2000 Pathfinder 3.3L Repair Help

2223 Views 21 Replies 5 Participants Last post by kms1990, Apr 24, 2020

Accswilson

Discussion Starter · Feb 24, 2020 (Edited)

Hey guys, new to the forum and first posting! Thank you in advance!

Problem: 2000 Nissan Pathfinder 3.3L 4wd 184,000 miles starts, idles, and drives perfect until the truck is thoroughly heat soaked. Once it's hot, the truck chokes/misfires. If you give it any throttle it's coughs, bogs down, will have no power and won't rev higher than about 3k rpms. It will continue this until it cools back down. Repeat over and over. No SES light. I had one code for an o2 sensor bank 2 sensor 2 and one random misfire.

Prior to this issue, the truck has had within the last two years: Cap, Rotor, spark plugs (ngk), plug wires (ngk), fuel filter, engine oil is maintained, air filter, thermostat, water pump, harmonic balancer, timing belt & tensioner, all new belts, egr solenoid, knock sensor, bank 1 sensor 1 o2 sensor.

I started with the basics. Double checked spark plugs for fouling and gap. Cleaned the throttle body and MAF sensor. Tested TPS and MAF and both work as they should. Vacuum tested egr valve - functions as it should. Replaced bank 2 sensor 2 o2 sensor. No change.

I began to suspect an injector. Removed intake and tested injectors. Found 2 injectors to have higher resistance. Replaced all 6 and reassemble with new plenum gasket. Same results

Suspecting ignition coil. Removed and found the bearing on the distributor completely destroyed. Removed all metal and replaced bearing. Installed new ignition coil. Doubled checked timing. Same results.

Still no SES light and now I'm lead to the exhaust system possibly choking the engine when it's hot.

I'm currently tearing down the exhaust system. I've found both catalytic converters missing large sections of honeycomb on the downstream side and the muffler rattles and weighs about 50lbs. I've got new parts coming to completely replace the oem exhaust.

I'm out of ideas guys. If the exhaust does not fix my problem I'll be at a dead end. Is there something I may have overlooked? Are there known computer problems with these vehicles? The truck had been terrific for me over the last 4 years. Again, the truck starts every day and runs perfect cold.

Thank you for your time!

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mhamor

· #2 · Feb 24, 2020

Hey and welcome. So I was going to initially say clogged exhaust/cats. While i didn't have an issue like this, my cats, all four of them on the xterra, were destroyed and clogged and rattling inside. Since replacing the two that are part of the exhaust manifolds, and eliminating the secondary ones that are after the o2 sensors, the throttle feel and responsiveness of the engine is immensely improved! I've had it for 5,000 miles and just assumed it was supposed to run like it could barely breathe. And also, because you've had some issues with o2 sensors it is likely a possibility that bad o2 sensors have been messing with fuel trims and blowing those cats out.

The other issue that is actually common is that distributor but you seem to have that all checked out. You're right around the mileage known to have that bearing break apart and wallah, it had!

It does seem like a strange situation though because metals expand when warm, so if anything, they should be closing potential air leaks as is warms up.

I wish you luck and would put some money on the exhaust being the issue. Let us know!

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vinallobs

· #3 · Apr 23, 2020

did you figure it out? i have the exact same problem with an 04 xterra

mhamor

· #4 · Apr 23, 2020

vinallobs said:
did you figure it out? i have the exact same problem with an 04 xterra

So first thing would be to check that distributor, how many miles? They wear out and cause this issue without throwing the check engine light. Start there and then do some more searching. Just type into the search bar distributor replacement or something similar and you should find a good walkthrough

vinallobs

· #5 · Apr 23, 2020

new distributor, maybe 2 months old. 140k on the truck.

vinallobs

· #6 · Apr 23, 2020

i'm searching everywhere and everything. either no answer if they figured it out or no reply to the post. so i figure its either stupid simple or physicist hard

mhamor

· #7 · Apr 23, 2020

So is that distributor in time? What brand? Aftermarket ones are known to crap out after a short time so it wouldn’t be surprising if it was actually still your issue.

