jyeager

I haven't done lots of mods yet, but I've done a couple simple ones that I now consider must-haves. Interior lights replaced with LED bulbs. Now the interior is as bright as day at night and I can see the entire interior clearly. It's a thing of beauty. HID headlight conversion. Not only is it brighter, but the light's wavelength is so much better (I got 4500s, about white). The light makes my visibility a lot better and not just because they are brighter, but because they are white light. With normal headlights on a rainy night it's hard to even tell if your headlights are on at all. But with these lights I see everything even on those rainy nights. Huge difference!

The factory proportioning is designed to ensure the rear wheels do not lock up before the fronts. And they need to proportion it for the worst-case scenario for rear traction (empty vehicle). The LSV is Nissan's effort to give you BACK some of the rear wheel braking power when you are heavily loaded in the rear either with cargo or a trailer. That extra weight gives you much more weight on the rear tires and they can apply a lot more braking force relative to the front without losing traction. To accomplish this the LSV works to hold back some of the line pressure under normal conditions when the vehicle is light in the rear. Without it, the rear line pressure will be higher as if the LSV is detecting a heavily loaded vehicle. So your rear wheels will be more prone to locking up under hard braking conditions before your front wheels do. Since you have anti-lock brakes it may be too alarmist to suggest this could send you in to a spin in an emergency. But it will at least be annoying when you are stopping a little bit aggressively, and have half of your front wheel traction still available, for the rear anti-lock system to kick in when it's dry pavement and you aren't doing anything crazy. That's about all. But I'm not speaking from experience. I'm sure others have removed theirs and can speak to exactly how it behaves and whether it's an issue at all.

I have another question. Perhaps tonight when I am home, I can call their tech support number (crutchfield), but just to get a head start on my curiousity I thought I would ask here for anyone that has used the adapter harness for an R50 installation. I received the adapter harness with my purchase. It has a schematic included in it. This schematic doesn't match the wiring in the adapter. Here is a version of the adapter's wiring from Crutchfield's site: http://a248.e.akamai.net/pix.crutchfield.com/Manuals/120/120707550.PDF The diagram in my kit, was an older revision and shows a wire (in the top connector) just above the yellow one. It says it's orange/black and is unused. However, the connector I have is empty at that location and has a black wire in the upper leftmost location that is shown empty in this diagram. So now there are 3 versions: 1) the actual connector I was provided 2) the instruction sheet included with my connector 3) this online diagram that is newer and there's another one that is different: 4) http://crutchfield.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6743/kw/1997%20nissan%20pathfinder/session/L3RpbWUvMTM5NzU3MjM5Mi9zaWQvNCo1YjRTUmw%3D Looking at the factory service manual, that connector is described on page EL-140. http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Pathfinder/1997_Pathfinder/el.pdf It calls that upper leftmost pin number 9. It appears to provide a ground used by the amplifier. That would agree with the black wire there in my actual adapter plug. Also, the location that my included instructions say holds an unused orange/black wire, but that is empty in mine is pin #7 and is listed as ILL CONT. Would that be the dimmer switch or the light switch? So which pins in this really are 'Illumination' and 'Dimmer'? I would imagine that the aftermarket radio might not use 'Illumination' at all, that's just a wire that signals that the headlights are on, right? And the 'Dimmer' circuit is the one the radio would probably utilize to adjust it's brightness. In the FSM, it shows pin 8 as 'LIGHT SW' and pin 7 as 'ILL CONT' which must be their way of saying dimmer? This aftermarket harness is using the one labeled as 'LIGHT SW', so I'm wondering if they have it backwards and I may end up with no dimmer function in the radio. This is a lot of work to read and comprehend, I know. So I won't blame you for ignoring this one!

What's the "pac roman interface"? And you say there's a big difference...what do you mean? Better sound than your Bose head unit?

You say your master cylinder is good, but by definition, if it won't push fluid to your calipers, then it is NOT good. BTW, how do you know your lines are blocked if you don't get fluid through them from the MC?

My 97 has a separate turn on wire for the amp and power antenna. My aftermarket head unit only has one circuit to power up externals. Can I simply splice all 3 together? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I remember someone claiming that this helped their mpg quite a bit, but had done other things in addition to that, so I'm not sure it can be given the full credit. I have 31" tires which has hurt my overall economy, but I did get 18.8 mpg on an all interstate road trip last weekend. That's my best case scenario. Mine is a '97 with 294,000 miles.

