Slartibartfast

Most of it is covered in undercoat and/or weld now. This is what it looked like before. My uncle had trouble welding near the bump stop and the crossmember, where I suspect the frame had thinned but not yet broken through. I did scrape a fair amount of rust chunks out of the rail while cleaning it up. He said it was spattering and burning through, which meant it was hitting rust. He filled the weld around the crossmember mounts enough to connect the patch directly to the mount (which was solid). I think he just filled enough to hit solid metal around the bump stops. The inside rail looks a lot nicer than the outside, and the crossmember mount there looks fine. We decided not to weld this up. It's right above the exhaust pipe, and until I started poking it with a screwdriver, it just looked like a crack. The plan at present is to treat it and fill the gaping hole with JB weld putty. Ghetto, yes, but we're not terribly excited about dropping the tank. Oddly, the rail on this side is (otherwise) in better condition; the other side was where he had more trouble welding. This portion of the other rail is solid. It stops before the section we patched. My uncle mostly rebuilds old sports cars, some to concourse spec. I have to remind myself now and then that what would be a worth a total rebuild in a Jag might not merit so much concern in a Pathfinder.

The tubing still looks pretty good, it's just the joint that's bad. Although, if you wanted to go aftermarket, this would be a good time. The lack of backpressure shouldn't hurt anything, but it won't run as well until it's fixed. When I got the exhaust in my 95 all sealed up, it seemed to gain a few horses.

Nissans are a study in contradictions: some parts are designed beautifully, but some parts were apparently designed on Bring Your Bong To Work Day. The bumpers definitely fall into the second category.

Sounds like fun. Whatever the cutout's made of should be fairly durable, and water proof... I'm sure we'll find all kinds of odd places to put it.

Time for side pipes. Nice work, and I like your approach.

$250 sounds pretty crazy. For that price, maybe you could get straight tubing, and a bender, and do it yourself, if you're comfortable with that. And you'd know that you've got more between you and not stopping/bursting into flames than some hoses and zip ties.

Glad that's all sorted out, then. So, that's some turboed Pathfinder.

I'm thinking cost to ship, which shouldn't be much (it's just paper). Shoot me a PM if interested. Sounds like Adamzan's are more complete though. Took it down to my uncle's today, and he welded it up. That's the good news. We decided not to match the factory cleanout holes, and drilled small holes elsewhere to weld it in better. The bad news is, my uncle found more cancer around the crossmember mounts and the bump stops, especially on the passenger's side. He welded it up as well as he could and tied the crossmember bracket into the patch, but he says it's only got a few years left in it. Oh well, it's stronger than it was, at least. I don't exactly thrash it so it should last me a while longer.

Tungsten, had it been in 4wd, the front wheels would've been working much like the rears. They might not have been turning together, with the open diff and all, but the average speed of the front wheels would match that of the rears, because both diff cases spin at the same speed. If the Pathfinder had a center differential, it would be AWD, not 4WD, and would throw sand from whichever wheel had the least traction. (IIRC the Hummer is AWD, with a locker in the center diff for 4WD.) If the front and rear diff cases weren't mechanically locked together in 4WD, you could drive on dry pavement in 4WD without tire chip/windup/driveline stress. Due to the complete lack of sand kicked up by the front wheels, the sandstorm coming out of the back wheels, and the fact that he's showing off, I assumed it was in 2WD. Hope that clears up your question. Due to how you asked the question, we assumed you knew how 4x4 works. If you'd said, "Is that in 4x4? Still trying to wrap my head around that" we'd have known exactly what you were on about. As is, we assumed you knew how 4x4 works, making the question appear comically retarded. Remember, this is the Internet, we haven't met you. Concise is good, but if we don't understand the question, it's your problem. And if you flip out over a misunderstanding, you lose respect on the forum, and people are less likely to help you. And I don't know why this is in a separate thread, maybe the OP will clear that up when he logs in again. And yes, it would be a little slower/worse milage in 4x4. It's just more stuff for any engine to push, regardless of turbos. And yes, it'll never be as fast/efficient as the car the turbos are from. But if he keeps his foot out of it, it may actually be more efficient on-road than it was before the turbos, as a more powerful engine doesn't have to work as hard. (I suspect that the goal of the project wasn't fuel economy.)

I 'd at the duck call. Does that make me a redneck?

Took a second to see it, but yeah, looks like it hit something pretty hard. I cursed mine. The other day I removed the door lock timer and resoldered the relay contacts (so it'd quit randomly locking itself). Today I got out, shut the door, and it locked itself. FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

It lives! Glad to hear it.

Mine is a little reluctant in the winter, too. I give it a little time to warm up, and when it's really cold (single digit night temps) I've found that a piece of cardboard duct taped across half of the grille helps it warm up and stay warm while driving. A cold battery is less powerful, cold oil is more viscous, and a cold block probably doesn't burn the fuel too well either.

