Nissan - Pathfinder :: 1996 - Shakes At Highway Speeds Around 60 MPH
Apr 6, 2013
Our Pathfinder shakes side to side around 60mph and quits after 65 or 70 (We live in New Mexico and commute through Texas where speeds are much higher than back East). We have changed shocks, struts & mounts, tires, and alignments. Most of these have been changed multiple times over the years, especially tires.
We have been driving this way since May of 2005 (129,916 miles). We have TRIED to get it fixed. We have had it in shops all across the country (we travel a bit). We talk it up to people we meet who know cars. We have taken it to Nissan, with no results. NO ONE has solved the problem and we are out lots of money.
We are now at 205,000 miles. I would really like to get this fixed! We cannot afford to just buy a new car. Mechanics across the country have not solved this issue!
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This is a '96 Nissan Pathfinder with a manual transmission.
On a few occasions, sporadically, over the span of a couple months, my pathfinder wouldn't start on the first turn of the key... but it would on the second or third turn. When I say "wouldn't start," I mean I'd get a single click and that's it... it wasn't trying to turn over and failing. It wasn't cranking at all. The stereo and lights worked fine though.
Then, on two occasions about a week from each other, it failed to start (as above) right after a short drive but started again without issue a couple hours later. On these two occasions, I tried turning the lights on and starting and did not see the lights dim, which would seem to indicate no juice was getting to the start motor at all I guess?
Now, it seems to have just stopped starting altogether. The battery voltage seems fine. A little high even at 15V+ when measured with a multimeter.
Do these symptoms give any strong indications of what the problem might be? If I have a chance of fixing it myself, I'd like to do so. Otherwise, I'd like to have a good idea of what the problem is before having it towed somewhere.
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I have a 1999 Nissan Pathfinder. It's 4wd with a manual transmission. I was getting an intermittent problem with vibrations coming from the front passenger side wheel when driving on the highway. They recently got worse and I'd notice a slight burning smell coming from the wheel area. There would also occasionally be a metallic clicking/plonking noise coming from the wheel and a slight hissing sound. I took it into a mechanic (not my regular mechanic because he was gone for the week) and they said it has something to do with the transfer case. They said they took the front right tire off after putting it on the rack in neutral, and they couldn't get the to spin freely. They said it could be something with the drive train or transfer case, but they weren't sure without taking it apart. They said it could be something to do with the 4wd not disengaging, but again, they're not sure.
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My T&C strikes again... Now it shakes when braking at highway speeds (thinking rotors are warped and need changed), but today the brake light, traction control, and ABS lights all come on and stay on when I drive...
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My accent just crossed 180K mark. From last year the steering wheel shakes quite a bit at highway speeds ,say 70MPH. It's especially bad when I accelerates . Took the car to a shop, they told me two things, the CV axle of passenger side needs replacement, and the wheel hub bearings are bad(both front wheels). They quoted me $200 for replacing the cv axle, and $400 for replacing both front wheel bearings. Since I don't even think the car worth $600 right now(given high mileage), I told them I'll just do the axle(I know how to do it myself but don't have the time, plus it won't be that much cheaper DIY anyway). They said fine, but if you don't replace the bearings you may have the wheel fly off one day and that's dangerous.
They replaced the axle, and the car drives a lot better now. There's still a little bit of shaking at high speed but 75% of that shake has gone away. My question is, does the worn out bearing causes car to tremble at high speed? I heard other people told me there should be a grinding or loud hawling sound if the bearings are bad, but I don't hear that. I searched the internet and some people say, to determine if the hub bearings are bad, just drive it for 10 minutes then feel the hub. If it's barely warm, the bearings are good. If it's warm to hot, then the bearings are bad. I felt it and it's warm, but not too hot to touch. I tried the rear wheels and those are barely warm indeed.
So from this method it seems the front wheel hub bearings are indeed bad. I wonder how long I can keep driving this without endanger myself. $400 is not cheap for this car and I don't have a machine to press in the bearings myself. I can disassemble the rotor and hub that's not a big deal, but I don't know how to get the old bearing out and the new bearing in. Is there a machine shop that just do the pressing? Or, is there any shop selling the hub assembly with bearing already in place? this way I just remove the old hub assembly and replace it with the new assembly, a lot easier. I searched the internet but can only find pre-assembled hub w/ bearing for the rear wheel of this car. I need the front ones.
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Noticed the steering wheel shakes just slightly at highway speeds. Happens to me when I'm at around 65-70mph and above. It's just very slight, so I really wasn't thinking its an alignment issue at all. I didn't know if this was a bit normal for these B7s or what. I've had alignment issues in cars before and this just doesn't feel that bad, but its enough to give me pause.
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Have a 03 f350 with the 6.0 have been experiencing very harsh shaking problems. This only happens at highway speeds 55-60 any other speed is smooth as can be weather it's 25-95 mph. The weird part is that it only shakes when the truck shifts into overdrive and it shakes bad and if you lay into it like you were gonna pass someone it stops then shifts back into overdrive and shakes again.
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We have a 1996 Nissan Quest - but only 72000 miles (we bought it from our daughters' 90 year old piano teacher who only used it for camping trips with 45K miles 3 years ago) I have an intermittent stalling problem. Only at low speed, sometimes going up hill or into a turn, but it's also happened going straight on, I get a compete loss of power. Still have steering, (not power) so I wrestle the beast over, and it restarts right away. No check engine light. This has happened about 6 times. Not low gas level, usually 1/2 + tank. No codes.
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I have a 2003 Nissan maxima and at first it used to shake at around 50mph, took it to the shop they looked into the suspension, did wheel balance, changed 2 front tires and wheel alignment and they said it should be fixed. A week later, it started shacking at around 70 mph, what else should I do to get ride of this problem?
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Two years ago a purchased a 2011 Nissan Frontier mid-sized pick-up, V-6, A/T, 4WD, long-bed (6’), crew cab four door. I drove it for a little over a year and it was all good, then I put an 800 lb. pop-up cab-over camper on it. When folded down, the top of the camper is about one foot above the top of the truck cab, with about a four inch space between the bottom of the cab-over and the top of the cab, and with the cab-over extending over the back two-thirds of the cab, so the whole thing creates quite a bit of wind resistance.
After installing the camper, I noticed a front-to-back jerking motion when driving the truck at highway speeds, sort of like when topping a steep hill and beginning to descend, some vehicles will lurch front-to-back until the drive train synchs up. It was cyclic – jerk 7 or 8 times, smooth out, then do it again. It wasn’t bad enough to cause vehicle control issues. I took it to the dealer and the initial diagnosis was that the automatic trans. was going in and out of lock-up. Then I drove the service manager around in it with his laptop scope plugged in to the engine, and he said he couldn’t see anything wrong with the drive train. He suggested running the rear tires at maximum pressure of 44 lbs., which I tried but which didn’t work.
I then had airbags installed to beef up the rear suspension, but that didn’t work. Finally I built a fairing/wind deflector and installed it on top of the cab, sloping at a 45 degree angle from the trailing edge of the windshield to the leading edge of the top of the camper. That didn’t work either, which surprised me because I had first experimented with the concept by duct-taping a sheet of cardboard in the same position as the fairing would ultimately be installed, and that seemed to work. The same jerking sensation can be felt when overdrive is engaged and when it is locked out, and it also occurs at slower speeds when decelerating. Is there anything I can do to smooth out the ride?
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I have a 2003 Nissan xterra se with 93,0000 mi. When i reach speeds greater than 60 mph it makes this rapid somewhat clicking noise. the dealer suggest to replace the belts. Of course that did not resolved the issue. then they claimed it was coming from the exhaust so they tinkered with it. it was gone for awhile but now it has return.
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It is a '90 Nissan Maxima. I just replaced my drivers side axle (cv joint was clicking), and now my car vibrates at highway speeds when turning right. I am pretty sure I seated the axle correctly....could it be a bad axle? I heard that turning the axle 90 degrees and reinstalling may work? I got a new axle (Empi brand).
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my 1990 Nissan 300zx with 136,000 miles often surges at highway speeds for several seconds then drops back down to normal. the surge is usually 1000 rpm. does not happen if not in overdrive, and will not happen unless having been driving for 15 minutes or so. also seems to occur more on hot days (80 degree +) than on cool days. mechanic has looked at this several times but not yet able to determine why.
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We have a 1995 Nissan Pathfinder (automatic) that is having trouble starting. We can't find a pattern to when it starts and when it doesn't start so we can't diagnose the problem. When it doesn't start, here's what happens: turning the key, you can hear one soft click. Then nothing. After several or many turns of the key (and the same single click), it finally "catches" and starts. Two weeks ago, the car would not start at all. Even the following day, it wouldn't start. The lights and radio did work. We tried a jump-start and it surprisingly started right up. We immediately replaced the battery, but the problems resumed. The following have been replaced since the problems began: starter, ignition switch, battery, transmission, and the horn for the alarm has been bypassed. Note: with the old battery back in, it does work.
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Our 1999.5 Nissan Pathinder has about 148,000 miles on it. At the end of 2011, we replaced the struts, shocks, and brake pads. We also added a new in-dash stereo with GPS. At the end of 2011, the mechanic recommended replacing the ignition wires, cap/rotor, and spark plugs, all of which were OEM. The mechanic also recommended replacing the power steering belts and serpentine belts, which were cracking. We did not do these repairs in 2011.
At the beginning of February 2012, I drove the car for several miles and then parked for 30 minutes. When I re-started the car, the engine made a thumping sound and the whole car vibrated. The thumping sound was a dull sound (not a pinging). These symptoms occurred in Park. I drove about 100 feet down the parking lot (using both Reverse and Drive) and the thumping sound and vibration continued. I parked and re-started the car. The symptoms continued for about 1/2 mile driving and then went away.
The problem has occurred 2-3 times more. To my knowledge, the problem has only happened when the car has been driven, left standing for 15-60 minutes, and then restarted. Each time the problem goes away shortly after it begins. The third time the problem happened, the "Service Engine Soon" light went on. We took the car to a different garage. The computer showed two codes (Cylinder 2 Misfire, which had been tripped 3 times), and Engine Vibration.
The mechanic recommended doing the service that we had put off in 2011 (ignition wires, cap/rotor, spark plugs, power steering belts, and serpentine belts). The theory was that a misfiring cylinder may have caused the engine vibration. So, we had this service done. The next morning after picking up the car, and again after a short drive, a 30-minute delay, and restarting the engine, the problem happened again. So, it seems that the service did not fix it.
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The A/C in my 2001 Nissan Pathfinder (~153,000 miles) only works on high as of this afternoon's commute. This seems like a common problem on older cars - what's the typical cause? Googling just gives me all sorts of answers and I would like to have some background before calling our mechanic.
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My car recently got a code for the camshaft sensor after my car died in the middle of street and the engine light turned on. I had gotten it replaced. In fact, I had both (left and right) camshaft sensors replaced and we changed out the crankshaft sensor as well. Then, a new problem comes up.
My car does not accelerate as strongly as it used to. In first gear (car is automatic), my car seems to struggle to get in 2nd gear. Imagine the feeling of your car when you keep it in 1st gear (in a stick-shift) and you KNOW that's the point of having to shift into 2nd, but you keep driving anyway. Then, once it does shift gears, my car jolts forward with a big drop in RPM. Imagine the feeling of finally shifting your manual transmission into 2nd gear and feeling that "relief" in the engine as it doesn't seem to struggle anymore. What's worse is that at higher speeds/gear my Pathfinder won't go beyond 4000 RPM. I'm driving at around 65 mph and the car is at 2500 RPM. When it hits 4000 RPM, the RPM just ticks before it and my car stutters back and forth as if I'm playing a beat with my car by hitting the breaks.
An example scenario, I'm driving on the highway and there's a slower car in front of me. I just want to pass the person and be on my way but as I press on the gas, my RPMs don't really increase as it normally would when applying more gas to go faster. Once I do finally get to 4000 RPM, my car starts to stutter or rock back and forth as if hitting an invisible wall. Are there tons of reasons that this could happen?
On the other hand, I tested my car, in park, to see if my engine would rev pass 4000 RPM, and it does. So, the problem presents itself only when I'm driving.
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I have a Nissan Pathfinder 2001 and it only works on settings 1 - 3 . When put on high the compressor turns off and no cool air . Even when turn on , the air is not cool enough. It's pretty hot in Arizona but it should cool off nice but it doesn't . Took it for a check up and it needs just a bit of refrigerant and probably the AC control might need to be replaced. But they weren't sure about it.
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How to stop my Pathfinder from randomly spouting it's alarm? Happens about once a day, I think it only happens when the car is locked but not quite sure.
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is there a way to check fuel injector to make sure they are working.
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My Nissan Pathfinder (1994) makes a "clunk" sound when I go around tight corners, usually only one "clunk" per turn.
The sound occurs on tight turns at low speed (e.g. on a round-a-bout: [URL] ....) as the weight of the car shifts and leans away from the turn.
The sound seems to come from the front end, near the driver's side wheel.
My mechanic couldn't work out what was wrong. He removed, greased and reassembled the upper driver's side ball joint and then gave up.
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