Mr_Reverse

For cleaning the throttle body, I use some carb/throttle body cleaner spray and an old toothbrush. Pull the boot off the throttle body, hold the throttle open and spray the throttle plate and throat liberally. Scrub with the brush and repeat until mostly clean. Finish up by wiping it all out with a rag. Spray into the little passages in the throat of the throttle body also. For the IAC(idle air control) valve, might have to remove the valve and clean it and the passages with more cleaner. I also use compressed air to blow out residue.

Possibly a sticky or failed idle air control valve. Have you tried cleaning the throttle body?

Just lift them off. Don't lose the locating sleeves. Sometimes the stay in the block, sometimes the heads. If in the head, gently pull them out and put them back into the block so they don't get lost.

Sounds to me like the pump is no longer working. Unfortunately, unless you have access to a pressure gauge for the trans, don't know how to test. Another possibility I guess is a failed torque converter, but usually they will make noises and other warnings. A friend of mine had a similar thing happen with his Exploder a few blocks from my home a few years ago. He was driving fine, went through a dip in an intersection and when he started to accelerate the engine revved and the truck slowed to a stop. Was like he only had park and neutral. Towed him to my house and we pulled the trans and found the pump had broken. Put a replacement pump in and was good for a few months until he got in a wreck and totaled the truck. The problems with the coolers in the early 90s was not leaking, but clogging. The design used very small holes in the tubing for the fluid to flow through and those holes tended to clog restricting flow. That in turn tended to reduce flow to the planetary sets. That lead to more wear and debris that would clog the cooler more. It was a nasty feedback loop that wound up destroying the trans. Replacement radiators solved that problem as did bypassing and using a large external cooler. Regular fluid changes helped as well.

Sounds like the noise could be in the front end. One thing you can try is to remove the drive flanges and see if the noise is still there. If the noise is gone, then you know it is from something in the front drivetrain. Front diff, front driveline, or front output of the t-case. If you still have the noise, you know the source is elsewhere like the tires, wheel bearings, rear diff, trans, or t-case.

It is possible that you have a worn bearing making the noise. That bearing could be in the trans, t-case, or diffs. Does it happen in all gears? Does it go away or get worse in 4wd? Often I have to put the car up on a lift, put it in gear and use a mechanics stethoscope to pin point noises. Most times failing bearings make noise long before noticable play in them.

It is only the VQ35 with the cable throttle that has this problem. The VG and the drive by wire VQ don't. The drive by wire engines don't have an idle control valve, the ECU controls the idle by operating the throttle. The VG uses an idle control at the back of the manifold plenum and is a different design.

You want to try something really fun? Try replacing the cats on a Honda Pilot sometime. Ruined my day off this week with one. Started Wednesday with the timing belt/water pump to cure the clatter and went in to work and spent most of Thursday to replace the failed cats. In the process, discovered the radiator had a leak in the upper left of the core, so had to contact the owner to have it replaced as well. Just cost of the radiator though, labor was already there since I had to pull it to get the bank 2 cat out. Second pilot I have done cats on in less than a year, I am seriously wondering if it would be easier to just drop the engine/trans to replace the bloody things. 12 year old car with 200k miles and the owner spent $3500 on it. I was a bit amazed.

It is quite likely the knock sensor has failed. When you install the new one, clean the rust off of the mounting surface and very lightly torque the bolt. I don't recall exactly, but think it is something like 11 ft/lb. Go much tighter and the sensor can be damaged.

Odd. I cannot imagine how the heater could possibly shut off the engine like you are experiencing. Is it with heat only, or are you running the defrost?

Only retards timing while it is detecting knock. Otherwise, it happily keeps on the programming and couldn't care less. That's why people don't notice any problems other than the MIL being on. Where I am, it takes a lot for detonation to happen. Between the low compression of the VG33, 4500+ ft elevation, and E10 fuel, it takes a lot of heat, high load, and an intake leak to get any preignition going on in my truck.

I have a balancer puller like that that I bought about 15 years ago. Works great on GM and Chrysler engines. Never tried it on Nissan though. Don't think it has anything to grab. I originally used a steering wheel puller with the bolts that I believe I got at a local Ace hardware store. Have plenty of options here, have Lowe's, Home Depot, a variety of smaller hardware stores, and a whole bunch of auto parts stores. For exotic sizes, have a Nut and Bolt supply store about 10 miles away. These days I just use my pair of bolts and the small puller that I got from Cornwell. Never thought about drilling and tapping my balancer to use a larger bolt. If I was to go that route being in the US, I probably would go with 1/4-20 for that. Common size and would not require as much drilling.