How does the transfer case mate to the front differential?

I think I have a decent handle on the installation of my new radio. I have the crutchfield harness adapters for the new speakers and the radio and antenna. My questions are these: 1) I have a non-Bose stereo in my '97 Pathfinder LE. Does this base stereo option still have an amplifier in the rear? And if so, do I need to leave this in or wire it out? 2) The front door speakers are probably 2-ways as there are tweeters in the A-pillers. So is there a factory cross-over somewhere in the system? If so, where? One of my speaker sets is a pair of 2-ways and separate tweeters that include the cross-overs. So I'm wondering if I use these cross-overs or just plug things in and forget about the new cross-overs that were included? Thanks!

Well, in a nutshell, you are limited to a maximum lift of about 4" using springs/spacers. No more than 2" from springs and then spacers to equal a max of 4". The reason is that if you lift too far with springs then you are sitting on your suspension without any droop and your struts will regularly top out whenever the wheel goes to drop in to a depression causing a very loud and frightening thunk. It may or may not lead to damage of the strut, but no one likes it. Also, after you have lifted more than around 2" there is a tendency for your CV axle boots to shred themselves fairly quickly...every year? Every 2-3? I don't know and it will depend on the kind of driving you do and whether or not you remove your full-time hubs and replace them with manual hubs that you can leave unlocked when not 4-wheeling. If you want more lift than that, you must drop the sub-frame. You are right that this decreases your ground clearance over what you would get theoretically if you lifted 6" on the suspension....but you just plain can't. If you wanted 6" of lift you can try going with 2" of suspension lift and 4" from SFD. This way you did actually gain 2" of extra ground clearance at the subframe and 4" more for the rest of the vehicle. And the 6" of total lift now allows you to put a larger tire under your vehicle without hitting your fenders....so let's just say it's 6" larger in diameter, that itself lifts your spindles 3" higher above the ground. So, with the tire size increase and the 2" of spring lift and 4" of SFD you just gained 5" of ground clearance to the subframe and 9" of clearance with the rest of the vehicle's underside. See? Pretty cool.

How much extra power would you like to get? Boosting the motor is a tough proposition because you have a high compression engine and superchargers want a low compression engine. Your computer doesn't have a wide-band MAP sensor feeding it information about boost and it doesn't add additional fuel when you get in to boost, nor does it pull timing... So you basically need a new computer. The most straightforward way to go would be to swap the entire engine assembly and computer from the closest model that came with a supercharger. You would still have electrical stuff to work out though...your gauges might not all work right until you account for all that. So what I would do is to pull the engine, have it bored over, perhaps a longer stroke crank fitted and have the heads ported for extra flow. Then have an expert pick a cam profile to match your goals and the changes you've made to the engine. An upgraded valvetrain might be in order if you are going with an aggressive cam profile. An Voila! For maybe $5k you can probably pick up 80hp and all of the electronics are compatible.

I'm interested to see what you come up with. Anything back there will already be fused and if it is a high amp fuse it's because it's feeding something that needs the juice. If you share it with a power socket you will just be blowing factory fuses. I expect that you will need to run a new circuit all the way back for this purpose.

What feels like a downshift is most likely the torque converter clutch releasing. If your vehicle does this at modest speeds and when traveling fairly level roads, then you might have another problem going on. I would expect this if the vehicle is substantially heavier than it should be (are you towing, or have you accumulated 500lbs of equipment inside?) Is your engine out of tune? Basically it's going to unlock the torque converter whenever the 'load' is higher than a threshold. It measures load by virtue of what the MAP sensor is reading. So if you have a clogged air filter or badly carboned valves or an overly restrictive exhaust (clogged Cat?), or if you have oversize tires on it...perhaps a vacuum leak...the list could probably go on.

I've never heard of these extended struts. Very cool. Does this strut have 35mm more travel than stock? Because that would mean they added about 18mm to the length of the strut. Their placement of the spring perch could have changed relative to the rest of the strut too. so that could change the ride height even with the same spring. Where can I read about these struts?

