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Mr_Reverse

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Everything posted by Mr_Reverse

  1. Yep, there is worse, but there is also better, like the VG33 I currently have and the VQ40. I turn wrenches as my profession. Been stuck as an auto mechanic professionally for the last 20 years. I probably should renew my ASE certs since I let them lapse a while back. After 10-12 hours a day working on other people's cars, don't have much interest in working on mine. Yes, manufacturers come up with some "creative" oil filter locations, and the VG30 was definitely not the worst, but a little critical thinking would have determined that the filter tucked between the exhaust manifold and starter with the inner fender and frame in the way, just might not have been a great place for a high maintenance component. Least they could have done is put an access port in the inner fender to access the filter and make cleaning the spilled oil off the starter easier. No worries though, GM is great at putting filters in bad locations.
  2. Your truck friend, lots of ways to go. Go on and do what works for you. There are several "right" ways to do it. I have in the back of my 93 a pair of 4" lift coils for the front of a mid 90's Jeep Grand Cherokee with a coil cut off. Working fine for me. Before that was a pair of 85 F150 front coils with the pigtails cut off. Mostly worked and was nice when my truck was hauling heavy loads. There was also some time with WD21 lift coils and spacers somewhere in there. If I ever do my solid front axle swap I want to do, might change again, but think the current rear springs are what I am going to stay with. My 04 Sorento is going to remain stock, so the air helper springs was the best option for me. As I tell people that ask me for advice on tires and a few other things with their cars, I tell them to look honestly at what they do and need then choose what works for them.
  3. My plan with my rear seat floor rust holes is to take advantage of my body lift and some sheet steel. Planning to fab a box tray and then cutting out the floor where the rust is and welding in my box and then I will have some under seat storage. Until then, I just have some aluminum duct tape covering the holes.
  4. A couple years after buying my Pathfinder I finally did my own oil change. That experience sent me to installing a remote filter. The filter adapter had a port that let me install a sender in it, as well as making filter replacement much easier. The current engine has the pressure switch next to the filter which is attached to the oil pump housing, so the sender for the gauge is in the block where the switch is on the 3.0. I have also seen where people have put a short nipple into the hole for the switch, then a T with the sender and switch are attached.
  5. 04 should have throttle by wire. The TPS is built into the throttle body and not replaceable without replacing the entire throttle body if it is. Wonder if he is thinking the TPPS, the throttle pedal position sensor. I believe that they are the entire throttle pedal, but not sure with the early ones. Can check and see if the connector is tight and clean.
  6. When empty, I just lower the air pressure a bit and the ride goes back to near stock. Upside is I can air up a bit and get the load handling of a heavier spring when I need it, but better ride when I don't. It is a bit like airing down for the trail then pumping back up for the highway when done with the trail, but much faster and with one air valve rather than 4.
  7. My solution to the tired rear springs in my Sorrento was to spend about $85 and a couple hours and install a set of Airlift 1000 helper air springs. A couple years later and still working fine. I keep a lot of stuff in my trucks and the nice thing is that I can adjust the springs for the current load in a couple of minutes by simply adjusting the air pressure.
  8. The test of leakage over time is a leak down test. It just shows that something is leaking, could be valves, head gasket, cracked heads, cracked cylinders, bad rings. As said, when you put the cylinder under test to TDC on the compression stroke, and apply compressed air through the spark plug hole, where it comes out is a good indicator of the problem. If it is leaking into the cooling system, odds are good it is head gasket, though cylinder and head cracks will do it also. Leaking out the intake indicates intake valve leaking. Exhaust, the same but exhaust valve. Crankcase is usually a ring problem. From the description and what I have seen with Nissan engines, my money is on head gasket. From my personal experience, if it is a bad gasket, I would be more likely to get a good engine from a salvage yard and just swap. With an engine with more than 120k miles, just doing a head gasket is rolling the dice. And my experience has not been great there. Also found it expensive to properly rebuild a Nissan engine. $200+ in just head bolts. My local yards sell engines for that.
  9. If you are burning coolant, that is the likely misfire as well. Easiest way to see which cylinder it is, is to pull and examine the plugs. The one(s) burning coolant will be very clean while the rest will have some deposits on them. Most likely leak for coolant into the cylinder is head gasket failure. The intake manifolds on the VG engines are dry, meaning no coolant passages in them. Other coolant into the cylinder leak possibilities are a cracked head or cylinder. Both of these are very rare issues with this engine, and a cracked cylinder will usually have coolant in the oil as well.
