[98 Pathfinder drives in neutral, parks in reverse]

I had a less severe, but similar issue with mine. 

• Park was mechanically park (wouldn't start electronically unless forward pressure was put on shifter)
• Reverse was mechanically reverse
• Neutral was mechanically neutral
• *Mechanical drive was between neutral and drive
• Drive was mechanically 2
• 2 was mechanically 2
• 1 was mechanically 1

Got in there and adjusted the nuts on the turn buckle. The factory service manual has a great step by step guide who to align and calibrate it in your driveway. If that doesn't fix it, you might have transmission issues. 

[Delayed starting - ignition switch?]

Try putting some forward pressure on the shifter (still in park) when starting and try pulling back on the shifter (in park) to test your parking safety switch. I bought mine with a slight misalignment in the shifter and would sometimes apply pressure to the shifter to start it until, I took it apart and fixed it properly.

[Help with Lifting 2002 Pathfinder 2 inches]

Just a heads up, Bilstein 5100 bushings aren't sized for our rigs. Not the end of the world but you're gonna have to make a choice for the upper shock mount. 

1) Mount it on the original mount bolt with some slop

2) order some bushings/sleeves to fill in the gap

3) Drill out the bolt holes on chassis with a 1/2" bit and mount a 1/2" bolt through the upper shock mount.

 

I used option 3 and it's worked great for over 2 years so far. 

[Do you have these wheel specs?]

On 11/9/2022 at 9:36 AM, PathyDude17 said:

I think you're more likely to find wheels in the 16x8 -12mm, as that works out to 4" BS.

 

I believe @Dbot has those wheels with ~32" tires on a 1.5-2" spring lift, no wheel spacers

Sure do!

Link to wheels: JEGS 681034: D Window Wheel | Size: 16" x 8" | Bolt Pattern: 6 x 5.50" - JEGS High Performance

The 32" (265 70r 16) rub a bit behind front tires when turning the wheel a half turn from full lock. Back tucks in at full flex.

The 33" (285 75r 16) rub alot (half turn of steering wheel is all you get) until trimmed. Rears tuck in the upper quarter panel but the tire lugs pull at the plastic mud flaps and fender flare brackets at full flex

[2003 2wd will only reverse when cold]

It's only a matter of time before 1st goes out next. I lost reverse intermittently on mine. Fluid flushes and trans coolers couldn't save her. Intermittent reverse issue became more frequent so I swapped it out before it left me stranded 

[Timing chain guide replacement]

Vq35 timing chain guides are typically pretty long lasting, but to answer your original post, yeah the guides can be replaced inside the engine bay. Ive done it myself and it took forever so I'd expect over 1k in cost to have a shop do it. 

[02 build by Dbot]

Update Pt2

Way back in April 2021 I ordered a Lokka and finally received it in December. Due to work killing us slowly with overtime, I just started working with in in June. I wanted to go the route that @PathyDude17went by getting a front 4.636 diff and a rear 4.636 lsd diff to pair with the Lokka. 

 

 

Rear diff

I did some homework on NPORA and FSM about choosing and removing the diff, so I set out to the junkyard with tools and found a 2001 Xterra with the orange "LSD oil only" sticker. Door jam said HG46 so I started wrenching. Never bothered checking backlash or runout on the ring gear, but I couldn't see or feel any issues with it. Install went pretty smooth. I of course used a new gasket, and lsd additive. One thing i noticed is that there doesn't seem to be any torque spec for the brake line where it attaches to the drum, so I just went by feel on that. 

 

Front diff

I found a 2000 QX4 that had the HG46 indicated on the firewall plate so I grabbed it from salvage. Removal is pretty easy if you know how to crack loose the driveshaft nuts and remove cv axles. The front diff, I verified runout and backlash before I started getting too far into the lokka install. 

Installing the lokka wasn't too awful, it was just time consuming and the printed instructions aren't worded very well. Thankfully Tyler has his install video on YouTube to show us how it's done in normal english with good visuals. I went ahead and ordered the associated items from the links on his YouTube channel and found the punches very handy. I ended up not using most of the oil seals from the parts order because I didn't see any evidence of oil leakage on the donor vehicle and removing the seals was going to be a time consuming pain. I stupidly put my house up for sale on the market while I had my pathfinder on jack stands, oil on the driveway and diff parts on my work bench, so I really had to kick things in gear and get this put back together before people started showing up to check out the home. From what I remember, there were some diff parts that were particularly tough to separate that Tyler didn't have trouble with and a part or two that came off really easy where Tyler had to get creative to remove. I suppose no two diffs are the exact same. I did have to shim mine to get it into tolerance. My gap was too large so I cut up some .005" shim stock with scissors to make some spacers to get the unit in spec. The hardest part about the diff was installing into the subframe, that was definitely a two person job without using a trans jack. With the Lokka in the diff and the diff in the Pathfinder, the unit seemed to perform as expected by turning wheels and driveshaft by hand in the various scenarios. With the humble house being turned into a public showroom, I would have to wait to test it on the trails for a couple weeks while I waited for life to settle for a bit. 

