gv280z

So when I bought my pathy a year ago the exterior automatic stereo antenna was snapped off. I didn't really know what to do with it, I'm really no good with car electronics or removing fenders and dash and stuff like that to gain access to the original broken equipment. And so most of a year passes with out any real good stereo reception, until about a month or two ago when I finally decided to do something about it. I had a very vague knowledge that I could have an internal "hidden antenna" purchased and installed at Car toys for like $200 or something like that. I did not feel comfortable spending that kind of money on fixing my antenna, so I shopped around a little and found this one at Frys for around $30: Metra 44-UA20 AM/FM Antenna And you know what? It actually wasn't that bad, once I had figured out how to remove the instrument panel cover and pull out the stereo, I was able to figure my length of cable needed (starting at the top of the windshield) and routed the cable inside the interior molding along the top of the windshield, down the passenger side door molding at the edge of the windshield and up under the dash / glovebox area into the back of the "stereo compartment"; 2nd part of this install was finding a 12v power source for the amplified antenna for which I just soldered the little wire into the back of the cigarette lighter and that did it For some reason my stereo (or the original antenna) had a dual splitter wire adapter where I was able to hook up both the old and the new antennas and plug both into the stereo so I guess I'm running a dual antenna setup. The adhesive that came with the antenna to allow you to attach to the window glass doesn't work at all (atleast in our humid texas heat) so I had to super glue it to the plastic molding and that held. So anyway my stereo sounds great now, I'm really happy with it and glad I was able to do it myself. Greg

Tungsten you're rough man! Gawd it wasn't even my project and I kinda feel like crying 'Do you go past 85 mpg? Then it may come in handy for ya!' lol funny but harsh. I've done stuff like that before, the so called free'r breathing cold air intake, not on the Path but an old honda prelude I used to have, and atleast psychologically it added like 50 hp! Hehe

Sounds like a bad bearing to me. I just went through this a couple days ago and buddy, this is dangerous! Please get that thing fixed ASAP. If that bearing basically disintegrates inside the hub, your wheel could fall off. The guys that fixed the hub bearing on my chevy silverado said the brake calipers and pads were the only thing holding it all together.

Xterra was first thing came into my mind when I started reading your post. The 2001-2003 pathfinders were the last good years, after that (for me anyway) they just fell off. Don't get me started on the newest one, it's horrid. If I were you I'd stay in the gen your in now, just move it up a little bit, fresher lower miles 03, maybe 04 but that's it. Hey man those things have 250 hp engines too.

$3000 is a really REALLY nice WD21, atleast a 95 4x4 se with no more than maybe 160-180,000 miles. I got my 94SE 4x4 auto in good condition power everything with 190,000 miles for 1,800 and that was after I'd talked the guy down from 2,000. For $3000 you could start looking at 96-98 R50s to a degree. I forget, the houston market has no snow or ice so 4x4 suvs are a little lower in resale cost. When I was scouring craigslist month after month I did test drive two different I think 97 R50s that were around like 2,200 to 2,500 but they had issues. R50s (96-00, 01?) look great and have more power but they also use a 1st time in the field unibody construction platform to which the ruggedness and offroad-ability is debatable, where as the 87-95 WD21 used a body on frame = real chassis and had classic lines and styling, it's the original kickass tight little offroad-able 4x4 suv with room for more stuff than a couple of passengers like a jeep. I guess Cherokees were okay and fit into the same class but somehow I think our trucks are better than Jeep cherokees. I certainly prefer mine over one anyway. p.s. Houston also doesn't have the rust problems with our vehicles here because of salt spray! I'd be happy to help any of you get around town here if you search our craigslist ads and ever feel like flying into town to pick up a new rust free ride and drive it back or atleast get it put on a truck. I'm a driver here and I know this town like the back of my hand.

I had this exact same problem once and I've stated on here a couple of times I was able to fix mine with the Gumout treatment at Kwik Kar, the main ingredient being the vacuum line IV drip for about 15 minutes, that service cleared it right up. Up until that point I had narrowed my issue down to the Idle Air Control Valve which is on the underside of the intake plenum on the driver side near the firewall. Before that I had replaced with a stock coil and bought a used but warrantied ignition control module. If you're able to spend the $80 for the service I suggest you give it a shot. My truck's symptoms were dying all of a sudden while slowing to turn or stopping; if it didn't die it would idle rough down around 2 or 300 rpm and black smoke would puff out the exhaust, rpm would fluctuate a little bit up and down like a dying, wheezing pathetic injured animal.