  10. Going by the trans temp gauge I installed years ago on mine, my trans runs cold most of the time. Yesterday I did manage to get it up to 200°f briefly, but ambiant air temp was 85+ and I was slow driving up a poorly maintained dirt road up a mountain. Normally my temp doesn't usually go over 185°f according to the gauge. Winter time with the temps near freezing, it takes a lot to get the trans over 150°f, and that causes the converter clutch to not lock up on the highway. My trans is running it's own dedicated cooler since the original cooler killed it about 17 years ago.
  11. Yes, removing the alarm module will remove the alarm. You can spend $50 and install an aftermarket unit that actually works reliably and get keyless entry back. I actually did this about 16 years ago to mine and got remote start and hatch glass remote release as well. That system was about $120 and worked fine for years. I actually had it in the same location as the factory unit and used the factory units wiring. It has since been removed, I now have a keyless ignition system that operates the locks automatically when the key fob gets close to the truck. It was a cheap ebay system a friend gave me when it got too complicated to install in his car at the time. I did lose the remote hatch glass release and flashing lights, but still have all the other features I was interested in and the key stays in my pocket. Fell in love with that system when I got a 2010 Altima 10 years ago. Miss that car...
  12. With the lines, the R50 is a little different than the WD21 in there are 2 brake lines to the rear rather than just one. The 3 larger lines are all fuel related. One is the supply from the fuel pump, one is the return to the tank, and the third is the purge line from the tank to the carbon canister, from there to the purge valve on the engine. That line is a vapor only, no liquid fuel should be in it. Easiest way to tell which is the leaker is to trace it to the engine bay. If it goes to the fuel filter, it is the pressure line. If it goes to the fuel rail, it is the return. Yknotauto, it has been a long time since my Pathfinder had the VG30 it originally had and it is a 93 rather than 95, and 4wd, but the VG33 I currently have isn't much different. The 2wd and 4wd WD21 is basically the same truck. I don't see any plastic cover outside the coil and distributor covers on the engine. Those are on top and not what you are describing anyway. The valve cover gaskets are leakers after about 10 years, might just be that. The location you are describing to me looks like where the power steering pump bracket is. Sorry not much help there.
  13. Little confused. The oil filter on the VG30 in the 95 Pathfinder is on the right side of the block over the starter, nowhere near the timing cover. Also never seen a plastic cover on one, they are stamped steel. Common front leaks are cam and crank seals. If replacing the timing belt, good idea to replace the water pump, cam and front main seals, and the woodruff keys on the front of the crankshaft. The ringing noise is hard to tell without getting a good idea exactly where it is coming from. Invest in a mechanics stethoscope (they're cheap) and carefully probe around to narrow down where the noise is from. Otherwise it is a matter of elimination. Take off belts one at a time and see if the noise goes away, will also help in tracking the noise.
  14. If you unplug the multifunction switch(headlight/turn signal) switch, does the park lights remain on? If not, then you have a bad switch that will continue to give you issues untill it is replaced. If the lights still are on with the switch unplugged, you have to start chasing wiring to see what "repairs" you will have to fix. Just for the record, the marker lamps next to the headlights are just marker lamps. The ones in the bumper are just turn signals. Seperate circuits there. The warning chime does 3 warnings. Key in the ignition, on only when key is in the ignition and the driver's door opened. Lights on warning, on only when park lights are on and door open.(That is to remind you the lights are on and the battery might be dead when you come back) Seatbelt warning. Only on for about 8 seconds if the ignition is turned on and drivers belt is not buckled. Factory alarm is a known problem child. Best thing is to remove the driver's seat, lift the carpet and unplug the harness from the small black box and remove said box and adjust it with an 8lb sledge hammer. Take the 2 heavy wires and jumper them together. You will lose the keyless entry, but the other issues will go away. The factory alarm does flash the parking light I believe, that could also be why the park lights are on if the relay has failed on.
  15. That one is tricky. If the oil is full and clean, it is likely to be one of a few things. It could be a failing oil control solenoid for the camshaft phaser. It could be a failing phaser(least common). Or an internal oil leak in the rear timing cover. That is the most common I have seen. There are oil passages for the cam timing phasers in the cover that have plates covering grooves. Those plates are held with screws and it is common for the gaskets to fail and allow oil to leak out reducing pressure to the phasers. Those gaskets are not available to anyone but the builder of the timing cover. You can either replace the cover, or make a replacement gasket if they are leaking.
