EricCR

Make sure the sensor is not dirty or dusty, it's right there on top of the dashboard, near the windshield. There's a sun load sensor for the AC and the light sensor for the headlights. If it's scratched (e.g. when cleaning the interior) it can also trigger sooner as it's perceiving less light. You can use Meguiar's PlastiX or something similar to remove the scratches. I don't think there's a way to adjust the sensitivity unless you tweak the resistance values by intercepting the signal/wire. The service manual must have the low/high values for that sensor.

I used the head unit's pre-amp outputs and a harness adapter with RCAs so it's mimicking what the factory Bose head unit did: sending low level signals to the amp. The only issue is that the Sony I chose (AX4000) has rather weak 2V outputs so volume is a tad low, but it's still louder than my ears can take it at max. I also have a LOC that I purchased from Crutchfield (PAC-ROEM-NIS2) just in case my plan A (using the pre-amps) wasn't loud enough, but I haven't felt the need to install it. The stereo beeps are relatively quiet. The whole thing sounds exactly like it did with the Bose head unit, just with more flexibility thanks to the EQ, time alignment and crossover settings. I hated the Bose's very limited bass and treble options. I'm in the same boat. I don't mind the Bose amp+speakers one way or another. I know it can be much worse or much better. My speakers seem to be intact, not blown or distorting, but the front set, for being components, are definitely not great. The tweeters have no definition and mid-frequencies could be clearer. I'd also prefer not replace the amp. Bypassing it is easy enough. I found these instructions and I like that you don't need to take apart half of the interior to lay new wiring, just crimp some existing wires together. I guess if I were to commit, the best option would be a 50/50 approach. Keep the rear speakers driven by the factory amp and bypass the front amps and put a good set of components, driven by either a small amp or the head unit. For now I think I'll keep the Polks in a drawer since I don't think it makes sense to replace Bose components with aftermarket coaxials.

I have 4 coaxial Polk Audios (DB651) that I removed from another car where I upgraded everything. The Polks still work just fine and sound good for what they are. They have surprisingly good bass for being 6.5". I also installed a Sony head unit in the Pathy a few months ago, but I'm still using the factory amps and speakers. It sounds ok-ish, as these Bose systems did, nothing to write home about but serviceable. Now, instead of throwing the Polks in the trash, I thought that perhaps they could find a new home in the Pathfinder, but I have no inclination to add a dedicated amp or anything else, so they would be powered by the Sony's head unit. The car is not used often enough and I have 3 other rust buckets where I would rather invest in audio. Would you leave the Bose system alone, 200W amp (allegedly), 22 year old paper cone speakers or would it be sightly better to drive the Polks from the HU's amp (about 20 RMS x 4) and bypass all the Bose stuff? I'm sure the new speakers would sound better, but I'm not so sure how much the Bose amp levels the play field with the stock 1 Ohm speakers. If anyone has bypassed the factory amps and can share their experiences, I'm all ears.

I had to order everything individually. Finding the right bolts was a particularly painful endeavor. Buy the arms from Rockauto, for the bolts you can either find the closest match at your local hardware store (or online) or get a kit which is what I did but they tend to be on the expensive side. There was an old thread that specifies the right bolts you need. You can replace everything at home but it's 99% guaranteed you won't be able to remove the old, rusty bolts. They need to be cut.

Not sure what the question is, but yeah, the amp fuse is confusingly the one that controls power to the stereo. Back when I had it, I had to pull that fuse sometimes after I modded the cassette player with an AUX input. The cassette deck "thought" there was a cassette stuck in it at random times which necessitated the good old fuse reset. My guess is that your amp fuse was loose or is glitchy or something else in the fuse box is wrong (corrosion, loose wire, bent tabs).

My GF used to have a Sentra B13 years ago and those two bulbs failed (recirculation and A/C) and we never found replacements. I know this is not it, but for anyone interested in the digital climate control module, it has easily replaceable bulbs, they're called T5 which you can find pretty much everywhere: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CKZCYTXM?smid=A12JRGT98I4B0G&th=1

Are you after an actual improvement in light output and pattern? Or are you mostly looking for an aesthetic change? If it's the former, you should do what I did. None of the Chinese eBay "projector" headlights will be good. Those projectors are usually meant for H1 halogen bulbs, have a very narrow beam pattern, crappy output and blurry cutoff. Here's my car: If you're mostly after halos and other sort of DRLs, I can't help you with that but there are places you can ship your headlights to to get them modded (e.g. Lightwerkz).