Accswilson

Discussion Starter · #8 · Apr 23, 2020

Update: the exhaust was not the issue on my truck. Yes, it was completely destroyed after 20 years but it wasn't the cause of my problem.

I finally gave up and took it to the local Christian Brothers shop. They found my issue to be the sensor inside of the Distributor. I believe it reads the disc. Imagine my frustration as I had the distributor out and stripped down twice.

Installed a new distributor and she's as good as new.

Thank you everyone for the help!

vinallobs

· #9 · Apr 23, 2020

(to the op, sorry for the thread jack?) distributor is in time. followed the instructions to pull the tps plug, etc. it is carquest from advanced. i wondered if it might be bad, but the xterra runs great, like its supposed to, for about 30-45 minutes. then it wont rev over 3000 rpms. if i keep driving eventually it wont rev over 1000. it almost sounds like it backfires through the intake when you try to push it past. let it cool down it revs to 3000. let it cool overnight, runs like a champ. will rev to the rev limiter. fuel pressure from the pump is 36 at idle, 45 koeo, 45 if you pull the hose from the fpr. could it be the fuel temp sensor? i understand it has one.

vinallobs

· #10 · Apr 23, 2020

thanks. we posted at the same time. maybe i will look at the distributor again then.

vinallobs

· #11 · Apr 23, 2020

no, i WILL look at the distributor again

mhamor

· #12 · Apr 23, 2020

Just from my own experience, I had a rough idle and replaced the distributor. Didn’t fix the issue but the new distributor left me on the side of the road, the camshaft position sensor inside of it had failed. I put the cam sensor from my old distributor in with all of the electronics of the new distributor and it has been great since, so always check the distributor for fault even if you just replaced it, they are known to be poopy on these!

vinallobs

· #13 · Apr 23, 2020

Thanks. I have heard that they are very picky about the distributors. Bad thing is at this age there aren't a lot of options. I could order one online or source one locally. I chose to go local since i can walk to the store and replace it under its lifetime warranty. Not that I want to do that a lot, tho?

Mike T Mechanic

· #14 · Apr 23, 2020

you have done alot checking but my best answer is the fuel system> specifically injectors. Injectors are hard to diagnos.
Your truck will run perfect when its cold. But once it heats up the resistance in the injectors will increase the injectors will malfunction. And here comes the P0300 code. Try this check the resistance of the injectors when the vehicle gets hot.
This may help you.

vinallobs

· #15 · Apr 23, 2020

one warranty distributor later and she runs like a champ again. thanks everyone.

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kms1990

· #16 · Apr 24, 2020

vinallobs said:
one warranty distributor later and she runs like a champ again. thanks everyone.

yeah the autozone duralast golds worked well in my 98 pathfinder and 00 xterra both with the 3.3

vinallobs

· #17 · Apr 24, 2020

I was going to go with that one but none of the three stores in my area could locate the one they each had "in stock". Hopefully this one lasts.

Reactions: 1

kms1990

· #18 · Apr 24, 2020

vinallobs said:
I was going to go with that one but none of the three stores in my area could locate the one they each had "in stock". Hopefully this one lasts.

sounds like they need to correct their inventory

vinallobs

· #19 · Apr 24, 2020

If you only knew. I worked for Advanced for a while. All of the auto parts stores in my area work together. Autozone, Advanced, O'Reilly's. They send parts to each other and deliver parts for each other. All of the management knows each other. It's good in a way, they are taking care of the customer, but as you can see, inventory gets messed up.

kms1990

· #20 · Apr 24, 2020

vinallobs said:
If you only knew. I worked for Advanced for a while. All of the auto parts stores in my area work together. Autozone, Advanced, O'Reilly's. They send parts to each other and deliver parts for each other. All of the management knows each other. It's good in a way, they are taking care of the customer, but as you can see, inventory gets messed up.

not from my expereince, i worked at autozone for 4 years in college from 2012-16 and we would call over and get calls from orielly and advanced to check if we had parts they didnt or vice versa but we never sent parts to one another, but most of the house branded stuff are made by the same companies for all of them, like all the house brand electric sensors like knock, wheel speed etc that are durlast or orielly or advanced are made by wells, the cv axles are made bay a1cardone etc.

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