Hey y'all. I'm about to go test drive an '01 Pathfinder and want to know if this is a good year model to buy. Will it be reliable? Didn't i read where the plastic guides can cause premature timing chain problems? Any advice would be helpful. My appointment is just 4hrs away. Thanks

Oh; they're asking $2000 for it.

142,000 miles and theres a front of engine squealing noise at startup that goes a way. i hear this is a common issue and that it's likely indicative of a more expensive problem? May not simply be bad or loose belts?

That Squeal at startup is most likely the serpentine belt. That's an easy replacement.
If the belt is still fairly new, then you may just have to tighten it up. They need to be super tight to eliminate the startup squeak.
You don't say where you are, but if you live up north in the snow and road salt belt, then you absolutely need to get the strut towers checked out.
These things can rust pretty badly, and if the strut tower brace area is rotted out, then the vehicle is a writeoff. Do not buy.
The 2001's are the first year for the 3.5 engine, and have known issues with coil packs.
The 2002's are much better. I would personally look for a 2002-2004 Pathfinder myself.
On a positive note, at 142K miles, there should be lots of life left in the vehicle, especially if you can determine it's service history and can confirm that it was regularly maintained.

Hey thanks for the feedback; we drove the truck today. i'm in Ms so no worries about strut towers. there was a sort of left to right 'wobble?' in the steering but the roads were very bumpy so idk. there were two belts in there. we sprayed water on it and found it was one one of the belts so no worries there i guess. i may still buy it; not sure. thanks again

Well, if rust isn't an issue, then that's huge.
My 2002 Pathy is just about at end of life due to rust (I'm in Canada). I've oil sprayed it many times, but it's still rotting out.
I have lots of miles and it runs great, but the body is really rough. Very frustrating.

Anyway, sounds like yours needs a new serpentine belt, which is easy to do.
As for the wobble, that too is a known problem. It's called the death sway, and has been discussed here many many times.
Do a search on death sway, and you'll find a lot of threads on the subject.
Bottom line, it's just some worn bushings on the rear control arms. It too can be fixed fairly easily. Shouldn't be a deal breaker.
in fact, you can use that knowledge to knock down the price by a few hundred bucks.

You mentioned in your first post something about timing chain stuff.
The good news is, the 3.5 engine does indeed use a timing chain, and not a belt, and it never needs replacing.
That is one thing you will never have to worry about.
I have never heard about a timing chain failure on this engine, ever.

Good luck.

Thanks and sorry bout your rust issues. She said $1800 was low as she'd go on the price. If i do go ahead and buy it i'll let y'all know.

id buy it at that mileage. offer a couple hundred bucks less and see what they say. that said...on the 01 theres a couple things youll need to take care of when you get it. you need to pull the upper plenum and loctite the power valve screws. theres a knonw issue on this year with the screws falling out and destroying the engine. its not a bad job. id also bypass the internal transmission cooler and use an external one to avoid coolant leaking into the transmission. about 50 bucks and an hour or so worth of work. id put a new iacv gasket on it as well and bypass the coolant lines to the throttle body. if the iacv gasket goes out it can get coolant in it and short it out which can fry the ecu. do these and youll have a reliable vehicle that will last a long time. my 01 Q has 227k miles on it currently and runs like a champ

@heavy hitter..... thats awesome yours is running great at 227k. my 2001 qx4 just hit 150k. what type of major repairs have you had? Im now being told i need new front wheel bearings ( i did them at 80k) and new strut mount ( i did struts at 80k miles too... in fact i was told by wheel works that those monroe struts had lifetime warranty ... i called the shop and now they say they replaced teh struts at 80k miles but not the mounts). another garage told me you always replace the whole assembly because its not worht the time trying to take the mounts off the struts.