Thomas Varghese

Same here @Rizwanm2. I have my Xterra since Jan 2020. I was driving a 2010 Altima till then. I was proud of my sedan and never thought I would abandon her for my new (old) car. This was actually thrust on me by one of my client so that I could go and repair his majlis inside the desert. I still remember the day I sat on Xterra. Fell in love instantly. My sedan is taking a good rest inside my office parking since almost an year. I only take it out to renew the registration and put it back in its parking. Same with @Shaaz Sha also. He has so many other cars but the only car I find him 90% of the time is his Xterra. There is something in the car which makes you love it. Its powerful, nimble as its light. The seat may not look that peppy and fashionable but I never have my back tiring even when I drive nonstop to Ruwais to see my daughter.

Thanks @Gaurav.

As far as I know there is a high demand for Xterra's now and a friend had been looking for 1 since a month( @GauravSoni ) couldn't find 1. Other friends I know who purchased Xterra's had to shell out min 35k

Of course Xterra is a powerful car. Ask Xterra owners in the club @Chaitanya D, @Asif Hussain, @Foxtrot Oscar, @M.Seidam, @Tbone, @Rizwanm2, @Shaaz Sha, @Charbel, @Xavier Treasurer, @Joji varghese, @Kalahari. I don't do any preparations which I go for the drives with club - all the off road gear is already in the boot plus there is enough space to take anything else I require. Just check the fluids, deflate, put up the flag and I'm offroading

XTERRA is a serious offroader. I'm proud of my Xterra. Its my daily drive and my offroader. Gives good gas mileage too and maintenance is cheap with all the sharjah and sajja 2nd hand spare parts shops having any part you want for dead cheap prices. Plus very basic technology. You have a 4Hi and 4Lo turn button, off-road versions have the additional advantage of the rear differential lock and some newer versions have hill assist too. That's all. Accelerator, brake, a steering wheel, a gear shift and head light, turn signals. That's it. Considerable boot space too. Forgot to mention the VQ 4.0L DE Nissan engine is one of the best engines since 15 or 16 years Produces 271 Hp in stock condition. Enough to vroom over any dune you can find here

@varunmehndiratta the outcome of booster shot depends from person to person. I had my booster yesterday and all was fine till nightfall. Now the arm which took the shot is paining so much with the neck and the back. Too feverish, tired and very sleepy.

XTERRA for 20K?

GMC Hospital in Ajman gives PCR test result in less than 8 hours for a fee of 100 AED. I had taken the test last week after my Covid honeymoon.

There are no Xterra's rotting in a bowl. Hence no Xterra bowl.

@Gaurav Is Intermediate Plus a new category?

what is the 5 drive requirement?

congrats @Jona.

