level9

hrm. From the linked thread and as best I know the security system is a Dealer add-on and there are no standard wiring diagrams that I know of - so who knows how it's setup other than we can assume it's tapped into the door open circuit and has probably experienced some kind of fault. Are there any part numbers on the alarm?

The fusible links are located right at the battery terminal. From the positive post there is a set of connectors/wires, probably ~4" long. These are the fusible links for the car. Other than the starter (the big cable) , everything runs through these fusible links which are supposed to melt if there is a short. For where and what to test with the multimeter you're really going to need the FSM (Body section). It includes information on how and where to test (which pins, etc.) and where to use a test lamp. It's fairly instructive if not... time consuming.

Yes, a number of northern states salt the roads. wrt the rear seat rust issue, you won't see it until it's fairly severe because it's rusting from the inside out. You might be able to see evidence of the issue if you look under the car and see rust formation at the seams between the metal plates which would indicate water dripping out at the seams. If you live in a dry climate it's just progressing much, much more slowly and may never reach the point of becoming a problem. The car is actually fairly well built with the steel panels electroplated with a zinc-nickel alloy to protect the metal but nothing lasts forever... Here's a pic when I was cutting out the damaged top plate on the pass side. Notice you don't see anything visible on the driver side (no rust showing through); however when I cut out the top plate it looked the same - severe rust hiding underneath. Pathfinder Rust Spot 4.jpg

Picture from the Body Repair Manual. You can see the design issue where #17 is the channel with the water ingress (and where I injected wax) and the water/wax flows down between the two lower/sandwiched plates. You should be able to get to the channel from in front of the diff it just might be tight especially without a body lift.

Ground switched system. That is, when the door switch is engaged (door closed) the ground is interrupted. When the door is opened, the switch grounds out and the light(s) come on. I would guess that you have a short-to-ground somewhere. Did this start after the wreck? Do the dome lights come on as well I presume (when set in door-ajar setting)?

That's interesting. I wonder if they attempted to partly fix the design issue it in later year models. If the center hole is not needed, then I will plug that one up at least. On the passenger side, looking straight up through the hole there is a rust pattern directly above the hole which tells me the driveshaft is still throwing water directly up into this area. Maybe the center and pass side can be plugged and the driver side left open for breathing. I'm always cautious about plugging ventilation holes - you can never truly stop water ingress - you just have to let the car 'breathe'. I went back and checked again today on the wax progress and it did eventually drip out of all of the seemed areas where this sandwiched plate ends. Yeah there is another design issue with the frame rust where the tires are. The rear tires spray water all over and inside the frame rusting it out. Other than also shooting cavity wax here I believe a proper fix would be custom gap guards which also cover the frame in this area which is what I plan to do. hah. Here is a link. I prefer this brand because it's what the OEMs typically spec when they have rust related recalls. It has a high creep rate (like penetrant oil), anti-corrosion/conversion properties and doesn't wash away unlike many others. https://www.noxudolusa.com/

Here is an interior pictures of the problem spots. I carefully cut out only the top plate. The bottom reinforcement plates were still intact in my case so I put down anti-rust paint, fiberglass mat, aluminum body filler and patched it up which should be good enough - although I don't live in the rust belt. Pathfinder Rust Spot 3.jpg

