linewar

Yes; the block of the CRD sits lower in the subframe, so the pumpkin of the front axle assembly is pushed out more toward the driver's side wheel. That makes the driver's side half-shaft shorter than the passenger-side, thus you can't go as high without serious modification because of the severity of the CV angle. The diesel engine also weighs more, so OME heavy-duty is the standard for the front assembly on a CRD, where medium-duty is the standard for a gasser and heavy-duty would get used if you have a winch bumper. Seriously, I know way more about the KJ than I do about my Pathfinder. . . .

I'm a former Liberty CRD (diesel) owner, and was very active on that forum. OME lifts for the Liberties are kinda the standard, I chose however to do a lift by JBA. (Jeepin' By Al) Here's my install thread for my Liberty: http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53361&hilit=epic Just from looking, the major difference I see is the front strut assembly. Sure, you could use the OME 948's in the back if they're a direct fit, but the front strut assemblies and coils wouldn't cross over. The Liberty has a clevis setup (a lot of KJ'ers use big washers where the clevis attaches to the strut when the springs start to sag) and, well, frankly, I can't quite categorize the R50's setup. A company out of Big Bear, CA, manufactured a full lift setup for the Liberty with OME components called a Frankenlift. http://www.boulderbars.com/frankenlift.htm

Is it time to create an alternate log-on, to stack the vote? Do it Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall style? I already cast mine for you, PA.

I think Dodge had lightning in a bottle with the Magnum, but didn't really know what to do with it. The car had clean lines, muscular haunches. . . like a Dodge interpretation of an Audi wagon. I just love a stick shift and it wasn't offered in the Magnum or the Charger, or else I likely would have bought one. By pushing marketing for the Magnum I think Dodge could have done a lot to roll back the tide of CUV vehicles trashing up the streets now a days by taking away the stigma of "station wagon." A guy that used to live near my old church had a black SRT Magnum, too. Man that thing was clean, with the 6.1L Hemi and gunmetal rims. Oh, and for lulz, my sister-in-law drove one of those Ford Freestyles for several years. That thing is as station-wagon as station wagon gets, and she would YELL at me when I called it that. "No, it's an SUV!!" Ironically, though, it did count as an SUV for insurance and registration purposes; it had a Louisiana plate with the truck designation. (A letter followed by six numerals and no spaces) Maybe paying more for registration and insurance makes a person feel better about driving a dowdy wagon - kinda like having all-wheel drive makes a Subaru Outback a "utility" vehicle? for that matter, I wonder if insurance would consider an SRT Magnum a sports car, or a family sedan?

I feel the OP's point. I hate car-based SUV's with a passion, because they are station wagons with poor(er) gas mileage. But unlike some, I actually LIKE a true station wagon. I'd love to get an Audi S-Line A8 wagon with the 4.2 V8, quattro, and a six-speed stick. I could put azaleas in the back and then go hit the Nurburgring, are you kidding? I hate to think that the actual "Utility" vehicles might be disappearing. But, as always, the actual demand for them is not enough to support large investment from a major auto maker. And also, the car industry is cyclic. If they go away, they will come back, albeit in a slightly different form - like CUV's being a reincarnation of the Estate Wagons of the late 60's and 70's.

See! Exactly what I mean! I have an SE with XE wheels, he has an LE with a 5-speed. . . what in the wide, wide world a sports is a goin on here? I have no idea what's going on right now. . .

When I posted yesterday, I went outside and looked at the tag on the inside door of the glovebox. Door tag matches it, though. Honestly, I could care less which one it is except for just plain old curiosity. It's 17 years old now, too old to find any satisfaction in its options or "status," and not old enough to be classic. Just a solid, reliable daily driver that has enough longevity left in it to justify modding it up. However, I do find Nissan's option packaging to be very ambiguous. Seems that the only one that was clear-cut was the LE - automatic trans only, leather, bells and whistles, etc. I think I read here that LE was the only way to get leather. (of course, now someone with an SE will post that they have leather and a 5-speed - which would be an awesome combo, IMO) I think if I had been the original buyer, I would have picked an SE with a tire carrier, 5-speed, 4wd, and no sunroof. All the other goodies, though. BTW, trogdor, I LOVE that poem in your sig. Hilarious.

Anyone know what the XE Sport Package consists of? I thought I had an SE (thought the XE had the unchromed steel wheels) because of having a rear LSD, 5-speed, 4wd, flares, rear spoiler, PW, PL, keyless entry, cruise, cloth interior. But, I have the chrome wheels like the OP, and original tire size 235/70/R15. So maybe it's either an optioned-out XE, or an "XE Sport Package?" Also, I used to have 31x10.5 BFG T/A KO's on it and only rubbed at full lock with the stock suspension. Also, the VIN when I added it to my insurance pulled as an "SE."

