Nissan - Pathfinder :: 2005 Losing Power While Driving
Apr 29, 2014
My 2005 Nissan Pathfinder with approximately 150,000 miles has been losing power while driving. It's pretty scary. The problem first manifested one week ago when it stalled at a stoplight. It restarted after a few panicky moments of frantic key turning. My husband and his identical twin brother took a look under the hood when I got home and discovered the terminal on the battery was loose and had a screw in it to maintain a closer fit. They remedied that by replacing the screw with aluminum foil. Four days later, I'm driving away from a large big-box store, and it loses power again. I got it restarted and drove around back of the store to the tire center. They tested the battery, and declared it "bad".
The battery and the terminals were replaced. Hooray! I was safe. Or so I thought. The very next day, I drove out to the middle of nowhere to go fishing, and it lost power three times. I was an hour away from home and there was no cell phone service. I left the lake before dark and lost power once more on the way home. To recap, the first time it lost power I was stopped at a light, the second time (at the store) I was at a stop sign, the third, fourth, and fifth times I was driving but slowing down for cars in front of me and had to pull over to restart it, and the last time I was driving down hill and the power came back on before the bottom of the hill. A lot of lights come on in the dashboard when it loses power.
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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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My 1998 Nissan Pathfinder dies randomly while driving. There is no consistency to when it dies. I will be driving down the road and then all of a sudden the car will not accelerate and it eventually dies. The other issue is it won't start from time to time. It sounds like it wants to go, but it won't. Eventually it will turn over. It has been to many mechanics. The crank shaft sensor has been replaced and the mass air flow sensor. Neither one of these were the problem. They now think it is the distributor possibly. There are no codes saved. It has been sitting at the shop now for 9 weeks.
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Replaced battery, replaced fuse line holder by battery, checked starter w/ jumper wires, most smaller ignition related fuses are fine.Can't read the schematic for the relay box, so I didn't check that. online manufacturer manual has nothing on it. how do I test those?
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What might be the problem with my 2001 Pathfinder 4WD. I notice steering wheel shaking/shimmy when driving but not all the time. The vehicle has 125K miles. Is it tie rods, struts, warped rotors, alignment? What it might be before going to a repair shop. Have had tires rotated and balanced.
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I have a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder that has 79,896 miles on it. I have done a lot of warranty repair to the car (transmission, radiator, oil leaks and other fun stuff). My latest problem is when the car is running for more that 20 minutes and I slow down or press on the brakes my oil pressure gauge drops to L. I have taken it to two dealers one -- said that the 'pressure was in normal range" and could not do a thing and the other fixed a leak in the oil cooler and replaced the seals behind the manifold. This still has not fixed the problem. At this point they feel there is nothing else they can do but this is not normal.
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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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I have an '05 Pathfinder w/ 93k miles. Recently noticed a uneven feel in the power steering, most noticeable at slower (less than 30mph) speeds. Feels like the power steering pump is intermittently engaging/disengaging. As I turn the steering wheel I feel random "tight" or "hard" spots in the steering. Similar to what you would feel if the wheel was against a curb and you were trying to turn into it. Doesn't make any appreciable noise, but can just feel it in the steering wheel.Checked power steering fluid, no issue. Replaced power steering pump, had no effect. Power-flushed the power steering system, had no effect.Oh - and my wife says she hasn't hit any large rocks, logs, or potholes recently!
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I've searched the inter tubes, trying to find out if there is a fuse or relay or even circuit breaker that needs replacing. From all I've checked, I can't find a fuse, relay or circuit breaker labeled to control window and door locks.all 4 windows don't work (with exception to front passenger window occasionally goes down but not up.)finally figured i should have come to this fine forum first! (especially after hearing 'car talk' today)some other pages with similar questions had answers referring to fuse #12 or relay F (mine aren't identified that way). I'm heading out to get a test light -- just so i can see if i can test anything...
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'04 Nissan Pathfinder 3.5L ~150k: P0011 and P0021
Friend's vehicle. OBD-II codes indicate Intake Valve Timing Control Bank1 and Bank2. Vehicle drives OK most of the time, but then has lapses of lost power where you step on the gas and the vehicle doesn't accelerate accordingly. RPMs rise, but tranny doesn't seem to shift at the right time. Overdrive button OFF doesn't seem to have any affect. Codes have been erased and returned the next day.
Is this Camshaft-related, as in Camshaft Position sensor? I had this issue with my '97 Taurus, but in that case it threw the code explicitly for the CMP sensor.
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I have an 06 Pathfinder LE that was running fine earlier. got to a location and when i went to drive home it was a tough start, rough idle and lack of power. got an 0302 code so i changed out the plugs and swapped the # 2 coil for # 4. once started still ran rough as described. read code again after clearing and code still ran 0302, didn't follow coil. is the #2 coil on drivers side as i have read?
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The 2002 Nissan Xterra (4WD), automatic transmission, I drive for work is starting to have trouble traveling up hills. Just the other day I was traveling on a freeway up a fairly steep grade for ~6 miles. It wouldn't down shift and the pedal was to the floor while I watched the speed slowly drop. I started noticing earlier this year that it will disengage the cruise control on this same steep grade, though not every time. This used to be my personal vehicle and I have been driving it since 2002, so I know how it drives. A mechanic test drove it today and chalked it up to age (our admin assistant took it to the mechanic, so I didn't get to talk to him). Its got something like 170k miles. That is a lot of miles and it is 10 years old, but I am really wary of any diagnosis based solely on age.
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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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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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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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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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I have a 1998 Pathfinder with around 160,000 miles on it. This week it has had some issues with stalling when I am idling. The first time it happened, I was at a stoplight and it cut out 3 times and I was able to start it back up and drive the rest of the way home (40 miles) with no problem. The next time it started stalling out I was at a stoplight and was able to put it in neutral and rev the engine and it stayed on. I have a 45 mile commute to and from work every day, and I don't want this to happen when I am on the highway going 65mph.
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