As we know there is a design flaw on the WD21 which causes the rear seat floor to rust out. You won't see the rust "until it's too late" - the reason being there are multiple reinforcement plates in this area and it's rusting from the inside-out due to water ingress between the plates. Everyone should have this issue although it's going to be exaggerated if you live in the rust belt. I believe I have identified where the water is coming from. There is a chassis cross channel at the top of the trunk floor that contains ventilation holes. Based on the mud splash pattern under the car I believe the rotating drive shaft is throwing water up into these ventilation holes. This water is then creeping down between the reinforcement plates and getting trapped. There is a second possible entry point on the sides of the plate which also have ventilation holes and may be taking in water from the rear tires; although when I cut out the top layer of reinforcement plates to investigate I noted the passenger side was much worse than the driver side - again I believe due to the rotating drive shaft. Here is a picture (taken from where the fuel tank would be which I have removed at the moment). Pathfinder Rust Spot 1.jpg The preventative fix would be to shoot cavity wax into this area. I used Noxudol 750 which comes with a 360 degree 2' extension wand and has a high creep rate and anti-corrosion properties. After saturating the length of this channel very well with wax and waiting a bit - sure enough the wax started to drip out of the same areas that typically rust out between the plates. Pathfinder Rust Spot 2.jpg Another preventative may be to JB Weld some stand-off baffle plates over the ventilation holes (you don't want to plug the holes) which should stop any further water entry. Lastly, a 3rd possible entry point are the lower rear seat belt bolts which penetrate the plates and into the rear wheel well. I didn't see as much evidence of this; however I removed these bolts, applied anti-seize and reinstalled them for good measure.

I thought the same when I saw it but the included pre-attached assembly bolts were tweaking the shape of the coupler. Remove/loosen the bolts and it will flatten out

It's interesting.. on the yoke (from Lares) I get ~62mm. on the Lares coupler I get ~61mm and the car is ~60mm. There is definitely a slight bit of variance here but doesn't seem to be an issue - at least with fitment. I'm guessing tolerances may be a little loose by design. I decided to try the Lares one since I like the reinforcement plates it came with. I'm suspicious the polyurethane option for a 240z/260z/280z may also work (Energy Suspension 7.16101R) but can't confirm. Maybe will try it later. Didn't feel like digging into the whys about the tolerances so I asked ChatGPT for a possible explanation and this seems plausible. Design Features: Steering couplers, such as the rag joint or polyurethane coupler, typically have bolt holes that are designed with a small amount of play. This allows the coupler to adjust slightly during installation, ensuring that it can fit properly even if there are minor misalignments between the steering column and the gearbox. Purpose: The alignment tolerance helps in reducing stress on the steering components and ensures smoother operation. It also simplifies the installation process by allowing for easier fitting without the need for precise, exact alignment of the bolt holes. Installation: During installation, it is important to align the coupler as closely as possible, but the built-in tolerance provides some flexibility. The bolts can be slightly adjusted within the holes to ensure a secure fit.

hrm. Maybe they sent you the wrong one? I just got the Lares 210 and the holes lined up fine. The main issue with it (as was noted) was the female spline end was too small for the steering shaft and it was riveted onto the coupler. So I drilled out the rivet heads (5/16" bit), swapped over the bushings from the old coupler and reused the female spline end that came with the vehicle.

No way of knowing how they wired it without tracing the wires but presumably if it turns on and off with the car, sure. no diesels here in the US that I'm aware of but theoretically you could add a block-off plate (+ gaskets!) between the EGR and the intake which would be the best solution since it doesn't mess with the ECU - assuming your goal is to simply disable the functionality. The problem you're going to likely have is getting the EGR tube off which is likely rust-welded to the exhaust after 30+ years.

Be careful with this. The car's illumination system is a 2-wire (+ and a dedicated ground) that both connect to a rheostat (I believe ground based) in order to vary the voltage for dimming. If you connect only the trigger wire and then ground it out you can cause strange things to happen to your electrical system. I'm not sure if this has ever happened to a Pathy owner but others with these older 2-wire illumination systems have even fried their clusters. If the gauge truly supports this configuration (CONFIRM !) then you will need both illumination wires which should be paired together - pink/blue (+) and pink/black (-) for the dimmable lighting which you can get at the radio location or the rheostat itself. If it does not support this old-school dimming (seems more likely to me) then it will only have 1 trigger wire for illumination and it expects a full +12v signal, not variable voltage. When I did my aftermarket headunit (most do not support variable dimming) I ended up tapping the parking lights wiring (at the base of the steering column) for a clean +12v signal.

