The Nissan Path

My wife's 05' LE recently went through the ECM Relay failure. Shortly after replacement of that, it started to become a real dog when trying to get to speed on the highway. It would sort of stall out and flash the SES light until you let out of the throttle to cruise and then it'd be fine. It had a P0430 code logged along with a P0463 (fuel gauge) and P01446 (EVAP solenoid). I pulled the Driver's side Cat and to my surprise, half the honeycomb was missing. It wound up in the Driver's side secondary Cat. I tried to vacuum the substrate back out but it was plugged up very tightly and after 15 mins of shop vac suction, it became obvious that it did not care to come free. I busted both honeycombs out and am waiting for the replacement Primary Cat. Is there any reason I should replace the secondary Cat? I'm considering pulling the Passenger side secondary cat and busting it's honeycomb out as well just so both sides will see the same backpressure but figured I'd consult this group and see if anyone here has experienced these same issues. FWIW, I'm nowhere near CA and I doubt the truck will ever make it there in it's lifetime.

I have not had any issues with mine yet. However with other vehicles i've had, I'd recommend replacing them in pairs. They work together and I would guess your passenger side could have some damage as well. Won't know unless you take it down and look. The crappy part is, CATs are not cheap.

not that i want to pour salt in your wounds... but it looks like you JUST missed the 80,000 warranty on catalytic converters.

that sucks.

you might want to try and bargain with the local dealer to see if they can cut you a deal on parts since you just came out of warranty.

~mike

The primary cats went out on my 06. Cost me $2400.00 at the dealer to replac all 4.
The dealer tech says the engines run better with out the cats so maybe I should have gutted mine, The problem with that is the check engine light stays on because the front & rear 02 sensors get the same reading, I understand there are re wired o2 sensors for the rear to cure that problem, but I couldn't find any.
Atleast in WA there is no tail pipe sniff test, but if the check engine light is on it's an automatic emissions failure.

google 02 simulators. They fix CELs for 02 sensors.

I checked o2 simulators & many other sources. No one makes a fake o2 sensor for the pathfinder that I can find.

I've been checking around for simulators as well. I haven't found a plug and play type. I did come across a post on a Nissan Forum that suggested using Non-Fouler Spark plug adapters to back the rear O2 sensor probe out of the exhaust stream. I've also found something very similar on Ebay. The theory being that it won't be directly in the exhaust stream and won't notice the converters are gone. It seems like a cheap enough fix and it might not work but for 15 bucks, it's worth a shot. I'll try it and post my results. I've also got to get some header wrap as all 3 of the heatsheild bolts snapped very easily while trying to remove. I'd rather not have to remove the manifold and drill and extract them.

Tried the non-fouler spark plug adapter trick, cleared codes and the SES light is off after the first trip. Hopefully it will stay that way "UNTIL I ORDER A NEW CAT FROM THE DEALER AND REPAIR THE TRUCK CORRECTLY". I'll post my results after the wife drives it for a week as to whether the SES light stays off.

The P0430 code is gone. Now to address the fuel sending unit. I know this an oddball question but I'm providing the last 3 replies on this post. Do you guys have perfect trucks that never break. I've seen tire's and wheels threads that get replied to alot more. I'm a member on SteelSoldiers which is an ex military big truck site and big truck owner and they at least participate on the forum and much more in person.

sandcobra164 wrote:The P0430 code is gone. Now to address the fuel sending unit. I know this an oddball question but I'm providing the last 3 replies on this post. Do you guys have perfect trucks that never break. I've seen tire's and wheels threads that get replied to alot more. I'm a member on SteelSoldiers which is an ex military big truck site and big truck owner and they at least participate on the forum and much more in person.

Take a look at the member list dude. Only 64 people have more than 100 posts, and I doubt many of them are still active. Oh, and you have 4 whole posts so far.

However, a little patience goes a long way. I still find this site the best resource for the 05+ Pathfinder. There is ClubFrontier, but it doesn't address any suspension issues for our truck, and those guys are real knobs sometimes too.

On this site there are lulls sometimes, around holidays, or in summer. For instance, I am building my house right now, so I don't have a ton of time to spend on here.

