westslope

Component systems have external crossovers. I gather some put those in the door. Some coaxial speakers have built-in crossovers. Here is one explanation of the differences: Car Audio Speakers Overview More thoughts on the differences:Coaxials versus Components Speakers

adamzan, The idea here is to get something that is an improvement over the 17-year old OEM component speakers. I always thought that component speakers were 'better' than coaxial 2-way or 3-way speakers. A sales person at Vision Electronics in Langley, B.C. suggested that inexpensive coaxial speakers would produce better sound than very cheap component speakers. Vision Electronics only has a 5 1/4" mid-speaker and 1" tweeter component set by Kicker 11KS52 for $189. ($130/set for installation.) Nothing larger fits according to the sales person at Vision Electronics. 5X7 was not available in component speakers. On the other hand crutchfield.ca advertises various speakers that are compatible with the '93 pathie: 5 1/4", 6 3/4", 5" X 7", 6" X 8" With everything else equal 6"+ speakers would be better than 5 1/4" speakers, no? I like the idea of a 10" sub-woofer but where do I put it? In the trunk of the low-rider I don't have? Sometimes the pathie gets stuffed with outdoor gear.

No fix yet after one year?

I want to (finally) replace the stock component speakers in the '93 pathfinder. 4 5"X7" mids and 4 1" tweeters. The aftermarket deck is a modest Alpine CDE-9843. The RMS power output is 16 watts X 4; Peak output is 45 watts. The original amps have been removed. I'm not interested in taking up space with a sub-woofer. Any recommendations? My expectations are low. I want something a little better than what I currently have. crutchfield.ca has a staff pick: an Alpine SPR-50C Type-R 5-1/4" component speaker system C$249.99 ,... or a JL Audio C3-570 Evolution™ C3 Series 5"x7" convertible component speaker system C$399.99 I don't want to spend a lot of money for what is basically a noisy vehicle. Suggestions?

Interesting. That is a good point. But doesn't the entire engine block heat up at one point? The additional ground straps may have less to do with grounding the engine block as such but rather equalizing resistivity throughout the engine block so the instruments are as accurate as possible.

Isn't the 45-70 best at close range, in heavy brush, etc? 200 yards is decent. You can hunt with a 45-70 along side muzzle loaders and flintlocks?

Cruise control works just fine, including the brake cancel. All lights and electrical systems are still working just fine. The parking/running lights in the rear displayed zero corrosion. I cleaned and re-seated them all the same.

Found it sewebster. Needed to move the point of attachment to the passenger-side exhaust manifold forward. Would photograph if it wasn't so tight and dark. The ground straps from both left and right exhaust manifolds are now connected to the engine well body.

I'll keep that in mind silverton. Thanks. Otherwise, the ABS continues to behave well.

Crappy gas, eh? That used to mean water. Care to speculate what made the gas crappy and how to avoid filling stations with crappy gas? I take it that cut on the finger didn't slow down the shooting practice after all. Did you manage to sight the rifle? And do you actually take that thing hunting? I am trying to imagine crawling up and down the Coastal Mountains or the Rockies with a gun that big...... Even moving through the bush in Eastern Canada or upstate New York would be a task and a half with that piece.

Hard to say. The ABS light has not come back on since I cleaned, lightly sanded and tightened the battery terminal connections. Coincidence? I cannot tell. Yes, the combo-switch handles both headlights and the cruise control in addition to the turn signal. Yesterday evening, the rear right-hand side parking light was off and came back on with a slap of the hand. I'll re-seat, clean as necessary that connection this morning. One more piece data: I recently had the pathie rust-proofed.

Excellent. I'll check the driver side tab a little later today. 10^3 thanks.

The '93 pathfinder has been exhibiting some intermittent electrical issues lately. I believe/desperately hope that I solved the problem by re-establishing the rear driver side parking light connection. Symptoms - The ABS light has intermittently come on while driving. - Cruise control would not _sometimes_ work when the parking lights or full headlights were on. - To my eternal embarrassment, the RCMP gave a 2-week notice to my wife two evenings ago because her rear, driver-side parking light was not working. [in passing, I am super happy that the police pull over people for malfunctioning lights. Auto lights fail readily in this humid, coastal environment.] Fixes to date + I wiped and sanded both the negative and positive battery connections. + Our landlord checked the connection between the negative battery pole and where the ground strap is attached to the chassis and the engine block with a digital meter. Looks fine. + I detached the combo-switch (turning signal/cruise control buttons), removed the plastic cover and the end button, and then cleaned it with an aerosol electrical contact cleaner. That alone did not solve my problem. + I re-seated the rear, left parking light bulb. So far....so good. That appears to have solved my problem. Any thoughts or suggestions? I'll keep the forum posted on progress.

