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1995XE AT 3.0L 4x4 Multiple Questions


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I have gotten to know & understand a good deal about working on both of the 1995 Pathfinders which I am down to just one of now. I have done all of the work myself with a little help as needed from a couple mechanic friends of mine if needed. With that being said I know there are things out there which I have yet to tackle & don't have the experience with working on certain problems that may come up on the Pathy. I have been dealing with multiple issues going on with my 95XE AT 3.0L 4x4 Pathfinder which was built in July of 1994 according to the VIN Tag & this is my daily driver. The VG30E motor in it Came out of a my 1995XE AT 4x4 built in September of a 1994 which I no longer have. I do have most part off of the Pathy built in July as well on hand if need be which brings me to my first question

 

 

I have been going back & forth on this question lately. As far as the Diagnostic box under the passenger seat goes would it have any affect on anything with reading the codes properly as to which box I should be using with it? I know that each of them Have different Model numbers on them & was curious if this could possibly have an affect on it read the codes differently with the motor from the other 95 being in my current 95?

 

 

One reason for my first question which is leading to my next question here is while looking around for a transmission replacement I have been told that this only applies to the 1995's & have been told this from multiple places as well. With my current one being built in July of 1994 I was told I could only use one built from Jan.1994-end of July 1994 & If pathfinder built in September 1994 could only pull from one built from August 1994-December 31, 1994. Seemed rather odd to me so I wanted to see if anyone here has heard this before or has a piece of mind to shed some light on this for me. The transmission is about the only thing that I haven't done myself yet on my current 1995. I know that these can be a pain in the butt to repair from what I have been reading about lately & also don't want to get into the replacement project only to find out I have gone with wrong one.

 

 

Next question is while driving anywhere I have been hearing almost like a rattle sound of some sort & which sounds to be as if it is coming from under the dash somewhere. It only seems to do this when pushing down on the gas pedal & accelerating & once I let off of the pedal it begins to go away & won't come back until I accelerate again. Has anyone had to deal with anything like this or know what could be the cause of it? I just can't seem to pin point it & it does only seem to do this when physically driving down the road & not while in Park or Neutral I was thinking possibly something to do with the blower for the heater but I don't know how this could cause that to react to the problem.

 

 

Next is that I have still been having issues with my idle fluctuating on it after it warms up it goes down to about .850 but then every so often it will jump up to about 1500 & bounces back up & down eventually going back down to .850. It also has been starting to Rev fairly high before kicking in to shift gear which shifts hard & mostly does this while going from 1st to 2nd & occasionally from 2nd to 3rd. Once driven for awhile it will slowly begin to shift better with much smoother shifting & doesn't seem to rev as high before each shift. I have also noticed that If I drive it for a short or long distance that after I shut it off the next time I get in to drive it these problems will go away on it but them sometimes come back again after the next shut down & start up that takes place.

 

 

It has been running a bit sluggish as well from time to time with not a lot of power when going up hills with higher rev while going up hill which I haven't had this problem before & used to climb hills no problem with good power doing so & not having a high rev either.

 

 

Exhaust issues which have been giving me a lot of problems & need to see what I might be able to do to fix for short term on this Girl to make her happier while being driven until I can get new one bought. The biggest issue with it right now is that almost all of the supports for exhaust are rusted away & broken leaving me not many options for where to add support on it leaving it putting a lot of tension on the motor I would say. Is there anything I can do or get to help with the support on exhaust until I am able to afford the new exhaust for her Right now it appears that the tailpipe has support still in tact & just recently the support bracket attached to top of muffler has rusted off the muffler leaving just the top bracket attached to underneath the body where the top bolt of the doughnut would bolt into. All the rest of the supports for exhaust up to the front all are rusted off with rubber not connected to anything anymore. This is leaving me not wanting to drive it much with all that tension being put on motor which leaves me to think that is the cause of a few other minor leaks in exhaust throughout.

 

 

I have been also having issues with the front shocks going out on it in a very rapid pace & they have all had the same thing go wrong with them when they go bad. I have switched & tried various manufactures for the shocks & so far they all end up being stuck fully compressed not wanting to release even the slightest bit. After going through this issue on few different shocks they all end up going out in 3 months time or less on me which is just insane if you ask me along with what the cause of this could be allowing them to be permanently compressed?

 

 

I know that with these AT Transmissions is overheating is one of the biggest problems with them going out & I have posted with some previous transmission issues on here before & have gotten a lot of great feedback as well from members. I have a couple questions on this one of which what are good external coolers that are compatible to use & where are best places to mount & install them at along with how to bypass the factory one since I have not ever had to do this before any help would be great. Also I know that it calls for ATF for the transfer case & had someone tell me that with the ATF being in there that it allows it to get much hotter then opposed to having gear oil. They said that with just the ATF it is much thinner & could be the cause of it not shifting properly I have never hear this before & was curious on it because they also said that even though it calls for ATF I should be able to add 80W90 Gear oil in it with no problem which they said they do in there Jeep that calls for ATF & they have not had any issues. Still seems rather sketchy to me & want to get some feed back & do some research on this one before even thinking of doing this.