I don't know if the people that have gotten the P0430 have also gotten the P0420 at the same time and just not mentioned it since it's on the opposite side but that's exactly what happened to me.
I have an '05 with 125k-ish miles. Check Engine light came on but I seem to be getting the same gas mileage and nothing seems out of the ordinary. I just put a new fuel sender in about 6 months ago.

I got two detailed print outs from Auto Zone and they say this (I combined the 1/2 from the two different tickets):

Catalyst system efficiency below threshold - bank 1/2
Probable cause
1. Large vacuum leak
2. Fuel system fault
3. Ignition system fault
4. Failed bank 1/2 catalytic converter

Has anyone that got the code checked seen this much detail? That's such a wide range of problems to sort out. I guess I'll try the 02 sensor spacer first and go from there. Two cats failing at exactly the same time would seem odd wouldn't it?

just search for the P0463, you'll find TONS....including at least a couple how-to's.

The front "02" on R51's isn't an 02, it's an A/F sensor, which works on completely different voltages than the conventional 02. As long as you don't mess with the primary cat between the a/f and rear 02, you can do whatever you want to the rear cats. You don't even really need to worry about keeping B1 and B2 balanced. The injectors aren't batch, but sequential. The ECM will take care of it. If you bust out the matrix from the cat, make sure you do a COMPLETE job. The broken down material can get sucked UPSTREAM ( believe it) and turn your engine into an oil burner.

Tech wrote:just search for the P0463, you'll find TONS....including at least a couple how-to's.

The front "02" on R51's isn't an 02, it's an A/F sensor, which works on completely different voltages than the conventional 02. As long as you don't mess with the primary cat between the a/f and rear 02, you can do whatever you want to the rear cats. You don't even really need to worry about keeping B1 and B2 balanced. The injectors aren't batch, but sequential. The ECM will take care of it. If you bust out the matrix from the cat, make sure you do a COMPLETE job. The broken down material can get sucked UPSTREAM ( believe it) and turn your engine into an oil burner.

The fuel sender replacement was pretty straightforward and you can find links to people showing photos of how to do it.

I haven't had the ECM relay recall done yet so I wonder if that could help my P0420/P0430 issues?

I found a site that had some instructions on troubleshooting this issue.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 830AAzOPz0
My Pathfinder doesn't idle or run rough so testing by removing the sensors from each side at a time probably won't help me.

The article states there are 4 cats on an '05 are you saying their is only one primary and two secondaries?

It has some good info on how to test the cats if you have an infrared thermometer. I may try that but I still plan on taking them off anyway to try and look at the honeycombs.

You say not to mess with the primary cat between the AF and O2 sensors. I assume you mean not to remove the honeycomb inside the cat, right? Since it has to function and give correct readings between the AF and O2 sensors. If that one is bad, I'm pretty much going to have to buy a new one. What's the chance it's just a bad AF or O2 sensor?

Just had my second pair of CATs (passenger side this time) replaced at 71K miles. I'll be posting about the mess the CATs have made of my life separately, but needless to say CAT failure is not at all uncommon.

skwerl wrote: The article states there are 4 cats on an '05 are you saying their is only one primary and two secondaries?

It has some good info on how to test the cats if you have an infrared thermometer. I may try that but I still plan on taking them off anyway to try and look at the honeycombs.

You say not to mess with the primary cat between the AF and O2 sensors. I assume you mean not to remove the honeycomb inside the cat, right? Since it has to function and give correct readings between the AF and O2 sensors. If that one is bad, I'm pretty much going to have to buy a new one. What's the chance it's just a bad AF or O2 sensor?

There are 4 cats, 1 between the FA and O2 sensors on each bank, and 1 after the O2 sensors on each bank. I think they just clean the exhaust more.

A bad O2 sensor (post cat) shouldn't have any effect on how the engine runs. It just monitors the performance of the CAT and flicks on a code if its not.

I replaced my FA sensors last summer to see if it would help my fuel economy. The voltages read from my Cortex were exactly the same after I replaced them. I got better fuel economy for about 3 months, then back to the same $#|tty mileage.