02 Pathfinder for $500- Not running help me make a choice

[craig1980]

My neighbor (4 min. down the road) has his sons 2002 Pathfinder up for sale. He is only asking $500 obo and I would love to buy it especially at that price! Only problem is when you go to start it it does nothing at all. No lights, no noise nothing. Its acting like the battery is totally dead. I know the book value and this is def a great deal. I'm hesitant because I don't want to get stuck putting to much money in it to get it going. The seller has put a new battery, throttle body, maf, and plugs on it. I did a ton of research on the immobilizer, but the security light is not solid or doesn't even blink! I am just looking for some advice before I make a decision. thank you in advanced.

[MisterH]

I would first determine the total amount of money you are prepared to spend on the car to get it running and compare that to the market value of one that is running and drivable. When you are unable to get a car to even turn over then it's nearly impossible to figure out what condition the whole vehicle is really in. Consider this - what if the ECM is fried so you get that fixed and find out the transmission needs to be replaced? Another option is to find a very knowledgeable Nissan mechanic to inspect the car first. That person may be able to help you figure out what it might take to get it running again and you'd probably be risking no more than $100.

[craig1980]

That's a good idea. The owner tells me when it was running it ran great without any issues. I don't think he has any reason to lie about it as he seems pretty honest and we live so close to each other. I cant imagine he would stick it to a guy that's basically his neighbor, but I could be wrong. I forgot to mention the PF has about 140k on it. Book value is around 3,500.

[KYOTE]

Hello, I just saw this post and wanted to put my 2 cents in as well. As far as buying the car for $500, that's a steal in itself. you have 3000 dollars to spare before your in the hole, and like you said the guy is your neighbor and would have to have really bad morals to sell his neighbor a car that would have a serious issue like a transmission failing. As far as the electrical problems go. some questions id love for you to ask him if you could please. did the problems start all on a sudden? i'm not gonna say its impossible, but for a computer to go out so quickly and have the car "run just fine before hand" doesn't sound right to me. I own the exact same car with 150k miles and trust me, i have my share of electrical problems with this car as well. Id ask your neighbor how it happend. was he driving one day and it cut out on him, or did he go to it one morning and the lights wouldn't turn on? do you have a volt meter to test the battery and see if it is still fully charged or not? every car with computers will slowly draw power to keep there RAM memory. if hes been trying for awhile and hasn't got it started, then i could see the battery being dead. Another thing to add, the fact that he has changed a MAF sensor, plugs and throttle body shows me that he knows very little about the function of a automobile, mainly because none of those 3 things would keep the lights from turning on in a car with a fully charged battery. they could very well affect running performance, and if this was a "the lights turn on but the car wont start" i might go for those things after some further testing. Kinda off topic here but i wanted to add this in while i was on the subject: i know that a pathfinder can start and run without a MAF sensor. i have done it at school tons of times so i could throw a code. it runs like crap but it will start and stay running. Plugs isn't a bad guess, all though again, the odds of all the plugs failing at once is extremely low. even if 4 plugs failed, as long as 2 plugs where working on opposing sides of the motor, it would start and run. again, it would run like crap but it would run. now a throttle body was just a waste of money. you could easily test a bad throttle body and feel for rough moment or a sticking throttle plate. Over all this neighbor seems like a part thrower. with that being said, he may not know if the car ran great or not. it might feel fine, but what if the suspension is blown. these are all just assumptions, and i'm more or less just rambling at this point... what you gotta know is that he doesn't seem very educated when it comes to cars, and you have to keep that as a red flag when he tells you about the conditions of the vehicle.
Alright, ill tell you what it sounds like to me. depending on what the neighbor says to you, i think it could be a couple of things. these assumptions are going to be made on the thought that the car died all of a sudden and now it wont do a thing. i'm basing this off of not even a click from the starter, and absolutely no lights turn on at all. lets start from the battery. He says he replaced it, so we know with a charge, we have a good starting power source and a ability to turn on lights no matter what. the fact that the lights never work tells me 2 things. either the power source is cut off from all the lights, or the battery doesn't have enough voltage to turn on the lights. you need at least 9.6 volts to have any function through your computer, and as far as i'm concerned, there is a BCM that controls all the interior functions. Does anything work? like at all? does the dash light up, can the windows roll up or down, do the automatic locks work, anything??? if absolutely nothing works, i'm gonna strongly assume a main ground has opened, or the main power to the fuse box has been disconnected. look at the battery terminals, if there is some serious corrosion, or very damaged wires, you could drop enough voltage to not turn on lights or have any function at all. you can test the fuses with a test light to see if you are getting power to the fuses with the key on. if you don't get any light then you know you have lost power somewhere from the battery to the fuse box. in conclusion, i can see this being a very cheap fix, but it will consume a lot of time trying to figure it out. if you could start by asking him some of those questions and get back to me that would be great.

Thank you.

