I bought a very well maintained and well documented (so I KNEW it was well maintained) 2000 Nissan Xterra with about 190k miles on it about 3 months ago from a guy I worked with in California. Some shady mechanic told the poor guy it had a blown head gasket when all it needed was a coolant flush and to be burped properly. I offered to return the car upon this discovery for my $500 and the cost of my minor repairs (replaced some plastic headlights burping ect. you know the right thing to do he was a fellow soldier after all) but he was true to his word and had already gotten another vehicle well the car got me from cali to Illinois without a hitch but once I got home It blew a head gasket on the highway (irony is a jealous b**** right?) so I nursed her a mile back home and pulled her into the garage. Ive never worked a car (unless you count the mechanical rubix cube my saab was) but I've been restoring old motorcycles for quite a while now and have a knack for these things so I opened her up and have been working my way to replacing all the gaskets. I've gotten both heads off and pretty much everything else that is remotely near them except the lower engine portion and transmission. The heads are good (thank god) and don't need to be machined I obviously plan to replace all the gaskets I'm also going to replace all the cooling system tubes and the radiator seemed a bit awful so I plan to replace that to. Both exhaust manifolds are cracking (which seems to be a common issue) so i'm replacing those too I've replaced the dreaded knock sensor and I've replaced all the belts. The water pump and thermostat are new and all parts appear to be phenomenal working order upon inspection after cleaning that god awful oil coolant mix off of everything only strange thing I found was the top end of a wire cleaning brush lodged in on of the coolant pipes (shady mechanic strikes again?) My question (if you made it this far into my essay) is there anything else I should replace while I'm down here? oh and shout out to this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfULyYKOhMk made disassembly with between him and the guide a cake walk.
2000 nissan xterra I bought for $500
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74 Posts
do check your tranny fluid. I'm new to xterras as well though a search for SMOD(strawberry milkshake of death) may reveal a scary thing. Especially when dealing with your radiator. Like i said, idk much about xterras but I do believe that was a first gen problem. Might be worth looking in to and possibly replacing the radiator. as far as i know the SMOD is when a coolant tube for the tranny cooler(which runs through the radiator) cracks and radiator fluid and tranny fluid get into the tranny.
He had already replaced the radiator from the original so I avoided the SMOD thankfully but im going to replace the radiator anyways because it has a micro leak and they are pretty cheap to replace. I'm also replacing all the fluid. Thanks guys I really appreciate the help I'm planning on putting her back together in 2 weeks when I get enough money for all the parts any other suggestions? oh and I checked the radiator fluid its still a nice strawberry lemonade color thankfully
SMOD is only an issue on the 05-09ish trucks. The end tanks get brittle over time though so replacing it is a good idea. Try and get an 02 SC radiator though as the core is nearly double the thickness of the 00 rad and is a direct replacement, same end tanks and mounting points.
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997 Posts
Where in Illinois?
after tracing the system I found that the little brush thing I'm taking about is part of the PCV system where it t's off to enter both crank cases on my v6. Anyone know what that metal piping is called? or more importantly what the god awful metal brush thing I found inside of it was called? I also need recommendations on tubing for the air intake system and cooling system
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4 Posts
Distributor, 190k on the original? Tensioner for your water pump/power steering pump. I didn't replace mine after atop end rebuild and it threw the belt which in turn burned up my brand. New $300 distributor. Belt and tensioner only $40. even if it doesn't look bad that tensioner is worth the time. hose clamp on the power steering fluid container. Oem clamp doesn't seal and leaks. And while you have the fuel rail off you may as well have those injectors serviced.
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185 Posts
I think the wire brush thing is a spark arrestor for the PCV system.
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