deanpence

This is likely a newbie question, and I'm sorry if I missed someone mentioning it, but is the starter relay called something else? I've looked through both Haynes and the dealer manual; I see an inhibitor relay on one diagram, and on another I see an interlock relay, an interlock emergency relay, and a bulb check relay. No starter relay. On both diagrams, the battery's negative terminal goes straight to the starter motor, which then passes through at least one of the previously mentioned relays. I assume this is all basically a checklist of conditions that must be met before the relays switch on and eventually allow the current to pass to the ignition system. O'Reilly's (only decent auto parts store in town) shows me starter relays for this Pathfinder, but I just can't find it in the truck itself. On the passenger side of the engine compartment, I see a labeled black box with at least four relays, and then two blue relays are mounted in front of and behind that box. But I wasn't able to get out tonight and trace anything to the starter yet. I'll do that during daylight. I'll also be checking chassis grounds to make sure they're secure and checking the state of wires where necessary. I think someone previously asked if I was using an AT or MT; it's an AT, and the engine is a 6-cylinder VG30E. So is starter relay the best guess so far? I also saw the alarm system mentioned. If I have time tomorrow, I'll disable that; should I just tape up each wire and keep that alarm system branch completely out of the circuit?

('93 SE 4x4, no aftermarket mods) A few weeks ago, when starting my Pathfinder, it turned over pretty hesitantly and slowly, but it started; I barely noticed at the time. The next day, it did the same thing, and I thought that I'd better turn it off and attempt a start again to be sure I would be able to get back from where I was going. All I got was a slight click, but the battery was *not* fully discharged. Power windows, radio, cabin lights, and headlights (at full brightness) were all working fine with the key turned half-way. I did a jumpstart from another car, and after letting it run for an hour, it again refused to start with a click. A few days later, I got a jump from a pickup and again let it run for a while, after which I got the click again. The guy who was helping me insisted that it had to be a bad battery, and though I know the basics of how the charging system works, I don't know much of anything about the starter, so I figured he may be right, though I still thought the alternator was a pretty good candidate. Today, which is four or five days after the last jump, it surprisingly started on the first attempt, though it turned over a bit hesitantly. I tried this again two more times, and each time it turned over more slowly, but it did finally start each time. And again, the battery is not fully discharged. Anyone have an idea what could be going on here, or how I can test some things myself to find out?

I went ahead and erred on the safe side. Taking the train takes a lot longer, but it's definitely safer. Thanks for all your help, guys.

I drove it in stop-and-go, 45 mph traffic for about a half-hour twice this afternoon, and after the second trip, the pumpkin and axle shaft were about the same temperature by touch and maybe 2°F warmer than the body—not hot in the slightest and just barely warm. It's not a test of highway driving, but I may do that a bit later tonight. Air temps have been in the 30s and 40s all day, but it seems like a half-hour is plenty of time for it to get hot if it's going to.

I have driven it at highway speeds quite a bit—though probably not more than 1/4 of the miles I've put on it. I've just been avoiding it the past 2 or 3 months because a defective differential seemed like a major problem waiting to get worse. It doesn't get worse while driving that I can tell, but I've never thought to test the temperature of the differential. (I don't think the engine temp gauge ever goes above the halfway point, but I don't know if this is relevant.) My impression of the risk here is that some chunk of metal could get caught up in the differential gears causing it to seize. Since those gears won't turn, the driveshaft won't either. On an LSD, would the axle spin freely at this point? I would guess so, but I'm not absolutely sure.

That's a good idea. I'll do that tomorrow.

The rear diff is an LSD; it might be relevant. I don't know what to tell you. That tone starts at 5 mph and only gets louder and higher as the vehicle speed increases. It's coming from the center of the rear of the vehicle. The wheel bearings could use replacement some time soon, but they're not making much noise. The rear diff is. The shavings, as far as I know, look like large metal shavings, not huge chunks, but regardless, that tone from the rear diff is still pretty loud at highway speeds.

Fluid was changed last August; I don't think this guy knew enough to think about checking for metal shavings or the color. A different mechanic later (November) told me there were metal shavings sticking to the magnet, and the fluid was darker than when I'd changed it. Sound too bad for a 2-hour-each-way trip?

It's hard to judge, but It doesn't seem to have got any worse since I bought it. I've only driven it about 2,400 miles. (I've been avoiding highway driving.)