  16. Yep, originally the condenser and radiator had foam seals around the edges to control air flow through both. The splash pan on the bottom is also part of the air flow control.
  17. Check the fusible links, after 27 years in the hell environment under the hood, they tend to get a bit brittle. Your plan for getting it to start is reasonable, though it is a bit of a challenge to get a remote starter switch connected to the starter solenoid. Is it a manual or automatic transmission? If auto, there is a grey oval 2 wire connection near the battery. The yellow thin wire is for the oil pressure switch, the black thick wire is to the starter solenoid. You can unplug that connector and use a simple jumper wire to go from the positive terminal of the battery to the black/violet wire to get the starter to crank. If it is a manual transmission, you can either do a roll start or do the same thing as the auto trans, but the connector is plugged into a blue double sized relay next to the battery.
  18. Sounds like a vent line is either kinked or connected incorrectly.
  19. I have done both manual and automatic transmissions off road. My normal off pavement is usually rough surfaces and rocks, so low speed. I prefer the auto do to it's better crawlability. Also makes w pedaling easier. As for not going into 4lo, you have to put the trans into neutral just like the autos for the easiest shift. If that still doesn't work, the transfer case linkage is probably rusted or damaged. My 93 was getting hard to put into 4lo for a while. I found water and dirt had gotten into the boots protecting the linkage joints and one of them was rusted almost solid. I installed na replacement linkage and the problem went away.
  20. Most common source for a leak like that is the windshield seal. The air intake for the HVAC system is in the cowl, but it is on the right side near the fender. You can remove the A pillar trim and the trim across the top pretty easily so you can see where the windshield is glued in. Have water running on the windshield and see if you can see just where it is leaking.
  21. It won't cost you anything and probably not the problem, but check the engine harness grounds where they are attached to the intake manifold. Won't hurt to check the other grounds, but the engine harness grounds at the intake manifold are where the O2 sensors are grounded and many odd gremlins have been caused by poor grounding.
  22. As has been said, if you use a little care, you don't have to mess with the ABS wheel speed sensor. There is enough room to slide the tone ring out without contact. Yep, the chassis ear has hped me out a lot for pinpointing noise sources. Subarus around here are notorious for having wheel bearings going out and they usually make a lot of racket before you can feel them. But when you take the load off by putting the car up on a lift and run it in gear to try and hear which one it is, they go silent. It is very annoying.
  23. To me, the pictures look normal. The gear oil looks like old gear oil. Odds are that this was the first time the fluid was changed. I see it all the time at work. The same thing with the drain plug magnet. Looks normal for a first time, or after an extended period on the fluid. The sliver is likely shaved from the threads in either the housing or the plug and rather normal. The rubber like chunks look like sealant. It is likely from the drain and fill plugs. I noticed that Asian diff plugs often had sealant applied before installing, I do it myself. The symptoms you are describing sounds like a right axle bearing. When diagnosing a noisy wheel bearing, usually it will get louder and or change its tone when turning and the noisy bearing is on the outside. The added pressure and speed increase loads it more. If the noise gets quieter turning the other way helps confirm the side because the inside wheel has less loading and turns slower. Bearing noises can be infernally frustrating to track down because the vibrations travel through the chassis and often other areas have a natural frequency that harmonizes with the frequency of the bearing. Because I work on cars for a living, I have special equipment to help diagnose them. That is why I spent several hundred dollars for 6 channel chassis ear kit. There are a few cars where that was the only way to confirm the source of the noise. I hate hunting noises, they rank up there with phantom current draws like the 04 Durango I have been dealing with since Monday.
  24. I agree with Hawairish, it sounds like the CV is binding when the suspension is at full droop. If you put a jack under the lower control arm and lift the tire off the ground and put the transfer case into neutral, does the bind go away? The wheel should be able to turn freely then.
  25. Yep, my starter has been replaced a few times due to failures, but they have been reman units. The original one was probably fine other than all the oil buildup. The one currently in my truck has a bit over a year on it because the previous one did die, a failure in the solenoid. A week after installing the current one I was up in the mountains and I didn't realize at first that it was stuck on after a hot start for a couple minutes. Was wondering about the noise, the broken muffler was drowning out most of it. Had to pull the battery cable to get it to stop. And it was smoke'n. I wandered around collecting some brass and did a little plinking while it cooled off. I reconnected the cable and it stayed off, so crossed my fingers and hit the start button. It cranked up fine and has worked fine since. Was glad, didn't want to go through the fun of changing it again. The 3 inch body lift helps, but it still is miserable to do.
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