Hello again,
Yes, this is my second post. Ok.. dammit, I'm gonna be honest. Yes, I finally got my license after 30+ years! (man, don't even ask), Yes I purchased a 90 pathfinder for 100bucks (from a friend). And YES, I have no idea wtf anything to do with vehicles.
But YES, I am addicted to the feel of pathfinder truck!
My cousin is the mechanic, but he's one of those old toyota street car racing heads... not interested in the 4x4 or truck field. Anything I've bought he installed.
Ok, so I bought the pathfinder from a friend who works a lot and has had the pathfinder sitting at a work lot for 2 years. The thing was dirty mofo with some probs.
The body is in good condish, has 2 dents that are not that noticeable. The ride was a bit shaky, everyone told me I was dumb for buying it. I'm 6ft, I need something spacious to sit my tall ass in. The pathfinder whispered to me buy me, I'll let you make love to me. So it was mine.
So far..I replaced all 4 shocks with monroe sensatracs. I wanted ranchos but local auto places had none in stock. The bumps where horrible. Cousin changed them out. Dang, it had the original 1990 shocks with nissan logo, they were ALL locked shut, dead. Ride improved. The 'Compression rods' where rotted. Cousin found them at local nissan dealer, both for 152$ with bushings (I'm talking like I know what I'm talking about I cleaned the damn thing. Literally I went to a self service car wash and spent 3 hours on the thing and poured a gallon of Tide over it and started scrubbing with the brush thing. I mustve pulled out 4 garbage bags of @!*% laying in there, clothes, newspapers, etc. I used 'bleach white' and cleaned the leather seats, damn, those things came to life! I scrubbed interior with bleach white and kept wiping and squeezing rag. Looks way way better. I replaced the ceiling light and trunk light, awesome, I can see. The driver side and passenger side regulators where no good. My cousin had them closed shut until I get the parts. Later on, I bought one from ebay, he changed it. The second one I went to car-part.com and found a local junkyard with one for 40bucks. I remembered what he did and changed it out on my own. Then the pathy let me make love to her in the gas tank hole...lol, damn you are a perv.
Oil was changed to mobil 1. Changed the gas filter, oil filter. Since I'm a new driver, I am welcomed into the world of GASOLINE bills. If felt like I put in 30bucks of gas every 3 days..People told me thats the way it is and for my v6, it's a gas monger. So I attempted to 'outsource' and went to a JiffyLube and tried one of those 'fuel injector cleaners' thing, after someone said they hook up a machine and shoots down a cleaning solution that cleans and helps mileage. Well, I watched the guy, all he did was had some can of 'gumout' with a little red tube hose attached to in and did something underneath the car hood. He rushed since they was closing. Dont even know if that was really done correctly. Yeps, I got ripped 59bucks, in a 10minute Jiffy.
After being a silent reader of this forum, I decided to change the stock tires. I went to 31tires/10.50, looks more rugged and damn more me. I bought a computer custom cut tint kit from ebay. I done the rear windows and they look great, havent done the rest yet though.
I bought the front rotors with metallic brake pads and cousin installed them. He drilled some holes/grooves on it in his shop, suppose to have breaking power, but I noticed no difference. They looked exactly like these drilled 'performance' rotors I almost bought.
I have the water pump and timing belt new from AutoZone. He'll change that this week. Also my muffler is original stock and is blown. When pathy on the lift he showed me. Damn thing looks like someone stuck a straw in it and blew into it, and it expanded on one side. I found a new flowmaster 40 from a user in craigslist for 30bucks. Cousin is going to cutout the old one and weld the new one or something like that. He asked if I want to spend the money to get the whole new muffler pipes. I'm debating that temporarily.
Path looks way better than before and ppl took there words back about me buying a bad deal. My next major things are to replace all tie rods and all ball joints, they make a popping sound when i'm going up a elevated driveway and turning. And to get a new manifold or header. Cousin said it looks worn and that is causing less fuel economy. and that funky accelerating sound.
Some questions:
If I was to switch to 16rims with 31 tires, will it require a lift or not?
Or if I put 33tires on stock rims, will it be ok as is? or need a lift?
What happens if I go 11.50 instead of 10.50 on normal stock rims? (currently i have 10.5 no probs)
The stopping power doesnt seem too strong. My girls little car I drive and that thing breaks to strong. The pathy it seems you have time your breaking distance. Anything can be done to increase stop power or is this norm?
How easy is this budget 2 inch lift adjusting the stock torsion bars to do? Should I have someone check if it's worn out or something?
What are somethings I should change or check immediately on this pathfinder?
Should I even use over drive on this pathy? I used it on the highway..but I notice when i get foot off gas, it feels like someone pulls back the pathy every 9 seconds or so while deaccelerating. What is the CORRECT way to initiate over drive? Do I shut off car and turn on in OD mode? Or is it ok when I'm driving 50, to simply hit the OD switch?
I had the OD on at 25mph and I notice it takes a while to accelerate into highway. I'm assuming that when the ORANGE light goes on in dash, OD is on, when light is off, OD is off? Kinda weird, as the the light is on, it lights up OD OFF.
What are other 'notorious' issues with this year pathy? I read about the manifold issue.
Rear wiper dont work..hell not sure if i'm turning it on right. Whats the right way?
The switch to open the rear window or back? Doesnt do anything when pressed. Doing something wrong?
I bought a kenwood at bestbuy and put it in myself. It didnt have the original wire harness, just a bunch of cables coiled up. I tested the cables with multimeter see which ones where outputting power then used one AA battery and tapped cables , once I heard that little static, I quickly found which cables are front right/front left/rear right/ etc. However I cant find a 12v continuation? Suppose to be one? Radio works, but It wont remember any of my settings when I turn car off. I would manually have to set my eq/bass/treble settings everytime I turn on. I'm assuming the 12v continuation is a cable that outputs 12v when the car is off. By the way, the stock pioneers sound nice.
Transmission. Yes everyone is telling me how it's going to die and thats a common problem in cars. Cousin told me its not a good idea to change transmission fluid. Would you guys do it to this car? I've read that if you change your oils/fluid on a regular basis its a good thing. But if tran fluid hasnt been change in years it might not be a good thing. I have no clue what to do in this.
On my gear shift (Automatic), the shift lock button on the know doesnt work. The original owner told me a towtruck guy towed it once and it never worked after that. After inspecting it, cousin said it looks like someone force the @!*% out the shifter and cracked the inside. I need that whole new part, the shifter mechanism. Is there anything to recommend or simply go with original replacement. if they make it for that? Would like to change it, since its a danger. The shifter can move up and down into gears withou the need to press the shiftlock button. I already screwed up. I was going 20mph when I reached over and hit the shifter, it went straight up into R. WOW..the damn car screeched to a stop. It took a minute to turn back on. I wonder how much damage I did.
I'm going to take a picture of this pathy and post it. Maybe I can get recommendations.
Is there anyone in NJ, that can physically take a look at it and tell me if it's worth the time and effort to go major upgrades on it? I'll drive to you. I'm a computer tech and will fix your pc probs if any free of charge for a good consultation.
Thanks for reading this long ass post.
Natura