I could see the oil stratifying if it sits for a bit. The sludge should settle out and when you drain, the clean oil comes out first, then the rest picks up the settled sludge. Still, the oil should have been more consistent. If the oil pump went out long enough to cause engine failure, there should have been an oil warning light on the dash due to the loss of pressure. The only thing I can think of is if the engine is super sludgy it's possible some oil passages were blocked while the pressure reading might report ok.

I hate those things - especially after they rust. I use an impact wrench to knock them loose and if that doesn't work just tear them off with pliers or hacksaw it. I've ripped all of them out of the car. Everything got replaced with stainless. For the cooling system I used Vibrant stainless steel t-bolt clamps. I would only recommend using spring clamps where the OEM used them (and yes I recommend the pliers for them - so much easier) which are typically low pressure applications (eg. vacuum lines, crank case ventilation, fuel vapor lines, etc.). A spring clamp may or may not hold or it will hold just fine until one day you spring a leak on a hot day when you're really working the engine hard and the pressures build up. Not worth the risk IMO.

Probably toast if it won't even crank - most likely the engine is seized. When is the last time the timing belt was done? You can check for seizure by getting I believe a 27mm socket and a large breaker bar. Place the socket on the large crankshaft pulley bolt (where all of the belts attach at the front/lower engine) and see if you can turn the engine by hand. It does take a little oomph but if you can't turn it, it's definitely toast. If it turns and you don't hear any metal-to-metal grinding/clunking noises (like things hitting each other), check the starter area (passenger side, below and rear of the oil filter) for any scorching/burn marks - the starter wire is not fused and could possibly short out which would cause a show (possible but rare). Also check wiring at the battery for any scorching/burn marks/melting. The only other thing I could think of possible would be a bad fuel injector which caused a backfire but that wouldn't necessarily explain why it won't crank.

If the whole car isn't shutting off and all you can do is kill the engine yet you still have power I would guess the ignition relay (in the fuse box) or ignition switch is bad. There is no 'fuel pump relay bypass' that I'm aware of - but the fuel pump needs power via the ignition relay first. In the meantime you should be able to just pull the ignition relay when you want the car off. You can try replacing the ignition relay yourself if you can find one (dealer maybe). You won't be able to replace the ignition switch yourself easily while on the road since the bolts are sheared off (anti-theft). Personally if I were on a road trip having this issue, I would just find a mechanic and have it fixed.

It should look something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/264635006128 The FSM shows it left of the fuse block - says "Beside Fuse Block" . It's in the BF (body) section of the manual, not EL (electrical) because.. special snowflake . Possibly next to the ground wire screwed into the chassis behind the kick panel. It may be stuffed in there with other stuff (door chime, etc.). At least on the hardbody forums, that's where it is. Some have it on the pass side kick panel. Maybe different years. It looks like it may also have its own fusible link connection on the battery so you may also want to check there (no melted wires, etc.). Again, special snowflake... Wiring: white/black + white/green -> circuit breaker white + white/black -> fusible link

I don't have power options but looking at the FSM, it looks like doors/windows all route to a circuit breaker for power (not a fuse) that is possibly located behind the driver side kick panel - a black, round thing connected to a plug. Maybe replace that.. or dig around for 'circuit breaker' issues may help.

I went ahead and ordered the Four Seasons 58440 compressor since adding A/C back onto my car was on the todo list. Sure enough it has the wrong connector. Looks like it's for an R50. It's a single wire and there is an insert explaining why it's a single wire. The old compressors (rotary vane style) were prone to overheating and were 2 wire with the internal temperature switch on the second wire/connector and the newer compressors (piston swash style) don't require this. Also included is a package of butt splice connectors with writing on the package indicating to use these to splice into the OEM wiring since the connectors may not match. So, there you go! It should work fine. I probably won't get to this for a couple more months but I plan to just go ahead and 'upgrade' my OEM compressor wiring by using a pigtail I'll cut off an R50 the next time I'm at the junk yard. I no longer have the original compressor; otherwise I'd just swap the connector over on the compressor side.

