JayTheGent

I love that color! Welcome!

Simple... Just don't do it. I am now on my third Duralast distributor from Autozone. They sell them with a lifetime warranty for $220 and are complete junk. I think the issue is the heatsink which is responsible for transferring heat. When the car gets hot, it doesn't transfer heat fast enough and shorts out the camshaft position sensor. Car will just continue to crank. This is not the only occurrence of product issues and I would altogether stay away from the Duralast brand. I am on the third distributor after tracking down and replacing everything I (and the forum) could think of. They offered to refund me, but I need to be able to drive while waiting for the next one to arrive. The newest one is clearly manufactured by a different company so maybe it isn't complete junk. It has a blue wire instead of the black and yellow one. I will keep you guys posted. I just wanted to let everyone know to avoid this brand!

It was not the fuel injector. I did have a leaking fuel injector which was the cause of the popping sound, but the not start issue still remained. It was... drum roll... the distributor... the same distributor I have replaced twice. I will be doing a listing about it... It is the Duralast (AutoZone branded) one.

You're the man, thank you, sir.

Hahaha I've heard of that happening! I try to stick with Fel-Pro for all of my gasket! Used a little bit of red silicon and it went on like a champ. I decided to just do the following: -new intake manifold gasket (upper) -new fuel injector -new valve cover gaskets 50 bucks (thanks amazon prime) and two hours later, she seems to be running great. I went on a bunch of quick trips since that's usually when the symptoms show and she fired right up every time. Also cleaned out quite a bit of mud from the engine bay! Crazy how much junk gets under there. I'll give her another week before I say it's completely solved, but I'm pretty sure that was the problem. Thanks a bunch for all the help guys! One thing I have noticed is that I'm about 100 RPMs higher at idle, I think I'm going to adjust the throttle position sensor in the morning to drop back down to 750.

Thanks, Rebel. Whenever you got a sec.

Exactly! You'd be looking at scrap value if you didn't fix it and that's around 300 bucks. If you were in the NW I'd just buy it from you and fix it myself. Even if you wanted to switch to a different truck, you'd have no money to put towards it. Instead, fix it, sell it for 4k and get whatever truck you want. The repairs at a shop would be well over 1500 bucks (at least in Oregon).

Threes no real way to tell how long it'll last. Honestly, you should give it a try. A decent head gasket kit will come with the seals you need. You mind as well change the timing belt too. 150 bucks and a solid weekend of work will save you thousands of dollars. There's a guy on youtube that posted a bunch of videos on the process... just throwing it out there.

Years ago, I unbolt ed this bracket from some unknown locatiom, could someone please tell me where it goes? https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B15J3Ds0Knf8Mlp5UHhic3Q4clU/view?usp=drivesdk

I second this... 160k is fairly low for this motor, replace the seals and she should take car of you for many more years to come.

So it wasn't quite as easy as I'd hoped. Ended up having to pull the intake plenum off to get to the leaky injector off. The heads of the screws holding the injectors in stripped so I had to "extract" them. Ordered a new injector, intake manifold gasket and valve cover gaskets (figured I'd kill two birds since the manifold is already off). Started thinking about doing the head gasket and crankshaft seal while I've gone this far. I replaced the timing belt a while back but couldn't afford a new tensioner. I was thinking that if I did the tensioner on Friday, I could unbolt the exhaust and pull the heads too. With nearly 215k on the motor, I'd hate to put the manifold back on and do the tensioner, then have the gasket give out in 15k when I could have spent the extra hours to avoid it...

You guys are rock solid at this stuff! Had the issue again today and quickly started pulling plugs. I'd pull a plug, check for fuel, reinstall and repeat. Plug 3 was soaked in gasoline, the rest were bone dry. Swapped the plug for a dry one and she fired right up. Luckily the injector for plug three is exposed. Next step is to do what you recommended. I'm basically going to remove the injector and prime the pump to see if there is a leak. I will keep you posted!

Hey guys, thanks for responding! Sorry it took me a few days to get back to you. Slight loss of coolant due to a crack in my radiator. Patched it temporarily until I can hit the scrap yard and pull another. No oil consumption, I change the oil like clockwork and I have been short. Fuel mileage is right around 16 mpg, which is where it has been since I bought it. It is strange that it only happens on hot starts. I have driven until hot, turned it off and immediately tried to start it and she fires right up. But.... if I let it sit for more than 10 minutes or so, it has the problem. Also, this video didn't show the whole process, I tried cranking 2 or 3 times before I started recording. I think you are on the right track, because when it does fire up, I smell a huge impulse of exhaust... that made me think there was too much fuel being dumped in. If it is a leaky injector, how do I check this? If the motor was cold, I could pull the plugs and check for wet ones, but because the issue only occurs when it is hot, I would imagine that by the time I checked all plugs, the fuel would evaporate. Could I slightly advance the timing to maybe 10 degrees btdc? This would get the plugs firing a little faster, not letting them get over saturated? On that note, could it potentially be the fuel pressure regulator? To check the vacuum line, is it recommended to pull off the intake plenum? It looks like a pretty tight fit back there. Thanks again for all the help!