I bought a '93 SE 4x4 in July that had at least one bearing in the rear diff going out. (There's a tone that starts soft and low at low speeds and gets louder and higher up to 60 mph, where it levels out.) I don't know how long it's been going out. I'm getting it replaced next week, but I would like to go visit family that live about 2 hours away this weekend. Is this vehicle safe to drive? Is it safer at lower speeds? Should I avoid highway driving? Should I avoid long trips? I know that in the worst case, the rear differential could stop working, which could cause a bad accident, but I don't know how likely this is. Thanks in advance, folks. Your answers are always extremely helpful.

I haven't been driving on the highway at all, and I've been getting a bit over 16mpg on 290 miles on 31" tires (factory size).

It's been a while, but you were right on about this. This plate was exactly what I needed.

I don't have the tools to work on this myself. From what I can tell, I would need lots of special tools for removing the axle, removing the wheel bearing, removing the brakes, removing the outer race, installing the oil seal, installing the axle shaft, pressing the wheel bearings, etc.—much less tools for working on the diff itself. It seems like it would be cheaper just to have the dealer install either the diff or the rear end. They gave me a guess of around $450 for installing the entire rear end, though it wasn't a written estimate. Yeah, all the salvage websites around here (north Texas) seem to use exactly the same software. They all ask for "locking" or "non-locking". A friend who manages a body shop called Nissan with my VIN, and they said it was "locking", though I guess I don't understand why an LSD is considered "locking" since it always gives more torque to the wheel with the most traction—though I suppose under a lot of circumstances, both wheels have more or less equal traction. Aren't the side gears inside the differential case? According to the dealer I took it to for this diagnosis, the diff bearings are the loudest, but the wheel bearings are on the way out as well, just not nearly as badly as the diff bearings. They didn't go as far as to say that the diff itself is bad, but considering the gear oil is cloudy and metal-filled only 2/3 months after I completely changed it, I'd be worried about the diff itself at this point. As far as labor goes, is it actually less labor to swap out the diff instead of the entire rear end? Seems like you have to take the rear end off to replace the diff. It looks like a wash to me. It's an LSD, and I'm replacing with an LSD. I'm not a hardcore off-roader like a lot of folks here. The gear ratio is still eluding me. I see tire size (31x10.5R15), rim size (15x7), tire pressure (26 PSI), and various weights (GVWR: 5150; GAWR FR: 2650; GAWR RR: 2850), but nothing explicitly about the gear ratio. Am I missing something?

A local Nissan dealer (Courtesy) took a look at the rear end of my '93 SE and found cloudy, metal-filled LSD fluid, really loud bearing noises from the LSD, and less noisy wheel bearings. They were quoting me some astronomical prices to get in there and fix or replace the LSD and recommended I look into replacing the entire rear end. I wouldn't mind doing the repair work myself, but I think it's outside my skill set at this point. I hate to be the one guy around here who has to come ask these basic questions, but does this sound kosher? It does appear that, simply from a time, labor, and price perspective, getting a used rear end will be cheaper, but I'm not sure by how much. The guy at Courtesy said it could be up to as much as $3,000 just in parts to fix the LSD and wheel bearings piecemeal, but I can't find any prices that seem to agree with that. Assuming a new rear end is the best option, I have another question. A salvage site I'm looking at (http://mazdanissanheaven.com/Online-Car-Part-Search.html) is asking whether I have a locking or non-locking diff. I was under the impression that WD21s weren't built with locking rear diffs, and unless I'm seriously misunderstanding something, neither an open diff nor an LSD lock at all (without locking hubs or a weld job). So what are they asking?

I did a look-see yesterday to see if I could identify any front-end suspension/driveaxle or steering issues that would be obvious enough for me to see. Mostly I just inspected the bearings and dust covers I could see or feel. I was hunting for causes of my front-end squeaking but found a few other things. First, do people generally just call dust covers bushings? I don't recall hearing/reading about them, but Haynes seems to distinguish. Second, what is considered a "bad" bushing? Bushings everywhere ranged from flexible to completely rigid but seemed otherwise to be intact. The worst thing I found (I think) is a busted CV boot (wheel-side) on the driver's side, which, I understand, just puts me driving on borrowed time. What, in particular, is likely to break here? Is it the driveaxle itself? Since it's on the wheel side, the joint itself doesn't seem to be in immediate danger. Am I wrong here? The lower balljoints on both sides had busted dust covers, which I presume calls for urgent replacement of those balljoints. What could go wrong here in the meantime? I also had a busted dust cover on the passenger torsion bar right next to the anchor arm and another on the joint between the cross rod and the idler arm.