aedavis

Thanks for the responses. I ended up test driving the V8 R51 and thought it felt very similar to my R50 size wise, other than length. It certainly wasn't cumbersome and seemed to handle pretty responsively, or at least as much as you can expect from a truck. It felt pretty tight too, though the seats felt flat and less supportive than my R50. I would have bought it except for one glaring problem. It reeked of cigarette smoke and I could barely manage to sit through a 15 minute test drive. It also had the airbag light on, but I may have been willing to work around that. The smell was too much - I was pretty disappointed because while I liked the size, clean condition, and V8 power, the stench was unbearable. I know some people have reported success with ozone machines and other stuff, but I wasn't willing to take the risk. Anyway, I'm going to watch for other R51 V8s, or Pro4X Xterras and see what comes up in my local market. In the meantime I'm happy to keep using my R50 as my run around SUV.

Thanks for the response ND4SPDSE, and others. I ended up test driving the V8 R51 and agree with everything you said. It felt very similar to my R50 size wise, other than length. It certainly wasn't cumbersome and seemed to handle pretty responsively, or at least as much as you can expect from a truck. It felt pretty tight too, though the seats felt flat and less supportive than my R50. I would have bought it except for one glaring problem. It reeked of cigarette smoke and I could barely manage to sit through a 15 minute test drive. It also had the airbag light on, but I may have been willing to work around that. The smell was too much - I was pretty disappointed because while I liked the size, clean condition, and V8 power, the stench was unbearable. I know some people have reported success with ozone machines and other stuff, but I wasn't willing to take the risk. Anyway, I'm going to watch for other R51 V8s, or Pro4X Xterras and see what comes up in my local market.

I posted the following in the R50 section but it isn't getting many responses. Thought I'd post here and see if any R51 owners have an opinion. Thanks I've been driving an R50 Pathfinder for about 6 years now. Initially I bought it as a work truck, but since I've retired I just use it for running around, camping in the mountains and desert, and towing my dirt bikes around. Mine is clean and runs fine (2002 LE with 214K miles), and I don't have any reason to part with it except one of my kids wants to buy it from me. There is a 2008 V8 Pathfinder for sale nearby and I've been considering it as a replacement for my R50, but I'm wondering what the driving experience will be like coming from the smaller SUV. I like the R50 for its size, light feeling, and 'nimbleness'. I have always been interested in the VK56 powered R51s, but if they feel like a land whale despite the big engine, I wouldn't like that. For context, I have a 100 Series Landcruiser I use for towing my boat, but as nice as it is it feels like driving a school bus compared to my R50. I am wondering if an R51 will feel the same way. Has anyone who has spent time in both an R50 and R51 comment on the driving feel of both? One of the reasons I like my R50 so much is that it is pretty car like in handling, but still capable off road for moderate stuff. I wouldn't want to give up that small feel. Heres a pic of my R50: Here's a pic of it next to my Landcruiser. There's a pretty big difference in size.

I've been driving an R50 Pathfinder for about 6 years now. Initially I bought it as a work truck, but since I've retired I just use it for running around, camping in the mountains and desert, and towing my dirt bikes around. Mine is clean and runs fine (2002 LE with 214K miles), and I don't have any reason to part with it except one of my kids wants to buy it from me. There is a 2008 V8 Pathfinder for sale nearby and I've been considering it as a replacement for my R50, but I'm wondering what the driving experience will be like coming from the smaller SUV. I like the R50 for its size, light feeling, and 'nimbleness'. I have always been interested in the VK56 powered R51s, but if they feel like a land whale despite the big engine, I wouldn't like that. For context, I have a 100 Series Landcruiser I use for towing my boat, but as nice as it is it feels like driving a school bus compared to my R50. I am wondering if an R51 will feel the same way. Has anyone who has spent time in both an R50 and R51 comment on the driving feel of both? One of the reasons I like my R50 so much is that it is pretty car like in handling, but still capable off road for moderate stuff. I wouldn't want to give up that small feel. Heres a pic of my R50: Here's a pic of it next to my Landcruiser. There's a pretty big difference in size.

Update, in case anyone else has this problem. The actuator failed again - I haven't disassembled it, but I'm assuming another gear tooth broke inside and jammed up the actuator. I just removed the rear lift gate panel, removed the rod that connects the door lock actuator to the handle/latch/lock, and am using the key to lock/unlock the hatch. I don't know that I'm willing to pay $200 or so for a new actuator (Nissan PN 90550-0W021), since I don't use the hatch too much. As long as I can use it with a key, I can probably live with it as is.

I took the hatch panel off per R50JR's instructions this morning (I was waiting for cooler weather, as my shop isn't air conditioned). It came apart pretty easily with a minimum of broken panel clips, and I found that lock actuator isn't working. When I removed the bar from the actuator (that goes from the actuator to the latch) and pushed over on it manually, the hatch opens normally. I priced the actuators thinking they'd be cheap, like a passenger door actuator. Wrong - They're $250 or so. I decided to do a little more looking online and found this thread: https://forums.nicoclub.com/lift-rear-gate-latch-problem-parts-help-t455161.html I took apart the actuator and found the same broken gear tooth as Gcohen6 describes. I removed the broken tooth, reassembled the actuator, and reinstalled in the the liftgate. It works now - the broken tooth must have jammed up the actuator. I don't know if it will work indefinitely, but for now it's functional and thanks to R50JR's instructions getting the panel off to get to the actuator isn't hard, so I'll replace the actuator if this one jams up again. Thanks again for everyone's help.

Thanks for the replies everyone - I'm going to see about removing the inside panel per R50JR's instructions above. I have the service manual referrerd to and found the diagram on BT-17 (thanks Slartibartfast). I'll post up the results.

I've had a 2001 Pathfinder for a few years and for the most part (other than SES codes) it has been trouble free. However, recently the hatch handle stopped working. Ever since I bought it, I could unlock the hatch with the key in the driver's side door (two turns unlocked all doors and the hatch) but I never could get the hatch to open with the key in the hatch lock itself. The rear lift window opens with the key, but not the hatch. One day it opened normally with the key in the driver's door lock, and the next day it didn't. Research on this site seems to indicate that there's a plastic part inside the hatch handle mechanism that has probably broken, and it sounds like people have had to cut the hatch open from the outside to get at this mechanism. The result is usually that the hatch is destroyed and they get a new hatch from a junkyard and repaint. I really don't want to chop up the hatch - one of the reasons I bought this Pathfinder is that it was exceptionally clean inside and out and tearing up the hatch doesn't sound fun, nor does finding a replacement and having my body/paint guy spray it. Has anyone successfully accessed the hatch mechanism from inside the truck, with the liftgate/hatch shut?