 

Results:

The HG46 diff set made a noticeable difference in acceleration. Acceleration wise, it felt like i went back to my 31.6" tires from my 32.87" tires

 

When I was rushing to get the Pathfinder put together and moved for house selling, I did notice the LSD stiffness was about 50-60 ft lbs by feel. How I figure that is by having the rear axle on jack stands, tires on, torque wrench set to 100 ftlbs (lug nut specs), I could get about halfway (my super calibrated arms) to 100 ftlbs on the lugnut before the lsd would give in and let the wheel slip. Obviously, i'm measuring a couple inches out by pulling on the lug nuts and not the center of the axle, and the torque wrench angle plays a factor and my arms aren't a measuring device but a weak speculative data point is still a data point. It has only rained once since I swapped diffs so I don't have much wet street experience, but I did take it around the neighborhood when it did rain. wheel slippage didn't occur on gentle driving. I did intentionally stomp the gas for a turn and both tires lit up to my delight. Offroad, the lsd has exceeded my expections. I usually don't dare driving 2wd on Ozarks river rock because I sunk my tacoma pretty good doing that before, but I figured I'd see what the lsd would do. I could feel the rear tires slightly slipping and digging. All it takes is one tire to become the one wheel wonder for a single rotation and you're sunk. The back tires worked in unison and we kept chugging forward. Further on the trail, I kept it in 2wd and cleared some familiar spots that are prone to back wheel spin, but none of that happened. 

 

With the star of the project being the Lokka, I drove deeper into the trail to find the tricky stuff. There's a spot where you flex out and 3 wheel it that requires momentum if you're working from bottom to top of trail. Lokka crawled at the slowest possible speeds without issue. I made efforts to climb to rock steps. I had mixed success with that. Video shows the lokka working, but the driver needs more IQ/effort and the tires need less air pressure.  Descending trails with lokka is normal unless you stab the throttle while turning, then the lokka lets you know it's there by resisting the steering wheel inputs. Climbing trails with lokka is different because there's times it tells you it's in charge depending on the terrain, steering angle and throttle input. Turning radius can be increase at times with the Lokka. I found that using 2wd is more rewarding with the LSD because it has easy steering, However, the Lokka will let you get the highlight moments of wheeling that you're going to remember the rest of the year. 

 

Hopefully after some real estate transactions, I can go back to the trails with 20 psi in the tires and more time to get a better feel.

 

Also, I have tons of detailed photos of the Lokka install, included shim installation. If there isn't one already, anyone want a post with tons of photos for a Lokka install walkthrough?

[02 build by Dbot]

Build update!

Man, it takes forever to get upgrades on this thing.

The 31.6" General Grabber AT2 tires were about 8 years old, getting close to the wear bars, cracked, chunked and starting to leak. While I recommend Grabber all terrains, I wanted to change things up so I went with the Milestar Patagonia MT. Went up a size 33"x11.5" (285 75r 16)

Front tire fitment 

Driving home from the tire shop required a 7 point turn to get out to the street and then I had to route home using left turns so I could swing wider due to severe rubbing. It did successfully clear the strut with my 4.0 backspacing wheels. I had to cut over an inch of the front bumper and up to an inch on the fender to get it to become driveable. It still rubs, so there's more trimming to be done. With this particular setup, the passenger tire rubs the sheet metal shield that protects the brake lines in the passenger wheel well at full lock. I'm going to have to keep and eye on the guard and be prepared to step in with some new ideas if it starts to let go.

 

Rear tire fitment:

Rear tires fit great for city driving. They will even tuck during some urban flex testing, but the trail fitment is another story. First wheeling trip started snapping fender flare clips after some immediate unavoidable hard rubbing. It appears to rub and pull the flare from in from of the tire... or maybe it's on the back side by the mudflap? It's not hitting the upper portion though. It ultimately caused me to lose a flare on the trail. So I'm debating either going flareless or finding some black flares from salvage since finding bronzed gray colored pathfinders is impossible.

