westslope

How safe is Zep Purple for the environment? I might have a leak from the rear engine seal and need to clean the engine. Would like to avoid a C$70 detailing charge. BTW, it seems that an earlier Zep Purple product was recalled in 2006: Hazard: 5-gallon plastic pails containing the cleaning products can unexpectedly crack and leak from the base, posing a risk to consumers due to the corrosive nature of these products. URL: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06237.html

Could it be the air throttle intake and/or the MAF sensor?

Could be an air intake issue. Search.

5523, I agree; I have come across little evidence in favour of the usefulness of oil additives. I did flush the engine near 100,000km but have read mixed reviews on the benefits of engine flushing. Now that I am running Mobil 1 synthetic oil, I see no need to flush it again.

I looked more carefully. Idles at 750 rpm most of the time, even with the air-conditioning on.

Well, urban commuting on a bicycle is a whole set of skills in itself: dressing safely and most important brightly coloured clothing, lights, keeping your head up, carefully choosing routes, avoiding the gutter lane, making eye contact with motorists, explicitly signalling, being respectful of others, and then knowing when to back down when somebody doesn't obviously give a rats azz about your safety. I have urban commuted 365 days of the year in Quebec City, downtown Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa and Greater Vancouver. I consider driving the highways of the Greater Vancouver area in the pathfinder to be a more dangerous activity. redfinder: Sounds like you have fair, smart deal with the parents. Lucky you. A yes, the Queensway and Woodroffe Avenue. Are they in 24-hour gridlock like the major roads in Vancouver and Toronto yet? When it dumps snow or freezing rain, that 4X4 sure comes in handy doesn't it?

If you have an accident due to the condition of your frame and hurt some civilians, I would get ready for a lawsuit. Your private insurer will not cover you. Mind you if you have no money and no assets, it might not be so bad. On the bright side, it looks like a problem that regular welding can solve.

Smoking tobacco increases the risk of accidents. Private insurance companies frequently charge higher rates to smokers or at least they did in the past. People who knock their ashes out the window are reducing their attention to the road. But the really risky behaviour that I look for are the individuals who smoke tobacco, talk on the cell at the same time, and/or put on make-up. There are plenty of cheap 4-bangers in the used market that have much better fuel mileage. A pathfinder for a typical undergraduate student is a luxury. But if you have the money, why not!?!! Besides, student loans are really easy to walk away from.

Ours is smooth as butter when cold, and then may slightly stick going into 4th if one is not careful to drop the RPMs and hesitate slightly.

You are indeed privileged for an 18-year old college student. What I like about the pathie is the excellent view one gets of other drivers except of course those driving the monster trucks. It allows me to keep an eye out for folks talking on the cell, smoking tobacco, putting on make-up, writing notes and sometimes all of the above. Even the RCMP seem to be distracted while driving half the time; RCMP officers do not observe many of the traffic laws, so no wonder, ordinary citizens behave in a similar manner. P.S. When I last lived in Ottawa and worked at Statistics Canada, I bicycled the 4km to work and back all year long except during periods of freezing rain. But if you have a huge trust fund man, drive the pathie.

800 to 900 rpm

Oops! I missed your location. One I know well as it is my home town. Our pathie always passes the mandatory Air Quality bi-annual test with flying colours. I baby it. Don't want the vehicle failing 20km from the nearest blacktop road. To answer your original question more thoroughly..... I'd still be driving a front-wheel 1.6 litre 4-banger like our old Nissan Sentra mini-wagon if 1) I had not punched the right rear strut throught the uni-body a few years ago on a particularly bad road south of Kamloops, and 2) the average size of vehicle had not doubled in the late 1990s. Our pathfinder is still smaller than the average vehicle on the road out here! Frankly, it is ridiculous the huge over-sized SUVs that big fat housewives use to drive their fat kids to school and to shop the malls.

Does your uncle travel the backcountry? Tell him that the USA should adopt Scandanavian-level fuel taxes and all will be well. hehe Yes, I guess I'm unusual. I usually park the pathie at some point and self-propel into places that would scare the livin' daylights out of most motor-heads. In town, we leave it parked -- a lot. I'll add one more thing: Give the number of jerks in this neck of the woods who still let their vehicles idle for 5, 10 minutes or more, the price of fuel is still not expensive enough. Here's one for you red-blooded, patriotic Americans. Care about National Security? Push your federal government to adopt Scandanavian-level fuel taxes. Who knows? Guys like me might make less money as the price of gas at the pump plummets. --------------------------- P.S. If CA gov Arnie leaves his vanity-item hummers parked in the garage all the time, what is the harm? Some 'tree-huggers' get all hung up in the feel-good symbolism.

I switched to synthetic oil at just under 100,000km. The engine does not leak a drop. I expect the '93 pathfinder engine will easily oulast the rest of the vehicle. NOTE CAREFULLY: I'm a freemarket, capitalism-friendly economist and an unabashed wilderness lover/tree-hugger. Our household portfolio is heavily-weighted with oil and gas stocks. I switched to synthetic oil as part of an experiment, possibly an expensive experiment. I cannot vouch for the cost effectiveness of switching older vehicles to synthetic oil. I suspect that switching is NOT cost-effective in most cases.

Try turning the heater on full blast with the fans going at top speed for a few minutes and see if anything changes. You may want to leave all the windows open during this experiment. Another thought: When was the last time the radiator was flushed?

