Cha

Congrats @KAMALIO! Keep going

So I found a OEM US spec rear beam with hitch receiver for Pathfinder R51, and have it replaced,

While lo oking at the OEM GCC beam, I realized that the recovery point is strong enough (in my opinion), it's a part of the rear beam.

And then I remembered that Xterra comes with a metal center piece bumper instead of a rear beam..... I was so sure that Pathfinder has the same recovery points setup as Xterra's, because in the front the recovery points are just identical between the two.

I should have checked this better when car is lifted for service ☹️

Ordering Shackle Hitch for this weekend IM drive now 

30 minutes ago, Krishna R said:

Hello guys,

 

I just bought a 2009 infiniti qx56 for strictly offroading only. Reading this thread looks like the the car is too heavy for spirited offroading. 

The car has done 200K kms but the Engine and Tranny are super smooth. Changed the bushes for suspension and differentials + the engine mountings and it drives like a dream. Taking it for my first offroad session tomorrow.

Planning to offroad it for this winter and replace it with a lighter SWB SUV for the next winter. Your opinions are welcome!

It's all about you, its too early to conclude that a full size suv isnt good for your offroad needs. We have Marshal driving Yukon blasting desert, and so many y62 y61 drivers doing fantasic job too.

6 minutes ago, Krishna R said:

Thank you @Brette I will check in a while and update here. However, in a scenario where I dont have them, would you be so kind to let me know where I can buy and get them fixed in Dubai this evening?

you should have as standard, 

2 hours ago, Thomas Varghese said:

 Both share the same engine, same gear, probably the differentials too and of course the same suspension. Pathfinder is a more comfortable car than Xterra but I believe the weight is slightly more than the X.  

Engine same but slightly more torque and bit less HP, Trans same yes. Pathfinder R51 is full independent, hence the entire rear is different from Xterra, which makes R51 more comfortable onroad. And Yes its indeed heavier with more seats and length.

1 hour ago, ASAD. said:

anyone here who can provide feedback on the new Xterra btw? I dont like the shape though but it still looks high enough and robust offroader. 

2.5 NA engine is pretty weak, same output as the 2,7 Prado/Fortuner, but new Xterra gets rear locker, making it more offroadable than the Toyota rivals. and i heard fuel economy can go as low as 9l/100km on highway, impressive for its size.

I was hoping that ME region Nissan will still keep the 4.0 engine, when Xterra was first debuted in Southeast Asia market with this 2.5, but no, its 2.5 Xterra all over the world. Looks like Nissan has kept all the VQ40DE engine supply to the more money making Patrols.

In China someone did swap back the 4.0 into the new Xterra, didnt get to see the performance yet.

Congrats @Looper, gotta teach us looping 

4 minutes ago, M.Seidam said:

Sorry if off track the subject …May be we should do an Xterra drive day , what say you Xterrians ? 😅 we can have a supersonic 🚆 ,  🤣

I hope I'm still qualified for this drive, at least somewhere on my car says Xterra

Bring it on Islam, I know what's coming, I will make sure the fire extinguisher is place, and 2 sets of recovery rope ready  !😈 

45 minutes ago, Looper said:

The actual moving speed should be higher than what I have shown here. I was taking loops in the desert while @Ranjan Das  was self recovering his Jeep, at a low speed so mine is actually on the lower side. 

Revalidating "Looper" since some ppl said that you dont loop much now🤣

11 minutes ago, Thomas Varghese said:

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. 

Thanks Thomas, will definetely bring it to mechanic!

15 minutes ago, Thomas Varghese said:

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. 

Then probably some sand in MAF, I always blow the residue sand away from the air filter container after each drive, very likely some got into MAF and caused the limp mode. Will get a car use vaccum machine to do the job then, thanks again Thomas, always learning things from you! 

 @Chinthaka Ruwan Be aware of this

Thank you @Foxtrot Oscar for this yalla drive in a Sunday afternoon, I indeed needed the concentration that I wouldnt have in the morning. And I haven't had this thrilling pace for a long long while. Great IM start, and I found many places of improvement.

Thank you @Looper and @Russ for supporting the drive, flawless as always, and @Arman for a clean 2nd lead, that surely helped me alot driving behind, hope you and Aisha reached home safely.

Really impressive to see @Humayun Ghias driving the probably the "stockiest" family friendly y62 in IM drives, even with stock skid plate! 

@Zed thank you for staying with me solving the limp mode, I figured out later on from Thomas' post, but really appreaciate that you stayed with me for extra half hour!, Nissan OBD is really annoying, have to find out which reader reads Nissan now.

