'05 Pathy Q & C (Questions & Concerns) (kinda long)
Bought one of the first '05 Pathfinders last November, have put almost 6k miles on it, and thought I would share my experience thus far.
The basics:
2005 Pathfinder LE 4x2 with no Nav, and no DVD. It's technically my wife's car, but I drive it when we go from Dallas to Houston to visit my family, and occasionally around town.
Here's the good parts. It's fast. I love the motor and the performance, and it sounds good too. It looks great, and has a nice, pracitcal interior with plenty of space for my family of three, and has a good stereo.
Here's the bad parts. It rattles. We have had two rattles that I thought were coming from the driver's side dash area, but one turned out to be under the hood. The under hood rattle has been fixed, but we still get a plasticky, rattling, vibrating sound, most noticeable during acceleration. Rattles are tricky to locate, I know, so I'm not ticked at the dealer on this one. It also wobbles. When I hit uneven railroad tracks at road speed, the steering wheel wobbles left-right in my hand, more than feels normal. It almost feels like a shot steering stabilizer, but I don't think this is the case. Could also be alignment, but dealer has checked it twice (so they say) and says everything is normal. It's gotten worse since we got it, too.
Most recently, the a/c has decided to give us trouble. Driving back from Houston to Dallas on Tuesday, we got about half way home when it started to get stuffy in the truck. We ended upu with front and rear a/c's cranked to the max fan and lowest temps, and never got cool. When I got home, the truck dumped what looked like a gallon of condensate from the a/c units on my garage floor. Dealer had it for a day and a half, couldn't find anything wrong with the system.
Not trying to vent, just want to share my experience with our Pathy. If I didn't like this truck so much, I wouldn't be so frustrated by these fairly minor problems. Anyone else have similar issues?
When I hit uneven railroad tracks at road speed, the steering wheel wobbles left-right in my hand, more than feels normal. It almost feels like a shot steering stabilizer, but I don't think this is the case. Could also be alignment, but dealer has checked it twice (so they say) and says everything is normal. It's gotten worse since we got it, too.
Get the front end inspected (could be bushings, tierod ends, etc.).
Quote:
Most recently, the a/c has decided to give us trouble. Driving back from Houston to Dallas on Tuesday, we got about half way home when it started to get stuffy in the truck. We ended upu with front and rear a/c's cranked to the max fan and lowest temps, and never got cool. When I got home, the truck dumped what looked like a gallon of condensate from the a/c units on my garage floor. Dealer had it for a day and a half, couldn't find anything wrong with the system.
Sounds like your A/C iced up. It couldn't cool because the evaporator was a block of ice which melted after you parked. This is an indication of an undercharge (low on refrigerant).
Have had the dealer inspect the front end twice, and they said all is normal. Have considered taking it somewhere else and getting it inspected, but haven't gotten around to it.
The a/c thing did make it seem like there might have been a blockage, but according to the dealer, the charge is correct, and everything is in order. Again, I may need to visit another shop and get this checked out as well.
It's unfortunate that the dealer can't find or won't take the time to find what the problems are.
if you notice a rattle at around 2200 rpm. it is the intake manifold collector. we boutght an early pathy and it had the same problem. nissanhelp.com will have the service bullitin. i had the dealer look at it twice, both times the blew me off. but when i brought in the service bullitin they actually did their job.
Have had the manifold collector replaced already, and the rattle persists. Drove it Friday night, and it rattled the entire time I was driving. Mostly noticeable under acceleration, sounds like it's under the driver's side dash.
Have had the manifold collector replaced already, and the rattle persists. Drove it Friday night, and it rattled the entire time I was driving. Mostly noticeable under acceleration, sounds like it's under the driver's side dash.
I had the same problem, they finally changed the catalytic convertor, sound went away.
I can't remember if I posted this already, but... I have a 2005 November edition. I had a rattle under the drivers side dash, which turned out to be caused by the hood release latch. The metal cable was actually tapping against the outer platic jacket. I know how difficult it can be when you take it to the dealer and either they can't reproduce it, or they start tearing into the wrong locations and just cause more rattles. Hence, I've been on a mission to locate and repair any rattles I hear myself. As of now, I have only one left and know exactly what needs to be done to fix it, I just haven't gotten around to it. Anyway, as sad as it is, I fixed the cable issue with a really long tie wrap. All I had to do was use the wrap to tug on the cable, causing it to curve slightly. My theory is that the cable might just have a little too much slack in it, so adjusting it at the front of the hood might also fix the issue.
I also posted about the rattle in the fuse box on the passenger's side, under the hood. A temporary solution was just a piece of duct tape between the fuse box and the other plastic box next to it. That kept it quiet until I was able to demonstrate the issue to the dealer.
had rattle take it to dealer first time they change belttensioner, but it did not fix the rattle, second time they talk the dash board apart, and found the bracket was loose near heating, will see if the fix the rattle,
Also have same problem with pathy steering going to right on bridge/road separation, dealer adjusted aligment toe and its better now but still you can feel it, they sad its the off road tires that on it and 4x4
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2005 Nissan Pathfinder 4x4, SE, Off Road
we had a rattle and it turned out to be a failed body mount bushing. took the dealer 3 service visits and a whole new front suspension, consisting of about 4 weeks without the truck to find it.
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95 nissan hardbody - widebody,shaved,pathy front,skyline tails - full air ride - 15.17 1/4 mile
Simple question, have you checked your tire pressures by chance?
If they are low on the right side that could cause the pulling under braking as well.
speaking of, our tire pressure warning light gets turned on more often than michael jackson in a boys home, but every time we stop to check pressures, they're even across the board at around 40-45 psi. It's driving us nuts and we don't even pay attention to it anymore when it comes on.
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95 nissan hardbody - widebody,shaved,pathy front,skyline tails - full air ride - 15.17 1/4 mile
I have had my tire pressure light come on twice. Both times it was accurate. My tire pressure was sitting around 26 or 27 PSI. I inflated the tire and the warning light went off shortly after.
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