Help! Whats Going On?

[Alkorahil]

Long story here but I had several problems crop up today and I felt they needed to be in context. Any thoughts or troubleshooting hints are appreciated, as I will have to hunt down the problem tomorrow.

So....

I decided to go out this morning to go play with my Pathfinder. I picked up a buddy around noon and we headed out to rural Colin County for some light off road fun.

There are miles of dirt and limestone gravel roads out there as well as sandy easements on the county roads and a few open corners that can be taken overland near intersections.

So, as I was waiting at a parking lot for my buddy to meet up, I rolled the windows down, turned off the AC and enjoyed the slight breeze and the radio. It was a nice day.

My friend showed up and off we went. As my friend and we were heading up the highway to our destination it was starting to get hot outside, so I rolled up the windows and pressed the AC button.

But nothing happened and I noticed the AC light wasn’t lit up green. I found this very odd as it was working 15 minutes before. So when we got off the highway onto the back roads I pulled over and checked the fuse and the relays, the fuse was fine and the relays for the AC didn’t seem to be blown when I shook them. Blower works just fine. Pressing the AC switch doesn’t cause the compressor to engage. We unscrewed and popped off the console and I checked the switch. I pulled it off made sure it was clean, looked fine, reattached, pressed it, nothing. I few thumps on it, nothing. I am figuring that the switch went bad. Thoughts?

 

BUT, that wasn’t the end of the things going wrong today. Read on and I will tell.

 

We spent several hours making lots of dust, getting dirty and bouncing all over the place having a great time jamming to the radio and laughing. Around 5pm I found a nice mud puddle on the side of the road. I put the Pathy into 4WD and I tested it out slowly to get a feel of it before doing some higher speed runs through it, it was actually deeper than it looked so I was glad I did but nothig really special or hard core.

Anyways we did several runs through it and some stops in it then jumping out of it. It was fun and I got some mud on the truck. My bud took some pics too with my cell phone.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x291/alkorahil/file2.jpg

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x291/alkorahil/file1.jpg

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x291/alkorahil/file4.jpg

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x291/alkorahil/file5.jpg

 

After like the 10th run through of it I was on the side of the road talking to him out the window when the truck started idling very erratic. A quick glance at the tachometer had it jumping from 800 to 1200 RPM. Crap I thought. I revved the engine a few times; it sputtered for a sec and complained about being revved then went back to running smooth and normal. More revving and it was responsive and normal. Hmm, odd I thought.

We then popped the hood to take a look over just to see and WOW, it was a complete mess. Mud everywhere in the engine compartment and all over the engine. It was at that moment that I remembered that I was missing on the drivers side the large black cowl/shield that goes between the engine and the drivers side wheel hub that helps keep stuff out of there so all that mud was flying up in there...

Take a look at the pic of the mess.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x291/alkorahil/file3.jpg

 

 

So it was starting to get dark and we wanted to grab a bite to eat and then get the truck cleaned up so we said good-bye to the back roads and started back to the highway. About a mile down the road I look down at the dashboard and it was lit up like a Christmas Tree with the A/T Oil Temp, Brake and Battery lights are all on.

My first thought was the scene from Apollo 13 when they have all the failures and warning lights going off that don’t make sense. Houston, we have a problem. Any one of them by them self would make some sense to me and be fairly easy to try to figure out, but all three at once? What the hell? The brakes work fine! Handbrake isnt on or up slightly at all.

No other lights were on, temperature gage reads normal, have ¾ tanks of gas truck is running along normal and smooth and the hand brake is not on, did a short stop and check to be sure and even put it in reverse and backup up to double check the locks had disengaged on the front hubs....but we were running fine and in the middle of nowhere so we decided to get back to civilization and off we went, then after about another mile all the lights went off and the truck engine and tranny was still running normal and smooth. We came to a stop sign after another two miles at the highway and were stopped at a slight incline waiting on a semi truck to pass and my Pathy started to cough and sputter again. I revved it a few more times and those same three lights came on again coughing stopped and off we went at about 45 MPH. Came to a stop light waiting and it starting idling erratic again, lights still on and now its getting some pops from after ignition in the manifold when I started to accelerate with nearly no power at all from the engine. My gut instinct was that I had gotten some condensation or maybe even mud in the distributor cap as I had this same thing with same engine behavior on my old Chevy LUV years ago. WE moved on down the road though to get back to town and it was behavig fine again but we pulled into an AutoZone, I jumped out got some wire drier and we went a few more blocks to a car wash.

