01 Pathfinder help

[c_law23]

Having an annoying problem, and am trying to get a handle on what it might be without pouring a lot of money on it (being Christmas with 2 kids and all!)

Came out of work today and the car had a rough vibration to it and smoothed out. When i was almost home the vibration started again and the SES started to flash. Almost was acting like it wasnt getting enough fuel, but seemed to only do it in the lower gears (AT) or from a stop. As soon as i got home i popped the hood and the engine was vibrating more than usual. I just replaced the battery a few days ago as it was dead (and old) and it drove fine to work this morning. It sat for only a day while the battery was dead.

I thought maybe it had something to do with the battery being disconnected for a couple hours but i cant figure that would do anything bad.

I dont have a chance to run it up to Autozone and get the codes ran until friday, and there is pretty much no way that a mechanic is going to be in the budget for atleast a month or so. Was hoping that someone had a similar problem and could give me their ideas.

any ideas?

ThanksChris

[MagicM]

Sounds like a MAF/o2 sensor.

[KoukiS14]

I concur -- I'd check MAF.

BTW, welcome to NICO and I LOVE your bike!

[c_law23]

Thank you! I feel maybe the Pathy has grown jealous of the bike, and is, in turn giving me problems.

I really hope it isnt the MAF. I see that they are pricey. Although i have heard there maybe one from a Sentra that might work for a cheaper price?

This is my first Nissan, as I have been pretty loyal to Jeep up until this purchase. I must say that fixing my Jeeps were much easier. However i grew up with Jeeps and knew much more about them. I don't know where anything is yet on this thing!

thanks for the welcome!

[02QX4ME]

MAF sensor is expensive, but sometimes it just needs a cleaning up. I cleaned my RX300 MAF with electronics contact spray from Fry's.

You can try cleaning first.

[c_law23]

What is something i can pick up from autozone or advanced to clean it and how exactly do i clean it.

Sorry for the elementary questions, but this is my first experience and i havent even had the thing off yet to even see it.

[02QX4ME]

Sorry I forgot what the exact name of the spray, but if you ask store the spray or cleaner for the MAF they will know it.

What I did was to unplug the wire connector, unscrew and take MAF sensor off. You can see a fine wire in the middle. Spray on the wire a few times, shake off and set the sensor for a few minutes until it is dry. Put it back on and re-connector it.

Be sure not to touch the sensor wire. Before cleaning, the sensor wire on my RX300 was dirty, covered with something like epoxy stuff. After spray, it is all gone; the sensor wire was shiny clean again.

[c_law23]

I see. Thank you.

I just talked to my brother in law who is a ford mechanic. He has had 3 people in this week with bad gas. ( i live in a city of only about 50,000) its possible i may have it as well since the problem has come and gone and it started the very next day after i got gas at a walmart gas station that i have never gone to before. I normally get gas at the same place everytime. He suggested getting some dry gas and running it through. Been trying to find someone with a code reader for my car so i can avoid driving it to autozone and getting it tested. Ive told that a flashing light means a misfire and driving it could damage the engine.

[MagicM]

drain the gas, and then go to a ESSO/SHELL and use the Supreme/premium and see what happens, but bad gas usally makes knocking.

[c_law23]

I went and had it read and i believe that it was P0402. he just told me 402 and that it was cylinder 2 misfire. He thought it was a bad plug, so i bought a new plug and changed it out. It def. needed it, but that wasnt the problem. It's doing the same thing. They didnt have any wires in stock so i havent tried to replace the wires yet. I thought i would put in whats going on before going any further and get some ideas. My brother in law just pulled a good motor out of a wrecked 2002 Isuzu and said the coil packs should be the same?

[03Chillinkoot]

I went and had it read and i believe that it was P0402. he just told me 402 and that it was cylinder 2 misfire. He thought it was a bad plug, so i bought a new plug and changed it out. It def. needed it, but that wasnt the problem. It's doing the same thing. They didnt have any wires in stock so i havent tried to replace the wires yet. I thought i would put in whats going on before going any further and get some ideas. My brother in law just pulled a good motor out of a wrecked 2002 Isuzu and said the coil packs should be the same?

The vq35 motor doesn't use wires it has the coil-on-plug system. May even be a faulty coil, I think they were faulty on that year. May be causing ur cyl 2 misfire

[03Chillinkoot]

oops, sorry you already knew that I should really read the whole post first. Anyway I doubt if the coil will work from that isuzu, compression ratings may be different from the nissan.

[c_law23]

I got a great deal as a friend has a friend at a dealership so i got my Coil pack for $65. should have it friday and i really hope this is the problem.

One quick question, what sparkplugs do you guys use, where do you get them and what is the gap?

ok so thats like 3 questions... thanks!

[robertjp]

I have the same symptoms but I got P1320 error code on the scanner (ignition) at autozone. My mechanic wants to replace all 6 coils because he says you cant tell from the scanner which one is misfiring if its only doing it sporatically. Is this BS or is there a way to tell which coil is bad? A week after christmas and Im looking at a 1000 repair. Any suggestions? Thanks BP

P.S 2001 Pathfinder 3.5 L 4wd, 98,000 miles.

[c_law23]

To be honest, i dont know for sure. I know with my issue it clearly gave me which specific cyclinder was having a problem. Is this the only code popping up?

[03Chillinkoot]

I have the same symptoms but I got P1320 error code on the scanner (ignition) at autozone. My mechanic wants to replace all 6 coils because he says you cant tell from the scanner which one is misfiring if its only doing it sporatically. Is this BS or is there a way to tell which coil is bad? A week after christmas and Im looking at a 1000 repair. Any suggestions? Thanks BP

P.S 2001 Pathfinder 3.5 L 4wd, 98,000 miles.

That is BS. I worked at a dealership and used scanners all the time, theres a menu he should be able to go into which will list all the cylinders and you just look for the cylinder which numbers are way off and you have ur bad cylinder.

[j0321]

Same thing happened to my 01 pathfinder. Had codes read and it gave me a P1320 and a P0304. The 1320 is a primary ignitiion misfire. This doesn't specify which cylinder. Thats where the P0304 comes into play. This specifies cylinder 4. Apparently this doesn't always give you the code that specifies the cylinder. If it doesn't I have heard you will need to replace the ignition coil pack for each cylinder. Approx. $80 each. I changed the coil pack for cylinder 4 and the plug since I was already into it that far and those codes have not returned.