95 Pathy Temp Sensors/Senders

[Dragster]

I have a 95 Pathfinder and the Dash Temp Gauge does not work. Replaced the 2 coolant sensors on top water outlet (to radiator), still no results. Also have a slight backfire sometimes. I read that the temp sensors can cause this. Is there another sensor I'm missing?

[Macrow]

Have you checked to see if there are any codes be thrown from the diagnostics box which is under the passenger side front seat which it will flash red & green colored lights to determine what code it is. If is reads out a code 55 everything checks out for those tests however ther are quite a few other variations of tests you cas do from the diagnostics box. I would also suggest downloading the FSM for the 1995 Pathfinder which you can download for free in the forums here located in the Garage section of the forums. It can come in quite handy as it is vehicle specific for each year. Also finding other posts here through the search section whicxh you may see others with same issues who have posted & given what the solution was for them & How to fix as well as lots of pictures. There are a great deal of members here who knowquite a bit about these Nissan's & can be a great help with finding causes of issues on our girls. I know for myself without a number of the Members here who have chimed in on my posts with problems on both of my 1995 XE's I may might have still been scratching my head on where to put my attention at to help diagnose the situation so I am very glad to have found NPORA & appreciate every bit of help from everyone here & all the information we are able to access through the forums here as well.

 

As far as your issue with your temp gauge not working could be a few things there in my experience on my 1995's to fix for me with mine not working was due to a wire on the connectors getting exposed causing it to short out. Which I would start there & follow your connector wires look for any signs of bad wires also check all connectors as well make sure nothing could be causing it to not get a solid connection. Maybe also check the cluster in the dash to make sure something there hasn't gone bad as well as check fuses too. Sorry I don't have a better answer on this for you but I can only speak from my personal experience with similar issue on temp gauge notg working.I am sure there are few more who have experienced this too & will chime in also.

 

Good luck & keep us posted with it & what was the reason causing your problem & what ended up being able to fix itfor you.

 

 

[Slartibartfast]

^^Agreed that codes are a good place to start. There's a writeup on here for checking the ECU. Basically you've got the ECU under the passenger's seat, which you can get to by sliding the seat forward and laying on the floor, or you can just pull the seat (four bolts and a plug if you have butt toasters). Then there's a slotted shaft labelled "idle adjust" for some reason. It doesn't adjust anything. Been a while since I did it from the computer but IIRC you go full counter clockwise, then full clockwise (key on, not running) and the two lights should flash together. One flash, two flashes, three flashes. At three flashes, turn it full counter clockwise again, and it'll spit up codes, red for the 10s digit and green for the 1s. The writeup's got the code list.

 

Those are the only temp sensors (one for the computer, one for the gauge) but there are lots of other sensors that can cause issues. Backfiring is unusual. I'd check the vac lines, especially the one to the pressure regulator on the back of the engine, but that's probably not it.

 

Temp gauge may be a problem with the cluster--I've heard some guys get away with just tightening up the screws on the circuit board, others replace a voltage regulator on the back, but I think the ones with bad regulators lose the fuel (?) gauge too. The temp gauge in my '93 only came up a little when I got it. I swapped out a few things all around the same time (temp sensor, thermostat, and lots of unrelated stuff) and cleaned up the temp sensor connectors and the gauge works just fine now, which is nice, but of course I don't know which thing fixed the problem.

[gamellott]

The 95 shouldn't have a regulator in the dash, and yes, the ones that had the regulators in the dash, does affect the fuel gauge. They will both read E/Cold (Needles Pegged to the left) if the voltage regulator was bad. I would suspect that the temp gauge, itself, is faulty. There's probably some sort of way to test it by applying a varying voltage to the gauge itself... somehow..... Or finding the pin where the needle receives it's input from and measuring the voltage or resistance from the time it's cold to the time it's hot.

[Zed]

I had the same problem with temp gauge (and fuel gauge).

 

I was lucky - I just tightened the screw on the back of the dash and it worked fine. Later on the temp gauge started fluctuating at idle, and I cleaned up the water temp sender and the problem went away.