[craig1980]

Wow. Thanks for the write up. I can ask him some of these questions but I feel at this point he wants it gone and doesn't want to be bothered with it. Not that he gave me an attitude I just personally feel bad grilling him over a $500 vehicle. He told me he bought it from his friend not running and thought he could fix it but now doesn't want to be bothered. As far as all the parts he changed he said his sons mechanic didn't know what he was doing. I agree. None of those things would cause the symptoms the PF has. I did not test the battery but I believe you may be right. It seemed the battery was disconnected being the vehicle was totally 100% dead. The battery looked brand new and the terminals looked fine as well. Tight and no corrosion. I guess just because the battery is new doesn't mean it is charged. I'm just tossed up. Good deal and would love to get it going but I really hate uncertainty.

[MisterH]

Well good luck, but consider this: in your earlier post you wrote:

"The owner tells me when it was running it ran great without any issues. I don't think he has any reason to lie about it"

Then In your last reply you wrote:

" He told me he bought it from his friend not running and thought he could fix it but now doesn't want to be bothered."

Doesn't that ring any alarm bells for you?

[craig1980]

I see where your coming from. I spoke to him on two different occasions. I probably should have clarified that he bought it from his friend knowing and seeing it ran well. It is a little different because it adds more variables.

[EdBwoy]

Here's a cent.. and another.

A "new" battery could have issues just like that. In my line of work I see bad parts out of the box more often than I'd like.
When it comes to simple solutions, I'd also try to hook my jumper cables to the car to see what that does for lighting. If they do work but the car still won't start, try looking at if the ignition cylinder - key connection is not all good.

Another thing, have any aftermarket components like an alarm, remote start or radio been installed?

[KYOTE]

I wanted to come back and say this. First off thank you so much for your appreciation. I started using this forum when I first got my car and knew very little about cars. After over a year of school and thousands of hours of training in progress, along with a ASE certifcation in automotive electronics, it's just nice to see someone appreciate your hard work.
With that out of the way, I seriously want you to check the battery with a volt meter. He shouldn't be to upset if you just wanna do a real quick check with your volt meter. I have a strong feeling the car may have been cranking but not starting at first, and they changed the battery. Like I said last time, the battery would go dead in no longer then a month just by parasitic draw from computers. Not to mention any cranking they did when trying to start the car. If you do a check, find that it's dead, recharge the battery, and then lights do turn on, I would say to buy the car right then and there. There's 3 different aspects to a running motor. There's several factors to all 3 sides of the triangle, but many can be narrowed down quickly. I can help you with a crank no start and would love to help you get this car going for cheap.

Keep me updated
Thanks, David

[KYOTE]

EdBwoy:
I have a few comments on your response. I worked for oriley auto parts for 14 months. In that time I sold and tested Litterly hundreds of batterys. Out of all those batterys, only 2 came out of the box defective. Both times it was a battery post open and the battery would read 0 volts. Not saying it's impossible, but I'd say assuming a defective battery is a bad place to start. Obviously this is testable with a volt meter, and hopefully he can figture out the batterys condition.
A ignition lock cylinder isent a bad guess, but even with a bad lock cylinder you would have hazards and headlights. Aftermarket parts getting installed could result in a horrible short, yet agian not likely. It could easily cause a parasitic draw and that would add to the battery being dead after sitting for a extended period of time

[mrichter]

I'm of the "try and jumpstart it" technique. on another note, mine for whatever reason a few weeks ago, wouldn't crank or anything, i must've tried a hundred times. Finally, it started and it was fine. Been fine ever since. Seems that these vehicles are a little temperamental at times, and it takes a bit of finesse (luck) to get them going. if all else fails and you buy it and you can't get it going, part it out, you'll make your money back and then some.

[EdBwoy]

EdBwoy:
I have a few comments on your response. I worked for oriley auto parts for 14 months. In that time I sold and tested Litterly hundreds of batterys. Out of all those batterys, only 2 came out of the box defective. Both times it was a battery post open and the battery would read 0 volts. Not saying it's impossible, but I'd say assuming a defective battery is a bad place to start. Obviously this is testable with a volt meter, and hopefully he can figture out the batterys condition.
A ignition lock cylinder isent a bad guess, but even with a bad lock cylinder you would have hazards and headlights. Aftermarket parts getting installed could result in a horrible short, yet agian not likely. It could easily cause a parasitic draw and that would add to the battery being dead after sitting for a extended period of time

Makes sense, and I appreciate your experience. I'm more of a simple solution kind of guy when it comes to troubleshooting. You might hang out in better company, but most people I know would more likely have jumper cables than a voltmeter.
When the OP said no lights I assumed dome lights and headlights, but yes hazards would be good to test too. I would try to jump it and if no lights came on, then I'd follow other lines of solution.

I brought up the ignition, because at 270k miles, my key blade had gotten so blunt that sometimes it acted like the battery was dead as it never engaged.

[craig1980]

Sorry it took me a while to respond. I ended up letting it go. I reached out to my mechanic and he could not give a definitive answer if he would be able to fix it. I didn't want to take a chance and drop it off at a random dealership. From what I understand they wouldn't touch it unless the title was in my name and the registration was also in my name. I was not going to go through the additional money/trouble to insure and register the vehicle. Thanks for all the suggestions!!

[EdBwoy]

I don't blame you. A 500 Dollar steal could quickly turn into a $500 paper weight/ yard ornament.