Doesn't sound like a dead battery to me. Even a mostly dead battery will sort of try. I assume you'd get something between an iffy start and a total non-start (trying to crank but not catching). Probably not a dead starter, either, it should at least be clicking. Check the connections to the battery. Are they loose? Corroded? Does it spark when you move them around? I've seen a loose connection do exactly what you're saying, dash lights are on but there's nowhere near enough juice getting through to make the starter go. Unscrew the clamps, clean the terminals, shoot some WD40 up in there to keep them clean, and reassemble. (If they're just fine, check the starter connections.) It could be the alternator, but that would probably have turned on a few of the idiot lights. Check the battery voltage.

Definitely get a second opinion. My friend took her car in to the local Les Schwab with what we later discovered were warped rotors, and they wanted to replace the front hubs. My dad took his Frontier in with horribly bad rear brakes (the disks had gouges in them) and they tried to tell him the fronts were bad instead. There's a difference between a mechanic and a part replacer. I hate to be cynical but I suspect there's a good deal of profit padding going on as well. You bought the tires elsewhere, so they weren't going to make a hell of a lot just installing them. You could very well need some front-end work, but probably not a grand's worth. Find a place you can trust to do the work, or learn to do it yourself.

Guys, Nissan failed to predict mud. I'm pretty sure lightning protection wasn't on the list of design objectives.

I've got an aftermarket head with the stock amps, and new speakers in the doors, and I haven't had any issues. If I turned it all the way up, I probably could damage something, but I'd be deaf for life long before then. Unless it's really pounding, you're probably good. (I blew out a factory speaker with the stock deck, but only because the foam was all dried up and crumbly.) You're right, the stock head unit is quite weak. I hooked mine up to a computer power supply (12v) and a door speaker from a Ford. It's very quiet, even turned all the way up. I don't think it was intended to power speakers on its own. Not entirely sure what Nissan's thinking was there. I've been considering a ghetto bypass (just connect the input and output wires that would've gone into the amp) rather than running all new wire. Should be pretty easy. Not as good of course, but as I'm not swapping any more speakers (unless they blow), it should be an improvement at least. As for your links: #1 Looks good to me. #2 Depends on if your aftermarket head has the plug for the stock antenna. I'm fairly sure mine did. #3 Only if you're keeping the stock amps. Also keep in mind my experience is with WD21, R50 may well differ.

... maybe because it is?

Cleaned mine out today, having stumbled onto this thread. Dead simple, maybe fifteen minutes and a little shop-vac time. It wasn't high enough to hit the resistors yet, but it was getting close. Meshing in those vents is starting to sound like a really good idea.

A flat spot? I guess the brushes or coils inside could be worn out, making it run at half power with a sort of dead spot. But yeah, generally if a starter goes, it straight-up goes. Mine didn't give much warning before it died. Check the fuel pump first. If it's not the fuel pump, your neighbor might be sort-of right. You mentioned it didn't like starting in the wet. If you or the previous owner held the key for too long, trying to start it, you/(s)he may have overheated it and fried the coils. Starters are designed to run just a little, and only at startup, so if they're run continuously, they'll overheat and burn up. The starter, unfortunately, is a royal PITA to yank. It doesn't require special tools or anything, it's just a bit difficult to get to the bolts and thread it out between the wires etc. It comes out much more easily if you remove your oil filter and the little heat shield on it. (The second time we did mine, my dad left the heat shield off, because it was shot. I haven't had any problems yet. Keep your heat shield from your starter, neither of our rebuilt replacements came with one.) If you put it in yourself you'll save a fair amount of money over having a garage do it. There's probably a blow-by-blow how-to-swap-your-starter thread on here somewhere. Check all your connections before diving into it. Make sure the starter connections are good, check the battery terminals, clean off any corrosion (a little vaseline helps keep connections clean) and try it again. I've seen a car fail to start just because the battery cable was loose (didn't even click, but the dash lights were on). Usually on these when there's a connection issue, the starter just clicks but doesn't spin. Since yours is engaging, I doubt it's a connection issue. That said, I'm a noob, I'm very often wrong, and it's not too difficult to check the wiring. Good luck.

If you're into that sort of thing, you can save some $ make your own even if you don't have a welder: http://www.instructables.com/id/No-Weld-Truck-Roof-Rack/

Also, just hang around the forum for a while. It starts to soak in. From what I've heard the FSM is better than the haynes or chilton manuals, and you can still get paper copies.

FSM is a better reference, but here's a diagram I scribbled up when I removed my factory radio (so I could hook it up on the bench and mess with it later). Keep in mind this is looking into the back of the radio. I've hooked it up partially using alligator clips and found no fault with this diagram so far.

Resoldered the contacts in the lock timer and tested out power mode.

The clear(ish) dome light cover? It's got clips at the ends (front and rear iirc, could be the other ends though). You sort of have to pinch and pull. And the handles should have plugs on either side covering the screws.