Well, I looked around and talked to a number of people and queried this board in the 1990-1995 pathfinder forum. The guestimated 5.8 litres stay. There should no issues. http://npora.ipbhost.com//index.php?showto...mp;#entry330844

I talked to a bunch of people. Many reasoned that as long as the vent works and the fluid is close to ambient pressure, there is no danger of blowing out seals, or causing other kinds of damage. That was also the reasoning of the mechanic who thought that 5.1 litres was not enough.... and after glancing 2 seconds at the hard copy of posts and TSBs I printed from here, filled the manual tranny to a little shy of 6 litres. He also claimed that since the Technical Service Bulletin (TSB)--which I showed him prior to flush and refill--targeted transmission whine, that 1990-1995 pathfinders with manual transmissions not exhibiting those symptoms, did not need to be filled beyond the 3.8 litre amount. Frankly, I was not entirely impressed. Think about it. You wait for the problem to occur and then you fix it? To the best of my knowledge there has been zero leakage from the transmission. So the 5.8 or so litres stay in. Thanks for the feedback everybody. BTW, the 4th gear still sticks slightly unless I'm very careful to allow the RPMs to drop completely before shifting into 4th.

I know that overfilling motor oil is bad but how about overfilling transmission fluid? I recently had the transmission flushed and refilled with synthetic GL-4 gear oil. It appears that the mechanic added ~0.8 litres of fluid above and beyond the recommend 5.1 litres of fluid. Any risks? Should I empty some of the fluid?

A big thank you to madkiwi for the post and the TSBs. Also a big thank you to 88pathoffroad for publicizing this information elsewhere. This would explain why 1.) sliding into 4th gear started to get a little sticky last year. We had the clutch and transmission re and re about 60,000km ago in 2005 at an independent Atuo Pro shop with a high turn over rate. (OK, I know better now.) Last summer I paid the Nissan dealership to do a mechanical and safety check after the pathie was stolen outside of Mountain Equipment Co-op in downtown Vancouver in broad daylight. The dealership topped up the transmission at the time and suggested that the transmission had been "weeping". The dealer however missed the sticky 4th gear which disappointed me. (I understand now better than ever the interest of doing as much maintenance and repairs yourself.) Incidentally, we finesse the sticky 4th gear issue by allowing the RPMs to drop to low levels. When the engine is cold, there is no stickiness. I had a young mechanic who is just starting his own drive-train business do the flush and refill recently. There was a slight miscommunication problem. Instead of just putting in 5.1 litres of G4-7590 synthetic gear oil, he put in almost 6 litres. Ultimately he tilted the vehicle but by how much I do not know. So far so good. The young mechanic suggested that if the flush were to alleviate or improve the slightly sticky 4th gear issue, it would take about 10 to 20km of driving. I noticed a tiny drop of gear fluid on the car port floor, probably coming from somewhere near the rear differential. BTW, he added AC Delco limited slip differential additive. My best guess? The slight overfill on the tranny fluid will not pose a problem. My go-to brake 'n muffler mechanic agreed. But I'd appreciate some feedback please.

Gentlemen: All your feedback is much appreciated. A young and apparently knowledgeable mechanic who ultimately flushed the tranny and replaced the rear differential oil today argued in favouring of 1) using synth engine oil, 2) not worrying too much about the filter--he uses FRAMs and claims that they are all made to specs--and 3) changing the oil every 5,000 or 6,000km. That is how he looks after his own personal F-250 truck. The oil was changed (Mobil 1 10W30 for high-mileage vehicles) and the NAPA Gold (Wix) filter installed today. I'll monitor levels and colour but if the oil gets black over 5,000km I'll probably switch it out earlier than later.

yozsi, I don't pretend to be an expert in this area. Apparently you do, and you want me to treat your outburts as some kind of divine authority argument. Furthermore, I am not sure that your emotionally charged statements constitute "proof". More like an opinion I'd say. Perhaps a better informed opinion than mine. You apparently do not believe in synthetic oil. That's fine. You should mount a road show because there a bunch of university-trained engineers out there that are in dire need of your enlightenment. Engineers make mistakes too. ====================================================== The extended performance Mobil filter available via Newfoundland costs C$14 but would have to be special ordered. Lordco autoparts sells a $15 synthetic K&N filter. NAPA autoparts sells a NAPA Gold filter manufactured by Wix for $7.85. I'll probably go with the NAPA Gold (Wix) filter.

So what's the story? Are you wize guyz trying to tell me that all this stuff about regular filters not lasting as long as the synth oil is pure unadulterated bull-sheet? A regular quality (?) paper filter will last 10,000km? This is new to me. Glad I came here to be enlightened.

Perhaps you can explain why that is the case, or point to a review?

The Newfoundland shop is out of stock. However, I found a Mobil Express Lube shop in Bellingham Washington just south of us that will mail-order it for me. But they do not have M1-208 in stock. The fella cross-matched and found that a Mightly Oil filter M36-82 filter works with our '93 pathie. US$20 for two filters and ~$5-$10 handling and shipping. The price is right, but I wanted to understand what is the difference between the Mobil 1 extended performance M1-208 filter and the Mighty Oil filter M36-82 filter? Anybody? If the Mighty oil filter is as good as the Mobil 1 filter, I'm all over it!

212,000km or about 133,000 miles. I guess that is not much juding by the poll questions! Engine is in great shape but I'm not 100% sure about the body and chassis--rust--despite considerable efforts in that department.