BowTied

1. Loosening that rusty bolt and it is barely turning and think it might break? Give it anopther shot of penetrating oil and then tighten it a little bit. Repeat. Working it back and forth can really help. 2. Need to cleaning the rust or dirt out of a threaded hole or nut but don't have the right tap? take a dremel tool (or even a small hacksaw) and a bolt that is the right thread and cut three notches axially along the bolt. Wire brush the burrs off and presto, instant thread cleaner. 3. Need to to cleanout the threads of a blind hole or want to prevent dirt from falling into the engine (eg sparkplug hole). Grease the flutes of your tap to trap the dirt. 4. If you have a pilot bushing in your flywheel that will not come out, fill the hole with grease and the put a steel shaft (old input shaft if you have one) in and whack it with the hammer - it will hydraulic the bushing out (may not work on pilot bearings). 5. Here is a silly one likley everyone knows. When pouring oil from a 1L container, hold the bottle opening away from the funnel/container (the offset of the oil bottle top). This allows air into the container easier and stops the 'blub-blub' erratic oil flow and making a mess of your valve covers etc. 6. I find sometimes my shortest socket extension is still too long. In those cases I use a 3/8 to 1/2" adapator and a 1/2 to 3/8" adaptor. The two together make no effective change the socket/ratchet connection but space the socket away an inch or so. These are cheap to buy. 7. The previous poster who mentioned about putting teflon tape on a bolt (or pipe threads) the correct way, they way the nut would go on, is 100% right. Do not use teflon tape on flared fittings (AN, JIC) etc. if you have them. The flares do the sealing. 8. If using a standard gear clamp for your heater hoses or rad hoses- when tightening the hose should not squish through the slots on the clamp - that is too tight and wrecking the hose. 9. Take the time to clean the threads of all fasteners and holes. Throw away any baddly rusted fasteners. Not only do clean ones assemble a lot nicer, they will give you more accurate clamping forces when torqued with a torque wrench (with clean threads as much as 90% of the torque is lost to friction). 10. Never hammer something that is threaded. When you must ( ) use a brass hammer or a lead hammer. When those are not available, double nut the end of the threaded item so the nuts pretect the threads. If you are going to cut a threaded item, put a nut on first to use both as a cutting guide and to smooth out the thread lead-in.

No I meant I was ok with the mesh type being blacked out... but either way I preferred the bar style. I have a bar style grille that is not blacked out, just stock.

I don't mind them blacked out, but I prefer the newer style - guess that is why I got one I can see someone liking the mesh though, has a rugged look to it.

Yeah, on my 02 the tow hitches were an easy three nolt removal... You may need to clean up the threads of the nut that did not have bolt in it originally (I did). I didn't have the correct size tap, so I cut some slots in one fo the old tow plate bolts with a die grinder and then deburred it on the wire wheel. Made a great make-shift thread cleaning tool. Just spray some lube in the nut first. IIRC, Hidden Hitch, Draw-Tite and Reese are all the same company now, so be careful when comparison shopping. If anything like my 02, you need a harness module as the brake and turn signal circuits are separate. The harness kit makes the wiring dead easy though.

Look here for info on additives and oils: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm Don't ask those guys to get with the rest of the planet and go Metric. That is like asking your grandfather to change from plad pants to jeans; not gonna happen.

Really? I have an alloy spare. Are steel spares common? Cool - what are they off of, 4Runner?

Ok, I think I see now. It is simply a close fit if not an interference with 15s. Fair enough, thanks. Did pathy's ever come with steel 16s? If not, what other donors can I look for that have the same bolt pattern and back spacing? (I better look up what those are, lol).

very nice!!!!

Thanks for the link. If anyone knows which donor 15" rim will work, please let me know. Otherwise it looks like I might be searching for 16s.

Medium to heavy loads = OD off. The extra fuel is way cheaper than a trans rebuild. JMO

Ok, I have an stock '02 LE with the OE 17" rims. I am thinking about getting a second set of rims for winter tires. I am pretty sure that 16s or 15s will be cheaper. I am pretty sure that 16s will fit as that is what is on Chilcookts and SEs. Will 15s fit? Am I risking any handling/braking/ABS/AllMode4x4 issues by changing tire size? I think I should be ok as long as I am real close to the original diameter, right?