4 hours ago, Looper said:

It was fast and it was furious, and it was fun. What a great drive. With everyone giving their top-notch performance it was a pleasure driving with you @Foxtrot Oscar.  A big thanks to @Russ to take care of the tail end. 

Gaia GPS Link

My past fastest drive was 22kmh average moving speed, 27kmh is a new record ! wow.

Thanks @Thomas Varghese for this post, I would be going home in a recovery truck yesterday if I didnt remember to read this post and do the relearning.

the throttle body control relearning can be done manually, I did last night and the limp mode was gone immediately, also this procedure corrects the idle RPM if you removed or cleaned throttle control body/MAF. Here is the video.

I still doubt the issue is throttle control body motor overheat, as my limp mode activated not during the drive, but after inflation and hitting the road. Ambient temperature was 11C, and the bonnet was open, the motor should have enough time to cool down. But constant acceleration and deacceleration yes, it was a really fun IM Yalla drive with Angela.

I suppose there are 2 types of limp mode, a major one and a minor one. I have had both:

• The minor one should be gone by turning off and on the engine.
• If the limp mode presists it's the major one, you will have to let the throttle control body rest, and do the relearning.

The minor one happened to me onroad few times, because I was running behind clock and I used pedal commander, I definitely did constant acceleration and deacceleration, and pedal commander enlarged the signal to throttle control body.

@Foxtrot Oscar I think you had the minor one yesterday, if thats the case you probably wouldnt get any error code from OBD. BTW Zed's OBD reader didnt work on my Nissan as well =-=

49 minutes ago, Vasja Zupan said:

Thanks @Frederic, @Waqas Parvez and @Patrick van der Loo,

I was thinking the same about rear diff lock. I guess there is also an option of putting ARB Air locker or (probably easier) Eaton E-Locker in as rear diff lock if really later needed. 

@Waqas Parvez and  @Patrick van der Loo - I'm in exactly the same spot now: Looking at Prado Adventure 2021 vs Fortuner VRX 2019... however there is a significant price difference... Is there any other spec element that one needs to be careful about at selecting Prado? Like any key difference between GRX vs VRX and Adventure versions one needs to be aware of?

Prado has OEM rear locker, not sure from which GCC region but maybe not UAE. 

The previous Prado VXR I believe it adds KDSS and air suspension for greater comfort. But now I see only adventure GXR EXR trims available for 2022, you can refer to spec sheet for key differences in between.

We need some opinions from Fortuner owners, its 0 - 10 for Fortuner so far 🤣

1 adventage of Fortuner I must add, Fortuner's peak torque happens 3800 rpm and Prado's 4400 rpm. Altho Prado has more power, but it weights more as well. Fortuner's engine may be old but not obsolete

Prado.

Both capable doing offroad, but:

1. Prado is based LC platform, hence it is a way better "onroader" than the hillux utility pickup based Fortuner. 

2. Prado is produced in Japan, you can always trust Japan made Toyotas' long term reliability and they tend to have highest resell value in market (LC, Prado, FJC), Fortuner is made in Malaysia if I am not mistaken. I owed a 05 Prado before, it ran better than my 10 Nissan Pathfinder with similar mileage.

However, for Prado you will need to do some extra modifications/adjustments to the front bumper/skirting/bumper guard, because those lowered Car's approaching angle and can be damaged during offroading.

Also Prado is more expensive than Fortuner.

1 hour ago, Frederic said:

Take into account that the big majority of recoveries is being done from the front.  For the simple reason that it gives you much better visibility to the situation at hand.

Thanks Fred, noted😁

22 hours ago, M.Seidam said:

For Xterra yes , not sure about pathfinder, and I have replaced the left and added a right one as well as I mentioned before. Two points that give flexibility in difficult situations as Sri mentioned . Planning to add front left as well soon 

Its the exact same setup for both cars, the type of the points, the location, and the bolts.

I plan to use the hitch one for recovery mainly, and keep the original left point as back up, and add a right point later on. 

Thanks for the advices everyone, heading to sharjah for the beam replacement tomorrow.

2 hours ago, Srikumar said:

But in your existing setup do you have recovery points on both sides at the rear

there is only 1 point on left side, and I have heard from many that those original points are weak, hence upgrading is necessary

Hi everyone, 

Need some valuable knowledge/ advices from you on this:

As we all know, Nissan is famous for making weak recovery points. For my Pathfinder, I have already upgraded the front recovery point when I installed the skid plate. Altho the back one is still in healthy condition, I would like to upgrade it before any possible surprises can happen.