 

Tire performance 

The Patagonia MT's have a center strip of tight knight lugs that provide a smooth quiet contact patch. Since the tires are rated for a stupid amount of air pressure, I filled them up to 40 psi (checked a couple months later and found 45 psi?) and sure enough, they are no louder than the bald all terrains that I just tossed out. You can hear the side lugs contacting asphalt with their typical MT growl if you corner or brake hard enough to squish the side walls, but typical cruising is silent. One thing I noticed is that at high psi, the agility for quick turns or swerves is very poor. Feels like you're trying to corner with marshmallow tires. At lower psi, it's slightly improved, but more noise is present as your contact patch includes more side lugs. Wet weather performance is good. Trail performance is good thus far, however I haven't tested these at low pressure yet. At 40+ psi, I did a few miles on rocks, dirt and mud and had no issues finding traction, likely due to new/deep tread and expections set to the previous tire set's performance. Second trail run, I had them at 30 psi and found that 30 psi wasn't quite wanting to grab and hold the rock ledges that I wanted to climb, but other than that, they performed as expected. One thing to note is that every other lug will pick up gravel about every stinkin' tire rotation so keep that in mind if you have cars with expensive windshields driving behind you.

[Toyota's "old school" look on an R50]

I say YAY.

A mesh grill would make the front end pop some more for less effort but your design would be unique and look just as good if not better if you don't mind the work. 

A guy did this grill design to his Xterra and it turned out great. Blacked out edges of headlights look great also. 

 

 

[What's one thing you hate about your pathy?]

Bronzed Gray KXO paint. I see pictures of others with that paint in good condition and I think it's one of the best colors. But mine and the few around me in my neck of the woods all have damaged clearcoat. They only used the paint for 2001 and 2002 so you're probably not going to find a donor in the junkyard. I found a part out locally. Drove an hour to go see it. It's clearcoat was toast just like mine. 

[Homelink mirror buttons]

Are the Homelink buttons on the mirror always active even without a key or do they require some sort of ACC/ON position to function?

 

Pulled an OEM Gentex mirror from a r51 for the wife's xterra and wanted to find out here before potentially any thieves find out. Every once in a while, the X gets left unlocked by mistake which would either be bad or very bad depending if somebody got access to the garage.

[02 build by Dbot]

Well since the host of the site had a failure a few days ago, I'll go ahead and toss in a recap to the build from May 2021 to present since some of my build posts are gone. 

 

2001 SE Grille: Kind of a rare find since the Bronzed Gray paint only existed in 2001 and 2002. Found it listed in a local part out. Sadly the part out had worse paint on the hood and fenders than mine but I digress.

 

Powerstop z36 front brake kit.

Local guy had a wrecked R50 that I was buying parts from. He had these new in box and wanted me to take/buy them. I didn't need brakes so I was like "uh, I can do $20" and he handed them over.

For daily driving and wheeling they don't feel any different than my stock discs and pads but whatevs.

 

Poly steering rack bushings form 4x4parts.com

I rebuilt the front end with new cv axles, inner+outer tie rods, ball joints, inner+outer bearings, and rack bushings trying to find a popping noise that ended up being a control arm bushing.

They don't appear to drive or feel  special but I think polyurethane is supposed to be more resilient to oil than rubber so that's comforting to know while I procrastinate on replacing leaky valve covers.

 

 

Missing link

Made this from 1.5" x 1.5" 1/8" steel square tubing. 23 7/8" long. Ends chopped at 45 degrees.

Couldn't feel any difference driving or wheeling. This later got modified for a skid plate a few months later.

 

 

Skidplate. Had some trails at the offroad park that couldn't be finished because I lacked armor. After getting scammed on cheap rock sliders and Lokka taking 9 months to ship my part, my wife was very leery about me spending big bucks on car parts so I took matters into my own inexperienced hands to make my own skidplates. 3/16 thick 24x48 steel was "only" $96 so I started. 

 

I first modified the missing link by adding a 1" spacer from square tubing so the plate steel would clear the front diff. 

 

 

I measured and cut out the mid skid and made notches for the rear control arm bolts.

 

 

 

I turned a lot of drill bits into smoke so drilling this took forever. I cut the front skid and notched it with an angle grinder. Apparently the plate steel had a wave to it and made it difficult to notch with the angle grinder without puncturing through the back side. 

 

Welded the creases and cleaned up the mill scale and welds after several hours

 

 

Painted it with flat black rust converter for easy touch ups. Found some bolts at the hardware store. Got some washers for rocks to deflect off. Mounted it up.

 

 

Just enough clearance between plate and diff

 

 

Took it to the offroad park and hit the trails I had to turn around on last time.

