[how it goes so far, after a year and a half]

here is my intro post, which is what i believe to be a premise to this topic

 

haven't logged in here in a while. hope everyone's recovering from modern pandemia. certainly drove me nuts starting off in town as a fast food worker. now i am settled in my early 20s with an oil gun and expertise on oil maintenance reminder reset procedures (for a small business with seniority).

leaky susan, whom i call now the fleenmobile, is still in my possession and as of now i have clocked in 9k miles since i claimed her two years ago. back in october last year my inexperience with snow/sleet covered roads took the better of my driving capabilities and as a result,

 

slid into the side of a crew cab pickup. everyone involved was ok, and the other party had full coverage while i ride on liability. accidents happen but i can't say that i didn't have a bad taste in my mouth over this for a while. the damage you see is purely cosmetic. i'll live with my inflated insurance rate.

 

my affection for my truck hasn't faltered. in fact, this really pushed my encouragement to restore this truck, mainly in spirit. i don't aim for this to be show quality, but to be respectably solid. per request from my boss, who also has a mechanics shop on the same property as i quickly lube sixer mustangs and fiat rams, i have compiled a list of things to do for my truck to start off and i hope to get on with it this summer, and hopefully be involved in doing work for someone who hasn't had much opportunity to do some decent mechanical and suspension work and not feel intimidated by it.

just finished replacing the pads and rotors on this truck yesterday. those hubs were a bit frustrating to figure out on my own, but it was more time consuming for me than it was difficult

 

any advice regarding the bodywork or anything is welcome; i think i'm going to make this an update topic for my truck. anyways, i'll still be around reading through. thank you all for this community.

 

['88 4 speed auto: 4th gear sluggish]

i am the second owner of my '88 and it is my first vehicle. it has a L4N71B 4 speed auto that leaks fluid and i refill the transmission every couple of weeks. i figure that this is a cheaper solution to this problem than to dismantle the transmission and diagnose it myself (i also lack the equipment to raise the car at home) or take it to a shop and potentially feed me information that i likely don't need knowing.

 

i believe at one point it was driven with low fluid that potentially brought damage to the trans' components since, recently, i discovered that the gear for 4th may be worn down. when it switches from 3rd to 4th, the engine rotates higher by around 300 rotations and slowly drops down, as if it were shifting in slow motion. none of the other gears seem to do this but it does make me wary and i make little money. fortunately, i do not drive this truck often at speeds which require 4th gear. however, i hear no strange, scary sounds or feel any strange motions when it shifts at this speed, or for any other drive gears, so i suppose for now that it's not any more serious than it could be, but i may be wrong. i guess it's also worthy to note that i'm in the colder season where at night it's around 40F at night, which is when i drive it home from work (i know not to press the gas down too much at these temps until i know the engine's warmer; older vehicle!)

 

i've poked around with google searches, came across forums (some with disrespectful exchanges lol) and blog entries alike, things about clutch plates slipping and checking the fluid color. for the sake of mentioning, the fluid color's been ok but then again i do refill it periodically so it's probably not a worthy diagnosis with my application.

 

i could upload a video demonstrating the performance if it will help! however, young person on their phone while driving and all that. no fancy airbags to save me.

 

take for note that i have little mechanical experience and the most i've done with the transmission is removing the oil pan and replacing the gasket and fluid filter, with the aid of my stepfather, who only knows maintenance for '80s and '90s ford F-series pickups while growing up in kansas.

 

this may be one of those posts that could be limited in help given my lack of expertise, so i'm mainly posting this for the sake of opinions as to what could be done or improved, even if it could be costly, or if it's not something to worry about too much (very unlikely with the latter as in my opinion any issue left unchecked could bring disaster over time). any little bit of info helps and i'd love to hear it from those who know these vehicles much more than i do. thanks for your time

[What do you always have with you?]

