Slartibartfast

30mpg in a Pathy?

Yeah, that's the auto. Is this while the truck's moving or while it's parked? Unless the recirc is on with mine it'll blow a little air when I'm driving, not because the fan motor's spinning but just because air's getting rammed into the intakes. I doubt it hurts your MPG too much, though if it's running the AC compressor it's not helping it any.

That link needs a sticky!

That's odd... suggests a bad ground, maybe? Was it full 12v positive? IIRC the wires you want are red with differently colored stripes. I didn't use the factory grounds, just ran them all (lights and relays) straight to a bolt on the firewall.

It'll be so quiet, all you'll have to listen to will be the ticking manifold studs, the exhaust leaks, and the buzzing heat shields!

Seafoamed it properly this time! It made quite a smoke show and I think it picked up some power. I'm not sure if this was due to the snake oil or if I was just putting my foot in more to try and burn off the snake oil, but either way I had fun flogging it. One quick tip for anyone doing a seafoam treatment: make sure you're upwind of the tailpipe when you're applying the stuff. I was very much downwind, and I had a bad time.

IIRC tire shops say to put them on the back. Understeer means you hit something with the front of the truck, where it's designed to take a hit. Oversteer means you hit something with the rear or back of the truck (or roll it). Given that it's a Pathfinder you're probably fine so long as you don't put them both on the same side.

Holy HDR Batman! Looks like a Mad Max rig.

A lot of guys with lifts have changed CVs and this is the first I've heard of issues. I'd be surprised if 97 had a different axle vs 98 but stranger things have happened with these.

Can't say the scoop and painted windows do anything for me but the workmanship on the body is nice.

Dad took it to a shop, and the guy said it's probably the valve seals... apparently it's a common issue on these.

Damn, what? How does that even happen? I emailed Rockauto about the door handle. Apparently they've sold a load of them for Pathfinders/D21s and I'm one of two people to ever complain. Not sure if I got a weird one, if I've got a weird truck, or if nobody else has bothered to complain... anyway the customer service people were good about it.

Can you hear the motor whirring when you turn the radio on? Most likely is that the long nylon bit inside is busted. Mine was in three pieces somehow. You can get a new antenna mast (which will have the long nylon bit and won't be bent so it'll retract right) off Fleabay, IIRC that's where I got mine. It's kind of a PITA to respool it but there you go. I did mine a few years ago and it's still working fine, but I don't use it too often... not much on the radio around here unless you like listening to guys drawling about women who done them wrong.

Upper/lower ball joints, TREs, centerlink, idler cost $800 installed here. I don't know what arms and legs go for there but it seems front end work isn't cheap.

A local garage did the job and they somehow managed without removing the intake. Apparently the guy thought he could just reach in underneath and do it quickly... when my dad picked it up a few hours later the guy had bandaids all over his hands LOL but I guess he managed to get it in. I don't know if the part was OEM or what it was. Since he didn't disturb the intake the gaskets are all original and the power valves have not been checked. What's getting me is that these issues seem like something you'd see in a much older engine... which points either to abuse by the PO or ingestion of valve screws. Time to check the screws I guess.

It does sound like valve seals, but it seems odd that they'd fail so early. I would also expect it to smoke on cold starts, and it doesn't.

Thanks Rebelord, I'll give that a whack. I learned two things today. One is that Rockauto's $3 Pathfinder door handle is in fact an 80s Sentra handle, which to be fair looks exactly like a Pathy handle. The other was that the door handles from 80s Sentras do not in fact fit Pathfinders. But where there's a redneck there's a way, and it turns out the Pathy mount place will accept a Sentra handle with a little modification, as will the linkage, and I now have a functional door handle again. No more climbing in through the back! Looks dead stock too.

Hi guys, this time it's my dad's rig that's acting up. 2003 SE 4x4, about 82k on the clock. A few weeks ago, after driving it 40 miles or so over a mountain pass, parking it for maybe a half hour, and restarting it, he noticed it was blowing blue smoke everywhere. This combined with the oil consumption (about a quart and a half per 3000 miles) made him think the PCV was bad, so he had it replaced. The issue went away and the truck seemed to run better with more power. The exhaust sounds different (my dad says it sounds 'wet'). The oil consumption did not change. Today, again after crossing the mountain pass, sitting for a bit, and restarting, it blew smoke again. Dad says it feels down on power like it was before. Exhaust sound hasn't changed. No CEL or codes. It doesn't smoke on cold starts or during normal driving, and he restarted it multiple times throughout the day with no smoke cloud. I've heard the PCVs on these are garbage but I can't imagine it would've lunched that quickly. We haven't checked the power valve screws yet, but a recent compression test showed even compression on all cylinders. Mileage is normal. Any ideas on what could be causing this?

Maaaaad. Nice bumper on that second link too.

After struggling to stay above 45 going up a mountain pass the other day, I picked up some seafoam spray. The hose system it comes with is pretty weak and I didn't put a whole lot in there... anyone else use the spray? Where'd you put it in? I shot some into the accordion pipe where a vac line hooked up but I was worried I'd muck up the MAF.

Given that it's UNCC I'm betting he drove over a rock and the bracket hit. Maybe the truck dropped onto the bracket even. Wear and tear just hogs out the hole.

The camera is underneath right-hand side of the truck, looking up and forward. The long blue thing is the torsion bar. The blue thing on the right is the UCA. And the bent-to-hell bracket in the middle is the bit that the strut rod bushings clamp onto. See the metal plate on the bottom of the bracket? Scroll up to my last pic, you can just barely see that plate sticking out around the bottom edges of the bracket.

Is it a constant noise or just when you put it in gear? If it does it once you might just have a U-joint going out.

When you care enough to paint the retaining pin but you don't care enough to take it out first I replaced the struts for my rear window. The old ones wouldn't hold the window even slightly open. The new ones, to my surprise, actually lift the hatch all the way up, entirely on their own, when I hit the button, which was not something I was aware they could do. This makes me glad I relocated the fogs away from the hatch popper! Speaking of which, guess who has a remotely activated spoiler now.

Looking good! I didn't know carpets could be painted.