 

 

As mentioned before I have been having the problems with hard shifting & on top of that my reverse has gone out it this 95 too like in the other 95 I had but this one just quit working unlike the other one where you could sometimes rev it up high & it would catch sometimes then reverse would engage. In this one I am driving now it just seems to have gone out & wondering if it could just be a solenoid that went bad in the transmission pan? Was also thinking is there some sort of pump for the transmission that may have gone bad on it that can easily be replaced? I know that to get into reverse there is a certain amount of pressure that it needs to have which allows it to reverse so was just curious on this? As I said earlier transmission is the one thing I have yet to tackle on her & don't have all of the knowledge when it comes to finding the source of this issue. Which is why earlier was also curious about which transmission is compatible with this one if it does boil down to needing a whole replacement but if there may be something that could be causing this that can be fixed without transmission replacement I am all ears. Could it be possibly too that maybe the transmission box inside the passenger side panel in the rear I think it is the gold box. If that goes bad would it allow just reverse to go out or would it cause it to not have it shift into any gears at all just curious on how that box functions too?

 

 

Sorry for such a long posting here but wanted to lay everything out all in one shot for you all to see since I figured was the easiest way to do so. Any help & ideas or links to pages to guide me in the right direction are greatly appreciated. You have all helped guide me in the right direction before & have always given the best pieces of advice you have as well as allowed me to build onto my knowledge with working on these Pathfinders. She has made me think quite differently about Pathfinders as for impressed me with everything I have put in front of her when off road. She has climbed up roads & things I never would have thought possible along with a few friends that I go with that own jeeps & have put a lot of money into them where they struggled to go up & I had no issues at all conquering with only running stock with just better tires put on where even many have said to me on a few roads we have gone on that they have no clue how I even made it to the top & through what we did. The way I see it is I won't say no until the road decides to tell me I can't do it which has yet to happen other then a few dings which can always be fixed & a few breaks but that's why I go fully prepared for a number of possibilities that could go wrong & plenty of spare parts. So would really like to get her up & running awesome as she did before & don't have any problem spending the time it takes to do so either beings it gives me the chance to work on things I haven't had to yet & build up the knowledge as well. Thank in advance as I do really appreciate all that yo give with support, input & answers on this site.

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I'm unsure of the transmission stuff. I think I've seen X Terra transmissions swapped in. Nissan doesn't usually have nitpicky production date crap.

 

Are you buying gas charged shocks? I've noticed that the cheap ones blow out quick. Had 8k on one set and they turned out to be junk.

Maybe try an old style oil shock, like ranchos. They're a little stiffer ride but seem to be holding up better in my experience.

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@PathyAndTheJets The shocks were just cheaper ones which I would have to agree is the problem on that as well since at the time was all I could do for it. However, next replacement will certainly be spending the extra money into a much better set for sure. I guess that goes right along with the saying you get what you pay for.

 

I have heard of quite a few other swap outs as well on these transmissions & haven't heard of anything like that before until I was at a couple different Bone yards looking for a few parts for in the cab & had brought up transmissions & if they had any there that would work with my 1995 XE. Each of these said the same thing when looking up to see compatible years for it & that depending on the month they were built made the difference as to what I could use. Along with saying that it was only like that just on the 1995 Pathfinders & wasn't like that for the other years.

 

I am wondering if that may be the case since today when I went to switch out Solenoids in the transmission pan they were different from each other mine seemed to be a bit wider on part of it & didn't have a ground connected to it while the other one was narrower on part of it & had the extra ground wire with the eyelid coming off of it. The one I was looking to put in mine also came out of a 1995 XE AT 3.0 4x4 just like mine just not sure of the build date of the one I was hoping to replace mine with.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just to get this cat out of the bag, my current 95 pathfinder, with its previous owner, had reverse at one point in the day... later on it did not and it never came back or tried. 2000(1 maybe?)-2004 Xterra transmission are direct swap, plug and play and errrrrrthing. The only thing you might notice is first gear not quite being as peppy. It's a way taller gearing compared to the pathfinder.

 

Loss of power, fluctuating idle.... my guess is there might be a vacuum leak somewhere. Try a smoke test or spray something flammable around the various vacuum lines and whatnot.

 

I would not worry about the differences in the two ECU's. If you're looking to swap the engine, you keep your intake manifold and wiring harness so the ECU won't know the difference. If you swap the intake manifold and harness, then sure... swap the ECU as well. The only difference is federal and cali emissions. stupid EGR, bah... good riddance to you! Also, it's not just a diagnostic box, it's the whole shebang for running the truck, keep it safe!

 

AT coolers are super easy too. Take the outlet line, iirc it's the one on the driver side, and plug it in to the "top" of the AT cooler, and the return line in to the "bottom". Easiest and safest place to mount it is between the AC condenser and the radiator. AC condensers make great boulder shields for important cooling devices! It's recommended to get a couple rubber caps to put on your factory radiator cooler, just in case you need it later on. Don't want it to get filled with dirt and crud.

 

In conclusion, a vacuum leak could cause loss of power, fluctuating idle, and hard shifts.

 

PS: If you don't have any welding skills, take it to an exhaust shop to have them rehang the exhaust. Mine just sits across the cross members cause I'm lazy!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Mine had a "delayed" reverse, then no reverse, then it totally fragged. It would shutter forward in reverse. I did the Xterra trans swap last fall with a used 2003, with the help of this forum (thanks guys!!). Even though it pretty much bolted right up, it is A LOT of work. I had to use the old speed sensor as the new one was a different connector. Works fine. I believe I needed to use the entire old harness too. As far as why, I believe the problem starts with a worn trans pump, then accelerated wear on the reverse band, maybe even a crap solenoid. I chose to just swap in a better designed trans from the Xterra.

Make sure you measure the space for the trans cooler before you buy one.

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