I was never satisfied with my factory reflectors. I restored the lenses and they were crystal clear, I used the very best H4 bulbs from Koito, checked voltages and they were still too dim, so I retrofitted HID projectors. Trust me on this: No LED bulb, no HID bulb will give you proper illumination if you stick to the stock reflector. Not only will you be glaring everyone but the light pattern will be terrible with dead spots, low CRI and mediocre low and high beams. Here's the result: The beam pattern on those aftermarket headlights is very likely awful. Put your car against a wall at night and turn them on. I'm sure there's no clear hotspot, cutoff and no width to the beam at all. Designing a headlight reflector is not something any generic manufacturer can do well. Also, if you do a proper HID projector retrofit, there are plenty of options that are pure white, not blueish. In HID the blue bulbs are usually the cheap ones and LED bulbs also tend to be 6000K or higher.

That's good info on the PAC steering wheel module, if it's glitchy I might skip it. I also had that planned but I honestly didn't use the steering wheel controls that much, in any car. I'm a perfectionist and I hate having things in the car that don't work so that's my only motivation but I've always found easier to just reach out and use the head unit controls instead. EDIT: This is how it ended up looking BTW:

I almost bought the PAC line output converter but thought that using the preamp outputs was a more elegant and correct solution. It's just that voltage needs to be a tad higher since you can't play with amp gain. As far as I've read these amps can't be adjusted. The plan is to eventually replace the whole factory setup so for now this is good enough.

Thanks, man! It was the amp remote signal. I was using the wrong wire from the adapter harness (instructions that came with it are worthless so I struggled a bit, should've gone with common sense instead). Anyway, it's all good now, EXCEPT for one detail: Apparently these Bose amps expect at least 4V coming from the pre amp outputs. The Sony I bought (XAV-AX4000) has 2V so volume is a tad low. You have to really crank it up (volume bar goes from 0-50 and under 35 it's inaudible unless it's very quiet outside). The max volume is just on the edge of what's comfortable so I'm not too upset, but if the audio source is quiet you'll be struggling. I didn't research this beforehand. I don't blame myself as it's something too specific and would've never stumbled upon that unless looking for it, but there you go, in case someone else is thinking using the factory amp with an aftermarket head unit: don't skimp on preamp voltage.

I just installed an aftermarket Sony stereo on my 2003 and I have the same issue, i.e. the stereo powers on and works perfectly but there's no sound. I used a harness adapter with RCA (pre-out) According to the service manual (EL section), the BOSE amp only powers the rear speakers. The fronts are driven straight from the head unit. Is that true? I'm checking to see if I wired the amp remote properly, but shouldn't I be getting audio from the front speakers even with the factory amp off? Is the amp also powering the front speakers through this "audio amp relay" circuit?

Yup. I wish the R50s had separate high beams so this wouldn't be an issue. In any case, it's not something I use that much. I found more useful my mod of being able to turn on the fog lights with the parking lights, especially when I need a bit of light, but not a gamma ray burst. Projectors can look aesthetically weird and can be a lighting downgrade, depending on what you go for. I've had great results with Morimoto and I especially love how wide and gradual the beam pattern is. Some projectors are extremely narrow and put too much light right in front of the car, which kills your night vision. The only thing that I don't like is that blue tint on the lenses but apparently it's a special coating. Pathy looks a bit surprised now, but for someone who is not that familiar with R50s it could pass up as OEM. Heck, the R51 had a version with projectors and looks, dare I say, more aftermarket?:

I didn't realize I never posted the results of my projector retrofit. My original reflectors were borderline dangerous at night and trying LED bulbs in them only made things worse (no light on the road, glared oncoming traffic). I used Morimoto Mini D2S 5.0 bi-xenon projectors with Morimoto ballasts, round chrome shrouds and standard Osram D2S bulbs. I didn't paint the reflector bowl as I prefer a more OEM look. I may upgrade to Osram Lasers at some point in the future (or M-LED projectors) but for now this is more than enough light, better than most new cars. The only downside is that flashing your high beams causes the ballasts to quickly cycle on/off which wears them down, so I try to avoid doing that. This is my 4th retrofit and by far the easiest. Original headlights are super easy to take apart, they need minimal modifications to fit the projector and the only real drawback is that nothing prevents the projector from rotating, so adjusting the cutoffs is a bit of a pain. Low beam pattern and cutoff:

Thanks, guys! The folks at 4x4parts offered me a good deal so I got their bolt/nut kit. Even getting only 8 of 54368-0W02A at Courtesy Nissan was more expensive than what I ended up paying, so all good. Still a bit more than your solution @hawairish, but not too bad all things considered. Is Mevotech "Supreme" good quality for the 4 arms with bushings?

