The Nissan Path

Hey all - I was wondering if anyone had any advice on an intermittent issue I've been having.

A few weeks ago I bought a 2nd Pathfinder as the first one is the perfect rig for our family. It's my wife's daily driver and kid hauler. I got myself a 2006 this time as it was in immaculate condition though it does have 150k miles. I'm extremely familiar with these vehicles as I've also owned an '06 Xterra that I bought new and have always done my own work/maintenance.

The pathfinder has shut down on me a few times now, never while I'm doing the same thing. It usually fires right up but today it took about 5 minutes before it would start. Luckily, I haven't been in a precarious position any time it's shut down, but it's worrisome when I have my kids in the car.

The kicker is that it's not throwing any codes - at least that I can pick up with my ScangaugeII. I familiar with the Nissan ECM/IPDM issues and just swapped my fog light relay with the IPDM relay to see if there's any difference. My next guess is the fuel sending unit or the fuel filter.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? Has anyone had any issues with their fuel supply or fuel pressure systems other than the FSU? I am not experiencing any of the other weird electrical issues commonly associated with the IPDM/ECM relay.

Thanks for your help!

I should add...

When it shuts down, all of the electronics seem to still work fine, it's just as if the fuel supply gets cut. There's no hesitation or rough idle/operation, it simply shuts down.

You need to determine if you are losing fuel pressure or spark. The fuel pumps are pretty reliable, but I have heard of a couple failing. More often these are the symptoms of a bad cam position sensor (there are two, one on the back side of each head). Often they fail as they get hot but start working once they've had some time to cool off. Sometimes they'll trigger codes, but sometimes they don't.

Thanks for the input.

I could be losing spark as well. If one of the cam sensors is off I'd expect it to throw a code, but maybe due to the intermittent nature of the issue it isn't registering as an error.

I can't seem to locate my fuel pressure gauge (recent move) so I'll have to pick up a new one and check.

Will keep you all posted on what I find out

...so a couple minutes into my drive to NAPA to get a new fuel pressure gauge, my Pathfinder quit on me again. This time it threw a P0335.

smj, I think you hit the nail on the head with the sensor issue.

I'll check the wiring to make sure it isn't damaged and make sure my battery is up to snuff, but I'd wager it's the sensor

This past summer on the way home from a trip with the family to NYC the car ran great, on the way home it was very hot outside and when I was about 15 miles from home in upstate NY. the car was running fine AC blasting and i felt a little weird acceleration but all the gauges were fine. The AC fan kept stopping and starting up like the car was being shut off. I shut off the AC and started to pay attention to the engine. So after about 8 miles up the road when I got to the mountain road I go up 12% grade the car died 4 times within 2 mins for like 2 to 3 seconds each time. engine died and restarted. it happened like 2 times gain that day after the car cooled off and I drove it back to town to get my wife. I bought a new fuel sending unit (pump) from Nissan but have not installed it yet. I have not had the issue since then but now that I am reading about the Cam position sensor I am hoping that is what the issue is. Thanks for any input.

Could be a possibility - especially if you have any DTC's that point to one of the sensors.

The P0335 that I'm getting references to the Crankshaft Position Sensor.

SMJ above has apparently heard of the same thing happening due to issues with the cam sensors

That's the thing about it there are no DTC's at all I love that 05 LE but I have had more issues with it than anything else I have owned. She currently has 248K miles on her so I have recently bought my wife the 16 Sl pathfinder and kept the 05 because it's a truck compared to the new one. So I want to get that issues resolved before next summer. another issue is when the car is hot sometimes the coolant overflow will start dumping out the coolant so I changed out the caps the overflow with the original from Nissan and a new high pressure NISMO one.

XVTer wrote:...so a couple minutes into my drive to NAPA to get a new fuel pressure gauge, my Pathfinder quit on me again. This time it threw a P0335.

smj, I think you hit the nail on the head with the sensor issue.

I'll check the wiring to make sure it isn't damaged and make sure my battery is up to snuff, but I'd wager it's the sensor

Yeah, it sounds like you have a bad crankshaft position sensor. I usually find it easiest to replace by removing the passenger front wheel and the plastic wheel house. If you go this route, you might want to pick yourself up some plastic fender clips, because they usually break. They are Nissan P/N 01553-09321, but you can get them cheaper on Ebay (it's 4 clips per fenderliner):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-x-Bumper-Fen ... XM&vxp=mtr

I would go genuine Nissan on the crank position sensor, as they are not that expensive..about $35. It's P/N 23731-EA20C:

https://www.nissanpartsdeal.com/parts-l ... PNC=23731T

You might also find this link helpful:

https://www.autocodes.com/p0335_2006_ni ... inder.html

Thanks !

Dealer didn't have one in stock but will have one for me tomorrow.

Wanted to update everyone on the issue - I replaced the Crankshaft position sensor this past weekend and got caught up on some things I've wanted to do since purchasing the 2nd Pathfinder a little over a month ago (fluids/filters/etc).

I've put about 300 miles on it and haven't had the issue since. It's weird to think that this issue never threw a code at first but, thankfully, it finally did and made the diagnosis a lot easier.

For those of you who have this issue it's worth checking out your crank/camshaft sensors. The Crank sensor is a bit of a PITA to get out, especially if you've got big hands. It's tucked behind the passenger side exhaust manifold (above the primary cats) and in between some heat shields. My hands are a bit scraped up, but the change went without issue. Here's a picture of the Crankshaft Position Sensor location:


Since I already had one of the fender liners out, I took the time to remove some of the material at the back of the front fender, hammered over the pinch seam, and did the melt mod to the inner fender liners. I don't have any final pictures as I was in a rush, but here's what the inner fender looks like now:


This obviously allows for the installation of larger tires. I picked up a set of Infiniti QX56 wheels with snow tires and installed them with a set of 6x4.5 to 6x5.5 wheel adapters I had laying around from my old Xterra modding days - I believe they were originally from wheeladapter.com. They're 1.25" thick and the tires 'poke' a little bit, but it isn't too radical. Shouldn't be bad enough to attract the fuzz, anyway. Anyway, here's where it stands today:



***EDIT*** - changed the mfr of the wheel adapters. Couldn't remember who I got them from.

Hello Everyone...

So I've had a problem similar to the one mentioned above. The car just dies on me. I put my transmission on Parking and starts right away. Have gone to several sites and tried several things. As my car has 210k miles I figured why not change the Fuel Pump. I got it for $105 at rockauto.com.

My tank was nearly empty as changing the pump is always better if the tank has very little fuel. Changing the pump was somewhat of a challenge. As I was leaving Costco after filling my tank, the darn car stalls. I put it in Parking and starts again. Right in the middle of the exit, the car stops again. This time the car won't start. This was frustrating.... a couple of good Samaritans help me push the car out of the way.

I wait a few minutes, and the car starts without a problem. My brain finally tells me I should use my code reader. It gives me P0335, telling me I should change the Crankshaft Position Sensor (CPS). I call my nearest Nissan dealer they wanted $124 + tax. I went to Oreilly and got the part for $42 + tax.

Unlike the previous 2006 Pathfinder mentioned above, the CPS on my car was extremely easy to get to. It was under the Transmission.

I replaced it and cleared the code. After driving about 3 miles around the neighborhood this may have fixed the problem. I'll continue to update as my code reader tells me that there's nothing on the module yet.

In one of the websites, it mentions that on rare occasions extremely dirty oil may cause the P0335 code as well as the stalling. I also changed the oil which was extremely dirty. Again, I'll have to wait and see if the problem persists.

Hope someone finds this useful.