PerlNinja

From what I can see it's only the fan itself that can move, the shaft doesn't move at all, bolts are tight, still has a wobble...

Hi folks, Earlier today (well, for a few days actually) I've been hearing "strange" noises from the engine bay. Strange being defined as anything outside of the normal engine sounds. Couldn't find it but I noticed my fan was wobbling a little. With the engine stopped, you can actually move it around quite a bit, about an inch of play in there. Looks like I'll need a new fan bearing, but I'm kind of concerned now that my fan will disintegrate on me when I'm on my way to the shop... Possible? Or am I being too paranoid?

Not going to happen Hell will freeze over before I get one. Besides the total cost for the job was $20 so... not like I really want it back. It'd cost me more in gas to drive there than I'd get off the refund. I did call them and told the nominal manager type that the dude who rebuilt my carb shouldn't be let near any anymore. He said he'd sort it out, I believe him. Still not sure if it uses too much gas though; but I've done only city driving which involves a hell of a lot of stop and go. Guess i'll have to ask the Nissan dudes for a tuneup or something... I also installed a dashcam recently so I may start doing a "pathy meets idiot road users" type thing soon

Thought it was all done but nooo... not quite. Was on the toll road the other day on the way to (irony of ironies) the Nissan workshop I usually go to to finally have the clutch replaced since I hadn't gotten around to it yet and to have them eyeball the carb. The carb got rebuilt by my (then local, now not so local since I moved last week) workshop but I had a feeling things weren't quite right. Indonesia being what it is, traffic built up real fast and for some strange reason I had the urge to be in the slow lane, and good thing it was too, next time I had to come to a stop the engine almost died, chugged at 100-odd rpm; turning on the AC real quick saved the day because it'll add a little extra gas, so rpms went to normal. For about 30 seconds, then it chugged out and died. Coasted to the shoulder and commenced my usual "jebus f'in bleep bleep bleep bleep bleeping bleep bleep" thing. 35C, right around noon, under the sun, does not make a good spot to start working on an engine. Luckily one of the toll road's many tow trucks happened to come by and the gents were kind enough to bend their rules (to the nearest toll road exit only) and towed me down to the nearest Nissan workshop. Did cost me 2 packs of smokes and 2 cups of coffee but hey, for that price... At the Nissan workshop they found out what happened: the geezer that rebuilt the carb forgot to put the new gaskets in. He also forgot to put a gasket between the carb and the intake body. That's gotten fixed (had to wait 2 days for parts), and the car runs good now. I did get told it's probably better to get off the 85 octane gasoline and start using the 91 octane (unfortunately it's about $20 more for a full tank). Does make a nice difference though. The only thing now is that there's a ticking noise coming from the valve cover, it seems. Not sure if it's a valve or a lifter that's gone kaka or whether it's the common exhaust rattle but... that'll have to get looked at. One thing's for sure, with the amount of new stuff that went into the Pathy, it should hold up for at least another 5 years.

It's like the Phillipines in that regard yeah, if it runs, it's used. When it stops running, it's made to run again. When it finally dies for good, it's scavenged and re-used. It still freaks me out though, being a foreigner down here, the things that people here do with cars from time to time >.> There's good and bad... the bad generally being what I see most of since well, it's rather obvious They still have Toyota Landcruiser FJ40's here running around as daily drivers, not that hard to find but getting more expensive these days. Trucks etc. from the 70's can be found, 80's a lot, more modern stuff as well but generally not owned by the small fry transport guy. There's still Datsuns on the road here (which should tell you how long it's been). Love the pic of the Jeepney

