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Boots and loss of power
1998 4WD Pathfinder, VG-33 6-cylinder
OK, I ordered a distributor online $84 shipped, 10 year warranty, to deal with a bad coil diagnosis. I installed that Saturday, got the timing within specifications, drove it 100 miles down to Phoenix today. There are some hills on I-17, not as steep as those going all the way to Flagstaff, but with the overdrive button "off", had no trouble at all going up the Interstate hills at 82 mph, cruise control never fell in mph either. It actually ran pretty well, more power than my two 4-cylinder Frontiers. So maybe the distributor was the culprit all along, does that make sense. Anyway, the test will be when daughter returns to Flagstaff in it in a few weeks. Its front inner drive axle boots are torn. It doesn't look like there are split boots available for the inner end of the front drive axles for that 1998 4WD Pathfinder. If anybody can find such, I'd appreciate a source/link. Dorman has split boots for the outers. Also posting in Frontier Forum |
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Daughter will be coming here Sunday, may take the Pathfinder with her if she notices more power while here, the mountain freeway is the real test. If she's happy with the performance, and decides that the Pathfinder is worth her keeping it, then the next step is replacing the drive axles, and $45 to $60 is what I've seen. I'm pretty experienced with mechanical stuff, and watched a Youtube video about R&R on Frontiers. They pulled off the upper control arm ball joint to get clearance to pull out the shaft, is that what you'd do? I read somewhere else just to unbolt stuff instead. Am I guessing right that each drive axle would be about 2 hours of my labor? What's the flat rate for such R&R? Thanks. The Pathfinder has 120K on it, and looks super-good exterior and interior, except seat needs re-sewn on a seam. |
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I assume it will take me longer ! |
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OK, the Cuss made a mistake !!! Hey, I'm old !!! It was the bellows for the rack and pinion. I ordered new bellows from O'Reilly, got them same-day and installed them today. Yeah, the tie rod ends need to be pulled (used the remove gear-type puller I bought at AutoZone a few years ago after borrowing it a bunch, worked great) but I marked the tie rod ends with paint so alignment shouldn't be needed. The toughest part was pulling the boots over the inner part, slippery little devils !!! |
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Daughter drove the Pathfinder up the mountains to Flagstaff this morning, said it was way better, significantly more power than it has had in the 3 years she's owned it. So whether it was the new distributor last week, or the new wires just prior to that, I don't care. Maybe her gas mileage will also improve !
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Since two shops were unable to find the lack of power before this, I have to assume that those shops suspected and checked the ignition timing, right? So now I wonder if the bad distributor was not fully advancing, why there was no power at higher rpm. Anyway, still fixed, daughter is keeping the Pathfinder. And even if I stumbled onto the fix, I really don't need to know "what was bad". |
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Update, one full year later:
On a return trip up the freeway Sunday, Pathfinder stalled out, wasn't driveable. She got it towed to Flagstaff at no charge, and Monday AAA-approved garage diagnosed as rotor screw loosened and fell out of place, so rotor also shifted out of position. But daughter'll pay the diagnosis fee; but since distributor supplier states 10-year warranty, and there'd be no cost if distributor didn't malfunction, am contacting them to see if they'll cover the cost. I'll show daughter how to check and repair that should that happen again - but agree that it never should have happened. Oh well. Anyway, did swap in new front drive shaft last fall due to leaky boot, $75 lifetime warranty (O'Reilly) and two new boots; pretty straightforward repair if you have a tie rod puller tool that looks like a gear puller. |
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So I E-mailed back, telling them this, attaching (again) the shop's repair order/findings. I also told them: "I understand that (xyz Autoparts) has policies. All I can do on my end would be to post the truth about how this was not handled, on all the Internet repair sites I regularly visit, make sure my friends know about xyz Autoparts, and to avoid any future purchases with xyz Autoparts - THAT IS MY POLICY. We'll see. I'll update here and name the supplier later. Liquid Wrench just sent me 2 aerosol cans to replace the one I bought which the red spray tube wouldn't stay in. Hampton Farms replaced 12 oz. of Rancid peanuts from Safeway (within the "buy by" date) with 48 oz. of fresh product. In other words, those companies realize that it's easier and less expensive to keep customers than to find new ones. We'll see. |
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Update: Supplier "says" a refund check will be mailed to me, said they were making an exception. We'll see if such check does arrive.
Anyway, last Saturday installed two rear wheel cylinders for my daughter, and bled out the old brake fluid, straightforward. There was no fluid on the brake shoes, and the thickness was fine, so I just eased out the wheel cylinders. Almost had to replace the hard line on the passenger side, couldn't get the flare wrench over the nut because the hard line was a little distorted, and didn't want to weaken the line by trying to bend it straighter. The line bled fine though, brakes work fine too. |
Tags |
boots, flagstaff, hills, front, drive, split, 4wd, distributor, pathfinder, power, mph, daughter, test, make, frontiers, culprit, 4-cylinder, sense, axle, source/link, find, dorman, frontier, forum, posting |
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