I don't know anything about the temp sensor which is an automatic choke I guess? But what yall are saying about it, it sounds like it fits to me, that would want to enrichen the fuel for a cold start and if it's faulty and staying open or active or whatever it does, it would be continually enriching the fuel because it never gets the "Okay, we're all good down here, you can take a break!" signal

sounds like a ground wire got shook / broke loose somehow. At first I was going to say it was the alternator but now I really don't think so after reading your symptoms, it's weird you still have fog and high beams, which would be really weird if they're somehow on the same circuit since they are kinda diametrically opposed to one another. Can you isolate the circuit/s that run your dash and running lights, they must be connected somehow. Oh, you know what I bet they are on a series circuit and only one of those bulbs went bad but since its no longer working, it also shut all the other ones down as well like Christmas lights. Somehow the offroading inadvertently affected one of your bulbs, maybe rattled it loose and that broke the entire connection. Series circuit, you take out one and they all go down...yep.

The black smoke when you punch it is un burned fuel. When you did that, did it ever actually accelerate or just act as if it had no power. That would involve I guess a vacuum advanced ignition on the distributor (I don't know how our advance timing works, vacuum or centrifugal) but when you punch it, the timing should advance to continue burning the fuel air mixture at the optimal time which would be just a few degrees before top dead center. If the timing advance isn't working then you would have a bunch of fuel dumped in the cylinder and the engine wouldn't know what to do with it, therefore you get black smoke. Anyway regardless of that, given everything that you've done and still no resolution and no codes from the ECU makes me just think that you have a generally bad ECU and it's diagnostic circuits are dead, along with whatever else that is supposed to be controlling the performance of the engine.

If you're running rich, your gas mileage should be really horrible, worse than ours normally is, I mean something like 13 or 14, round there. You're an Old Timer here so I would have to assume you already know the laundry list of numerous issues it could be / need to be checked out and or replaced i.e. Wires, Dizzy cap and rotor, PCV mass airflow sensor, your coil or ignition control module may be failing. I had a similar problem a little while back where sometimes my truck would intermittently start running horribly or die when I came to a stop or slow to turn, and it would run rich and idle rough, black smoke come out the exhaust, but once I gave it a little gas it would pick right up and run fine. Finally got it resolved (after replacing everything I just mentioned) by having my local Kwik Car do a Gumout 3 stage fuel system treatment with a bottle in the tank, an IV drip thing for about 15 minutes (into one of the vacuum lines I think) and throttle body cleanout. After that it's been running great with no more issues. Service cost me like 80 bucks. I never checked my ecu for codes so I don't know if I was getting one or not. Since you're not getting a code, your ecu doesn't know something is wrong somehow..I don't know.

I'm sure this probably doesn't apply but if any of you are near in or around Houston but I checked Craigslist lastnight for Nissan truck and Nissan 4x4 and got quite a few results, some where good deals.