I asked the guy because I was a bit "oh jebus christ what the hell" and he said he just put the gas in the bottle and insh'allah it wouldn't go kaboom. So I guess he did enough praying recently because he's still there, in one piece Carburation on cars in Indonesia; two simple answers, I think. First, there is no such thing as an MOT or yearly inspection, which means that as long as a car moves, it's kept on the road. When it stops moving, it's jury-rigged to move once more. You can see 30 year old cars here that are still in use as daily drivers. There is no such thing as a junkyard because any car that falls over and really kicks the bucket is immediately stripped down (imagine a piranha devouring something) and the pieces used to get another car running again. There are of course a lot of more modern cars out and about and they all have fuel injection, but the older cars basically come with carburators. Leads up to second: carburators are cheaper than fuel injection and can be maintained much more easily by ... well... a yokel with a big effing hammer. Most mechanics here have no formal education, they learned the trade from their parents/uncles/etc. and that's how it's passed down here - so a lot of the time, there'll be a single guy out of 15 mechanics who happens to know how to deal with fuel injection issues, because the others never learned and have no time (or inclination) to learn. Umm, yeah, bit of a rambly answer but hey... been in the car all day. There's no shops that do conversions from carburated to fuel injected, but there's plenty that'll do a conversion to LPG or bio diesel. I'd convert to LPG in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the fact that there are only 5 LPG-enabled fuel stations in Jakarta, and none outside, which makes it somewhat useless because you'd have to switch back to petrol after a while anyway.

Wasn't my ride guys, this came chugging in an hour or so after I got there, engine was hot, and the bottle was already busy starting to get melty in some spots. No idea how the guy figured it'd be a good idea to drive 50km(!) with this setup in highway traffic.

After another round of carburator struggles, finally managed to score an elusive rebuild kit yesterday and spent the better part of today figuring out how to rebuild a carb. It works too! The big test will be tomorrow, 100 mile drive, see if it all works as intended.

... this is how you "fix" a broken fuel pump and drive your ass to the local workshop.

Here's a fun one; can you send me *all* WD21 manuals, as well as anything for the Z24 if you have it? Given that my ride is apparently a frankensteinian affair of various years mixed and matched together no single manual has all I need in it

So today the second round of "time to breathe some more life into the machine" was done. Cost me some hideously scraped knuckles but that oughta teach me not to try to stick my hands into small spaces. Anyway, with assistance from the local workshop guys, plenty got done... first we went in for the front brakes and tie-rod ends; the tie-rod ends were real bad, at least an inch of play in the wheel both ways, so those had to get done because I'd rather not shimmy my shiny metallic butt all over the highway (that and scary visions of wheels coming off, etc.). Turned out to be a real pain in the ass due to them being rusted up solid, so a lot of WD-40 and finagling later, that was set. Front discs and pads went on without a hitch, the old discs were cracked and chipped, so those went right into "huh, what can we do with these, oh here's an idea, lets make two clocks!" country. Then it was time for the rear end; drums and shoe replacement. And none too soon since there were no shoes left. Or much drum. Or master cylinders. Or gaskets. Surprised to find it wasn't quite pissing out brake fluid but it sure explained where it's been going recently. Had to trundle down the road to the alignment shop with the new brakes and such on and let me tell you.. it can stop on a dime now. As I found out after rather over-enthousiastically applying the brakes and instead of coasting to a nice stop it went from "going" to "*squeal* stopped". Once alignment was done, took it out for a spin on the highway. Like. Freaking. Butter. It's so smooth now. No wandering, no shimmy, just... schmoove. Then came the last bit of fun time, replacing the AC compressor. The old one's clutch assembly was pretty well wrecked, and the compressor itself wasn't compressing very much; as it turns out, the guy that took it out held it up and shook it, and it made all sorts of really nasty bad rattling noises. I'm using it as a door stop now >.> New AC compressor went in without much issues, besides me getting my knuckles scraped. Also the inside of the car is like a freezer now. But hey, it works. The only "big ticket" item on the agenda is replacing the clutch, but we ran out of time. Since I need to go a few places over the next few days it's gotten postponed to the weekend. After that's done all that remains is visual things. Over-fender bits, a rear light that's got a hole in the plastic, and things of that nature.

