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With the death of the Sentra, and the fact that the Caprice has become a project car, I was left without a running vehicle. After about 2 months of car shopping and finding nothing of interest, I decided to head to an auction house to see what I could find.
After about 100 cars (literally), the Pathfinder was up for auction. It was bid up to $1500 pretty slowly, and at the last minute I raised the bid by $50, which won me the auction. Once the sale was completed, I had it towed home right away to see what I ended up with.
All in all, the truck turned out to be in good condition, with a few large exceptions. If I had to guess, the vehicle was probably well cared for, until later on in its life when the warranty expired and the owner probably slowed down on maintenance. The interior is in excellent condition.
| Problem | Cost |
|---|---|
| Cracked Headlight | $200 |
| Broken Fog Light | $35 |
| Pads and Rotors | $300 |
| Split CV joint boot | $30 |
| Fender rotten completely through | $20 |
| Multiple exhaust leaks | $80 |
| Key fob doesn't work | $10 |
| Differential makes clunking noises | $550 |
| AC doesn't work | - |
| Check Engine light on | - |
One of the front brake pads had lost its material, so the metal backplate was rubbing directly against the rotor, which had gouged a significant amount of metal from it. I replaced both sets of pads and rotors up front. I also took the time to replace the outer CV joint boot on the driver's side which had split in two.
The front fenders on both sides had significant corrosion under where the plastic fender flares attach. On the driver's side, a large hole had formed, so I replaced the part of the fender with 22 gauge sheet metal to get it through safety.
The key fob worked a few times after putting new batteries into it, but now doesn't work at all. Oh well. The air conditioning doesn't blow cold either, but the winter weather is making that a non-issue.
Differential
The differential was working fine, but when shifting back and forth from reverse to drive, it would make a loud clunking noise. Also, even at high speed, the gears going from driving to coasting could be felt, which is not good.
I replaced the differential with a new unit, which also happened to have a limited-slip carrier. Before doing the work, I had originally thought that the ring and pinion gears themselves were worn badly, given how the differential was behaving. It ended up being the spider gears in the carrier which were worn, which I probably could have gotten away with for some time without any issues. The axle housing was also low on oil, only about 2/3 of the required amount of fluid came out when I drained it. The low fluid level may also explain the loud noises; the pinion gear was probably not adequately submerged.
Luckily, the axle on the Pathfinder has a removable center section which holds the the differential assembly. I ordered a new diff from a wrecking yard, and installed it in a total of 16 hours by myself in my driveway. Below are some fun facts about the differential.
| Gear Ratio | 4.636:1 |
| Gear Ratio Code | HG46 |
| Gear Teeth | 51 / 11 |
| Limited Slip Type | No Idea |
