The Nissan Path

Hi! I bought a 2011 Pathfinder about six months ago. It had 123K miles and was in OK shape. Over the course of the first three months I owned it I poured about $2K into it in the form of neglected maintenance and tires, battery. I thought I had it squared away and it was actually driving great until today. I'm sitting at a stoplight at a major intersection when it just dies and refuses to start again. Battery is brand new. Cranks but won't start. I have driven older cars for the past fifteen years and I have never been left stranded until today. I have certainly had issues before but it just seems like this particular Pathfinder has one issue after another after another. Now it's sitting by the side of the road waiting to for AAA to tow it to a mechanic. Luckily, my 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 4.0 inline six always starts no matter what and I will use that for now. Depending on what this turns out to be, I may just cut my losses with this thing and buy a much newer car. I'm just venting because this is very frustrating and disappointing. I had a Maxima and an Armada and never got stranded anywhere. From the symptoms this seems like either a security system issue (fob not communicating to car) or fuel system issue.

Actually, the biggest cause of "duh" stalls on just about everything Nissan is cam or crank sensors (most often the latter). You can eliminate or implicate the fuel pump very easily by spraying Brakleen or Gumout down the barrel past the air filter. If that starts it then the problem is fuel starvation, if it doesn't then you need to bark up a different tree.

Thank you for the feedback. I do remember reading that these things go through (I think Cam) position sensors quite frequently.

The tow truck driver just picked up my car. Said it started right up and drove it onto the truck. Like WTF? I really hope the mechanic is great at diagnosing because I can't have some random electrical fault shutting my car down when it feels like it.

That sounds very much like a crank sensor that's misbehaving with temperature.

Well, you were right, that's what it was. I haven't been impressed by the reliability of this car, I keep seeing that they run forever, etc... but I hadn't been left stranded by a car in over 25 years before this, it's really frustrating. I have had one little thing after another go wrong with this car, I know it's older by my old Sequoia never had anything go wrong mechanically.....of course it DID rust out, haha!

Well apparently my Crankshaft position sensor hasn't been 100% since I bought the car but I never realized it. I've never owned one of these Pathfinders so didn't know what baseline is supposed to fee like. It feels so much better with the new CPS. Way snappier, idles better, etc....Hopefully I'll get better MPG too.

Hall sensors on Nissans are largely a guessing game. The ECM's are good at detecting flatlined sensors, but terrible at detecting a sensor that's working half-a$$. So when you get mystery stalling or performance issues with no engine light, they're always a prime suspect along with the MAF sensor.

Well I replaced the MAF sensor a while back too! Haha! Yeah, the mechanic read the codes and saw the Cr PS code stored but apparently it didn't happen enough to set a CEL. So far I have:

*replaced fluid in both diffs -preventive maintenance
*replaced coolant reservoir (it was cracked and leaking) -FAILURE
*replaced MAF - FAILURE
*replaced Cr PS - FAILURE
*replaced wheels - FAILURE (kind of) (completely corroded and looked terrible)
*replaced tires - maintenance

Didn't replace but radio FAILED - Can't store stations or any other data including time, MPG, etc.... It's not the fuse.
The car IS 14 years old at this point so I guess a lot of this should be expected....

Hopefully that's going to be it for a while.

There are two separate fuses for the radio, one ignition and one battery. The battery fuse is under the hood. On upper grade radios you'll usually get a "no audio" message if it's blown, but on base and mid grade units, the radio will work but won't remember anything. It's fuse #29 in the Fusible Link Box. See PG-73 here:
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual ... 1%2FPG.pdf

Thanks! I'll check it out!