issue isn't uncommon. Some people wire the starter wires to an accessory relay and then hook power from it to the starter, and from what I've heard, this works pretty well. It's something to keep in mind if the new starter doesn't fix the problem. I'm not sure what the underlying problem is, but I suspect the contacts in the ignition cylinder get grungy and won't pass enough amps to push the starter solenoid properly. Here's a partial writeup (screen shot off the 4x4parts board because I can't find the link): Tact's not my strong point so I won't advise on what to tell the shop.

Warming up and then dying sounds like coolant temp sensor to me.

A few guys have chopped Xterra racks to fit. They look pretty good and probably beat the stock rack's 80lb rated capacity.

Can you test your meter on something else to make sure it's not tweaking out?

Dunking in the river isn't too bad... it's the year of sitting wet that scares me. On the plus side, it's probably dried out by now. First thing I'd do is to wash it off. If you're fighting wiring issues, it's much easier when the wires aren't covered in mud. Clean out the inside, too, I imagine those carpets are good and fruity. You may have some corrosion to clean out of the submerged electrical plugs, but it's not like you dunked it in salt water. The wiring issues are probably the same as they were before, and I wouldn't worry about them until you've got it running. You could test the ECU by pulling the codes (there's a writeup on here, you don't need a scan tool). If the test mode works, then the ECU may be alright. If not, you can snag one from a junkyard and swap it in. Unless the oil is contaminated the engine should be safe to start, or at least to crank it and see if it catches. If it doesn't, I'd suspect the distributor before the ECU. I use Photobucket for pics. The interface is a little sketchy (they went and 'improved' it for some reason) but it's free. Copy the direct link, click the 'image' box above the reply box, and paste it in.

You might try unhooking the battery for a few minutes to reset the ECU. It could be trying to compensate for whatever it thought the problem was.

Went out and took a look at mine... Here's the plug. Ignore the two wires right next to the battery post (orange and green), they're not stock. The harness from the green plug goes behind the battery and includes this fuse link. I'm not sure where the other two fuse links are, or if the wires coming off the green plug are fuse links too. Looking at your pic again, it looks like someone's cut open the wiring harness and done strange and terrible things to it involving crimp connectors.

Dielectric isn't conductive. The point of it is to insulate and protect the connectors (but it's not so thick that they can't touch and conduct electricity). It's also supposed to cut down on arcing, and it makes the plug come apart more easily when you're done with it. Too much of it would just make a mess, the connection should still work. So you unplugged the trailer and the truck lights are still acting up?

Before you commit to welding new metal on, I'd try to just clean it up with sandpaper, see how bad it really is, then see if there's enough metal left to rattlecan. The door jamb is the more important bit, since it can't really be unbolted. If it's weak and swiss-cheese looking, hacking it out and rebuilding it is your best bet, but you may get lucky and just have failing paint with a little surface rust under it. The door rot looks worse, but most of it's covered by the mirror. I'd sand it down, cut out the loose and thin stuff, and hope there was enough left to hook the mirror to. If that failed I'd see if I could find a door in better shape at a junkyard, if that was cheaper than having someone weld it up. Also inspect your sills/strut towers/etc... make sure you know how much rust you're actually dealing with!

I don't know trailer wiring, but I'd suspect a ground issue, especially if it has dual filament bulbs. Maybe sitting wet after you drove gave it time to corrode?

The green thing on the right looks like a plug for a fuse link or for accessories. Try pulling that out, make sure the wires are tight, and also make sure it's not all corroded inside. Put a little dielectric in before we put it back together to keep the corrosion off. Also check the battery terminal itself. It could be that you're grabbing the plug and the battery terminal is shifting around.

^Velcro might work pretty well.

That's several issues in one. I've heard you can take them out and tighten the brass screws that hold them in, and maybe reflow the solder a little where it's old and cracked. Temp gauge, maybe your thermostat's stuck? Gas gauge could be the gauge or it could be the sensor in the tank.

Probably best to make your own thread on that one.

Keep in mind that Pathfinders are large, underpowered, and (at least in my experience) difficult to do burnouts in. I don't think that wheelspin or understeer are what's making the noise. Think of it like this... when you go around a turn, the driver's and passenger's side wheels go different distances, right? The same thing is at play on a single tire. The edge of the tire on the outside of the turn has to go a little farther than the inside edge, but of course there's no way one sidewall can spin faster than the other (barring catastrophic destruction of the tire). So it has to slip a little. This slippage is not reliant on the wheel being powered, and it'll get worse the harder you steer, the faster you go, and the larger the contact patch is (the width of the tire and how squishy it is... depends on sidewall strength and inflation pressure). I also suspect that the steering angles get a little wonky approaching full lock, so the front tires may be fighting each other a little on sharp turns, just due to the design of the linkage. My understanding of steering geometry doesn't go much past knowing that there's a thing called an Ackerman angle though, so don't take my word for it. Keep in mind that a Pathfinder is a heavy, underpowered vehicle, which in many cases is fitted with fairly wide and squishy tires. From what little I know of NSXs, they're small, powerful, and fitted with comparatively firm tires. I would not be at all surprised if the NSX squealed its rear tires under acceleration. I would be very surprised if a Pathfinder did the same. If the squealing is excessive you might want to check your tire pressure. Otherwise, unless it's squealing in a straight line, or wobbling/understeering like it's in 4x, you're good to go.