Thanks for taking the time to update us on the solution. It may help someone at some point. If you have a multimeter you can also find open circuits by measuring resistance and/or continuity, just in case you already have one.

Maybe. Ignition switch failures tend to cause all sorts of weird glitches and it's common in Nissans for it to fail, so I'd change it, it's a simple job and relatively cheap. But I would also look at the relays in the engine bay. Try swapping identical relays and see if some of those issues go away. To give you an example: my AC was randomly spewing warm air. I replaced the HVAC module and it was doing the same thing. I even disconnected the air mixing actuator. In the end the problem was the relay that controls the AC compressor which was intermittently failing and I found it by swapping it with the fog light relay. My fog lights started acting up and the AC started working fine. So check relays too. Start from the cheaper, simpler things then move on to the complex. I'd leave the starter for last. It's not easy to replace, access down there is terrible.

When you say "turn the key, it doesn't start" do you hear the starter motor turning or no sounds at all? If the starter is turning but the engine doesn't start then it's of course not the starter. If there's no sound at all (maybe just a click from the relay) then it could be the starter. My 2003 has around 160k miles and the starter had clearly been repaired before. My symptoms were "turned key, relay clicked but starter didn't spin. Kept the key in the starting position and after about 20 or 30 seconds the starter came back to life and engine started right up". That delay was getting worse so it was only a matter of time before the car left me stranded. Replaced ignition switch, that did nothing so I replaced the starter motor and it was as good as new.

I just replaced my ignition switch thinking it was faulty (it was in fact a starter motor issue). You don't have to reprogram the keys after that. The transponder radio is not part of that switch. If you go back a few pages you'll find my thread with some pictures on how to replace the switch. It's super easy, but try to buy it OEM. Good luck!

Reviving this old thread. Man, these bolts have gotten expensive. Courtesy Nissan is asking $100 for the 8 bolts (4 + 4) and 8 nuts. 4x4parts still has the kit but at $70. I know the lower bolts are completely seized and I haven't checked the upper ones but I'm sure they're not coming out without a fight, so I want the full kit to avoid getting stuck with the car on jack stands. Alas, I don't think I can source non-genuine bolts+nuts as quickly or easily as you guys in the US, so I need to have everything at hand before I commit. Any other options that I'm overlooking?

Update: Got the springs and shocks installed (Lesjofors springs, Sachs shocks, stock height) and it raised the rear about 2cm. It went from 82cm (32.3") to 84cm (33"), measured from the floor to the lower edge of the wheel arch. The rear doesn't sag anymore so I'm happy. Time will tell how long it takes for the new springs to get soft and saggy again, but for now everything feels great. Well, not everything as I noticed all the bushings in the trailing arms are shot and the bolts won't budge. That probably explains a few weird clunks. Would it be better to get all the arms new or have poly bushings made for the old ones?

Oh damn, but of course! Those things are even less safe and I don't think anyone cares to take them off the car. If anything, I doubt someone would notice the little panel with 3 buttons in the sun visor any more than they would notice the massive generic garage door remotes. I'll still do some testing with the factory alarm activated and the window opened just for fun and to see how smart the battery saver circuit is.

No suspension mods, fully stock facelift R50 with original 16" SE wheels. Tires are 245/65R16 if I'm not mistaken, Cooper AT. No rubbing when turning. The only issue I have is a saggy rear suspension but I have the new shocks and springs at home in a box waiting for me to stop procrastinating. I'll do all those 3 tests and report back. Thanks!

Well, I'm done retrofitting the sun visors. It was relatively easy with the only hassle being routing the wires through the small holes in the roof. There is a reinforcing structure just above the windshield that prevents you from easily reaching out and grabbing the wire. To make that part easy you would need to remove the whole headliner, which is something I wasn't willing to do. In any case, it's manageable once you get the hang of it. The rest is just splitting wires and testing everything. I tapped into the reading lights power and ground as I planned but on the console's side. The main harness was left untouched. I already programmed two garage motors. BTW, @hawairish, not sure if homelink is always powered in R50s as they came from the factory, but they way I wired it (to the power saver interior lighting circuit) it cuts power after 10-15 min so it's not that bad. What I don't know is if someone forcefully opens a door (without the key and with the alarm armed) if the car will be dumb enough to "wake up". If it does, then there's still that risk you mentioned.

Good call. I have homelink in my old BMW and it's only powered in ACC and ON. The new sun visors are mostly there for the wife. She's been using the Pathy a lot while she waits for a new EV (gasp). You know how having no mirrors is a tragedy of biblical proportions to them, so homelink is secondary. I'll see if there's anything ACC powered that I can tap instead. Alas, I believe everything in the roof console when you don't have compass/external temp display is always powered too.