For the harmonic balancer, I have a pair of 6mm 1.00 thread bolts that are about 70 mm long that I picked up somewhere. If a local hardware store can't help, there is always online ordering. For the plug clips, a couple of T pins that are large enough to handle without too much trouble works well. Pry the wire out far enough on each side with the pin that the end of the pin slides past the end of the plug, will hold the clips past the tabs. Then you don't have to go through the fun of removing the clips, finding them when they do fly, and then reinstalling them in the plug. They are tedious, but the newer styles have their own issues like the double locks and tabs/locks that like to break after a few years if heat cycling.

If the ECU doesn't power up, it can't communicate. If the power wire for the ECU isn't getting power because the battery mounted fusible link is damaged, it can cause your problem. I have seen a few IPDMs fail, but usually the problem is elsewhere. Did you replace it with a new one or a used one? I have also seen ECU failures, where when they get cold, they have parts internally that lose contact on the circuit boards and it stops working. Usually they give a bit of warning in that they have intermittent failures usually a no start in the morning but later starts and runs fine. We would test them by pulling the ECU and putting it in the freezer for a couple hours and see if the problem appears. The key fob is a separate system than the immobilizer system. The fob only runs the keyless entry and alarm. The immobilizer is in the key itself and the antenna for that is in the ring around the ignition lock. I have seen the antenna fail preventing the BCM from being able to read the key. If your power and grounds are all good, you might just have to take the truck in and have it diagnosed. The inexpensive code readers are limited in the systems and information they can access. It takes a full scan tool or Nissan Consult to access all the systems and see what is going on, and where to start looking for problems.

You checked the fuses in both the interior and under hood boxes, including the fusible links, and all were good? You did check the fuses in the IPDM unit as well? For that you have to unclip the IPDM from it's box and pull it out to access the fuses and relays. How did you test the relays? Nissan had a recall on the relay that powered the ECM in the Titans. When it failed it would not turn on the ECM and so there was no communication with it. It is a small black relay mounted on the IPDM. When cranking the engine, does the security light turn on? If so, that indicates the security system triggered and will not allow the engine to start. 5 attempts to start without a correctly coded key locks it and it requires a trip to a dealer or a locksmith with Nissan consult to unlock it. From what has been described in the original post, I am going to suspect the fusible link unit on the positive battery terminal. I have replaced a few that cracked where it has the 90° bend causing a loss of connection on some circuits. An easy test is to jumper between the terminal and the link after the bend. Sometimes the crack is hard to see. Or you can use a test light or volt meter to see if you have battery power at each wire that is plugged into the fusible link unit.

Yes, the pan has a drain plug, and the Nissan approved service process was simply a drain and fill. The Asian manufacturers were a bit odd in the eyes of the American companies in that they put drain plugs in everything that held fluid. Drain plugs in transmissions and differentials? That's just insane! Everyone knows that pan removal is the proper way to change oil. But for some reason manual transmissions, transfer cases, and engines had drain plugs. Heavy equipment had drains also, so never made sense to not have them in cars and light trucks. My old 1975 280z and 1977 200sx even had fuel tank drain plugs.

Only real tip I offer is to measure what you drain out, and replace with the same amount if your fluid level is in the operating range. It is a lot easier than estimating and lowering the level if you over fill. Always check the fluid level with the trans at operating temperature and on level surface. An over filled trans can cause problems, so you want it to be accurate. Slightly low is better than over with them.

My 1980 200SX was a federal model, so had the Z20 single spark head. With that car, only the federal emissions and 1980 model year was that way. California and 81 and later had the NAPS Z dual ignition. Car ran fine until I crushed the oil pan and welded #2 rod to the crank. Replaced with a low milage import engine that oddly enough had a carburetor and breaker points and 8 spark plugs. I had to swap the oil pump/distributor drive shaft to install the 4 plug distributor from the original engine and I think I just used the 4 intake side plugs. Car ran fine and passed emissions tests ok. Time passed and I think that engine moved into an 81 510 wagon when I finished building a Frankenstein engine for that car. Used a Z24 block from an 85 720 pickup, Z22 head from an 83 200SX, flywheel and clutch from my 75 280Z. That engine I ran all 8 plugs, I had swapped the electrical system from an 83 SX I had bought as a parts car. I had messed up when I ordered the Pistons, I was after some flat tops, but wound up with standard ones. Actually was glad later, since I had to run premium during the warm months to keep detonation under control. I recall the distributors had different connectors for the wiring between the single and dual ignition. Upshot was, car ran fine on a single set of plugs, but cleaner when running both. The way the system worked, the exhaust bank fired just after the intake bank which gave a longer burn and I think a little smoother running engine that was a bit less sensitive to altitude and cold temps. I see no advantage of going from the dual spark to a single with the Z series engines. My L series engines had a different shape to the combustion chamber than my Z series, which is why I think they did the dual spark with the Z.

