The Nissan Path

Hey guys,

Bought a 2002 pathfinder about 2 weeks ago and I think I got a lemon. The truck was very clean and ran well for a few days. I then took it off to college and as soon as I took it off criuse control and got off the interstate and stopped, it died. It felt like the car ran out of gas and would start for a few seconds but then run do the same thing ( I had a half of a tank). I got it towed to a buddies shop where we put a new fuel pump in. The car then started and ran for 15 minutes. We shut it off, the next day we jumped in it and it barely started and would not idle it would only run if we kept our foot on the gas. We thought we had been sold a bad pump because we only had 10 psi, so we took the new one out and put a new one back in. This time we had the same issues it would only crank, not start but we had pressure. What do you guys think the issue could be? Any help would be awesome as I am a broke college kid and can't really afford to take it to a shop.

First things first, are there any codes being thrown? If so, list them out here. Fuel filter plugged up maybe? Water in the tank?

Fuel filters on these often go a long time without being serviced because of their location over the rear axle (out of sight, out of mind, sorta). So, replacing it if you hadn't when you replaced the fuel pump would be a good idea. With the old fuel filter removed, it's a good time to "T" in a fuel pressure gauge and confirm the fuel pressure is okay. There's no sense going any further in the diagnosis until we know that.

No codes being thrown only one for an O2 sensor. With the first fuel pump change we measured pressure at the filter and had 10 psi, we now have good psi with the new pump. We also tried just bypassing the fuel filter to see if that was the issue but that didn’t work either. Thanks for the replies guys anything helps.

Have you checked the fuel pressure regulator?

I have not checked the regulator, I've been doing some research and found that it could be a EGI relay or fuel pump relay that only works part of the time so I am going to check those and see if that changes anything. I will check the fuel pressure regulator as well.

If your fuel pressure test was done properly and tested good, then the fuel pressure regulator is good. If you are cranking and the fuel pressure is within spec and it doesn't start, either the injectors aren't firing or it's not getting spark. You could have a bad crank position sensor or cam position sensor. Sometimes they fail and won't trigger a code. So, things to check for are spark to the plugs and make sure the injectors are firing, which is best tested using a noid light for Bosch style injectors. Start with testing for spark..