FeelthePathos95

Easiest fix is just that your fluid is low. Top it up and the light might go off. But then you need to figure out why you might be losing fluid. My second thought would be bad sensor. I've had vehicles where the sensor went bad and one where the sensor was fine but the wire leading from it frayed and so the system was no longer getting input and that triggered the fault.

Factory rated at 17 mpg highway, so would seem the truck is giving you about what you can expect.

So today was oil and wiper change, and cleaning of the throttle body. That seems (too early to make final call) to have addressed my intermittent stutter of late when starting. Yes, it's not much. But it feels like an accomplishment here in Little Siberia.

Yeah, the truck's like to hell with your sissy garage!

Head scratcher, to me. Maybe condensation from the sudden change from bitter cold to warmth built up on a sensor or something. My other car gave me a 'stop engine immediately' death warning once on a bitter cold startup. Took it to the shop and they found nothing wrong with it. Been driving it without a problem for two years since then. Mechanics told me the same thing, that condensation on a sensor can make it think something horrible has happened.

+1 on the reliability factor. Just the other week, after 19 years of ownership, my Pathy gave me its first 'check engine' light. But here's the weird thing about it: It's been starting and running just fine throughout this brutal winter, with many below zero days where I live. The check engine light came on after I parked it in a heated garage for an hour while running errands. Fired it up and got an immediate rough idle and check engine light, then after 2-3 minutes the idle returned to normal and the light went out. Drove it again for a week or so in the cold with no problems. Parked in the same heated garage for an hour or so and got the same rough idle on startup, check engine light. After 2-3 minutes, all goes back to normal. And no problems since. So I guess my old truck likes -10 below more than a 60-degree garage.

Yep, radio could be part of it. The rest would be just cosmetic upgrade, so wanted to make sure it isn't a pita first.

Yep, would not be looking at changing anything except switching a dash cover piece that has some tears/cracks with one that has no flaws. Was assuming there would just be some mounts, etc., to be dealt with but thought I should see whether (as is often the case) it gets more complicated than that.

Question for any and all on this topic. How easy or difficult is it to swap a dash if you are looking only to switch the damaged shell to an undamaged one from same model year?

Was waiting for someone to say 'maybe you should rephrase your question'?

Kudos, sir! That one made my day.

Tried the Lucas in mine and it did nothing. Someone else on the board called it worthless "gorilla snot.'' Had me laughing all day about that.

I have had same issue and yes, your tranny is freaking out over something when you hit highway speed and going into fail safe. Hope you have better luck than me. Have taken it to two indys and a dealer and no one can figure it out. Last guy finally just changed the fluid and told me not to use overdrive. That works for me as I drive it just in the city for now and plan to replace vehicle soon anyway due to frame rust. It shifts fine until you ask it to do more than 50-55, then it goes that fast for a bit and goes to fail safe.

So here is the nightly forecast low for next five nights: -18 -27 -19 -14 -7 Thursday we get a heat wave and the low will only be +10. So what do you think the chances are I make it through this without a new battery?

No, Winnipeg is the king of the cold. Been there once in winter and it was a regular thing to get down to -25 every night. All the full-timers had block heaters. That said, some wise guy just noted that the -42 in northern Minnesota just now is colder than the surface of Mars at the equator.

Other thing to do with a fuel door frozen shut is just find a heated garage and park there for two or three hours to thaw it out. Think of it as a day spa for our 20-year-old cars when it's so freaking cold. Gives all the fluids and lubricated parts a chance to thaw. Worth the $15 out of pocket.

Greetings from another Minnesotan. Mine's a '95 and a godsend in the deep cold. Glad to see you got yours sorted out with the $700 hole in your pocket.

Where I live the temps get below freezing on a daily basis this time of year. Noticed the tranny doing better coincident with the temps falling. Maybe no more than coincidence, but ...

Thanks much! Educate me, if you will: How would fouled MAF or fuel filter cause tranny to go into limp mode? Wasn't aware there could be any such interaction.

Gorilla snot! Love it. Yeah, guess I learned a lesson there. At the time, though, was being told the tranny was a goner, so figured why not. Last Indy put the proper Dextron fluid in it. It's an automatic, by the way. Frame rust may take vehicle to Pathy heaven before the tranny at this rate. Just stumped over what's really going on and thought a board member or two might have seen or heard of similar issues and resolutions.

So I'm still driving my rusty '95 while continuing to look for a replacement. It's had a tranny issue for 6 months or more that I've had several places look at with no one able to give me a satisfactory answer. Thought I'd turn to the board and see what opinions are. The issue is that it started sometimes falling out of highway gear and back into third, then staying there in failsafe mode. So I'd be going say 55 or 60, rpms normal and I'd feel it shudder a bit and fall back into 3rd and rpms jump to 4,000 or more. Took it to Nissan dealer. They said they couldn't reproduce the problem and shrugged their shoulders. Thanks, Nissan. Took it to two indys since then. Told them my guess was bad shift solenoid. One looked at it and said he verified that tranny computer is OK, wiring OK, solenoids OK. They changed fluid and filter, said they found a small piece of metal in pan. They got it shifting normally again but recommended new tranny. After a short while, the tranny went back into limp mode. The second guy I took it to changed fluid again, said it looked burnt. Recommended new tranny. I wonder if he thought it was burnt because I had added some Lucas transmission additive to it over the summer to see if that would make any difference. I also had started having a problem with neutral safety switch not engaging, so had him replace that. Lately, tranny has gone back to normal operation. Not getting the flashing indicator light when I start it that indicates problem with tranny. Could this all just be electrical somewhere that no one diagnosed? Trying to figure out why this intermittent problem would persist and then actually get better rather than worse. Car has 158,000 miles on it, so not high mileage on tranny. Driving it with O/D off now, as last indy told me tranny won't engage into O/D anymore.

Agreed. I changed out the ones in my other car recently and it was amazing how black and nasty with crap they were. Oh, well. Pathy cabin air hasn't killed me yet.

I didn't think so, but then I thought I saw a reference to them on another site and I was like, what?!?!

Where are they located on a 1995 XE and how easily changed?