With the trans in reverse or first, it should hold well enough, but might not have enough movement to make the movements noticable. I made the discovery years ago when a friend was following me and he asked why my truck was driving sideways. I had my 3" body and 3" suspension lift with 33" tires, so was pretty easy to check since I could see the link ends through the fenders. The tires gave me plenty of leverage to rock back and forth. It was a bit sobering to watch the axle and links twisting and bouncing. The lower links have more control of the positioning of the axle and tend to wear a bit more than the uppers.

Most likely worn suspension link bushings in the rear suspension. If you have an automatic transmission, just park on smooth level pavement, with trans in park and brake off, have someone rock the truck forward and back while watching the ends of the links at the frame and axle housing. If you see movement more than a couple of mm, the bushings are worn and allowing the rear axle shift and inducing rear steer effects.

Most common problem with the OBD2 port is a blown fuse. I would have to look it up, but it is usually the fuse for the cigar lighter, aka power port. I assume you already tried turning the instrument light dimmer up. Do the marker lights turn on? Once again, start with simple stuff and check fuses. I find it truly amazing how similar they managed to make the R50 to the WD21 and still make very little a straight swap. Finally, the 96 to 99 Nissans were different with the OBD. You can get very basic information from the OBD2 port, but if you want more, you need a consult adapter and software.

Light? Are you talking about the red A/T Temp light? If so, is it on all the time, or does it take a while. In the 21 years I have had and abused my Pathfinder, I think it might have turned on the light a couple times and I did burn up my trans once. Shop said they were amazed it came in under its own power and only had 3rd gear left. They even had to replace a planetary set in it. They showed it all to me when they got it torn down and it was ugly, I knew it was bad, but seeing the damage, I was impressed that it got there myself. I was also glad that I had decided to not do the rebuild myself, it would have been a bad time. It needed a lot of specialized work to fix it. I don't trust the Temp light and installed a gauge to keep an eye on things. It does sound like you might need to replace the radiator or bypass the cooler and run a big external one like mine if the temp light is turning on after a bit of driving. If it is on all the time, it might be a bad sensor or shorted wire. What part of the world are you in, what kind of terrain are you driving? Hot locations with a lot of steep climbs like the southwest is hard on the cooling systems and requires larger coolers with better airflow.

I assume your truck has the auto trans. Basic service is to drain the trans fluid and refill with fresh. A more complete one would be to take it to a shop and have the trans flushed. The drain and fill replaces between 1/3 to 1/2 of the fluid and the flush does about 98%. The trans doesn't have a true filter so a filter change is not useful unless you have the pan off, which is not required unless it is leaking or repairs are needed. The transmission pan should have a drain plug in it for this service, much like changing the oil in the engine. The cooler is built into the bottom tank of the radiator. The original unit was a poor design that had clogging issues. If the radiator has been replaced sometime in the 30 years of your trucks life, it is likely to be ok. What many of us have done is install an aftermarket external cooler like the Hayden 1679 and just run the cooler hoses to it instead. I have gone this route with my 1993 Pathfinder. It is mounted between the radiator and air conditioner condenser, there was enough space for it to fit there. That does require removing the radiator to install the cooler there. With the trans fluid, it doesn't take anything special, your trans uses Dextron ATF, but a full synthetic version is better. If your transmission is having problems, it might be too late and might require a replacement or rebuild. Hope this helps. Feel free to ask anytime you have questions, somebody will be willing to help.

First thing when you intend to drop the oil pan on a VG engine, before even disconnecting the battery, pull the oil dipstick and put it far away so you are not tempted to put it back in before the pan is installed. You will be swearing otherwise. My personal experience has been the "rear main leak" has usually been the pan seal rather than the main seal.

I just looked it up, the 2005 Pathfinder like the Frontier, Armada, and I suspect the Xterra, is pre wired for a 7 pole trailer connect. That includes the brakes. You can go to your local dealership and get the trailer wiring kit that is all plug and play. It comes with everything but the brake controller, but it does have the pigtail to plug into the harness under the dash to connect your controller to. It also has the needed fuses and relays for the system. There is a flat 4 kit also, but you were wanting to have the brake system, so the 7 pole round plug is the one you want. I spent 2016-2019 at my local Nissan dealership and did hitch installs among other things there and knew the newer stuff was prewired, just was not sure how far back they were.