I now have 2 options:

1. Install the recovery points on the frame, as I did in the front.

2. Replace my GCC rear bumper beam that has no hitch receiver to a original USA spec beam that has hitch receiver as a part of the beam and put on a rated D shackle as the rear recovery point.  

I prefer option 2 replacing the beam for various reasons, but I am not sure if the strength will be trustworthy during recoveries? Please enlighten me.

It was a fabulous drive today, long and high dunes ( I havent rode them in months!!), and technical ones at the second half.

Thank you @Mehmet Volga @marks for leading this fabulous, and @Dodi Syahdar @Werno for the flawless support.

The entire convoy did pretty well, we had minimum refusals all self recovered, and we successfully reached Faqa without surpries and delay. 

Thought I heard Dodi's Raptor in the back, but it turned out to be @Daniel Rodas 's "Rap - ajero"

20 hours ago, varunmehndiratta said:

Congrats @Zixuan Huang - Charlie👍👍

Thanks Varun!

14 hours ago, Frederic said:

Well deserved @Zixuan Huang - Charlie !!

Thanks Fred !

13 hours ago, M.Seidam said:

Congratulations @Zixuan Huang - Charlie Well done  👍

Thanks Mohammed, cant wait to learn more recoveries with you!

Thanks Gaurav for the approval, and Thanks all the marshals, supporting members, and friends, cant make it this far without any of you!

5 hours ago, Anoop Nair said:

Congrats @Zixuan Huang - Charlie Charlie, Welldone. See you soon.

Thanks Anoop, will see you soon~

5 hours ago, Russ said:

Congratulations @Zixuan Huang - Charlie, I’m sure you will enjoy IM drives 👍🏼

Thanks Russ, hopefully haha, havent been to challenging drives recently yet so....

4 hours ago, Vaibhav said:

Congratulation @Zixuan Huang - Charlie

Thanks Vaibhav!

4 hours ago, munkybizness said:

Congratulations @Zixuan Huang - Charlie! 

Thanks munkybizness!

4 hours ago, Hisham Masaad said:

Congratulations @Zixuan Huang - Charlie well deserved and well done

Thanks Hisham! look forward to more learning from you!

4 hours ago, Ranjan Das said:

Congratulations @Zixuan Huang - Charlie, keep climbing...

Thanks Ranjan, I will see you soon!

2 hours ago, Sunil Mathew said:

Welcome home @Zixuan Huang - Charlie ..congratulations 🎊 👏 💐..see you on IM drives ...looks like you are the lone pathfinder- R51 IM in the club? Any one else ?

Thanks Sunil, I was actually back to UAE a while ago, couldnt do more drives because of Xmas and Covid. I think yes, currently the only R51 IM, not a popular option for sand haha.

2 hours ago, Shaaz Sha said:

Congratulations @Zixuan Huang - Charlie

Thanks Shaaz, look forward to more learning from you as well!

Great machine, and it's the best selling mid size truck in the states.

But still go test drive Tacoma, because it's using the 3.5 engine, torque comes much later than the popular 4.0 engine. You will feel like driving a turbo car, not much torque untill you kinda push the rpm higher. I wouldn't like it in sand. But fuel economy is better than 4.0

On the other hand it's sibling 4 runner is more popular here, it's equipped with the 4.0 engine that's has wider torque band, and it's basically a LWB FJC made in US, with Atrac rear locker crawl control

Tundra is a different story, tundra is indeed bigger wider more comfortable and has more powerful v8 engines, but lacks of offroad gears, it has only ABS simulated LSD or eLSD,  and on Tacoma 4runner you can find rear locker Atrac crawl control stuffs that are more professional for offroading

I personally would choose a 4runner if ever one day I'm giving up on the Pathfinder.

BTW, Both cars I believe are compatible with the Prado and FJC offroad mods here.

Congrats! @ZULFIKHAR NAIYAR you definitely can go anywhere with Xterra offroad.

Cant give you names but can tell you that front skid plate should cost around 1-1.3 k for 8-10mm thickness with radiator guard. and then you are ready to bash the dunes !

8 minutes ago, Frederic said:

For daily driver who needs these ?

- Bluetooth (you can easily install after market  radio with Bluetooth and apple carplay
- Fog lights (in UAE, hardly ever used)

My point is that these can be added but at extra spendings, and cruise control is a must-have function to me ( staying on the speed limit accurately 😈)