00nissanpathy

Hey everyone , im kinda new to pathfinders, this being my first one, but i have a 2000 nissan pathfinder with the 3.3l v6 eingine . it was my uncles and it was only serviced by the dealer. but it has 205,000 miles ! i was just owndering if there is anything nissan is notorious for going bad, or long term issues i should know about. Lastlty is when i got the car the "service engine soon" light was off now it just randomly appeared and when i brought it to inspection they took my car through and it went off. when i started my car the next morning it was on ! what is the deal with this thing? how do i get it off ??? replies appreciated

-Thanks

OchnofConcrete

dont' know the engine too well. i'd have to look at the FSM, but typically on a car that old, everything has been weathered, been put to under-the-hood elements for years and years.... not to mention, it being that young and already having 200,000 miles... you're hoping obviously that its been mostly highway, and not highrevved...

but i'd do a full manual overhaul.... everything!

hoses, vacuum, belts, flushes, tuneup, check everything under the hood for wear and fix...

this is just regular auto maintenence though... don't forget, the entire car needs to be gone over... just double checking for parts that have corrosion, parts that are damaged, elec. parts that may short out on something... any bad wires... relays, fuses, sensors.......

then you have to take in to account the BIGGIE!.... the engine internals.... mainly the crank bearings, piston heads, valves.....

first off... how regularly was the oil changed... in old cars that havent' been fully overhauled, for my own peace of mind i change the oil every month-to-two months.. because you're dealing with an old engine... the newer the oil... the better for old parts... ...oil is the lifeblood of the engine... a crankshaft rides on a small layer of oil... METAL ON METAL MOVING AT AN EXTREME HIGH RATE OF SPEED EVEN WHEN YOU'RE GOING SLOW. there's only one thing you can do if the crank spins a bearing because of oil starvation/dirty oil... full engine rebuild. ...piston rings, crank/rod bearings, rear and main oil seals on crank.

2nd... combustion deposits... maybe pull the head and do a head job on it.. replace valve seals, maybe springs, LAP THE VALVES!. ....clean off the piston heads.

3rd... flush and replace tranny fluid. new fluid will let your tranny live longer if it's not on it's last leg already.

then you've got little things other than all that... engine mounts... suspension boots/shocks.... check the frame/unibody for rust or holes/cracks/bends/breaks... exhaust leaks... exhaust manifold gaskets as well as the rest of the piping... catalytic converter.. even though it doesn't help engine live longer... if for some reason the old vehicle has a bad backpressure problem, and you've got an old cat, it could get sucked back into engine and destroy it.

sides doing all that... you're talking about using an OLD car.. drive it very nice and double time the maintenence schedule.. the more often you change out parts that are bad or ones that go bad.. the better... but don't forget.. the more you eff with an old car.. the more you're loosening up a lot of grease and corrosion that holds those old parts together... so you'll come close to breaking plastic parts, wires, hoses, belts... all the brittle parts in between the metal parts...

any car can run forever, it's how badly you want it to that decides when it goes to the yard.

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