Wow this is great! I feel like I'm surrounded by family and friends already Hey Tmoore I was with the 22nd PSB over by ICORPS and the replacement battalion. We were in those old brown barracks down from watkins parade field. I did my share of running pt up and down Engineers Bluff (backwards and forwards) and had plenty of FTX's and Sergeants time up in those woods. I used to drive out the East gate and go through spanaway, and ashbe on up to the Paradise side of Mt. Rainier. I had two different sports cars at different times ripping through those mountain roads, it was awesome, loved it. Oh my GOD I almost forgot about The House of Teriyaki in Tillicum! Please tell me you went there!? I don't know your time frame but they used to be in a tiny little shack of a building and used to SLAY everybody around lunchtime, and then I guess after 2001 or 2002 they moved into the old Burrito restaurant down the road. Man that was awesome food. Slartibartfast (I know where your name comes from by the way, even before the big time hollywood release, I watched the entire original british series in one setting, and used to have a txt only computer pc game at one time but I only got as far as the bar and the peanuts and crackers and the dolphins, 'Ford lay the towel in front of the dozer, please...' hehe) It's good to know there is a sect of freedom out there in Eastern Washington, I never got over that way, don't know anything about Spokane or Yakima. But boy I sure do remember the Cascade mountains. Seattle was cool, neat place but just too liberal, we have our own version of it here in Tx, we call it Austin and there's nothing there for me. Hey Precise1 thanks for the recommended read, I probably will read that, I liked Stranger in a Strange land and I'm a HUGE Piers Anthony fan, don't really know anything else about Heinlen other than Strange land. It sounds totally relevant and interesting and probably really scary since I'm already inclined in that direction, probably the last thing I need. That solar grid array looks nice and relatively speaking not a bad deal, that looks pretty sweet. I've always instinctively felt that through a system of pulleys and geared transmission or reduction that one could manually create kinetic energy and have that same amount of potential energy created visa vie the gear and pulley system and there-about have it re-directed back into itself to sustain perpetually. As in say, an electric vehicle rolling down the road, as it's rolling it's turning generators driven by geared hubs, which then in turn keep the battery cells charged which then gives energy to the motors to run the vehicle, round and round it goes and never grows old hehe hawhaw ho ho!!! Only problem is multiplying twice or three times the output vs the input so the output is able to create the input. I know of a set of sideways stairs and a cat that ate itself. Some of you know what I mean. I'm sorry, I don't ever get to talk to anyone intelligent in my daily life, I'm a deep thinker trapped in a blue collar construction equipment rental environment, and I'm the only employee so I don't ever get to stretch my brain and let it play except when I'm on here I guess that's why I'm always on a tangent. And I don't Facebook, used to have one, I closed it. I know I'm the king offender of going off topic, please forgive me. Oh yeah I got up close and personal today with a set of Cooper Discoverer ATP tires and I was very impressed, those things look mean as hell, I'm very interested now. If not those, then I may go with a set of Cooper STT's.

Hey My1path I road an XT 350 for a couple of years, got it brand new in 2000 when I was in the army up at Ft. Lewis in WA, Don't a lot of you guys live in the Pacific NW? I really miss that place, my adult home REGION....although I'm conservative and Washington isn't, I still love that place. I'm a Texas boy and so I still remember the very first time I ever laid eyes on Mt. Rainier, I stopped dead in my tracks and stared in awe. I'd like to have a sweet power generating live off the grid house too but the problem is that you can't keep it a secret and someone else is going to want it, and then someone after that if you kill the first one. Oh and then the govt get's pissed at you for not needing them! They get mad when you get all independent and go freely off the grid. This is a dream for millionaires. If only I had the cash...the secret to true survival is being completely invisible where no one else can say, "Hey whats that really sweet gig that guy has going on over there that he worked hard for? Huh? He doesn't deserve that! Us lazy robber types should be in there!" For all you with Netflix, there is a Twilight Zone (original, beautiful black and white) episode that captured the essensce of this wonderfully, Season 3 episode 3 "The Shelter"

Wow Precise 1, you're waay ahead of me man. You covered a lot of ground, all I can really say is, Nice on all accounts.

Hey Harbinger don't get me wrong I'm loving my tough new coil, it feels really smooth and powerful on the freeway, I've been racing around with my power switch turned on just for the fun of it! However, when I consider the reason I bought my Pathy, that's when I feel a little low because I potentially compromised my family's safety via possibly frying my car because of a frivolous upgrade which I didn't really know how it would affect my truck. Hey how do you like your Yoko Geolanders? Been through any deep crud? Oh and are the Cragar Soft 8s the same back spacing / offset as the stock nissan wheels? Banx thank you for letting me feel a little less crazy, I have considered this topic at length and coincedentally have also used Google Earth to look for secluded hidden spots near bodies of water that my family and I could use as a home base to hunt, fish, have a water source and live long term. I'm not sure about a cb radio if I'm going that route or not but I do have two hand wind generator emergency radios that we can use at any time regardless of batteries to hear the status of the outside world. I do also have a sawed off (18" barrel for you law enforcement) 12 gauge shot gun with some double 00 buck shot wad cutters and a little bit lighter ammo for use inside the house (you know so you can kill a bad guy without also killing a member of your family when the buck shot goes through the drywall into the next room) Also have a .22 that my 12 year old son knows how to shoot (he also knows how to drive the pathy offroad, I put him behind the wheel, stuck in 4 wheel drive and let him slam through a water mud hole a few times ) He and I have already reconned an area on the water we might be able to utilize safely removed from others. As I stated above I have meditated on this topic for hours and hours over the last few years, so much so that I could write a horror novel about it. I realize this is not the proper place for me to ramble on at length about such things, I know you all don't want to be subjected to that, I am even now in danger of going on a tangent and am trying to keep it reeled in (I have just deleted my 3rd waay too long paragraph!) Please take steps to protect yourself, some extra canned food and water. Everytime I walk into a cvs or walgreens for a quick item I get atleast two cans of Spam and a case of water. Living in a hurricane zone here in Houston Texas, going through evacuations, I can tell you MILLIONS OF PANICKED PEOPLE ARE SCARY! Other people are the most terrifying thing there is. This is the 3rd and last time I will discuss this topic in this forum, I apologize to those of you who I made feel uncomfortable. I welcome any questions or comments at my email address and I'll talk with anyone about this in that manner: gv280z@yahoo.com

