hawairish

A clock. I wish it was just another vent.

I've been running the Pep Boys equivalent of the A/T3 for 2 years come Sept, 18K on them rotated among 5 tires. I've been very pleased. They've seen just about everything except heavy/deep snow (have seen some nasty slush conditions while towing a trailer, though). Excellent on and off road manners. Haven't measured remaining tread, but I can hardly tell there's any wear just by looking at them.

I think I paid under $20 for one that looks a lot better than the actual pics shown.

Fuel hose from any auto parts store will do. Otherwise hardware stores carry rubber hose that'll suffice.

Possibly, though in my case, that took about 19 years to manifest.

The forum is far from dead. There are several SFD threads. Looking for anything in particular?

I've replaced the leather on my center console with one off eBay and fitment was actually good. I needed to trim some of the leather because I couldn't get it to tuck or flatten enough in some places when reassembling. Pretty easy to do with a Phillips, and I think I used a little hot glue to keep it from slipping around. That was a few years ago, and it's held up very well considering my kids constantly stepping on the console to go between front and rear seats.

The tube just goes into a 90° elbow that snaps into a hole in the chassis...that is, the tube is just a vent tube and is open anyway. The piece you see inside the tube in your pic is just what's left of it. Here's what mine looks like, 2004 SE...you can kind of see it just terminates into the chassis just above that bracket: What code are you throwing? You can pull down the charcoal canister pretty easily. If, after you remove the hoses and solenoid off the canister, charcoal starts coming out in granules, that's probably part of your problem. I dealt with this issue earlier in the year on my 98 Frontier, throwing P1444 and P0325 codes. I've got a description of the problem and my solution on that crappy NICO forum, but it's cluttered with two dip@!*%s' worth of comments. Perhaps an interesting read, but long story short, my evap canister let loose internally and allowed charcoal granules to get sucked all the way up into the engine bay over time, eventually clogging the purge solenoid. Required clearing out all the hard and soft lines, dismantling the purge solenoid, and a new cannister. Total PITA.

Cool, glad it's helpful. No worries on the pics, I still have all of them and would re-post them if my host does something stupid. If you have any ties to Santa Barbara, though, there's a guy on the FB NPORA page selling the later style (01-04). I would've liked to get that one, but the older one does just fine. Mounting should be all the same. Though, because you have a QX4, do you have the reverse lights on the rear gate next the license plate, or in the tail lights? The tire would block them if on the gate. Probably not the end of the world, but might require some research to see if you can bring over R50 tail lights and wiring harnesses to relocate the reverse lights, or look into adding reverse lights to the bumper or roof (would likely be easier).

Ha, I've almost 'removed' it twice from snagging on obstacles when wheeling. It's the parts along the sides...they just hang too low. On the plus side, I've been able to repair the damages (except for a hole in the bumper) with little effort. Removing it wouldn't improve my departure angle though because of the hitch.

I had an awful vibration when the u-joints on the rear driveshaft were misaligned. At its worst, it produced a very audible rumble, as if you were driving constantly on the rumble strips along the highway.

I wouldn't consider the parallel parking scenario a major drawback. An inconvenience, maybe, but having lived in a major city that relies heavily on parallel parking, you're assuming that you've even got adequate space to open the carrier enough to even lift the rear gate. How often would you need to load up the cargo area when parallel parking? Is there an alternative solution, like parking in a cargo loading zone, or other parking lot? While I didn't have my R50 when I lived in the city, there were times I couldn't even stand in front of the trunk on my WRX. Flipping the carrier would be a nightmare. The brackets alone only fit the RH side in a rather specific orientation...no way you'll be able to mirror that as cleanly as stock (and twice, for both brackets). All latching and striker hardware would all have to be moved to the outside of the carrier, which bends to wrap the rear gate, which you'd also have to reverse. The studs on the carrier base that hold the carrier bracket...the plate it attaches to is recessed more on one side. You'd be better off building a custom carrier, I'd think, if hinging on the LH side was a critical requirement.

Good point!

That's why I don't even bother looking locally for parts anymore. RockAuto FTW.

Nice. Whereabouts in AZ?

Yep, good observation. That's exactly what those holes are for. In some cases, though, you just need to be mindful when reinstalling them so that the holes go over a flat spot on the hub, and not another hole.

Not sure exactly, and I agree with your reason for asking. The canister has the function of trapping fumes, but I'm not sure if the clogged-open purge solenoid changes anything about the fuel pressure once the engine is warmed up and vapors cleared. I wouldn't think there's a correlation either, but this is an observation from driving 150 miles in this condition and it couldn't accelerate past 75mph. Condition cleared, no hiccups getting up to 90mph. The only difference was changing the EVAP can, clearing the lines, fixing the solenoid, putting a clear fuel filter by the can to prevent this from happening again, and resetting the ECU. Not sure what else could have contributed to the poor performance.

I had a similar issue as Clkindred on my 98 Frontier where the canister ruptured and sent charcoal all the way to the engine bay. PITA. Rebuilt a solenoid, replaced all hoses, and had to blow/vacuum the hardlines to clear the crap. Fortunately, someone shed light on a $30 Maxima canister that was just a reverse of the $130 Frontier one...rigged it up properly, cleared all my codes. Frontier uses the same solenoid as my truck; helpful for diagnostics. Given that experience, the EVAP system seems far too delicate to mess with. I don't believe it can trigger limp mode (didn't on my Frontier, but it's a far car from the sophistication of the R50), but it seemed to degrade performance on the truck. I'd say if you can avoid messing with it, do.

For the sunroof, just keep pressing the buttons until it cycles fully opened, then fully closed. After that, it should open/close normally with 1 touch. Happens to mine all the time when I disconnect the battery; it's normal.

Also, FWIW...I purchased replacement carpet for my Frontier many years ago (maybe a decade ago?) from these guys: http://www.stockinteriors.com. Fit was good...my trimming skillz were not. Carpet has held up well.

Skip the junkyard! You can buy replacement carpet from Rock Auto or several other retailers. Usually just requires cutting holes for bolt holes, shifter, etc. Pick your colors, there's even a vinyl option.

Can you pull one from your other caliper? Might be easy to take that to your local Ace or True Value and check their Class 10.9 selection. It's probably an M10x1.5 or M10x1.25. The latter is tougher to find. Presuming it's a non-serrated flange bolt. Whatever it is, boltdepot.com probably has it.

Sorry, you're right, they are Torx bits.

Best route is the local JY. Mine came with this style of course, but I pulled one for FerrariOwner123 a while back for around $100 or so. IIRC, it's all bolt-on, but it's been a while since I thought about it. I want to say that the lower rails (where your current cross bars are) are the same as mine, and the newer style just adds upper rails. You just need some Allen bits to remove everything, pretty simple. Just don't remove the mounts underneath all the rail points...if you do, the nuts that hold it in place on the roof will fall into the headliner! Also, to remove the front and rear plastic caps on the rails, you just need to wiggle them hard while applying upward pressure. They're held in by friction clips.

Thanks guys!