Yeah, the aftermarket parts market is kind of a double-edge sword. On the one hand, they try and maximize compatibility across makes/models in order to maximize market size. This allows us to still buy parts for older cars which we wouldn't be able to do otherwise as the market would be too small and they just wouldn't make them. On the other hand - 'some modification/assembly may be required'. I was just dealing with this replacing the high pressure power steering line. I took pics, etc. beforehand, yet I simply couldn't get the new hose to fit (rubber portion too long). Made no sense. Everything else looked correct. One oddity about the new hose was it had a plastic protector wrapped around the rubber hose portion which is definitely not OEM nor nothing like anything I've seen on any google images/videos for a Pathfinder. After screwing around with it for a while I realized - install the metal portions of the hose onto the frame/clamps as normal - which causes the rubber portion of the hose to bow out (not normal) and consequently rest on the frame of the car (not good) - hence the plastic hose protector. There were no instructions...

Yup. The 'something on the compressor' is the thermistor (screwed into the back/side) which turns off the compressor to prevent overheating. It looks like a single plug aftermarket version will simply have this built-in so you won't see it. Some digging around indicated manufacturers started moving in this direction (built-in thermistor) some years ago - likely due to lower cost and increased reliability of the thermistor so it didn't need to be easily replaceable. I'll wager a guess if you order a new compressor for an older car at this point it's probably a toss-up which one you'll get (internal vs. external thermistor) which is probably leading to the confusion. I originally thought this was an extra ground wire since there is already a high/low pressure switch cut-off located at the receiver/dryer (which, btw, you are "supposed to" also replace whenever you replace a compressor) but apparently there is a local temperature switch as well (internal or external) - you learn something new every day ! Yeah - what I would do (since I don't like altering the car/engine side wiring unless absolutely necessary) is cut off the plug on the old compressor that connects to the engine wiring harness (leaving at least several inches of lead wire of course). Then cut off the new compressor plug and then just butt-splice the old connector onto the new one. Make sure you get a really good crimp on it - there are a lot of amps moving through this connector and you don't want a poor connection. Of course this will likely void the warranty. So before I did that I would test fit the compressor and hose connections to verify fitment. I would also bench-test the compressor to confirm it works (search youtube). Isn't DIY fun? I also poked around to see why your connectors don't match up. It looks like Nissan changed the connector type at some point. My '90 Pathfinder has the white/clear (well - yellow at this age) large blocky connector which is also likely creating confusion in the aftermarket parts market.

I did some digging around and I think I understand the issue. The extra wire/plug is for the internal compressor thermistor which on the 2 plug version is serviceable (can be replaced separately). This is how the original OEM design was - I checked all years. Newer compressors typically have the thermistor built in and it is not serviceable; hence you won't see the extra plug. So as long as you can get a version with a compatible plug, it should work fine. If you can't find one with a compatible plug and you don't want to deal with electrical, just do all of the other related work and have a friend or mechanic splice on some new automotive grade connectors to the car+compressor - it shouldn't cost much.

I checked the FSM for a 1995 and I only see 1 wire/plug for the + trigger and it's grounded through the case. Are you sure there are 2 plugs on the car ?

Mmm. Hard to tell from the pics but most likely you have the trigger + wire on one connector and the ground - on the other (grounding the compressor elsewhere) - confirm in the FSM. In order to save money and increase compatibility across different makes/models, aftermarket suppliers will sometimes just ground it to the case (and on through the engine block). In this way the compressor will work on both single plug and dual plug models - at least in theory. It will probably work fine if you just connect the connector with the + trigger and leave the other disconnected. Alternatively (what I would do) is cut off the ground connector from the old compressor and butt splice it onto ground wire on the new compressor.