There are number of issues being discussed in this thread. 1) The exhaust manifold heat shields. Mine are off. (I have them in the shed.) 2) Grounding. Whether the ground strap is attached to the heat shield or directly to the exhaust manifold should not make a difference. That said, I would still like to figure out where the passenger side exhaust manifold ground strap clips on to the chassis. I'll have to examine a bunch of junked pathies to figure that one out. Or ask the folks at the dealership.

Is not that ground strap already attached to the exhaust manifold cover? In my vehicle there is a strap attached to the passenger rear exhaust manifold. At the other end is a plastic clip attachment and no obvious place on the ..... chassis to attach it. I assume chassis because why would you ground the exhaust manifold to the engine block?

Am experiencing glitchy electrical issues...... mws wrote in 2007: Posted 29 March 2007 - 04:18 PM That is a braided and bare copper ground strap, right? The simple answer: Probably not, but try to reattach somewhere on the engine block. The not so simple answer (Technophobes, RUN AWAY!) There are a lot of what appear to be "redundant" ground straps on modern computerized automobiles to assure various devices all see as close to 0 volts as possible on their ground legs, and far more importantly, that all sensors see as close to the exact same voltage at ground as possible. Nothing is ever exactly 0.00 volts except the ground plate in the battery. Everything before that is ever so slightly higher, due to the resistance in the conductors. The longer the path and the higher the resistivity of the path, the higher the "ground" voltage will be. If one component really close to the battery is seeing, say, 0.01 volts as ground, and another sees, say, 0.5 volts due to a long, high resistance ground path, things can start to malfunction due to sensors sending funky signals and currents flowing in abnormal ways. Maybe even frying transistors and other sensitive components. This is a very difficult problem to diagnose and repair. The solution? Try to avoid it! Hence, lots of ground straps from various components to a common "reference ground". This reference ground will be close to 0.00 due to the big cable to battery terminal, but will never be exactly 0.00. That is acceptable as long as all sensors see the same voltage as ground. In my techno world, that is called the reference ground. Not truly 0.00 volts, but a common reference of say, 0.020 volts. In the Pathy, the engine block is treated as the "reference" ground, and all sensitive electronics and sensors have the shortest possible and highest conducting ground paths to this common ground. Since copper has much less resistance than steel and the path is shorter, it causes less ground voltage variability than relying on the steel of the chassis as the ground conductor. So, is it problem if one or two come loose? Maybe, maybe not. But it could lead to some funky glitches. I suspect the other end of strap you see there is connected near the transistor module to give it a nice reference ground. Those are not too cheap to replace, so I would try to reconnect it somewhere on the engine block to minimize risk of it stressing the transistor and causing premature failure. And if a strap breaks or looks corroded, I replace it with a LARGER copper braid, solder the braid to the ring, clean the mounting surface, and seal up with dielectric grease to reduce resistance and risk of problems even more. Most would call that overkill. But guess how many times I've been stranded on the side of the road for "phantom" electrical glitches and failures?

I always pour a bit of new oil into the engine when the plug is still out in order to rinse the old oil out. At the same time, I rock the pathfinder sideways. Perhaps 1/5 of a litre at a time. Usually within minutes, the dripping oil starts to run clear. At that point, I stop rinsing new oil through, screw in the oil plug (plus washer), lubricate and twist in the oil filter, and then fill it up with ~3.2 litres of oil. (WD-21 engine) It strikes me as a positive to thoroughly evacuate the old oil as is feasible or cost effective. Do others do this? Is there a better way of ridding the engine pan of the used oil? Or do you like to leave a little used oil so you can better read the dip-stick? One can tip the vehicle over to the passenger side to facilitate draining the oil pan. Any other tips?

All excellent points. I would put as much trust in a competent and safety-motivated amateur as I would a qualifed professional mechanic. P.S. If you have to... blame Nissan. Probably easier to get money out of them than the government of Canada.

Interesting. What kind of shop are we talking about? Private, chain, dealer? Just curious. Am trying to figure out what kind of service companies screw up most often.