Welp, new front discs and pads are on, got 4 new tires as well, the old ones looked fine on the outside but the inside was heavily cracked and ripped, apparently some sort of stress fracture like thing. And of course when the wheels were off, turns out I need me some new tierods as well; the amount of play in there is ... not entirely insignificant and explains the rather wobbly behaviour at anything over 80kph. So getting those tomorrow, putting them on sunday. I hope. And then monday new clutch, new AC compressor, and new rear brake drums/shoes/kitchen sink.

Yeah, the crazy thing is that they're all like that, it's literally like ... when Pathfinder production stopped for the US they just grabbed whatever was in the parts bin and slapped one together and sold it locally; and the Z24 engine's used in a lot of other Nissan vehicles so... makes sense. There's still that joining of 2 pipes though that would indeed be right behind the gas pedal in a LHD car; kind of an odd place for it come to think of it...

Mainly because there's no need for it (yet), my Pathy is a 2WD, not a full-fledged big boy 4WD, and I don't really do any heavy towing or other odd things (well, okay, I peel out at traffic lights sometimes) so... easier this way. Getting any sort of after-market parts requires ordering it in the USA or Australia and having it shipped. That in itself isn't a big deal, but it starts getting interesting when it hits customs. Often there's the official taxes that need to be paid, and then there's the "unofficial" taxes that need to be paid. Makes things somewhat prohibitively expensive Shocks are plain jane bog standard nissan factory jobs, I had ideas about having some stiffer ones but ran into the above problem. Turns out the aftermarket parts market (heh) here consists of bull bars and roof rack mounted lights, and that's about the end of it. As far as the wife goes, well, it did take some back and forth about it, but we both like the car, for different reasons. I like it because it's reliable, my ride's had a few nasty breakdowns but it's never actually given up the ghost or left me stranded, so that counts. Second, it's big. Indonesian traffic being what it is, this is a distinct advantage. Then there's the thing that even though it is a heavy bastard, it's quite agile, handles well, and is generally "comfortable" to drive in the sense you can stick a pinky on the wheel and drive 200 miles like that. SWMBO likes it because it's big; usually it's her and the munchkin in the back, and with the passenger seat all the way forward there's room for the munchkin to play around some, plenty room on the back seat for the munchkin to actually lay down with his pillow and blanket and snore all the way home, and the seats are comfortable. Then there's the munchkin who basically likes it because I like it - these days whenever I get home he's waiting for it, hops in and sits on my lap steering it into the car port while I deal with the gas and the brakes. There's pics in another thread of mine, I'll see about posting some new ones after I come back from the garage tomorrow And as far as I know, no R50's but plenty xterra's - there's a bunch of them around.

Yes it has - I'm in the enviable (?) position of owning a ... not entirely one-of-a-kind; Indonesia happens to be one of those countries where Pathfinders were made for a lot longer than anywhere else, and they come in a variety of odd flavors. Mine was built in 2002, has the 90's body style, but the updated front fender. Comes with a Z24 engine - not a Z24i, but a Z24. With a carb Actually my exhaust runs under the left side of the car, I sit on the right since it's RHD - the heat is more a case of it coming off the engine; for some reason the airflow through the engine bay deflects all the hot air off the firewall, and it gets hot at some point. Not really super hot but hot enough to get noticeable after a while. On top of that I've got a tendency to lead-foot it, so that doesn't help >.> My entire exhaust system has been replaced already, new headers (well... somewhat headerish), new pipe that runs a bit further to the side of the vehicle, no catalytic converter (yay... ), and a flow-through muffler. There is one section of pipe that's going bad though, might finagle a welding torch from somewhere and slap a patch on it for the time being. WIth all this maintenance coming up I'm having very, very sneaky visions of spooning a bigger engine in... I mustn't mention it around SWMBO though, she tends to frown on massive spending for car related fun parts >.>