@Frederic the air intake box of the Xterra is its most weakest part inside the engine bay. Don't know who and why they designed like this but the beginner mechanic like me who is not used to the car and is very enthusiastic about keeping the box and the filter clean are in for the shock of their life when they realize they are actually destroying the engine as they didn't close it properly because of ignorance of how its done. The top cover has 3 tongues on the side facing the engine which goes inside 3 sockets of the bottom cover. The trick is to get all the tongues and sockets to properly align and slide into each other so that the air filter box is tightly shut and can be closed from the fender facing side by clicking the two hop on clips. Easy to say but little difficult to achieve. One need to align the tongue and the sockets on the engine facing side and do a bit of hitting and pushing on the top cover until all the tongues and clips slide into each other and the orange color of the air filter edge disappears from view. At this point the click on clips at the other side can be pushed and the box closed properly. This is what I understood from the experience of @Zixuan Huang - Charlie's XTERRA about the limp mode he experienced after he finished the drive, cleaned everything and drove off. There are 2 possibilities 1. He didn't cover the air intake pipe which leads inside the MAF sensor and when he blew the sand in the bottom cover the sand flew up and everywhere and went inside the MAF sensor which rendered its readings awry and the ECU went mad thinking something is wrong in the air flow and let me cut down the engine before something gets damaged. 2. The air filter box itself was not closed properly after cleaning earlier or last time and the sand intruded into the throttle body which threw the throttle position sensor out of position which confused the ECM again and cut down the power as means of self protection. Most probably the 2nd scenario is what happened as @Zixuan Huang - Charlie mentioned when the throttle relearn process was initiated the car regained power. This is an indication that the somehow the throttle position sensor was compromised and started to work when the ECM learned about the throttle position readings once the relearn process was initiated and again there are 2 possibilities for this to happen. 1. Sand intrusion which threw the senor out of range for the ECM readings. 2. The wiring harness which comes at the throttle position sensor has come loose probably because of fast paced jumps on bump as it was an IM drive and is confusing the ECM with consistent flawed signals. Again I believe its the 1st scenario as the behavior repeats after sometime and there is no need to initiate the relearn process for the engine to rev up if its the wiring harness loose connection. This definitely points to only 1 conclusion - there was sand intrusion into the intake chamber and the inlet manifold has to be completely removed and washed in petrol. Regarding Angela's @Foxtrot Oscar XTERRA I believe its the 2nd scenario which made it limp - the wiring harness had come loose somewhere. Maybe at the throttle body itself, maybe MAF sensor, maybe crank position sensor, or perhaps the O2 sensor which are placed before the CAT. This will render the car in limp mode but will reset itself once the battery is disconnected and connected back after 5 min or sometimes when you just switch off and switch on the car. Sorry for the lengthy post but these are from my experiences with the car over 2 years.

@Chinthaka Ruwan I meant sand may have gone inside the intake plenum. Its not necessary sand has gone inside 100%. But if it has gone inside by any chance even 1%, its better to clean the entire intake system before any damage is caused in the engine. In my case sand went inside because the rubber hose connecting the air filter box and the intake plenum cracked and sand entered into the throttle body and the intake system.

Take it to a garage immediately if you don't want to change your engine soon. The sand will reach the throttle body and enter into the inlet manifold plenum and end up in the cylinders scratching them badly and making the valves stuck. As you were already out of the desert this will take a couple of days to reach to this stage. Take out the inlet manifold and wash them thoroughly in petrol to clear it off any sand. Be very careful when you blow out the sand from the air box. Don't attempt this without sealing the rest of the hose with a cloth. Also refixing the air filter box to the bottom as I explained is very important. If you don't know then learn it from a mechanic. Sadly I learned this at a cost of 6000 AED. Had done this mistake and had to replace the engine in less than 6 months. The throttle relearning cleared the code and your engine is running but it didn't clear the sand from inside the manifold. Its good to do the servicing yourself at the end of the drive but if you don't know the correct procedure it will dent your wallet. My assumption is the sand entered the air inlet hose when you did the cleaning or you may not have closed the air filter box properly which sucked in dust later.

@Zixuan Huang - Charlie I do the same after every drive. I clean the air filter and the filter box after every drive. Remove the lid of the air filter box by unscrewing the rubber hose which connects it to the rest of the inlet manifold plenum. Its very simple - use a flat head screw driver to unscrew the clamp. Remove the MAF sensor also with the cross screw driver and spray some sensor cleaner to it. Cover the rubber hose with a good cloth and then blow the sand from the filter box. Otherwise all the dust will reach to your throttle body. Regular practice will ensure you get best performance in gas mileage and engine response. Putting back the plastic air filter box in the correct way in crucial for no leakage into the throttle body or the MAF sensor. There are 3 sliding locks on the back of the filter box and make sure the tongue of the top lid slides into the socket of the bottom lid properly before you snap on the clips on the right side of the box to shut the box. This is very crucial as if not done properly will damage your engine for ever.

Other reasons for the limp mode is sand intrusion into the MAF sensor past the air filter, wiring harness being loose maybe at the MAF sensor or the throttle control actuator valve. Even the loose wiring harness on the O2 sensor produces a check engine light and limp mode. In fact a bad crank position sensor also can give a limp mode.

@Vinod Damodaran can I have your phone number? Couldn't take it when we met.