ThaBigPerm

OK, I'm cheating (sorta) - this wasn't "today", but July 1st. Took me a while to unravel a couple of computerFAILs and then get the footage sorted and edited. All GoPro POV from the Pathfinder:

Assuming there were no warning signs/sounds/smells/disturbances-in-the-force and it was as quick as "flipping a switch", I'd even have to doubt the TC on this one. Most TCs go out either gradually, making whirring/whining noises then eventually grinding before going completely out (and usually taking the trans with it from bearing shrapnel), or suffer catastrophic structural failure (usually in drag race applications, and not daily driver stuff). Clutch packs likewise generally slip and cause other grief before going completely out, as was already mentioned. This smells like a sudden loss of fluid pressure - either the pump (though that might also be noisy on the way out too) or something gone wrong in the valve body preventing engagement of the clutch packs.

As for vacuum hoses, there are quite a few (plus coolant) under the plenum that can only be accessed by removing it. PITA for sure, but mine only had 138k miles when I pulled mine and most of the hoses were cracked/cracking and some crumbled in my hands when I tried to remove them. Replaced them all with bulk hose cut to length. On a side note, an EGR gasket came with my plenum gasket if I'm not mistaken. While I had it off, went ahead and did valve cover gaskets (might as well).

Aside from the tune-up tips, how much weight were you carrying? I ask because I just experienced this first-hand on my trip to Colorado. I halfway expected it, being underpowered from the factory as it was/is. I guestimate I was hauling around a thousand pounds of camping gear, fuel, me and dog, if not a tad more. On those highway mountain passes, climbing rapidly up to around 12,000ft, she was lugging hard. 75mph hill climb starts. Engine begins to lug, speed drops. TC slips out of lockup, speed still bleeds as hill gets steeper. Trans downshifts out of OD to 3rd. Decide to lock OD out, so TC can lock in 3rd. It does, but speed keeps falling. Below 55mph, TC comes back out of lockup. Speed keeps bleeding, manually shift down to 2nd and can maintain around 40mph at @ 3000ish RPM, and that's my top speed. Engine gets warm (doesn't overheat, just needle moves up noticeably, even with AC off). Altitude + "warmer than normal" engine = even less power than it had originally, which wasn't much. I didn't chalk this up to a tuning problem so much as just ... "the way it is" with this vehicle's engine. Runs fine on the level/unloaded, and off road in 4low happily cralwed over every obsticle in front of it, even up to 12,800ft. It was just maintaining highway speeds on mountain passes, loaded and at altitude, that taxed it. I let leverage (gear ratio) be my friend - I let it run at its peak torque (around 3k RPM) in a lower gear and lower speed rather than beat on it in a higher gear trying to get it to maintain speed at 1800rpm.

About to load it full of camping gear for 10 days of this :jig:

I suspect the fuel is contaminated with water. Water will settle to the bottom of the fuel tank, as it's more dense, and so will be the first thing the engine sucks on when you fire up from refueling. To make matters worse, modern "oxygenated" fuels with added ethanol are slightly hygroscopic - they use cornstarch filters to absorb any moisture that may have made its way in the fuel, but those can become saturated and need replacement (which doesn't always happen in time).

Mine's been on the blink since I got it last year. CC light comes on with the master switch, but no workie. No apparent vaccuum leaks. Now I'll test the pedal switch continuity. I did have the crumbly switch "buttons" that ran the battery down (by leaving the brake lights on 24-7) and that I suspected was also the cause of the CC issue, but that didn't fix it. Thanks for the writeup.

I used the 90 degree mount (think Firestick calls it the "3-way mount). There are two flat plates where the tire carrier on my WD21 begins to bend toward the hinges, perfect for this mount. I'm assuming there might be a similar structure on the R50 carrier.

I haven't fiddled with the timing on mine, but I've been meaning to confirm it. On my old '91 Mustang, I remember you had to pull a plug that acted as a jumper when checking/adjusting timing. Doing so disabled the computer's ability to adjust the advance so you were measuring the "native" advance of the distributer with no ECU shenanegans. Anyone know if there's a similar setup with the VG30e? or are you actually supposed to adjust timing with the ECU "live" and fiddling with the advance?

Since I'll be in the San Juan Mountains with it in 16 days, it has to be this:

I toss in my two cents on this older thread since I've had to pull my starter a few times over the last week with torque converter work. First, it helps to turn the front wheels hard left (for a LHD Pathy). Due to the geometry of the steering, the center/drag link will move forward slightly, probably 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch, at full turn. But, if football is a game of inches, getting these starters out is a game of fractions of an inch. Every bit helps. FYI: I turn it hard left, instead of right, because it looks like the steering dampener bracket would get in the way if I turned hard right. Then, I loosen the idler arm pivot nut (the one on the passenger side of the center/drag link on a LHD Pathy) and drop it down as far as I can without removing it completely - I usually leave the nut threaded a few threads and rubber-band a little baggie or old glove to it as a reminder to tighten it back up before hitting the road when I go to put the starter back in. This lowers the center/drag link about 1/2 to 3/4 inch for more sweet, delicious wiggle room. Next I remove the front four bolts holding the trans fluid lines - 2 on the front of the trans pan and two more further up forward of the starter. This gives you some room to move those lines around and hopefully jockey them out of your way as you work the starter out. After loosening the starter and pulling it forward a few inches, I make sure to unhook the oil pressure sending unit (it's easiest to see and access from below - the manifold blocks your view of it from above). I didn't do this the first time and ripped the wire out of the crimped-on spade and had a dangling "mystery wire" staring at me when I got the starter out. That oil pressure wire is bundled with the starter wiring, and unlike the rest of the wiring doesn't have enough slack to allow the starter to come forward and out while still attached. It's still a PITA, but hopefully this might result in a slight reduction in cussing and thrown tools.