ATF, funnel, microfibre rag. the ancient emergency car jack (still seems operable but never actually used it on my truck), the passenger side headlight wiring cover panel, a support beam to compensate for the dead shocks on my rear hatch, and... the sunroof cover.

 

somehow the support clips on my sunroof broke off. noticed that they're interchangeable but god knows where i can come across those specific bits of plastic on the web

also if it counts a bluetooth transmitter inside the cigarette lighter. stock radio with inoperable cassette module (a heartbreaker for someone who actually has cassettes)

[You know you drive a Pathfinder when:]

On 7/12/2019 at 8:34 AM, A.Sans said:

When people call out your SUV to everything but a Pathfinder.

my manager once called it an "idunno... a toyota bronco?" spot on, melissa

 

when you avoid going over 4500 rpm because if you go any faster it'll accelerate the rust's progression as well.

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

On 7/7/2019 at 4:38 PM, MY1PATH said:

The lack of cup holders

 

On 9/3/2019 at 4:23 PM, joshualaw205 said:

 

Not to mention they’re quite small for the modern American giant drink


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

i had to buy an amazon vent-mount cup holder for my pathfinder after screwing with one of those holders that slipped in between the seat and the arm rest so much even with several pieces of cardboard to fill up the space. the vent holder is being held down with double sided tape! anyway...

 

yeah. the rust is a common thing to hate no matter what you drive but be darned if it doesn't count. tearing through the bevels for the rear bench seat so far and thank god it's not any worse. also my transmission is leaking and i have NO CLUE where it's coming from... YET

[What did you do to your Pathfinder today?]

recently taped up my muffler with some high-temp wrap and also trying to figure out what to do with my soundsystem. just wrapped my head around the whole amplifier deal.

[i am fleenz]

thanks for the welcome!

11 hours ago, zakzackzachary said:

Welcome! Hopefully one day you can stretch the legs of Leaky Susan and get on some dirt. The 88's appear to be a great all around little truck.

 

 

Looks like Oklahoma City!

8 hours ago, RainGoat said:

Now how did you figure that out? I’m even one of the people who kind of know Oke City. (You can put it in the PNW or our chat if you want)

 

i am in oklahoma city! the great plains area is where half of my family comes from. seen plenty of this country but not all of it.

[i am fleenz]

i go by fleenz. i am a young and foolish dude who hates haircuts and likes cars. with that being said, i am likely to make various mistakes including piddling around with my first and current vehicle, a 1988 SE pathy with 167k miles on it and counting. i am its second owner.

 

 

apologies for the night photo but it's the most recent one i have. i affectionately call her the Leaky Susan. because somewhere the transmission fluid's dripping out and it's anywhere but the pan. every time i refill the fluid, i scream from the inside. on the plus side, it marks its territory. that's MY parking spot.

 

i notice that off-roading is a major subject here on this forum but appreciates the pathfinder as a whole, so i assume i'm a minority of the forum regarding off-roading habits; not only for my ignorance in appropriate conversion to such activity for my vehicle and absolute inexperience of the sort, but also for where i am located. a big ol' city full of nothing. i mainly use the leaky susan as my daily driver to my job where i work six days a week and grovel over useless job searching e-mails, because young person and money. even though i do not usually travel out of my district in the Leaky Susan, i have dreams which put me in a setting where i at least barely survived a cross-country road trip in my SUV. a type of vehicle that should have that ability. alas, the only previous owner has a maintenance record like a slice of swiss cheese that makes me question the true condition of the leaky susan. so all i have left is whatever wits remain in my skull, any useful information that a rural-raised handyman can hand me, and persistent trial-and-error google searches, to help me keep this thing from utter turmoil as long as i possibly can. or if it meets a sudden fate in a collision (given a chance i do survive without airbags) that it was completely out of my own responsibility.

 

the leaky susan is my first vehicle. i do not want to take her for granted, even at my age and limited intuition. so here's to being smarter, one brain cell and a 10mm at a time.