Yes, you will cut the original wires completely and leave the ones running toward the rear of the engine in the harness. (Make sure you wire the new sensor to the live wire, not the dead, after the cut! Lol) The harness itself also carries the wiring for the fuel injectors, so study the Youtube video carefully. As stated, the only thing that is not really clear in the video is the arrangement of the knock sensor wiring - one is a traditional copper wire with insulation around it, and the other is silver wire, un-insulated, and wrapped around the insulation of the other wire and then both are inside a black rubber sleeve inside the harness. It's not super clear in the video, that's why I mentioned it. Just pay careful attention to the video, it definitely is a complete walk-through. Price-wise, that's about what I paid because I got a package deal and OEM parts. I ordered it off eBay as well. I didn't want to take chances, so I bit the bullet and paid. You could probably do it with a cheaper sensor, but getting the correct harness is very important.

Yes sir!

Just wanted to share my joy - since my Pathfinder was just returned to me a couple of months ago after spending 4 years in my mother-in-law's possession, I did not remember having the timing belt changed when I owned it previously. I've been prepping to do the replacement, reading how-to's and pricing replacement kits, etc., and it dawned on me that I had some major work done on it when I owned it before. So, I call the shop where I had the work done, and asked them to pull a record of it - and lo and behold, I had the timing belt, tensioner, and water pump replaced at 105,990 miles in June of 2008! No timing belt replacement for another 74,000 miles!!! That means $$ for mods! WHOOO HOOO!!!!

Well, did my first full tank of gas since the relocation and got 15.3 mpg - better than the 14.6 I got before. Did a little more highway than normal, so that may have had something to do with it, but hey - every little bit helps, right? Even if it's only half-a-mile per gallon better.

I hear you. At some point mine will have to come off to replace the driver's side valve cover gasket. But that's pretty low on my mod list right now because its not leaking nearly as bad as the other side was, just a little seepage. Next is timing belt (oh boy) then, all in one fell swoop, new front half shafts, Warn hubs, OME suspension, and probably some bushings since its going on 17 years old. Lots of $$$ to be spent on this lady in the next several months.

That's what I was trying to show - there are not two wires at the harness connection, only one. Somewhere down the line it becomes two, because there are two feeding the downstream connector and two that I stripped and spliced. You can kinda see a blue plug in the other pole exit of the harness, if you're looking at the sensor from the top it is coming from the left side of the plug. As far as I can tell, if there are two wires, they both connect on that one side of the harness plug and then separate into two wires down the line.

edicer, Here is a close up view of the top of the knock sensor. Sorry it's a little out of focus, but the words look the same except for the Nissan logo on it 180° from the harness plug. Here are two close-ups of the wire coming out of the harness on the sensor. I think this is where your plan runs into a speedbump; there is ony one wire exiting the harness from the area of the left prong. I can verify, however, that there are two wires at the other end of the harness because I spliced them both. It looks like the sensor is the same but you'll need the Nissan Maxima harness to connect it.

Yep, P0325. 4 years ago when I first scanned it and got that code, I literally did a Google search for the code and the how-to on the Nissan forums was the 4th or 5th entry in the search result. I'm sure glad that dude did the YouTube video, though. I have scanned it several times since and it is not throwing any codes but the emission light still comes up yellow instead of green. I have the $100 Innova scanner from Walmart. I'm tracking the mileage now via Fuelly and added the banner to my sig line. I filled up yesterday after only about 20 miles or so driving with the fix, and registered 14.6 mpg. It'll update as I go, but I've already driven about 70 miles and it's only just below the full line. Considering I was getting about 240 miles on a 17 gallon tank of gas, I think it's improved but maybe not as much as I'd hoped.

Yah, that was my hope when I searched "knock sensor relocation" and found nothing. How do I get a cool NPORA sticker like that?

Did it Saturday, and it was not as big as I feared. I just get really nervous messing with wiring because of the whole "point of no return" thing. The knock sensor on my truck has been bad since I last owned it in 2008. There was no MIL on the dash or anything, but I scanned it when I first got my scanner just for fun and found the code. Even back then, the relocation was pretty well established as a cheap fix for the problem. For those not familiar with this, the knock sensor is located under the intake plenums on the back side of the engine. It's about a $25 part, but $800 of labor at a shop because of having to remove the upper and lower plenums. It detects cylinder knock (incorrect detonation of the air-fuel mix) and the engine computer adjusts timing and air-fuel ratio to compensate. The sensor in a Nissan plays a passive role, so the engine may run fine without it functioning, but it will throw a code. Some years ago, someone discovered that you could mount a new sensor and splice into the existing harness to avoid the headache of removing the plenums, so I followed their lead and did it. This guy made a great how-to video on YouTube that I used to know what to do. The only thing about his video that is not 100% clear is the location of the second wire. When you cut into the cover and find the black-covered wire, the second wire is wrapped around the white wire inside the black cover and not separately insulated. It took a few minutes for me to figure it out, but if you notice in the video when he starts the splicing, that splice looks like it's sticking out of the insulation - that's because he put the splice on exactly where it exits the cut he made. Also, the part number he lists is for the wiring harness, not the knock sensor. The sensor itself has a separate part number that I don't remember, but can supply if someone is looking to do this mod and needs the part number. (I bought a package deal off eBay for the harness and the sensor) Overall, it's a relatively easy fix and should help my fuel mileage, since now the engine won't run rich to compensate for the bad sensor. Here are some pics of the finished product: Knock sensor bolted onto intake with harness looped to left: Prettied up where I did my splicing:

When we first installed them, I did it that way, but as you torque down the bolts, the bolt head begins to press through the rubber of the replacement grommets. If I did it over, I would re-use the facotry grommets since they are full-jacketed metal. (through the hole) That would just raise the issue of flexibility in the original grommets since the leak was caused by the gasket material losing all of its elasticity. When we backed out the first few bolts and flipped it around to rubber-side down, it made sense. The bolt grommet acts as a secondary gasket to the valve cover gasket itself to keep oil from slipping through the bolt holes. With the design of the replacement grommets, when you add torque on the metal side of the grommet, it smushes the rubber side down into the bolt-hole of the valve cover. Too much torque and bad things happen, the right amount of torque and it smushes in just right.

I think Utah looks beautiful in that pic. Oh and the rack is a nice addition as well. (I live about 15 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. I only see powdery snow like that when I vacation up that way)

I'm having trouble orienting where in the engine bay that is by the pic. Can you give me a general idea?

Nope. Is it on the passenger side or driver's side? We simply disconnected the hoses for both breathers.

A mechanic friend came over this morning and we knocked out the passenger side (US Models) valve cover gasket. That wasn't as big of a deal as I thought, it's just intimidating. Got the gasket and grommet set from Auto Zone, unplugged all the connectors on the cover and removed them from their mounts, and set them out of the way. The plastic connectors, being 16 or 17 years old and repeatedly exposed to high heat, cracked on two or three of them where you slide them off mounts on the valve cover. We moved everything out of the way, and wriggled the cover on out. Discovered immediately why it was leaking - the rubber gasket was hard and brittle, like rubber thats been sitting out in the sun for several years. That's why re-torquing the bolts did nothing to help the leak. If anything, it may have made it leak worse because the tightness is not the issue - it's the rubber of the gasket deteriorating past its function. Prying it out of the grooves in the valve cover, it came out in chunks. The new gasket was nice and pliable. I didn't like that the valve cover is held on with Phillips-head bolts, so I ran to the hardware store and got the same length and thread pattern metric stainless socket-head bolts. (Allen wrench) It's hard to explain exactly why I chose socket head over hex head, it kinda just felt appropriate. My only rational reason is that I was concerned about over-torquing a hex head. Everything went back in well, and for the connectors that broke where they mount on the valve cover, I used electrical tape and/ or zip ties to fix them in place. Sorry I didn't take pictures, but suffice it to say that the hardest part of this job was selecting new bolts. Oh, and also, if you buy the gasket set with the grommets for the bolts, remember metal side up, rubber side down. Unfortunately, soon the same will have to be done on the driver's side. Man I am REALLY not looking forward to having to remove that entire intake plenum. What a drag. But there are obvious signs of leakage (minor now, just wait. . . ) around the bolts, so it's a job that will have to be done - it's just a matter of when. Just a side note, with the cover off I noticed that the rocker arms of the back 1/3 were a darker brown than the ones near the front, where the oil filler is. Also the inside of the valve cover had noticeable sludge in it in their area. Is that a sign that the former owner didn't change the oil regularly enough, is it a sign of a coming issue with the oil pump, or is it normal due to the way the oil flow works across the rockers?

I drive mostly around town, but it's not exactly a lot of start-and-stop. I'd say pretty average. Oh well. Next project is the valve cover gasket and knock sensor relocation. Then timing belt, then save for new front half-shafts, Warn locking hubs, OME lift, and rims - Procomp or Cragar I reckon. I'm also assuming I'll get in there and see some 16 year-old bushings that need to be replaced. . .

Seems like it was the starter. A buddy came by yesterday and helped me pull out the old one; we brought it to Auto Zone and had it tested. It passed, but sounded kinda weak, so I bought a new one and we installed it. Fired right up. Here's a concern, though: the starter I replaced was obviously not the original. In fact, it looked as though it couldn't be more than 2 or 3 years old. I do have the leaky valve cover on that side.(driver's side valve cover doesn't look that bad - yet) Other than that oil leaking down onto the starter, could something else be causing it to go through starters?