Got a few pics of the mess while I was there, and no that isnt something from my truck on the pavement in front, its paint on the concrete :

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x291/al.../Picture008.jpg

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x291/al.../Picture009.jpg

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x291/al.../Picture010.jpg

 

We checked the brake fluid level. It was where I left it 3 weeks ago, no problem there. I washed off the engine and truck of all the mud and dust, started it up out of curiosity after washing it and it was running like total crap now. Different thing this time was the check engine light came on and stayed on for about 30 seconds along with the A/T Oil Temp, Brake and Battery lights but then the check engine light went off. The others stayed on. We then moved over a few feet out of the water puddles under a carport and I turned the truck off and we waited for it to dry some. I then unscrewed the distributor cap and sure enough, there was condensation all over the top of it. I was right! Sprayed the cap and the rotor let them dry, wiped them off with a towel and then we took off all the wires on both ends one by one and sprayed them with the wire drier, let them dry and reattached. While I was at it I also pulled off and sprayed the brake fluid reservoir level sensor and a bunch of the other various connectors and sensor connectors in the engine compartment.

We then waited about 5 minutes and decided to give it a try. She started right up good as new and right as rain. A few revs on the engine to see, all was fine. Engine was very responsive and off we went back down the highway at 65mph. BUT those three lights were still on, but no check engine light this time so we went off to get back closer to home, then after a few minutes they all went off. Ten minutes later they started to all three come on and stay on for a minute, then go off for a half a minute to a minute then come back on again. I dropped my buddy off at his car and headed for home, but the lights stayed on the whole 15 minute drive, truck running like a top! As I pulled into the driveway the lights went off for maybe 2 seconds then all came on again.

 

So, what in the Sanhedrin is going on is now the question?

I think first of all I will check the mode 3 diagnostic on the computer tomorrow. It might just need to have some error codes cleared. Is it possible that because it had problems earlier that the codes are stored now and that’s causing the lights to come on still and as it cycles modes while running the lights are going on and off? Thoughts? Those lights don’t come on and off one at a tie they all three do it at once.

Has anyone ever seen this before?

[RedPath88]

*Thomas is not going to be happy that you stole his sig pic *

 

 

 

Brake and Battery lights on together are a warning for the alternator., first check your belts tension. Did it squeal at all?

 

A/T Light, perhaps on a Auto that light comes on as well? Someone with an auto can prolly verify that.

 

Get the Alternator tested and clean and dry out all your electrical connectors and see if that helps it any.

[Alkorahil]

*Thomas is not going to be happy that you stole his sig pic *

Brake and Battery lights on together are a warning for the alternator., first check your belts tension. Did it squeal at all?

A/T Light, perhaps on a Auto that light comes on as well? Someone with an auto can prolly verify that.

Get the Alternator tested and clean and dry out all your electrical connectors and see if that helps it any.

 

Oh wow. Didnt notice that he had that. These humane society adds are all great. Ill change it though!

Yes there was one squeal for a second or two, couldnt tell what belt it was and figured it was from all the mud all over the place on the belts, but good call. I will give it a good cleaning and get it looked at in the morning.

[88pathoffroad]

Your alternator went on you. Or the belt broke or came off? When the alt goes it lights up the A/T, Brake and Charge lights.

[Casey.T]

*Thomas is not going to be happy that you stole his sig pic *

I was actually thinking about changing it.....

These humane society adds are all great.

Yes they are

 

Belt Dressing and adjusting a little tension... Assuming all of your belts are still there... Though some people have smoked there Alternators from playing in little puddles... The Splash gaurds will help a little with the mess under the hood, but hitting the puddles at 60+MPH, its gonna get messy....

[adamzan]

My truck had that same problem, I just had to replace the alternator belt, lights went off like 5 seconds after I started the truck, since i had to boost it the belt was slipping so bad.

[Alkorahil]

Hey guys,

It was the alternator, thanks for the advice! We are back to running at tip top shape again!

[88pathoffroad]

Sweeeeeet.

[bryfry]

After that looooong post, are you sure it wasn't the hippy stick talkin'?

[SaKaNa]

You know, just to add to this. One time I was over my bumper in water for a while, took some time for us to figure out how to get my Pathy out, and once I drove like 10 miles out of the woods, got a few miles down the road, almost every light came on... All kinds of @!*% started to light up. A few miles down the road, my transmission died for unrelated reasons.... Well, related to the water, not the lights. Apparently you should clean out your tranny cooler BEFORE driving 90mph down a highway.

 

Either way, after a couple weeks the lights had all gone off on their own, except for the airbag light, which needed a reset.

[Alkorahil]

Thanks for the note, I will keep that in mind if it becomes Christmas on my instrument panel again!

[Alkorahil]

After that looooong post, are you sure it wasn't the hippy stick talkin'?

 

my first thought was that it was the Cravenlator or maybe the Felusium Injector....