Ok, here goes. I am new to the forum and have gotten to the point where I need some help diagnosing/fixing certain issues with my 94 Pathfinder. I've done the searching on this, and other, forums to no avail. Most of my issues with this ride are electrical in nature and hard to track down. Here is a list:
1. When the passenger side door is shut, the electric locks lock in to place every time. Also, if the lock is pushed in by a passenger while driving it kicks off an intermittent (no pattern) of locking/unlocking that persists until I stop the car, turn it completely off (key out of ignition) and restart. This behavior is only associated with the passenger side door.
2. Recently my dash back light and tail lights stopped working. This behavior is also intermittent and seems to follow no pattern. Sometimes I have no issues, other times the dash light and tail lights wont work. I mitigate this problem by persistently moving the switch on/off until the dash lights turn on. This problem does seem to correlate to moisture though as when its raining or high humidity, the problem is less frequent. Contacts in a connector somewhere?
3. The right turn signal LED on the dash will sometimes not come on at all, flicker quickly or stick in the ON indication.
Work that I have had done to the vehicle over the last year I have owned it:
1. Transmission completely rebuilt (2 weeks after purchase from a friend, stoked on that) and the transmission solenoid replaced/greased at 4 months. Note: the lock issue preceded this, but not the lights.
2. Stereo installed by a technician. Note: The dash light issue began 4 months after the installation. The tail lights have always had the weird issue.
3. High Pressure Line in the power steering assembly replaced 5 months after purchase. No correlation to the issues described above after this repair operation.
4. Starter replaced 5 months after purchase.
That is all I can recall at this point. I love this ride and have driven to Scorpion Bay and back with no issues whatsoever. Love my ride and want to keep it going. Thank you very much in advance for any help.
R
1994 Nissan Pathfinder LE - Various Elec. Issues Please help
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Towncivilian
- Posts: 4868
- Joined: Sun May 23, 2010 10:21 am
- Car: 2001.5 Nissan Pathfinder SE 3.5L 2WD A/T
2007 Nissan Altima 2.5L CVT
2012 Nissan Sentra 2.0L CVT Special
2012 Infiniti G37 Sedan 7A/T - Location: Florida, USA
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Re: 1994 Nissan Pathfinder LE - Various Elec. Issues Please
Welcome to NICO!
The first two issues seem like some connection problems, indeed. I'd try electrical contact cleaner on the door lock actuator and door switch wiring harnesses as well as the dash light dimmer switch to see if that improves anything.
The instrument cluster has no LEDs, so the intermittent right turn signal indicator is probably just a bulb on its way out. I'm not exactly sure what size WD21s use for the instrument cluster, but I know it's larger than #74 that most R50s use.
You should install an auxiliary transmission cooler and an in-line filter in order to help prolong the life of the weak RE4R01A transmissions found in most automatic WD21s.
The first two issues seem like some connection problems, indeed. I'd try electrical contact cleaner on the door lock actuator and door switch wiring harnesses as well as the dash light dimmer switch to see if that improves anything.
The instrument cluster has no LEDs, so the intermittent right turn signal indicator is probably just a bulb on its way out. I'm not exactly sure what size WD21s use for the instrument cluster, but I know it's larger than #74 that most R50s use.
You should install an auxiliary transmission cooler and an in-line filter in order to help prolong the life of the weak RE4R01A transmissions found in most automatic WD21s.
Re: 1994 Nissan Pathfinder LE - Various Elec. Issues Please
Wow, after so many thread views I finally get a response. Thank you for chiming in..super stoked. For the passenger door lock issue and troubleshooting: I should remove the door panel and clean the contacts on the door lock actuator? I can do that today at work. I have access to the wiring diagrams for this vehicle downloaded from this site. I will mark up the schematics and post to verify I'm on the right track for the connectors. Thank you!!!!
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Towncivilian
- Posts: 4868
- Joined: Sun May 23, 2010 10:21 am
- Car: 2001.5 Nissan Pathfinder SE 3.5L 2WD A/T
2007 Nissan Altima 2.5L CVT
2012 Nissan Sentra 2.0L CVT Special
2012 Infiniti G37 Sedan 7A/T - Location: Florida, USA
- Contact:
Re: 1994 Nissan Pathfinder LE - Various Elec. Issues Please
Yep, that's exactly what I had in mind.
The door lock actuator found in the driver's side rear cargo trim area (behind the panel) is also known to be faulty, but as far as I know this wouldn't affect a single door lock - or at least I haven't heard of such a case. You may want to find a door lock actuator at a junkyard to keep on hand in case cleaning the contacts does nothing.
The door lock actuator found in the driver's side rear cargo trim area (behind the panel) is also known to be faulty, but as far as I know this wouldn't affect a single door lock - or at least I haven't heard of such a case. You may want to find a door lock actuator at a junkyard to keep on hand in case cleaning the contacts does nothing.
Re: 1994 Nissan Pathfinder LE - Various Elec. Issues Please
I found the problem that solved the tail light issue. I removed the cover for the right rear tail light assembly and inspected the connectors for all three bulbs. The reverse light bulb molex was not seated properly and loose. I connected it and this solved the turn signal flicker/stick/non work and this also fixed the break light/turn signal cross up. I will update if this helps with the dash/tail light issue with the head light issue. Here is an image with notes of the rt rear tail light assembly:
