The truth about 1st Gen pathys?

[enzo]

I have a 95 XE-V6 4wd with 236,600 on it. I think the engine will outlast the body and frame. It has the infamous ticking and sloppy steering. Frame rust and rust under the rear drivers side seat are very common with these trucks. I drive this daily to keep miles of of my 09 Tacoma.

 

[r50fj60]

Way to dump your 2-door! :ar15: Just messing with ya...however you should dump that Heep-oops Jeep for another WD21...

 

[dsmith]

:victory:I'd love to get another one. I just got a friend to buy one! Got him a 95 5spd for 1200 and all it needs it tires and has no rust! He stole it! Yay for WD21's!!!

 

[01PathfinderLE]

Do it!

I'm a Pathfinder lover through and through. So much so that I am on to my third. First was an 89 2 door, next a 92 SE and now I have a flawless 01 LE. Each of these Pathfinders have been a delight to own.

The 89 I did everything I could to abuse it (I was 19), the 92 I babied (I was 25) and the 01 (I've owned it for 4 years) I baby this one as well. None of these trucks left me stranded and none of them have been hard on my pocket book. My favorite would have been the 92. The previous owner had babied it and I can honestly say probably didn't ever use 4WD. To this day I wish I still owned it and think it would have made an excellent expedition vehicle.

I've heard stories about bad timing belts, faulty manifold gaskets and electronics issues but that is to be expected in a 18 year old truck. In Alberta, you can find them from $500.00 to $3,500.00 in all kinds of different repair. Rust does effect these trucks in particular behind the rear doors and rear bumpers. Frame issues as well but those kinds of issues are reserved for trucks from the west coast or out east.

Good luck!

 

[Hootowl]

First generation Pathys are great vehicles and very capable wheelers. Mine has seen a LOT of trail time and I'd be more than happy to share what I know about them. All you need is longer shocks and sway bar disconnects for this much flex:

The four link rear suspension with coils works very well off road and is also the reason they ride so much better than nearly any other SUV of their time. I'm running 33-10.5-15 BFG KOs with no lift and no metal trimmed though the rear arches are rolled.

The most common problem with them is automatic transmission failure. This generally occurs because the fluid is never changed and the cooler in the radiator plugs up. Bypassing the stock cooler and running an aftermarket one is highly recommended for ALL vehicles with automatics and especially 4x4s! Another thing that I think contributes to transmission failures is overheating the engine. It does not occur to most people that with a stock in-the-radiator transmission heat exchanger when you overheat the engine you may overheat the transmission and you certainly damage the transmission fluid.

If you get a Pathy I highly recommend getting an SE model that came stock with 31-10.5-15 tires. Most of these trucks have 4.6 gears, rear LSD, and rear disc brakes stock. Mine is an '88 that came so-equipped. It is mechanically stock except for the heavy duty automatic trans. sourced from an '01 Xterra.

The definitive source for information on Pathfinders is the forum at NPORA, the Nissan Pathfinder Off Road Association: http://www.nissanpathfinders.net My user name is the same there as here, feel free to look me up.

There are videos from some of my Pathy adventures here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Mister510?feature=mhum

Ditto everything you said and will add a few other opinions....

Short of the Patrol, I think the first generation Pathfinder (WD21) is the best performing offroad Nissan. Nice coil spring rear suspension. Adequate front torsion bar suspension. Relatively inexpensive suspension lift options including a poor mans that uses junkyard front coils off of an old Ford pickup. Real tight OEM limited slip differential standard on the SE. Like all VG series engined trucks, they are under powered so regearing is advisable if you go much beyond 31 inch tires and mandiatory to go with 33 inch tires.

 

[armyrv]

Will have to chime in my 0.02cents and agree that they are great trucks. Do the regular maintenance and they will pretty much last forever.

I have an '88 Hardbody (pickup version of the pathy) and it is a great truck. It has 364,000km on the original drive train and still runs great. Even the service manager at Nissan noted that with regular maintenance I should expect to hit 500,000km on it no problem.

Just finished fixing it back up this year (full body work and paint job) to pass a safety. She is going to get some more upgrades this summer to make her a bit more off road friendly. No sense in doing them now as there is too much snow to do much off roading so I will just save up my pennies until then.

Only problem with these trucks is that you will want more than one