Nice job! I don't weld so I'm impressed. A couple of considerations though.... If any of the modified or fixed backseat equipment fails during an accident and there is a backseat passenger that gets hurt, you are liable. Not Nissan. That's why some of us, for example, choose to get a Nissan dealer to replace our seat belts for us (no charge). If your credit card is overdrawn and you have no meaningful assets, getting your ass sued may not be an issue. Please note that British California is becoming increasingly litigious like the neighbours to the south. Then on the other hand, targeted assassinations are a popular way of 'solving problems' in southwestern British Columbia, depending upon which sub-culture you happen to belong to. Whatever you do, do not have an accident and hurt the wrong person.

UPDATE: Short version: It was the lamp filaments that had burned out on both the left and right head lights. I replaced them. Low-beam head lights work fine. I'm embarrassed. I learned a thing or two. The fact that both burned out at the same time struck me as near impossible but if I had taken 5 minutes to switch in a test bulb, I would have saved myself hours of driving and screwing around. One of the fellows at the parts and service desk of the South Surrey Nissan dealership was most informative. He mentioned the idea of checking the bulbs. A few things I learned along the way: + The DRL relay (module) fails far more frequently than the turn signal/light combination switch. + Nissan mechanics would fix the DRL relay by soldering cracked connections. + The 4100K bright halogen lamps works by reflecting light and heating the filament to much higher temperatures. They tend to wear out quickly, lasting 1/4 of the duration of standard 3100K halogen lamps. + I replaced the damaged 4100K lamps with 3,200K lamps (made by Sylvania). + I now have much better understanding of why some of you run better wires and relays to the headlights.

I wouldn't touch the idle adjustment..... . [EDIT: The following comment is misleading..... What can I say, we all learn..... ] These symptoms are common. You need to clean the airbody throttle control valve and area. It has been discussed often here and elsewhere.

Over a full year, I add maybe an additional litre of extended performance oil to the '93 245,000 km pathfinder. The transpiration rate is higher. Fill it up with ~3.3 litres. Add another litre over the course of the year. Still have 0.7 litres left over to manually "flush" the engine pan when changing the oil. Still less expensive, less time consuming and better for your engine than Dino oil. They are just like hiking shoes and running shoes. Buying the best for comfort, safety and durability usually means paying more. But over the long run, it is cost effective. I monitor the oil levels on longer trips over dusty roads with a load and engine oil level seems to stay rather steady. (Not so lucky with the airbody throttle intake valve which often gets dirty.....) All this said, if I was putting on high kilometers in hot weather or dusty roads on a regular basis, I might stick to Dino. Dino is probably much cheaper for those who should change the oil often due to driving conditions.

Yes, that makes sense as the DRL are turned down hi-beams. Thanks adamzan. I changed the same turn signal/light switch a couple of years ago. At the time the highs were coming on intermitently. Cost me ~C$45 at a wreckers. Now Napa wants C$260 for it. Back then, it cost less than $200 at the stealership if memory serves. The DRL module now costs C$147 at the stealership. My impression? These parts are getting more expensive. Hey, I thought the Canadian dollar was strengthening. What happened? Or is the supply of the 1990-1995 pathfinder parts starting to dwindle?

Update: It was the lamp filaments. Both burned out at the same time. Oh well..... -w ================================================== The headlights cut out last night. Both hi-beams still work just fine. All other lights and electrical systems work fine. I checked fuses (they were fine) though functional hi-beams rule out fuses. I visually examined the headlight bulbs and they looked just fine. After searching and reading past threads, me thinks there are two possibilities: 1) the turn signal/light switch which fits into the left hand side of the steering wheel column, or 2) the Daytime Running Light (DRL) module tucked away against the passenger side inner engine wheel tight to the battery. I am leaning towards the turn signal/light switch. No signs of arcing. Contacts for regular headlights look good. I naively tested the light switch outlets for continuity with a digital multi-meter. Found pairs of outlets that buzzed for the parking lights and the hi-beams and was also able to find a 'connection' for the regular lights between tabs at opposite ends of the 2 X 4 arrangement. Question: The module near the battery, is that the "Daytime Light Control Unit" or the "Daytime Light Cancel Unit"? I'm confused by the company's 1994 technical manual (EL-24). Furthermore I see some differences with my '93 (see EL-21). Before I hit the junk yard and start replacing parts, any suggestions as I go forward? That DLR module doesn't look like it is designed to be disassembled. Not so sure about further deconstructing the turn signal/light switch.