Hey thanks for the tip HardBody but I've got a couple issues with the Falken offroad tires, although I actually do have a set of Falken's on my wife's Altima! Those Rocky mtns have an aspect that I can't get my mind around and so it kills it for me. I've got my choices wittled down to Cooper Discoverer AT/3, General Grabber AT2 or maybe a Hankook tire. I got a really good review today from a Hankook Dynapro AT and MT owner, full size z-71 4x4 said he had burried and the AT tires pulled him out of it, also said the MT's did really well offroad and wet traction wasn't bad either. Just when I think I've finally made up my mind I read a really bad review about that tire and makes me switch back to the other one.

For My1path: I did go back and take another look at the plug harness after it had been on there for a while and I couldn't percieve any "ovalness" to the electrical contacts in the harness, I think they may have a little springy action to them to help keep their shape. Tungsten I'm sure you have probably heard this before, but let me assure you I mean it when I say I'm not ever going to actually do any serious engine work on this, unless it's for a repair like a blown head gasket or something and then it wouldn't even be me doing the work, it'd be my trusted mechanic. The most I feel like I want to get into it will be purely bolt on equipment. If I did anything to the engine, it would be to have it swapped out for a turbo diesel. I'm 37 years old, I'm trying to get a loan for a house and take care of my family, I cannot be dropping thousands of bucks into this. Hell I'm having to budget out a set of tires (cheap tires, like $120 each!) 2 at a time piece meal. With the exception of some good offroad tires that won't stick me in the mud at the worst possible time (say for instance when running from people who want to kill me and my family for our food and water supplies) I know in my heart my truck is already capable performing the task for which I bought it for which is to have a tough vehicle for emergency evacuation amid chaos and be able to protect us and all our gear and supplies. Sorry for going on a negative tangent but I have been over run with doubt regarding our economy and I fear the chaos that would / will ensue there-after, meaning a crash. In my mind I have become the crazy homeless guy holding a sign screaming "The end is nigh!!" No, the MSD was totally irrelevant and unnecessary and I was stupid to take the risk. I'm lucky it worked out. Sorry NPORA for going political and negative on you.

But I want more power / gas mileage and I have to mess with stuff! It's in my nature, I can't help it I just have to tinker with stuff and try to make it better. To buy a toy like this and then never play with it or put my own spin on it, leave it completely bone stock original is just sad, even though I'm totally aware that this vehicle in bone stock plain jane form was 100 % fantastic on it's name day. My truck is bone stock with 4 wheel drive, and a k&n filter (no lift, tires, suspension work, engine work or exhaust) and with weak sidewalled highway tread 235 75 / 15 Kumho Solus KR 21 crappy tires, this truck has taken my son and I on some terrifying adventures and gotten us through unscathed. We have been through some scary crap and never got stuck, close though. I love it, and I acutally bought this thing with the intention of having it serve as my family's Arc when things get crazy, socially speaking. It's our escape pod.

I got this at a speed center for $47 plus tax so right at $50, I think the OEM is about $10 - $15 cheaper. Okay, I will fix the coil wire and yes, I guess I am lucky the polarity matched up, I'm not sure what would have happened had it been opposite. I mean the voltage is only going one way, I don't think it would have come back into the electrical system through the harness but who knows.

