my tribulations with the pathfinder

[petey293]

This will be fun! I'll be documenting everything I have to do to keep my 2002 Pathfinder LE on the road. I got this vehicle about two weeks ago with 87,000 miles on it, and have since had a handful of problems with it. This thread isn't meant to bash the pathy at all, it's just a place for me to put some info that may be interesting to some peeps out there.



1. Check engine light with code P1145

This happened about three days after I got the vehicle. It totally sucks having a CEL immediately after buying a car. I took it right away to O'Reilly and I borrowed their code reader, there were 2 P1145 codes with one pending. At a glance I saw "INTAKE VALVE" and just about crapped my pants until I did a bit of research and saw it was just a sensor.

I grabbed 2 new Nissan sensors off the internet and planned to replace them both, just to be thorough. In the meantime I drove it like normal. I got the sensors in a few days and got to work replacing them. It was an easy 20 minute job although the first thing I pulled off looked nothing like the sensors I got, so I put it back and figured I would actually locate them in the service manual.

The sensors are sealed and you can't tell tell they're bad based on appearance


After replacing the sensors, I reset the light with the pedal method and it hasn't come back yet...

2. "CD ERR F3"
The stock Bose 6CD changer has this problem quite a bit it seems. I only had the actual F3 error code a few times, but I was experiencing problems with the player for the whole week it was in there. Especially when it was cold out, the CDs would skip or completely fail to read. I wanted to be able to listen to the music on my phone, so I decided to replace the Bose with a modern head unit. The middle vent needs to be removed in order to get at the radio and with enough determination, and enough screwdrivers, I was able to pop it out and remove the old head unit.

Removing the mounting brackets from the old head unit was a nightmare. I wanted to use the brackets for the new head unit but the screws holding them on were stuck so tight that I was actually able to destroy a screwdriver while trying to get them off:


I had to break out the electric drill to zap those screws off, even the drill was hardly able to do it.
Wiring was easy with the Nissan adapter and the mounting brackets fit nicely on the new unit, the only sucky part is that I can't use the steering wheel controls anymore but meh whatever...

3. Fan control amplifier:

During a particularly bad fit the old CD player was having, I tried giving it a good whack thinking that would solve the problem (this has worked only once before, I don't know why I even bothered). Not only did this absolutely nothing to the radio, immediately after the whack the fan ramped up to full speed and stayed there for the rest of my 300 mile trip. No input on the climate control was able to change the speed of the fan. After the usual research I found it was the fan control amplifier, a 90 dollar part that has all of six components inside of it:



After a bit of poking around I noticed the transistor was shorted. What's the price of the transistor? about $3.50... So I took the obvious route, got the new transistor and threw it in.

The transistor is underneath, ***mounted to the large heatsink***:


With the new transistor in, I decided to test it quickly before putting it back together. I took the naked circuit board and plugged the wiring into it. It worked, for about 20 seconds until the fan went right back to full speed. I glanced down at the amplifier and noticed that the transistor had smoke pouring off of it, oops

I guess that heatsink was there for a reason...
So I have to wait another week for another transistor, and this time I'll properly mount it on the heatsink before using it. In the meantime I have the choice of either no fan with it unplugged, or loud massive blasting in my face airflow with the amplifier plugged in (properly heatsinked of course with the fried transistor).

4. Power valve screws:
Okay this wasn't really something that went wrong, but it was something I wanted to do before it became a problem. Most of you probably know of the power valve screws that need threadlocker on them. I decided to tackle that as soon as possible, so I got all my gaskets and my tube of Permatex ready to go. I have never really worked on a "modern" vehicle before (aside from the timing belt on a Focus) so tearing off all these vacuum lines and sensors and wires and plastic crap was new to me.

I get to this point:


and I removed one of the screws:


What's that on the screw? Looks like dirt and red threadlocker to me... I checked all 12 screws and they were stuck tight. Mine must have got the loctite at the factory or else the PO had the same idea as me, either way I had to put all the crap back on the engine and I didn't even end up doing anything to it. To make things even more hilarious, while putting the *NISSAN V6 3500!!!!* piece of plastic back on the top of the engine, I dropped the bolt that goes on the right side and it got stuck in the plastic protective piece under the car. So I had to take that off to get the bolt.

Oh yeah and I think I broke the chrome trim piece around my grille by leaning against it, I heard a pop and now I can pull it out a bit on the right side but not the left
There's two weeks of ownership for you, we'll see how often I have to keep updating the thread, hopefully not very

[Buzzman]

So far so good.
Nothing you have described is unusual for these trucks.
Fan amp, power valve screws, Bose 6CD head unit, are all known problems. I've had them all, except the P1145 codes.
If you get an IACV code, don't ignore it. They are failing in older Pathfinders, and can damage the ECM (computer).
Also, have you done the Strut housing recall/inspection?
At only 87,000 miles, your truck should run for years. I should be so lucky to find one like that.

[yeldogt]

Nissan also has a reflash of the engine control to limit the heaters on the O2 sensors -- My first 2002 had the problem. The 02 sensors fail.

All three of mine needed the fan control -- one needed the sensors. Never touched any of the screws or CD player.

They have all needed rear brake cylinders/ hardware in addition to normal pads/ shoes/ rotors.

[K03sport]

nicely done...I have a question for you...while you were taking your Bose radio out, did you come across a round, black plug on the back, next to the antenna port that had 8 pins? I recently removed my Bose Radio ('04 SE) and removed this plug, but the new harnesses, to include the steering wheel controller (pac-audio SWI-RC) did not reuse this plug. Do you know what it controls or goes to?

I have the FSM and I can't find what it is or what it does anywhere. Pages EL-484/485 have all of the dash harnesses illustrated but I can't ID in the HUGE mess that is on those pages. Using page EL484, it is in the grid range of D4, since that is where the other radio plugs are (M48, M49, M41), but I can't find it listed...the chart lists the harness color "B", "W", etc. and the number of pins "4", "6", "10", etc. and I cannot see a B/8 anywhere on the list.

Thanks for any insight you might have. Enjoy your R50.

"Edit: I found out that it is some kind of DIN plug for AUX control of something...possibly a 10 disk changer because those were big deals in 2004. I will not worry about it, so it is a good thing I taped it up and tucked it away with the hord of wires that now live behind the JVC HU. Now, my next dilemma will be to figure out why my base disappeared...

[rgk]

Nissan also has a reflash of the engine control to limit the heaters on the O2 sensors -- My first 2002 had the problem. The 02 sensors fail.

All three of mine needed the fan control -- one needed the sensors. Never touched any of the screws or CD player.

They have all needed rear brake cylinders/ hardware in addition to normal pads/ shoes/ rotors.

Can you tell me more about the heater element on the O2 sensors issue? I have a downstream, bank 2 sensor that shows too high a voltage. Its heater has too low of a voltage.