Got some scars to test it out. I think it's a winner. Whenever time allows, I'll see about making a rear skid.

 

 

So that's a wrap on the build as it sits now. 

[Oil Dipstick tip broke off - need advice/info]

My memory is so fuzzy, that it's very possible I'm wrong, but I thought you could access the bolts the hold the lower oil pan on the vg33 like you can with a vq35. Might be tricky for a hand grab if you have thick wrists but magnets and whatnot should be able to grab the missing piece if it's in the upper oil pan. You'd have to make sure you don't warp or gouge the lower oil pan during removal or you're gonna have to get real serious with the rtv or order a new pan. 

[4x4 auto vs manual]

I’ve been hanging around r50 forums and groups since I got mine in 2019. Haven’t really seen much chatter about reliability issues with the atx14a transfer case. Like any part, there’s gonna be somebody with a failure here and there but the atx14a isn’t even going to be in the top 15 issues for this platform. I have 237k miles in the clock and mine has held up to the abuse just fine. Just change the fluid at the intervals the manual specifies and if you submerged it in water or mud, just clean underneath really well so wire harnesses stay clean. In other words, don’t let the transfer case hold you back unless it acts up on a test drive 

[New front end popping/crunching]

4 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

I've never had a strut suspension to bits, and I've seen a few threads about strut top issues, but I'm not sure I'd fire the parts cannon just yet. Having it still make the noise when it's on jackstands makes me think it's not load-related, which isn't what I'd expect for either a strut top or a TRE. I'm also noticing you said both tie rods seemed like they were making the noise. Maybe both outer TREs failed prematurely, at the same time, or the noise is transferring really well from one side to the other, but noise on both sides of the rack has me wondering about the rack.

I'd pop the outer TREs out of the knuckles and repeat your jackstand steering test. If it doesn't make the noise, steer the knuckles by hand to check the strut tops, and if those seem fine, check it again with one tie rod, then the other. If on the other hand the steering still makes the noise when it's not moving the knuckles, that suggests an issue with the rack, steering shaft U joints or rag, steering transfer box whatsit, or possibly the column. I would double-check the rack bushings, too, though again that seems like a long shot given how little load they're under with the truck in the air. If the feel-stuff-while-it-makes-the-noise test fails, disconnect things one by one until you find the problem. Obviously be mindful of the clockspring while doing this. I think the shafts are keyed so you can't reinstall them cockeyed, but I would still put a paint pen mark on them before pulling them apart just to be safe.

This is brilliant! I’ll definitely be trying this the first chance I get. Thanks! 

[New front end popping/crunching]

What I'm working with:

• 2002 4x4
• Lifted 1 year ago
• Reused struts and strut hats
• 1 yo OEM strut bearings
• 1 yo AC coils
• 1 yo Camber adjust bolts
• 1 yo Inner tie rods
• 1 yo outer tie rods
• 1 yo steering rack bushings
• 1 yo ball joints

Wheeled all summer on those fresh components and everything was great. My last wheeling sesh was August.  Early 2021, I developed a popping/crunching sensation in the steering. I assumed it was the ball joint so I replaced both ball joints. The issue remained unchanged. For troubleshooting, I set the front end on jack stands and prompted the noise by having somebody turn the steering wheel. Best judgements of sound and feel by hand led me to the tie rods. Struts didn't have much of a output on feel or sound, nor did cv axles or ball joints. This led me to do the following:

 

After replacing ball joints (which were actually still good btw) I replaced the following this month:

• CV axles
• Wheel bearings (inner and outer) and both sets of races
• Inner tie rods

Outer tie rods seemed really solid, almost like new and the grease boot didn't see compromised so i reused them.

I took it to the shop for an alignment. The same guy that aligned it last summer aligned it again and said the alignment procedure was smooth and typical. After getting it from the shop, Everything feels straight and aligned but the popping/crunching is still there. 

 

I can create this by low speed tight turns such as cutting the wheel to pull into a parking spot or follow a drive thru path. It seems that the low speed + hand over hand turning of the steering wheel causes this. This does not occur if you drive straight or if say you cut the wheel for a slow turn and hold it steady at an angle. It's the action of turning the steering wheel that causes it.

What's weird is this occurred months after I last wheeled it. The only abnormal abuse my front end takes is that there is a 3" step transitioning from my driveway to my street. This transition is always taken at turned angle whether backing out or pulling in. (not good for steering components). My street is a main street so occasionally my approach home from the speedy street is a bit hot which causes strut top out with those old struts on new AC coils. 