I read someones post in this forum a little while back and showed a pic of the MSD coil 8228 and mentioned it looked like a direct match up for our coil mount and harness setup, so I looked into it. Yesterday I picked one up, took a look at it while still sealed safely (and return-ably to get money back!) inside the plastic. Once you open one of these up and try to hook it up, that's it, it's yours until you can sell it to someone else, no returns. Anyway I immediately noticed the little round prongs / posts inside the harness plug and was concerned that the coil on our wd21s had some kind of flat spade connector and it wasn't going to fit, damnit! Well, I'll leave it in the packaging and take a look at my coil and see if it could possibly be a match. This morning I got into it. Removed the harness connector and couldn't really get a good idea of it from looking at the receptacle, so I removed the coil and looked in the end of it. It has two posts the same distance apart as the MSD coil, So at this point I'm kinda at a loss, it's not an exact match BUT it looks close enough that it may still work, the only way I can know is if I open up the package and take the new MSD coil out and try it, all the while hoping and praying that A. it doesn't burn anything up and B. It works! So I mounted it up, was able to get the harness to fit in the plug receiver, and get the coil wire end to snap on to the male post, so far so good... And voila! It worked! Yay! Nothing is smoking or damaged and it works In the pic below you can tell the engine is running by looking at the fan, it's a blur as opposed to the pic above with the engine turned off, fan stationary. here's a little video: [media=]http://youtu.be/78-aleJoX1w[/media] I did go for a test drive after this and it ran great. It ran great before though also so I won't actually know the real benefit until I can start to get a read on my mpg, but it did feel pretty tough. So now you know, those of you who had any question on this before, you can add 40,000 new fresh MSD'EED volts to your ride. Greg

But I did learn how to test if you have a bad idle air control valve: When standing at the left side of the engine bay and the oil filler cap directly in front of you, there you will see a quad group of harness connections, two on top and two on bottom. The little one on the top, closest to the oil filler cap is the wire harness that plugs into the idle control motor/valve at the other end. Unplug that small harness connector and using a multi-meter test that connection for Ohms, it should read 10 ohms, I guess with the engine running, the mechanic I was talking to didn't specify. If you get anything other than 10 ohms, it's bad, supposedly. This is what the mech at kwik kar told me. I did pay for the two step process but the guy doing the work was cool and threw in a throttle body / plate cleaning for free. I can definetly tell a difference in how my truck is running, seems to have more power now. Also, one other thing, I did turn the idle adjustment screw about 3/4's of a full turn counter clockwise before I had the fuel service done.

Hi everyone, I wanted to share my experience with this problem that a couple of members have been having, Kyle94 and Ejnn??? not sure the rest of his name. So your driving down the road and come to a stop and your truck has died, or is running horribly loping around 300 rpm. You check and replace all the normal stuff and still doesn't fix it. I replaced my ignition coil and ignition control module, and pcv valve, battery with all the grounds hooked up, nothing worked. Through continued research I narrowed my problem down to the idle air control valve (and no, unfortunately it's not the little tower looking thing near the firewall on the side of the intake plenum, that is an auxillary air valve) the idle air control valve is directly behind the aav and is mounted on the underside of the plenum. Apparently I'm one of the lucky ones because my truck is now fixed, I hope this will work for you guys. Went to my neighborhood Kwik Kar service center and had them perform a Gunk two step fuel system cleanout with IV drip for 15 min. Truck runs great now, not dying anymore when I stop or slow to turn.

How can you run without a catalytic converter? I mean, I know you can do it but how do you keep the law off your butt? Tell me about that Thrush muffler. Is that the same I can buy in the auto parts store? The Thrush turbo muffler? Do you get any kind of drone from the exhaust note while going down the freeway? I want a free'er flow muffler but don't want a loud braaap or drone. Was considering putting in a High flow cat from car sound but you just bypassed it all together!

This is a fair statement. You are right, plugs and wires are easy, basic. However (and this is coming from a guy that's had well over 10 cars since I was sixteen) There are some vehicles, many now these days where when you lift the hood, there's nothing even slightly recognizable that you can begin to wrap your mind around. It's just all engine cover screaming at you "Don't you DARE touch me!" That's kinda how I felt looking under the hood of my new 94 pathy. I saw those three wires disappearing beneath the intake plenum and I struggled to make some sense of it. It's very daunting at first, UNTIL you learn that there's really nothing to be afraid of and this thing is actually possible. Possible and no excuse to pay someone more than 30, 50 bucks to do it for you. 10 minutes, no, not at first. Now that I've done it once I might be able to do it in half an hour, depending on how easy number 6 is to deal with. Which, now that I've got die-electric grease on the plug and boot, should be a cinch.

Oh man I guess I forgot to mention my spark plug socket seems to be magnetic! It held perfectly in place so I could just lower right down into the well at the end of the extension.