Shamil

now you have the power of knowledge 👍

now i know whom to approach if i need to order car parts from the states 😎

It’s amazing how all you guys thought that I was serious about listening to Celine Dion while dune bashing😂 I actually listen to music while off-roading and keep the volume low( so that I can hear the radio alerts as well) especially when I’m driving alone and I even have 2 dedicated playlists for off-roading - ones trance( chicane, ATB, Armin van burren, DJ tiesto, Ministry of Sound, Eric Prydz etc) and the other one is Metal/heavy rock( Metallica, Iron Maiden, AC DC, deep purple, GNR etc)

Hahah your French and you don’t like Celine Dion? I don’t buy that. I’m sure she’s your favorite. Cmon admit it. https://giphy.com/gifs/anchorman-lies-lie-EouEzI5bBR8uk

before @Gauravbhai found this meme and tagged me in it, i posted it myself!

When I’m out in the desert busy climbing and destroying dunes, I put on - My heart will go on, by Celine dion on high volume and I like to sing along loudly and mind you I ain’t a decent singer so I go off tune most of the time. Who’s joining me as a passenger this weekend?

If the port is defective, it wouldnt work with the bigger and more expensive OBD scanners that the garages use, but it does and thats how i know that the port is fine. I am aware off the law introduced back in 96 which mandates all cars to have OBD ports but i dont know why Nissan dropped the ball with the Xterra.

I guess the earlier answers have pretty much covered it well. I see the main culprit here being the tires not deflated due to which there is a lot of wheel spin and less traction on the sand.

@desertdude, @Emmanuel, the fact that standard OBD scanners dont work with the Xterra is something that i found out myself after purchasing one, and realizing that it doesnt work. I then purchased a different brand only to see the same result. I then reconfirmed this with a whatsapp group of about 200+ Xterra owners. I am not sure if the issue is only for the GCC spec or if its the case with Xterras worldwide. @Emmanuel, you might remember the first time i had the check engine light issue in area 53 back in the summer during a night drive, when @shadow79 was with us and he tried to diagnose the problem on the spot with his OBD scanner but it didnt work. However, after reading all the replies and as very rightly pointed out by most of you, i guess i still havent zeroed in on the root cause as to why the error came in the first place. I guess, i will wait until it happens again before i can get that check done.

i didnt see the specific code but its a good point, i should ask them what it was and then ill post it here. i believe the code wasnt cleared when it happened the first time which is why it kept coming back.

The problem with my truck - Nissan Xterra, is that they are not compatible with the standard OBD scanners.

this is very well put @Frederic. A good guide for newbies to understand the technical details of dune bashing. I will refer this thread to newbies who are interested in understanding the dune bashing techniques.

I thought i would start a thread to share an experience that I came across recently so that others may benefit from it. So for those of you that are not aware, I have been struggling recently with a random check engine light that would show up either while off-roading or sometimes even on road. I would try various solutions such as 1) Switching the car off and back on again, 2) Disconnecting the battery terminals and reconnecting them, 3) Blowing air off the MAF sensor 4) Getting the throttle body cleaned because sand would accumulate there (this isnt a DIY solution like the above steps but is still one of the suspects) By doing any or all of the above, the error would usually disappear and from my understanding that would just be a temporary solution since the error message would come back to haunt you another day. This goes to showing that the error hasn't been rectified properly the first time but then again a garage is unable to diagnose the issue since their OBD scanners dont show any errors since the code gets cleared. (or perhaps the OBD scanners they were using arent good enough, but i am not sure about this). Due to this, i was never able to properly diagnose the issue as the error code would just go away and no one could properly diagnose the issue. I would just randomly get the error and i would do any of the above steps to get the car running again without the error. Most mechanics would tell me to bring the car straight to the garage when the error occurs(and not clear the code) so that the code will be active and they can then do a proper check. Yesterday, however, i went for a car wash after a long drive on friday and as usual I aired down the engine bay (since i did an auto wash and not the full service where they spray water from below the engine bay) and as i was driving out of the service station, the check engine warning came on. I tried most of the above mentioned solutions and nothing seemed to work, as the error code wasnt going away this time. I then got the car on a recovery truck and took it straight to a garage whereby they checked with the OBD scanner and the error was very much showing. All they had to do was clear the code and VOILA - my car was back to normal. What I have learned from this experience is that, whenever a check engine light is encountered and if you are able to do a temporary fix to remove the warning sign, it is a possibility that the code might still be stored in the ECU and it needs to be cleared. If not, then it could still linger around and show up again.

It was a fun filled day and i think this is the maximum time ive ever spent in the desert since i joined both the newbie and fewbie drive. Heres a video summary of the day through my dashcam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm45GaWfy6Q