Yep - pulled my starter the first time and also had a mystery wire - same one. The oil pressure wire is bundled with the starter wiring, so if you don't disconnect the oil sender before you pull the starter forward it'll rip the wire right out of the crimped on spade connector. Your spade is very likely still attached to the oil sending unit.

The big "pivot" bolt is best accessed through the holes in the PS pump pulley (they're there for that reason) - you'll probably have to rotate (or bump over) the engine to get the hole to line up with the bolt. Then, there's a lock not on the adjuster, then the adjuster bolt itself (both below the pump). I've never had to pry on anything to adjust it. Edit: in the diagram above, the adjuster lock nut is indicated by the big arrow. The adjuster bolt is indicated by the "turn" arrow. The anchor/pivot bolt is not indicated, but you can see it behind the PS pump pulley.

About to start round two of torque converter replacement. The remanufactured one I picked up was brown and covered with dust. After wiping the dust off, it was blue. And had a reman date of "04-01-04" - April Fool's Day. Ten years ago. Sure enough, it rattles when the trans is put into gear, and goes away once the vehicle starts moving. Probably a wobbly stator. Took starter & gusset back out to confirm the TC to flexplate bolts weren't loose. Nope, they were snug. No cracks to be found in the flexplate. Bad converter.

In the middle of this:

Performed day two of my five-day-Memorial-Day-Weekend torque converter swap. Torsion bars out, now to actually drop the trans.

I did this recently when replacing my 93's carrier. It had quite a bit of junkyard surface rust, but no pitting. I used a stainless wire wheel on a corded drill to knock it all down. Used Rustoleum primer, followed by 3 coats of Rustoleum semi-gloss (the typical level of gloss for engine bays and black attachments like tire carriers). Word of warning - if you go the rattle can route test fire each can on a sheet of scrap wood before pointing it in the direction of your carefully prepped surface. The first can of semi-gloss I used had a partially-clogged nozle, resulting in huge chunks of black crud rather than a nice, smooth layer of paint. Had to let it dry to sand it back down smooth. Also, more thin coats beats a few heavy (read: runny) coats any day.

If it's the VG-series v6 powering your Hardbody, then there's no timing chain to wear any holes - it's a timing belt. If you're staring at a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercial ("You got oil in my coolant!" "Yeah, well you got coolant in my oil!"), it most likely points to a pretty serious head gasket failure or worse (cracked block). If it's been in FL the whole time, I think we can rule out being frozen solid and cracking the block, so it was probably overheated and FUBAR'ed a head gasket or two.

At least the parts aren't that expensive, provided you can (or feel confident enough) do it yourself. OEM isn't the cheapest, obviously, but Gates makes quality replacement parts; think I paid around $15 for the belt (square tooth variety, should be the same as the OP's application going by the year in his avatar details). Tensioner pulley I think was in the neighborhood of $40ish. Threw in a water pump, thermostat, & bypass hose while I was in there, as well as crank & cam seals. If you do decide to try it yourself, this site, Youtube and Google are your BFFs (there's a good t-belt video on a Hardbody, but it has the same engine). There are a few tricks you'll want to get familiar with beforehand; holding the engine from rotating (for auto-trans Pathys) while removing/installing the crank bolt as well as removing/installing cam sprockets to get access to cam seals, properly tensioning the t-belt without getting it too tight (WHINE!), removing cam/crank seals and getting a new crank seal over the crank snout without buggering the seal lip.

"Greater than zero" On the bright side, such that there is one, the VG30 engines lack one component that can fail and result in a t-belt failure: an automatic tensioner. A Civic I know of, 4cyl, threw the timing belt and bent a couple of valves because the tensioner spring gave out, the belt slackened, flew off the sprockets and wrapped around the crank snout, busting the crank position sensor in the process. This happened at just off idle speed navigating a parking lot. Belt was actually fine (well, it was before the shenanigans). The warning was brief - a second or so of a warbling noise from the engine ... not even long enough to think "wth is that?" then a pop, quick squeal, and engine lockup.

Hmm ... stab in the dark, I'd probably suspect the coil going out when it gets warm/hot. It just sounds electrical to me if it runs fine and heat causes sudden complete deadness. I might also give a leery look at the fuel pump relay.

I would suggest blowing out the plug recesses pretty good after removing the wires but before pulling the plugs. Mine had a ton of grit and leaf bits in there, and you wouldn't want that crud falling into the cylinders. A flashlight and uncomfortable angle will reveal whether there's any crud to be concerned about down there, but there usually is.

Try confirming it's not actually the A/C tensioner pulley first. I had "weird pulley" noises coming from the front of the engine as well that slowly got worse, and the sound was transmitted throughout the brackets and engine so location was hard to pin down by ear. Was relieved to find out it was just the tensioner pulley.

Just did the front brakes on mine, a '93 SE v6 4wd. No leaks, no brake issues at all other than pads worn down to indicators. Was going to replace pads and rotors. When I cracked open the bleed valves and began compressing the caliper pistons (twin piston calipers on mine), the fluid came out, but not from the open bleed valve. The fluid peed out of the piston seals. Never had that happen before ... not that suddenly. I've seen a caliper that had been leaking for some time weep fluid when compressing - these blew completely out and had to be replaced as well. Found out the factory calipers use plastic pistons. Bingo. Most new and reman use metal pistons. What disgruntled Nissan engineer decided to do that!? Plastic caliper pistons...