Or in other words, every car gets to that point in life where you either sell it, junk it, or sink way too much money in it to fix it up. I'm about to embark on the "sink money" option; I really, really like my Pathy. It's got 190.220km on it as of this morning, and the previous owners weren't too hot on maintenance. As you can see from my various posts, I've not been spared my share of problems, so I decided to bite the bullet and get it all done and over with, and basically catch up on *all* the maintenance. Currently on order from the nearest Nissan parts guy: - new front discs and pads - new rear drums and shoes - new clutch pack (discs, bearings,the works) - new carburator - new front fender flares - a new instrument cluster due to the old one's wires being so badly mauled it's impossible to fix properly - 4 new shocks - pretty much every bushing and joint in the front suspension I've already made a deal with my local garage to park it there, and I can do the work myself or have them do it - so probably a little 50/50 since the mechanics there still think it's hilarious that a foreigner (I live in Indonsia) actually gets his hands dirty by working on his own car; and it's fun to hang around with them and get me some learning! Already told my wife that I'd rather keep the pathy than to switch to another car, in the 4 years I've owned it it's had it's fair share of weird problems, but it's never once actually let me down or gotten me stranded. It's reliable, sturdy, comfortable to drive (well... except my right foot, it gets hot...) and hey, I *heart* it. My 3 year old son also loves it, last time we drove another car he was incredibly cranky and didn't like it one bit. I think he's already got ideas about him "taking it over" when he turns 18...

My 2002 Pathy now has 190.220 kilometers on it.

It runs much better now, but I used up pretty much the whole can and gave the thing a blasting inside and out, then a repeat to clean it up. Also readjusted the idle (again). Sounds better, uses less gas right now, and on the whole there's been improvement. New carbs are expensive so going to have to make this one last... I wish crimp connectors, we're talking twisted together wires, and plain old duct tape. Oh, and some dodgy connections straight to the battery for power, and the control box for the whole thing is wired into the fusebox tapping into a couple of things where a fuse failing will cause the thing to either sound the alarm, or refuse to disarm... fun times.

I think hardbody already answered it but I'll throw my 2 cents in, I was assuming you have a manual, if it's an automatic this won't work but... If you find yourself stuck without starter, either you whack it like you did before, if that doesn't work then: 1) Find someone (or multiple someones) that can push the car 2) Hop in, gear in first, ignition on, clutch depressed 3) Get people to start pushing 4) When you're moving at a decent clip, just let the clutch pop up (don't gently lift off, just.. wham! foot off) 5) ??? 6) Profit! At step #4 the car should start, if it doesn't get people to push harder

Black like the bowels of hell...

Bit late to reply but been a tad busy; the pothole thing is a case of just feeling the car; when I drive across "rough" ground I don't really hold the steering wheel much, as in I don't have a death grip on it. I let it move quite freely, until it's time to not have it move freely. The second you start dipping into a pothole, ditch, or other stuff you don't want to smash through, you can feel the car tip and pull into it, and that's when you move out of it. Can't do it if you're going too fast obviously. Thankfully I don't need a fish finder... there's usually a bunch of kids mucking about in the water (well, what passes for water anyway), and they're more than happy to walk you through for some small change. And if there's no kids, then there's always a few enterprising fellows who provide said service for somewhat more small change. It's crazy, I can fill a book on Indonesian traffic oddities...

On a side note, you'll never really be stranded, there's ways to start a car without starter

Finally got some time to go at my wonky carb with a can of carb cleaner, sprayed that sucker good, waited a while, sprayed it again and was mighty impressed at the stupid amount of black gunk coming off it. It actually has shiny parts on it! I never knew... then spent some time with a can WD40 oiling up the linkage, tightened my throttle cable up some, got a new air filter in, and finally figured out how the after-market alarm and central locking unit is hooked up to the electronics system... you really don't want to know

Also. welcome

If you can hear the starter run but it doesn't turn over, sounds like the starter isn't engaging the flywheel (or wherever the starter engages on in a pathy, never bothered to look >.>) - not sure how complicated of a fix that is but IIRC a friend of mine once solved it with a BFH and a few whacks... but that was a temporary thing.