Hey all, Still having the weird noise occasionally on hot starts... Here's a link to a youtube video showing what I'm talking about: Please let me know if you have any ideas... possible culprits that I could think of are: -out of time... again (I'll check tonight) -starter -distributor... again -temp sensor

Looked around and found what might be a decent solution, matches some of my symptoms... coolant temp sensor? Ecm thinks it's a cold start even though the engine is hot. Tries dumping too much fuel, I relieve the fuel pressure and she starts like a champ... makes sense to me. That sensor looks like a PITA to get off. Think I'm gonna change the water pump while I'm in there since I didn't have the funds to do it when I did the timing belt (I was a super broke college student... now I'm just a kinda broke college student). Thanks again for all the help guys.

Also, absolutely no codes, but I drove home and have been using a different car since... a minivan with over 270k. I can't let that thing outlive the Pathy!

Thanks for the response. I haven't checked it, to be honest. The regulator is located behind the intake manifold by the firewall right? Should I take the manifold off to get a closer look?

Not sure if it matters, but it's been crazy hot in Corvallis.

Problem not solved... drove to class and parked for about 30 minutes. Went to start her and got the crank no start. Tried 3 or 4 times. I pulled the fuel line and got blasted. Reconnected the fuel line and she started right up... Shouldn't fuel pressure be returned through the return line?

Hey all, discovered I could just buy a new flange for dirt cheap (30 bucks). I'm just gonna go that route instead of drilling. The helicoil kit was about the same price. http://www.courtesyparts.com/22178-support-distributor-xterra-wd22-2000-2004-p-4681.html I have to order the flange so I'll update once I get it in. Thanks for all the help and ideas!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I did my due diligence and searched the topic. It's seemsas though I have a few options... get a longer bolt, drill and tap old hole for a larger bolt, helicoil or loctite thread repair. Does anybody have experience repairing stripped threads?

Thanks for all the help guys. Checked timing and it was off by 10 degrees. Strange, I thought, since I know I double checked it. Went to take the bolt off of the distributor and it was really loose. Adjusted the timing back to 15 btdc and went to tighten the bolt, it slid right in. Looks like the threads where the distributor bolt goes are shredded... So my next question is how do I go about fixing this? Tap the exiting hole to a slightly larger diameter? Tap a new hole completely? What's the most efficient way of solving this?

It could be but I double checked timing on install with a light. Before I realized the new distributor was broken, I even stripped down to the timing belt to make sure I didn't jump a tooth or snap the belt. Timing belt was done 12k ago and timing was spot on. Checked timing on the pulley and set it to the recommended setting. What's really throwing me off is that it runs perfectly fine. Just like it did when I bought it 80k ago.

Hey all, Finished up fixing some ignition issues and thought I was good to go. After about a week of driving with no problems, I went to start her and it would crank, than made a whirling sound (kind of like a failing starter). After a few tries, smoke came from under the hood. I got out to check it as quick as I could, looked like it was coming from the driver side, maybe around the catalytic converter, most of it had disappeared by the time I got there. It definitely smelled like exhaust though. Got back in and turn the key and she started and drove just fine. I also noted a faint smell of exhaust from my ac, but that went away pretty quick. In about a month, this has happened three times. No codes have been thrown,no decrease in gas mileage, what could this be? The symptoms are the same every time, cranks then makes a weird sound. Try again and again until there's a popping sound and smoke comes out, then fires right up on the next crank. Possibly a clogged catalytic converter? It just seems strange that it is only on start up? I changed the distributer about a month ago. The first replacement was bad, so maybe this one is too? The only thing I could think of is that it's not firing correctly and fuel is sprayed in then when it finally catches, the excess fuel causes excess exhaust? I may be way off base though. As usual, I appreciate any help!

I recently replaced my distributor. After getting everything lined up, she fired right up. I drove to the store and when I came back out, she'd crank hard but not turn all the way over. I pulled the plugs, they weren't wet so I assumed I was getting spark. I pulled the fuel return and a large amount of gas sprayed out. When I got home, I adjusted the distributor again and she fired up (I didn't move a tooth, I just turned it a bit). Drove good for a couple of days, then the same thing happened again. I moved the distributor aND relieved the fuel pressure and got her to start. I busted out the timing light, I was between 5 to 10 degrees BTDC. I don't think that's enough to cause a no start... I just moved to 15 BTDC. Please let me know what you think!