jyeager

The SUV leans a lot going around turns, even at relatively low speeds" "it hits hard and has a loud thump" These symptoms tell me that your front sway bar is a problem. You may have destroyed your rubber bushings and now your sway bar isn't effective. The thump you hear could be the sway bar smacking the bushing shells. First replace your sway bar bushings and end links in the front. Check and replace the rear sway bar gear if needed. Then decide if the truck seems to handle well. You mentioned a rough bump. That may be your perception of the sway bar banging, or it could be that your shocks/struts are blown and not providing any compression damping. After you address the sway bar, if you still have that problem, then you will want to consider replacing your struts and you may as well replace the springs with a truck this old. I would recommend stock replacement parts from Moog unless you have a specific requirement for a non-stock ride or ride height.

When it begins working, do both sides begin working correctly at the same time? And then when the volume goes up, do they both stop working at the same time? Or is it just the side you are playing with? And also, exactly which pin(s) are you probing with your multi-meter when you are seeing 10volts? (it is volts you were measuring at '10'?)

Ok. I looked at your car's schematic just to make sure something hadn't changed over the model years. The schematic shows "rear speaker amp" feeding your rear speakers and says nothing about your front speakers.... We (a few of us on this site who have collectively discussed this in the past) believe there is a small amplifier in each front door that powers the front speakers and also provides the hi-pass filter necessary for the front tweeters located in the A-pillars. Are you getting any sound from either of the 4 front speakers? (Left or right tweeter or left or right door speaker) You may need to adjust balance and fade between the limits to isolate each channel. It seems weird they would all be dead because they are separate systems from the head-unit to each side. unless it's in that wire that feeds pin 4 in both of the front speakers. You should check that for voltage with a voltmeter with your head unit turned on. If you simply have all 4 front components blown, somehow, then you need a new component speaker set. I'm sure there is a way to tell if the front amplifiers are working...probably has something to do with looking at the output voltage on the + speaker wire, but off-hand I don't know what you should expect to see there.

My understanding is that the Bose equipped sound system only uses the rear amp to power the rear speakers. The front speakers have a small integrated amp in for each set of component speakers on each side....in the door. The factory service manual will have 3 sections for the audio system, covering the 3 different audio systems available. Are you sure that what you quoted here comes from the section for 'Bose' stereo and not the one labeled 'with amplifier'? Anyway, as far as I know, your problem would be found in the front, not the rear. ...unless you don't actually have the Bose system?

Same here with my '97. I assume the transmitter is working as designed, but it won't operate any garage doors I've tried.

Can't speak authoritatively about these particular bushings...but generally speaking, rubber suspension bushings are trapped. The rubber is bonded to both the inner and outer sleeve and when the suspension is active it's actually twisting the rubber. The mounts are designed so that the inner sleeve is grabbed and held by the torque, so it doesn't get to rotate around the control arm bolts either. Take a measurement for us. Get an exact measurement of the spring height while the truck is resting on the ground. Both left and right sides. Just use a tape measure, rigid or soft, to measure from the top coil to the bottom coil on both sides. It will be very helpful to determine if we can blame the springs/struts, or rule them out.

I understand you are experiencing symptoms seeming to be the transmission. But it does sound like the kind of thing that could happen due to a vacuum leak. The first thing to look at was the trans fluid, which you did. If this really is in the transmission, it will not be good. But consider the vacuum leak possibility.

Do those 'packages' include the price of the tires as well as the new rims? If not, you should figure that out. Tire prices could vary a bit between the 2 sizes. BTW, I ran 31" tires with my stock rims and didn't have any problems except the inside edge of the tire would rub the frame rail at full turn which I didn't consider a problem. But the 3.75" backspacing is what you want so that you could clear bigger tires in the future. That 4.5" backspacing is too much. It might look wrong, plus it might result in the 30" tires actually rubbing the outside edge against the wheel well (not sure, just something I would be wary of until a test fit). Can't you find 16" rims in the 3.75" backspace?

I just did some googling and it appears that a well-functioning EGR system actually helps fuel economy. Also, according to the FSM, the computer will detect and throw a code if the EGR temperature sensor doesn't give it what it expects to see. But here is how you could defeat that if you wanted to: Instead of connecting to your EGR Temperature sensor, wire the harness through a relay. One side of the relay goes to a 1000Kohm resistor and will be used to tell the ECM that EGR valve is closed. The other side goes through a 100Kohm resistor and will be used to tell the ECM that the EGR valve is open. Then you need to use the EGR Control signal to switch the relay on and off so the ECM sees an open EGR valve when it has signaled it to open and a closed EGR valve when it has signaled it to be closed. (or find someone that can reprogram your ECM to disable the code)

My OE struts never had these boots when I purchased it. The seals were not blown yet when I changed to new struts at 300,000 miles. I didn't off-road it, but I would guess that the grit that sprayed all over them when driving in the rain was every bit as hard on the seals as heavy mud would have been.

I am not sure about your 2001.5 model, but in my '97 model, the front console lights don't come on with the door. They are only manually activated. The factory dome light over the back seats comes on with the doors...an only when the 3 position switch is in the middle position (other positions are always off, and always on). Your "AFTERMARKET" middle light, is probably the factory dome light that may have been upgraded along the way. If so, try looking for a 3rd position to it's switch to see if it just needs the switch moved to the right position to work along with your doors...you may be toggling it from always off to always on and not be aware that it has an automatic option with the doors. As for the door ajar problem....well, it looks like it's not just a switch adjustment problem because of the manual test you did. You now need to test the wiring by checking each door's circuit. One of them has a bad switch, or wiring somewhere. And one important thing...your rear hatch DOES have a switch too. I think you were trying to say that it didn't. You just don't see it. That's important to identify and test as well.

