new member checking in - 2001 SE

[xplitive]

Hi all, owned a 2001 for about a year and 12K miles (total 111K) now. started looking for information to do some maintenance repairs myself and found this great site! Mine seems to have most of the issues of a pretty original and early 2001 -

1) check engine light been on for at least 60k miles, looks like there is a service bulletin to reprogram the range for the O2 sensors. may skip this, runs great

2) drives great, settles out quick over bumps but tires appear worn on the inside. maybe a rotation issue or struts/springs/trailing links (all look original), sometimes feels like it wallows a bit after going through a dip?

3) slow back windows

4) leaked oil, changed the oil cooler o-ring. slowed it down significantly but drips some when running synthetic

5) seems to use quart of oil every 1500 miles or so. Found some stuff about changing the valve cover/pcv, think I'll just monitor for a while.

6) noticed the cv boots just tore recently. those look original too. cv axle change/manual hubs coming up?

 

considering plans for OME springs, new shocks/struts, dorman trailing arms, cv axles, manual hubs. I don't think the timing belt has been changed so that/water pump/spark plugs? I need to add the expenses up and plan to try this myself if I go through with it. Fortunately live in flat Florida so this could be on hold for a while.

 

bought the car from a coworker who was going overseas courtesy of a deployment, it spent at least 5 years in the NW and Alaska. Body, undercarriage looks great which surprised me coming from that harsh climate.

[Slick]

welcome to the forums! sounds like you already have a laundry list of things you want to do to your Pathy!

 

enjoy the forums and your new pathy

[Precise1]

Howdy and welcome to NPORA!!

 

Sounds like you have a nice ride with the usual bugs, but nothing that is a real problem.

considering plans for OME springs, new shocks/struts, dorman trailing arms, cv axles, manual hubs. I don't think the timing belt has been changed so that/water pump/spark plugs? I need to add the expenses up and plan to try this myself if I go through with it.

Forget the upgrades for now, change the timing belt (look at thread pinned in Garage section) ASAP and do a full tune up; cap, rotor, plugs, wires, air filter and some injector cleaner. Manual hubs should gain you 1-2mpg since you won't spin the front CVs/diff. I got some MileMarkers on sale for $90 from 4wheelparts that do the trick.

 

Do the rest as it works out IMO.

 

B

[devonianwalk]

Forget the upgrades for now, change the timing belt (look at thread pinned in Garage section) ASAP and do a full tune up; cap, rotor, plugs, wires, air filter and some injector cleaner. Manual hubs should gain you 1-2mpg since you won't spin the front CVs/diff. I got some MileMarkers on sale for $90 from 4wheelparts that do the trick.

 

Do the rest as it works out IMO.

 

B

 

 

Great suggestions!

[xplitive]

that is good advice so I started my homework with the reading and discovered not a whole lot of information on timing chain replacement for a VQ35DE. I actually only found one post (not much detail) that someone did it and most others say it doesn't need replacement. That would make sense since there don't appear to be any common 'kits' that contain everything like the timing belt kits. odd thing is my owners manual says to do it at 60K and adjust valves at 90k. ok.. back to more searching and eventually posting in the R50 forum and trying to figure out why there are so many variables for when the 2001 yr model actually started. A bunch of the parts places have before/after a particular month in 2000 and others split at 2001 and 2002 and I think I also saw 2001.5 on one site.

[teixeira]