GoldenRiver

Hi I am Terri, bought a 95 Nissan Pathfinder a year ago. I live in Farmington, New Mexico and have been going out to the boonies for years without a 4x4, decided to finally get one. The area has clay and sand which when wet is difficult to drive through. It is easy to get stuck, in other words. I was impressed recently with the 4x4 operation in the middle of a muddy road which would have gotten stuck in the cars I drove before. It pulled me out of a mess great. The vehicle needs work so I am learning on this one, not having taken the time with other vehicles in the past. I will probably have most work done - I am trying to cut down on diagnostic fees and to avoid being given the runaround by learning as much as possible in forums like this. Current issue April 2017 is people recently redid battery terminals, cable and wiring to battery. I was not happy with the results, paid too much for what they did. There are a bunch of wires that were going to the battery terminal which were trimmed back; they spliced the area into that old coil of wires on the side of the bunch, leaving the old cut ends of the coil exposed, not sure if they should have done that. I have checked for a ground but am not experienced with looking for it, having only read a few things recently on the internet. Vehicle had shown some issues previously but had not stalled for several months. Shortly after the above listed work, its starting was slightly off, felt a little funny, then the meter fuse went out. I would put it in, the car would drive but after it was parked even for a moment, it would go out again. Kept replacing meter fuse until it burned out immediately upon starting the vehicle and now won't start. Was very astonished to discover that others have had identical experiences with that meter fuse. The background on the vehicle is that the transmission was rebuilt by someone who prefers to work on Fords or American cars. The vehicle stopped leaking transmission fluid, was driving, but was still rough on hills and still had irregularity in the speedometer. The speedometer would sometimes fluctuate and other times seemed to stay put. The vehicle stalled after a five hour highway trip. Seemed to be edging toward overheating on one particular stretch of hills. As soon as that area was passed, the temperature went back to normal. A wire was found under the hood burned out. I was told by someone who did not work on it but who saw a photo of it that it might have been a starter wire. Shortly after that first repair, a fuse went out and was replaced by a mobile mechanic. I did not find out which fuse at the time. I only this week started reading up on all this stuff so now know which questions to ask. The mechanic who worked on it just told me he fixed some wires and replaced a fuse or two and I did not ask more questions at the time. It did the same exact thing regarding temperature on a recent trip in the same area. Later a fuse went out. This time I knew to check the fuse box, checked the fuses, found the meter one out. Replaced it, got the vehicle started, and if finally stopped responding to fuses, which I now know is a common symptom with that meter fuse. I tried to get an error code reading and only got a 55 code after putting it in III mode. I suspect a problem there because the car doesn't turn over when the key is put in the ignition; the meter fuse blows out immediately and the dashboard lights go out; the headlights still do turn on, however, and the windows roll; also the beeper to the ignition area stays beeping. Absolutely zero connection with ignition. The vehicle does not even begin to turn over. The things I have learned from reading up on the internet that could be wrong with the vehicle at this point: It is a 1995 Nissan Pathfinder 4x4 automatic SE and seems to be a VG30i but I am not sure where exactly to look for that, couldn't find anything under the hood or side of the front driver's side door. 1. poor ground 2. speed sensor wire off back of transmission - cannot tell from what I have read on internet how involved replacing it is on this model 3. instrument panel 4. a burned out wire behind the fuse box 5. catalytic converter/O2 sensor issue - like clogged line in catalytic converter