[yellastella]

I just bought a 2001 Xterra SE 3.3L 4wd. I love the looks of the truck (bright yellow), but it turns out the guy I bought it from lied to me about how long he owned and work he had done to it. It's got 132k miles, and seems to not have been maintained beyond oil changes for a while. Mechanically it might be fine - nothing obvious yet. But I'm having electrical issues. Wondering if anyone can help me figure out what's going on.

First, the ABS light is on. This may not be related to the electrical issues and I haven't paid to have it diagnosed yet, so I don't know what's causing it. Driving fine right now, so I'll figure that one out after I figure out the electrical things.

In the past couple days since buying the truck, I've noticed the following seemingly unrelated electrical things not working:

both fog lights don't turn on
2 of the 3 power outlets don't work
stereo controls on the left side of the steering wheel don't work
driver's side mirror controls don't work

I haven't had any in-depth electrical inspection yet, cause I just bought the car and I don't want to spend any unnecessary money on it. A few mechanics have said that there could be an electrical short somewhere causing these things to not work.

The battery was 12 years old, so I replaced that today. The 4 things that are out still don't work, but another thing happened. For the first few hours after changing out the battery, the car started up and drove fine. Then tonight I went to start it and it wouldn't start. No power. The inside lights were flickering and turning on and off, doing strange things. One of the previous owners had hooked up a subwoofer in the back, which is no longer there, but the cables are there, and a power cable was hooked up to the battery. I unhooked the subwoofer cable and the car started up again. So maybe the subwoofer cable had a problem and somehow caused the car to not start? But only after I put in a new battery??

I'm in LA right now, but I'm moving out to the desert in 2 days, so I need this car to be reliable. I'm planning on using it for traveling/camping and off-roading. I'm coming off a really bad experience with a K5 Blazer that had endless problems, and I read that the Xterras are supposed to be great, so I'm hoping I got a good one.

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas on what's going on with the electrical system? Does it sound like an electrical short? Would this be difficult or expensive to diagnose and fix?

 

[muadeeb]

Check all the fuses. Fogs are both on one fuse: #40 (under the hood) 15A. Fuse #37 could be out too, but then you wouldn't have the Right headlamp.

The Cigarette Lighter is on Fuse #23 (in cabin) and is the one to the left up front. The two power sockets are on fuse #42 (engine) and is a 20A.

Stereo controls are either a bad switch, bad connection in the steering wheel, or they installed an aftermarket radio at one point and fouled up the connector there. You mentioned an aftermarket subwoofer, so it's likely they screwed up the harness at the radio.

Mirror I would tend to think a bad selector (L/R) switch, as you made it sound like the right side mirror works fine. Also, could be a bad motor in the mirror.

ABS may be related if you have a harness issue near the right wheel well, but ground pin 9 on the OBD connector, turn the truck to 'ON' (do not start) and the ABS light will start to blink it's trouble code. Grab the FSM from here and go from there.

 

[yellastella]

Thanks for all the information! My mechanic said he checked the fuses and they seemed to be fine, but I'm going to check them myself. The 2 power outlets that don't work are on the same fuse, so it would make sense that the fuse is the problem. That would be an easy fix.

The previous owner mentioned that he had the driver's side mirror replaced, so I'm thinking that maybe whoever replaced it didn't hook up the wires properly. And it's likely that whoever added the subwoofer did something to the stereo wires (stock radio is still in the car). As soon as I can I'm gonna upgrade the whole stereo anyway.

I'd really like to figure out how to check the ABS light myself though. I've never done anything electrical to a car. Can you explain more about how I "ground pin 9 on the OBD connector"? Or point me to a site that explains it?

Thanks again. This is my first Xterra and first post on the forum. It's great to find a helpful community!

 

[muadeeb]

The FSM (Factory Service Manual) I linked to has the procedure in it, as well as the blink code; section BR, page 46 is your primary interest right now. Basically, you take a wire, or paper clip and put one end in pin 9 of the OBD connector (located to the left of the driver's knee) and the other end to pin 4 (gnd). This puts the ABS module in diagnostic mode and will cause the ABS light to blink. The first code will be the 'start' code and consists of one long blink followed by two short ones (12). There will then be a 3 sec gap and the next code will display, up to three codes.

 

[yellastella]

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

 

[Creepy Cruiser]

Also, do you know if the timing belt has ever been changed?

 

[yellastella]

No I don't know if the timing belt has ever been changed. If not, I know it's overdue based on miles. Seems like there's no way to know if it needs to be changed without actually doing it right? Can it affect any of these electrical things? Or the ABS? What are the symptoms of a bad timing belt?

 

[muadeeb]

T-Belt won't effect electrical. If it breaks, you can sustain severe valve damage. As for symptoms, it may run slightly rough due to skipping a tooth from being loose. Like you said: the only way to really know is to do it.

If it was done with a factory belt, there should be a metallic sticker on the radiator support. If you don't see that, assume it hasn't been done.