I guess i'm leaning toward aiming the parts cannon at the strut bearings and strut hats. Anyone have any thoughts on this before I drop another $100+ on parts and labor?

 

[Mr Regular reviews the R50]

He has a first person camera angle video of him driving a second gen Xterra and there is a written article either by him or his sidekick Roman that discusses the first gen Xterra. It’s very apparent that he doesn’t know much about either one to start with and he picks up on the basics about each one while doing a quick bit of research for his content. Basically mocks the name a bit for being a try hard name, talks about how mundane vibes are that it gives off. Talks about it it’s crude suspension, talks about skid plates, body on frame design and simplicity. It then clicks in his mind this is the stuff that matters and he talks about it in a “you know what, this is a cool vehicle hidden in a plastic panel disguise” kind of way . 
I don’t think he cares much for Nissan suvs for whatever reason 

[Water pump/timing chain lifespan]

21 hours ago, colinnwn said:

I'm pretty sure worn tensioners killed my engine at 265k. So just depends on how long you want to run it, and how much money or time you want to spend.

All the research I've done is its a much bigger job to do chain and tensioners than anything else on your list.

And if I elected to do it, there is no way I wouldn't do the water pump. Most cars with 100k timing belts have the pump as a scheduled service item at the same time.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

It’s not making any noise that I’m aware of.  As far as how long I want it to last? Beyond 300k. It’s more a pride thing than a money thing with this one. Lots of sweat and blood in the rig. If we all go by noise instead of mileage, I’ll leave the chains alone. As for the water pump, I suppose I could swap that when I’m behind the radiator for the alternator since you don’t actually have to remove the timing cover to access the pump. 

[Water pump/timing chain lifespan]

2002 Pathfinder 

235,xxx miles (acquired by me at 206,xxx)

Main maintenance items:

Replace leaky valve covers

replace alternator

 

Secondary maintenance items:

Spark plugs

Pcv valve

intake gaskets

pcv hose

Valve cover breather hose

serpentine belts

 

I’ll be doing those items within a few weeks

 

The two items I’m wondering are:

Should I take this opportunity to replace the timing chains, and tensioners? I can’t find anything that specifies a mileage to replace that. Some say those last forever but the severed timing chain on my 2001 r50 says otherwise. if there’s an interval that I’m missing somewhere that says 100/200/250k miles, I think I should do it now while valve covers are off.

 

the second question is how long does the water pump last? I can replace it with the timing chain cover on or off. Anyone know an interval for water pumps? 

 

[SEAT SWAP]

For what it’s worth, you can swap seat fabric/leather between passenger and drivers seat. Just need hog rings, hog ring pliers and a box cutter. Looks oem if you take your time 

[CV axle recommendations]

Anecdotally I purchased one autozone cv axle over the summer (boot split a month after lifting hence my replacement). Autozone axle looked really solid and beefy. The same day I installed it, I drove 45 minutes to a trail via highway. Wheeled for 20 minutes then hit a mud hole with headlight deep water. Immediately after coming out of the water, I could hear the wet cv boot squeaking with each rotation. It popped off and kinked where it was lopsided and rubbed the control arm every rotation. Not sure how mud water did this but whatever. I bent it back and put it close to how it originally was. I haven’t done any true wheeling since then but I’ve done thousands of road miles and a few hundred snow 4x4 road miles. Cv axle is still intact despite a compromised boot.  

[CV axle recommendations]

Rode stock suspension for one year without bad boots. Then lifted with ac coils and warn hubs. Drove one month and split a boot. Half month later the other boot split. 

[Upgraded S goodies to SE or LE]

Hi r51 gang, I’m familiar and active with the r50 platform but I’m pretty new to the post 2005 stuff. I’m probably going several hours out of town to the big city for another attempt to get a worthy r51. One of the lowest mileage  r51s I see is an s model. While I don’t need LE stuff, SE is the trim package Id like to own. Does anyone know what items I can swap over from a LE or SE (power seats, heated seats, fog lights etc) via my local junkyard or eBay? 
I’m hoping some of the stuff is prewired and plug and play. I got the idea for this question because my dad has had great luck swapping LT trim components to his ls  trim Chevy. Everything was prewired and compatible 

[Radio issues!]

Take what I say as a grain of salt but check the radio part numbers. They  can look the same but have different wiring even if they came out of the same year vehicle depending on what month it was made. 

[R50 Longevity]

Hit 230k miles yesterday. I broke a trans cooler line on a rock wheeling this summer which sprayed the trans until empty. A month later the trans started acting up so I swapped it. I guess that’s my fault. Engine is rock solid though