The Nissan Path

There are a few posts across the internet addressing this problem, and even a couple on this site. I found them, and they were very helpful, but thought adding my own might help another unfortunate soul.

If your Pathfinder is leaking antifreeze or coolant from the connectors near the firewall, on the passenger side of the vehicle, be prepared for some bad news. There are two pipes coming out of firewall, each into its own black, plastic connector. Moving away from firewall, those two pipes divide at the black connectors in multiple directions, both by fixed connector (metal to plastic) and removable connector (hose to plastic nipple).

At least in my case, the plastic nipples on the black junction were brittle as peanut shells and pretty much disintegrated when I tried to remove hoses. The horizontal nipple failed entirely on its own, leaving my wife spewing coolant all over the road.

The kicker is that the nipples are part of a rather large, integrated assembly. You cannot purchase just the black junction. Heck, you cannot purchase even just the side that happened to break. No, you have to purchase the entire heater hose assembly. It is $200. Link to parts page:

https://www.nissanpartsdeal.com/parts-l ... ml?Filter=

In a pinch, or if you are cheap, you can attempt to repair the broken nipples using simple heater hose connectors and epoxy. I used 1/2" to 5/8" connector, cut off the barb on the small side, and glued it in place. In hindsight, I might have been wise to cut the connector off at the first flange, making the connection shorter and closer to the OEM. Here is a photo of the nearly finished fix:

https://goo.gl/photos/jwWkK272sHFmu4mE7

And a link to a similar post, with related repair:

http://www.thenissanpath.com/viewtopic. ... highlight=

Here is the post that first made me think I might fix it without buying full assembly:

http://www.silist.com/how-to-fix-heater ... eck-fixes/

Such poor design. . . .

As a follow up to my jimmy rigged repair of the broken heater hose connection. . . my repair lasted about 48 hours and then failed. Needing the car daily, I bought the Heater Hose Assembly from local dealership for $267.07 plus tax, so roughly $300.00.

Removing and replacing the assembly was a bit of a hassle, but I think your average garage-mechanic could do it. No special tools are required. There are a few tight spaces, and maybe a couple of "tricks" along the way.

Have a pair of locking pliers, preferable needle-nose, to deal with the multiple hose clamps. Remove the dust cover from the motor to access the screws on the firewall. The lower end of the hose assembly can be accessed by removing the passenger side wheel and wheel-well cover. Once I realized that, the job became very doable. With no idea what I was doing, took a bout 3 hours from beginning to end, and much of that was just scratching my head or trying to reach clamps or screws.

Anyway, if you decide to try it yourself, I'd be happy to answer questions.

I couldn't bring myself to pay 300 bucks for plastic fittings and tubing. I removed the stock TEE and aluminum tubing(cut the rubber hose just before the start of the tubing). Bought a TEE at Napa which was universal it could accept 5/8 heater hose or 3/4 inch hose and two splices to connect the 5/8 heater hose( near the bottom of the engine bay where i cut it just before it went into the aluminum tubing and over by the master cylinder) I did have to buy I think 3 feet of 5/8 heater hose to replace the aluminum tubing that was cut out. But the fix is way stronger than stock and cost me less that 25 bucks.

I considered doing something similar. In the end, I preferred something OEM.

I don't think I ever mentioned here that my new assembly sprung a pin-hole leak on day one. New piece has a rubber vacuum line cap and clamp on the very top. Was only $1.00 to replace and fix it, but having a defect in the new part lowered my opinion of this design even further.

here are a few pics to help my explanation of what i did. I only did the one side but you get the idea. The TEE from Napa is like 4 times thicker than the OEM part.


https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipP ... 1VfjuSNDHB

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipN ... FIB06UN0XO