That sucks dude, I feel bad for ya. If you were closer, I'd help out. I can confirm that the screws in my 02 are not brass. THe look like it, but I suspect they are a plain steel with a cadmium or zinc dichromate plating. FWIW, the tear down was much easier than I thought. If the how-to I posted looks daunting it is only because I over explain or banter on needlessly sometimes... I ramble When I went to buy the gaskets from the local dealer, the parts manager was helpful... but thought I was nuts - as far as he knew, the problem was only a rare case on the sentra-r models and he had never heard of it on a pathy. I emailed him some net links, so he knows now. Nevermind warranty/dollar issues, I was surprised that Nissan has not issued a notice/bulletin to their dealers to at least be aware of the problem and how to recognize/diagnose the issue. That is what makes it feel like a cover up. In all likelihood, it is a simple big coporate communcation problem that happens with any big company. Customer service (from a corporate level) used to be something at one time... As to buying japanese to avoid 'this type of NA problem'... I bought a pathy to avoid the rattles and little things breaking all the time on some of my GM products. I have NEVER in many vehicles had this level of engine failure in a GM. My VQ would be toast likley by now if I not taken the steps last December (hopefully I did it correct!). I have run many GMs, and my family many GMs and Fords, sure with some issues, but not big dollar engine loss like this. Makes the annoying crap like rattles and squeaks and bi-annual alternators seem appealling in comparison. Love the pathy otherwise tho.

Is the cost of a tow to the shop worth gambling you don't burn you truck to the ground? Or worse yet hurt someone or some firefighter in the process? If you have a fuel injected vehicle the pressure in the lines is high maybe 50psi. If you do decide to patch it, do so in a safe area and keep your trouble light away from the area, especially if it is an older incandescent light! They do make high pressure fuel hose... not sure if that will work in your case. But if you try that, triple hose clamp each end and make as short of a run as possible. Good luck.

Is it possible it was over full at the start of the trip? That is a weird one. Keep an eye on your cooling lines and rad for a while. Do you have an external cooler? check that and it's lines too.

Agreed, good wheel choice, looks great!

Excellent post by XPLORx4!!! Only thing I might add is remove only one trans cooling line to also flush the trans fluid from the rad and/or trans coolers - but need to be sure to you know which trans cooling line is fluid out and which one is fluid return or you may have your catch can in the wrong spot.

Sorry to hear of your luck... something else will come along.

Thanks, sounds good.

Howdy!

Thanks for the reply. Let me know us know if you discover any concerns related to the swirl valve screws. I understand manual trans R50s do NOT have the power valves. I do not know if they have the swirl valves?

Thanks for the follow up Morpheus - are you a Nissan tech? What is your opinion on the same screws in the swirl valves -should they be done too?

I am a big fan of clay bar. Easy to use and does a great job of removing road tar, film, etc. Anytime you clay bar or polish, I recommend 2 things: wash the truck with dish soap as this will remove the old wax. Otherwise never use dish soap to wash your vehcile. The other thing is to always wax the paint right away to get that protection back after clay bar or polish - the paint is somewhat exposed/vulernable otherwise. JMO My results: http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=18669

Nice pics!

The top right of the picture shows the master cylinder reservoir where you put the brake fluid (yellow cap). The brake booster is the big round black thing behind it on the firewall (it is a big vacuum diapragm that helps power the application of the brakes - manual brake vehicles don't have this). There should be a decent sized vacuum line going to the master cylinder. I am not saying this is the correct line to use for seafoam, never done that, just trying to help ID the booster for you. EDIT- this is a 3.5L engine, but this configuration is typical for most production vehicles.

It is possible - I trouble shot a stereo in a Pulsar once... the stereo died whenever the head lights were turned on but worked fine other wise - the installer (my roommate and eletrical engineer no less!) hooked up the deck ground to the dash light circuit (it tested like ground with the lights off). If you suspect a messed up deck install, do yourself a favour and correct that or at least disconnect/isolate it or you will go in circles second guessing the problem while trouble shooting. For trouble shooting something like this, the first thing I do is make sure everything is dry, all connectors are clean and the grounds are verified clean and good... lot of electrical gremlins are due to bad grounds or intermittent grounds/contacts. If it won't shut-off, my first instinct is the switch is fried. I am not familiar with your year pathy, so hopefully someone else will chime in with some more info.... g/l