I've never done this, but consider whether you might need to cut the rubber out from around the plastic so you don't double-stack them. As for the holes in the hood, seems like you might just need to drill new holes in the bug shield nearby the provided holes....just a little customizing.

No need to give up the idea. You just need to limit your suspension's upper travel via a new/modified bump stop so that you don't bottom out your new, longer shock. Then, make sure the new spring you have has a free height TALLER than the new shock allows the suspension to droop. If you want the new spring to give you 2" of lift, but have an increased free height, then use a spring calculator to find the spring specs you need. (it will help a lot if you find someone with corner scales that can weight your corners). It's conceptually simple: 2" longer compressed height in the shock. Should yield 4" longer extended length Bump stop increased about 2" New Spring must have enough free height.

It sounds like you are describing oversteer. This isn't really from the rear suspension compressing too much...and you don't fix that type of issue with stiffer springs. Have you removed or changed any sway bars front or rear?

The panhard bar keeps the rear suspension centered in the vehicle. But if you lift your vehicle, it pulls the axle over to one side slightly. This doesn't cause any particular problem with the car, it's just a side effect of lifting it. Has your truck been lifted in the rear any? If so, then you would expect to see this. If you want to fix this, you can get an adjustable panhard bar. Or you can get a panhard bar drop bracket, to drop the body side mount down to level out the panhard bar. The cause of your push/pull problem isn't the panhard bar though. What you are describing is a problem with the rear links you just had replaced. One of them is bad...or one of your mounts are broken. It could be serious. Get it professionally inspected ASAP.

Hey, I want to replace my driver's door hinges. I feel that the best way to do this is to leave the door on the car, but remove the front fender to gain clear access to the hinges. Then with the door closed I can replace 1 hinge at a time and not need a second set of hands, or a hoist, or a rope and jackstands, alignment issues....all of that hassle that complicates the process if I were to open the door and begin unbolting hinges. If I'm wrong, stop me. Otherwise, can you tell me how that fender comes off? Where are the fasteners? Does it require removal of the front bumper/grill? Is it easy to separate from the inner fender? Are the fasteners and their locations less than intuitive? (that's always the case for me!) Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the update. It was definitely acting like a misfire situation...

I would think that if your new shock only compresses to a length of 17.x inches, that you would want to also make sure that compression is limited by a modified bump stop so that it's not your shock body that is forced to stop the vehicle's downward force in a big hit. (or your tires, assuming you are upsizing them...but that's not good either).

I can't say this for sure, but I THINK that this is an interference motor. This would mean that breaking the timing belt is guaranteed to bend some valves. But that's probably all. There is absolutely no reason this would have put a rod through the head. There wouldn't be any damage from this to your short-block assembly. There is no safety switch that puts it in neutral, perhaps that happened when the motor suddenly stopped while the drivetrain was engaged and the vehicle began pushing the motor. Immediately reversing the torque flow through the drivetrain. You could put on a new belt and one or two new heads if you wanted to. It might be cheaper to get good fully built heads from a salvage yard than to get an whole motor from a salvage yard. Because if you get a new motor from a salvage yard, wouldn't you want to change the timing belt and water pump while you have the engine right there anyway? And you should be able to get a motor from a salvage yard cheaper than buying a whole vehicle, can't you? (I'm asking because I haven't checked prices) You can check for bent valves by pulling out the spark plugs and putting compressed air in each cylinder in turn. You rotate each cylinder to top dead center on the compression stroke and apply compressed air to the chamber through the spark plug hole and see how well it holds the pressure. If it holds pressure appropriately well, that cylinder is unaffected.

Doh! I had just seen the thread was recently added to and didn't check to see how old the thread itself was. And normally I keep my mouth shut regarding criticism, just something in that forced me to speak out.

Jimmy, I'm the new guy here and you've been around a while, so I'm sure I'm going to get punished for this...but you sound like an ass. Just sayin'. You call the woman at the parts counter a bitch because she wouldn't let you come borrow a tool from the service department? Maybe you just finished 8 hours of work on your car and had celebrated with too many beers and you didn't mean to write what you did?

Unbolt the torque converter and leave it with the Tranny. Otherwise you lose fluid and make a mess.