FSM = Factory Service Manual. For instance, my '97's manual is available at: http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Pathfinder/1997_Pathfinder/ Yours will be in the same place, but in the 1998 folder. Behind the rear hatch plastic trim on the driver's side you have a WIPER AMP. (at least that's how it's labeled). Is it really am amplifier? Who knows. Maybe. Or maybe it's a fancy relay. You could check that part...or at least check for voltage on the right pins in the harness when your switch is in the 2 positions.

It sounds like a safety feature. It is supposed to detect an obstruction being encountered before it's fully lifted and reverse direction to save lives. There is a procedure for recalibrating it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6UvdbJ3nFk

I'm not familiar with the problem you've had with your rear wiper. What was the problem you had? And how did you conclude the motor needed to be rebuilt?

Don't know what the typical transmission lifespan is, but mine has 330,000 miles without any problems so far.

Raz, if you are referring to the 265/75/16 size you mentioned, then yes, you can use wheel spacers alone without the need for a lift kit. Your clearance issue with those tires is the spring perch on the strut Your spacer will move the tire out far enough that it clears that perch. However, because you moved it out, the outside edge of the tire will reach further forward when you turn in and will probably rub the plastic splash guard. You can live with the rubbing or cut away some of your splash guard....perhaps front and rear. I am not sure about this...because I didn't run your tire size and spacers. But I'm running 33s with an offset rim (about the same as using a spacer) and definitely had to cut plastic and some metal. A lift would not negate this problem.

'97 LE here. Stock 15x6.5 rims wore 31x10.5 tires just fine. Stock everything. Only rubbing was at full lock where the inside edge of the tire rubbed the frame. No harm, just polished it up for me. Never touched the fenders or plastic liner at all.

This needs a seizure warning. Yikes! Still appreciated it though. What's your red flag for? to spot you if you are under water?

I did it to fit my 33's. It doesn't look wrong at all. However, without using spacers, the inside edge of the tire will rub the frame rail when you turn lock to lock. In fact, my 31's did. Although it didn't bother anything. Another problem, is that I really don't think that 32" tires will clear your strut perch. (again, not unless you get spacers.

I'm not saying it's got to be a plug wire. But what you said there isn't correct. When a plug wire is going bad, the resistance increases beyond spec. It results in the engine beginning to miss in the conditions that are hardest to ignite. These conditions are: 1) rich conditions...such as when cold. 2) high load conditions...such as when RPMs are low, in a higher gear and going up-hill or gradually accelerating. Personal experience there!

My '97 has the coil in the distributor I believe...so his 96 would too. So replacing the distributor wasn't a bad idea given that code. Don't know who replaced the distributor. If it was the OP, then checking it's position is obviously the first step. If it was a paid mechanic...how could it have been returned in non-running condition? So I suppose this was done by the OP. That's probably all it is.

Just to clarify. The non-Bose system had no separate amps in the front. Just a single 4-channel amp in the back that powered all speakers.

I had the Non-Bose sound system. Front components had no amp or crossover...just a resister in the tweeter acting as a high pass filter. So not the same as you have. The paper clip method just allows you to temporarily bypass your amp without cutting/splicing...which is permanent once you do it. And I think you are asking if a difference of just a couple watts would make the sound bad? No.

Sorry you are having so much trouble with this. Like I alluded to previously, I put in a new head unit (17/55 watts RMS/Peak x 4) and new speakers throughout, including component speakers up front like original. I left the factory amp in place and used all the factory wiring. Everything works great. I have more volume than I can handle before hearing any distortion. Just to get the most out of the system and to use a 5th channel for a sub, I replaced the factory amp with an aftermarket amp 2 weekends ago. This also works well. Still using the factory speaker wires....next up, I'm going to run RCA cables from my head unit's pre-amp outputs...just because that might be better...??? I describe all that just so that you know that the way you have done it has worked for someone else. Yet there is something wrong with your system. Before cutting in to your amplifier harness, why don't you try an experiment? Removing the amplifier, disconnect the 2 harnesses. Identify the power and ground wires for the left rear speaker. There will be 4 total pins. + in to amp, + out to speaker, - in to amp, - out to speaker. Jumper across with a couple of paperclips with the stereo playing and see if the sound is good. If so, you know your amp is the problem. If not, your speakers might be. I don't think anyone knows how much power the stock amp puts out, but it stands to reason it's something over 20watts RMS...otherwise the factory head unit could have been built to provide 20 watts RMS and the system wouldn't have needed the expense of the amplifier. But that's conjecture. Good luck. BTW, you are only running your rear speakers through the amp? Not the fronts?

Well, my experience completely contradicts Kyle. Yes, tie that amp ground to one of the other grounds back there. I did. Maybe that's why Kyle got no volume! The factory amp performed great with my setup. And yes, the radio provides a turn on to the antenna too. I tied both the amp and antenna to the turn on wire. Sorry Kyle, I just did this in my '97 and just about everything you said is wrong.