Pathfinder Quiz

[Giant]

Please read on and help me out!

My 97 Pathy SE began dieng on me a year ago. The symptoms were: In winter or very cold weather, after driving for a while the ABS light goes on, the dash dims, the radio dies, then the engine begins to buck and it dies. A few times I was able to jump it and the lights would be extremely bright and no more problems. This began to happen almost every time it was very cold out or snowing. Also the power windows roll up very slowly.

I had it in to Nissan several times and each time they would call me to pick it up stating that they couldnt replicate the problem, and that they tested it and found nothing wrong. They also tested the alternator and said it was good. (my biggest suspect is the alternator)

Well Spring happened and it got warm, so I never had the problem again all summer. Now its winter and Its doing the same darn thing again.

Also when it is raining the engine will not start..period. Just cranks and cranks.

This is my second Pathfinder my first ran for 200K plus before I sold it! Please help my Pathy maintain its Rep!!!

Giant

[demps]

I haven't researched this or anything, but something is telling me that you should check your distributor cap and rotor. Have you replaced them lately? If not, this would be a relatively inexpensive process of elimination. If your cap is cracked, the moisture getting in will prevent your car from starting and likewise will stall out your vehicle if precipitation is getting in while running. Maybe the cold weather is causing the distributor cap housing to contract, allowing more access to moisture in the winter time. This is all speculation mind you, but give it a look.

[mr.belvedere]

Sounds like a bad ground somewhere to me. Bad grounds can cause all sorts of weird things to happen. Clean and tighten the chassis, engine,and battery grounds. The engine and chassis grounds look like a flat, braided bare wire bolted to the body, usually under the hood on the fender wells, and frame. Let me know if this helps.

[Giant]

Placed a trouble light on the distributor for an hour or so, Pathy started right up. Ok Well must need a new Distributor cap. BUT I think I may have a seperate problem with the stalling -lights dimming-radio shutting off-while driving deal?? I will post when I find out!

Thanks Demps!!

Giant

[demps]

Hey Giant,
Glad to hear that the distriburor cap was was part of the problem. At least that will be an easy fix. As for the other, when it comes to electrical shorts, I am all thumbs. I traced a couple on my 81 buick regal when I was in college, but as we both know, the wiring on an 80's american car and a 90+ import are two completely different things. Hopefully if it's just a loose ground wire on the chassis like mr.belvedere says, then you won't have a hard time finding it. If it's more complecated than that, then a wiring diagram shouldn't be that hard to obtain. Between that and a little tech support you should have a good chance of narrowing it down. Take it easy man,
Chris.

[demps]

Giant,

Are the power windows the only problem now or are all the other things still happening ( ABS light, radio, dash lights etc.)? And if there was a problem with the distribitor, is the car still dying when you try to drive it? Does the battery have a full charge? If not, the short could be totally unrelated to the windows or any of the other symptomatic problems you are having. Somewhere there is a hot wire grounding out on the frame or body causung the battery to drain. In one of my past cars, the problem was as simple as finding out that someone had replaced the tail light bulb with the wrong one, causing me to have a power drain that lasted a year before I found it. It may very well be a ground wire somewhere on the frame or chassis like the guy noted earlier. Wherever it is, it is somewhere exposed to the elements.
Also, I don't know what the computer is like in your pathy, but in mine I am finding out that if the battery is disconnected, then you have to let the computer reset itself. However, It sounds like you may have already troubleshot this problem at your last mechanic visit when you had the diagnostic done. Maybe another visit in cold weather couldn't hurt.

Demps

[etsl90]

Giant,

I've had very similar symptoms on my eagle Talon (except not starting on rainy days). My problem was the battery terminals. Although they didn't look too bad, I cleaned very well and tighten sequrely. I never had the same problem since then. I hope this helps.

[FHK]

Hi Giant,

I've seen similar problems on some other cars that turned out to be bad connections in the wiring harness. One in particular was where the harness went through the firewall. Tthe plug looked great from the outside but once I unplugged the harness from the connector it was corroded inside. I squirt it down with WD40 and plugged and unplugged it several times. So check all harness connections and feed throughs. Hope this helps.

[Giant]

Thanks! >Well I fixed the no start on rainy days problem with new distributor cap, but the power windows are still very very slow..I ordered a new wiring harness and all plugs/wires etc so maybe ill get lucky! By the way..OMG is the exhaust from cat back expensive!!!!!!!

ANd having the front struts replaced...another OMG!!!!!!!!!

Im hurtin ..there goes my hottub money!!!!!!!!!

And I need new tires too!!!!!!!!!

Giant