Hello everyone,
I own a 2000 Fronty 3.3. It has been a great truck up until a few months ago, when I took it to have the tires replaced. And this is the rub, right after that, the fronty started to act wonky... It would feel like I was pulling a house, no power at all. When pressing the gas, I would need to press all the way down (gave meaning to the Pedal to the metal expression) for the truck to start picking up speed.

What a nightmare, I did some research, and replace just about every sensor, MUF, TPS, EVOC, etc, etc..
Did a full tune up, Spark plus and wires, rotor and cap, oil and filter, K&N Air Filter, and still nothing....

So I took the fronty to a Nissan dealer in Greenwood, IN, they had it for a week and a half. When I first dropped it off they recognized that there were some issue. After a few days they were stumped (Remember the show: Stump the Champ????), but will continue looking into it.

Anyway, I got a call saying that the truck is running as expected, and that they have been driving it for a couple of days.... The thing is, that they did no do anything but just verify that all the sensors that I replaced are working (just because they are new, does not mean they are in good working condition), it just healed itself.. (remember the Shawshank movie were the Warden screams: It a Miracle....)

I picked it up, and YES, it is running great.

However, now when I use the Remote starter, the truck will not shut off when the key is turned to off, have to use the button on the fub to shut off the ignition. I can take the key off the key hole, and it will continue running. Also, when started this way, if the brake pedal is pressed and the key is not inserted, it should shut off, Nope.

And, the temp gauge is not moving, it stays fixed in cold, even after driving around for 1 hour, it does not move, not even twinge.... all the way down in the cold.

Out of these two, the temp Gauge is what worries me the most, I am going back to Florida and I know (I lived in Orlando-Miami for over 30 years) how hard the engines work because of the heat and running the A/C all the time.

I know that I took the long way around to get to this two points, but I felt some context was necessary to understand the issue.

Any feedback? I really cant afford to take it back to the dealer a have them keep it a week or so...

Thank you so much for reading and providing feedback.

Sionis

That sounds like two entirely separate issues. The remote start has to be aftermarket, so you really need to find some documentation on whatever is in there. The temp gauge is easy to diagnose with a voltmeter. Like most VG's, your Frontier has two different temp senders, one for the ECM (two wires) and one for the gauge (one wire with a casing ground). The gauge sender is located at the righthand front of the engine near the distributor and has a single Gray wire. See EL-78 here:
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual ... G%2Fel.pdf
The gauge uses a balance circuit where there's a fixed pullup resistance inside the cluster, then the sensor acts as a variable pull-down. The voltage between the two will vary with the strength of the pull-down, lower voltage = hotter. To diagnose it, locate the sensor and pull the wire loose. Ground it to the block and the gauge should shoot to full hot. If it does, your wiring and gauge are vindicated and the problem is the sensor. If it doesn't, perform a gauge check per EL-84. If the needle stays at the bottom during the gauge check, you have a bad gauge. If it behaves normally then you have a problem in either the wiring or the FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) on the back of the cluster. It's very common for the screws holding the FPC contacts to the cluster to cause issues.

Hello and thank you for your feedback.

I agree with you 100% that the remote issue is after market. However, I should not have to even concern myself with that, given that it has been working flawlessly for the past several years. In fact, I used the same day that I took the Fronty to the Nissan dealer. Furthermore, I noticed after the post, that when I use the remote starter, the brake lights stay ON all the time. until, that is, I use the fob to turn off the truck.

So, I have to take the Fronty to an electronics place to have the issue either repair or replaced, something that I should not have to do if a bit of respect, consideration and professionalism was exercised when trouble shouting the vehicle.

The water temp display issue, I found it. Just above where the thermostat is located, is a switch/plug, light blue in color. It was cracked. Again, it was working fine when I drove it there. So I used a 4" zip tide, wrapped around where it was cracked and Voila! temp gauge is working fine. ( I dont have many years expertise as a Nissan mechanic, and was able to look around and find the issue. I will have to replace the plastic piece eventually).

I am loath to harp on the same things, but, a little bit of courtesy, respect, consideration and professionalism can go a very long way to establish a lasting partnerships. Sooner or later I am going to have to buy a new vehicle.

Just because a vehicle is 20+ years, does not mean that the owner and it can be treated like a sack of manure or guano. The windshield was cover in sweaty arm stains/marks and the D/S door panel had grease stains.

One persons floor is another person ceiling.

Again, thank you for taking the time to read, and provide the link to find more information to troubleshoot and or fix the issue.

Sionis.

There's no excuse for the greasy windshield, but what was truly unprofessional was:
1) Not warning you that all plastic connectors get brittle in old age, and sometimes break no matter how careful you are, and,
2) Not telling you it broke.
There are connectors on your 23 year old ride that aren't even available anymore, so you might need to get used to that zip tie. Fixing or replacing it might not even be possible. The same goes for a lot of plastic parts. Except for a recall repair, we won't even touch the dash on an older car without the customer signing a waiver. There are some parts like the faux woodgrain in old Pathfinders that will break if you breathe on it, you can be God's personal mechanic and it's still going to snap when you pry on it. That just comes with the territory when you own an antique, and the longer you own it, the more risky every repair will become.

Unless they were into the dash for something when diagnosing an engine problem (which is very doubtful), it's extremely unlikely that anything they did caused your RES issue. On older vehicles that stuff is all wired straight into the ignition cylinder and doesn't touch anything under the hood.

Thank you so much for your feedback.

Have a great rest of the year.

Regards,
Sionis