Pyrophilus

Hello,

I know this is unrelated, but I am posting here because the 2002-03 maxima also has a VQ35 engine.

I am trying to locate the spark plug wires on my Pathfinder's 3.5L VQ V6 engine, and I removed the silver resin engine top cover, and under it, I don't see any wires.

I looked at my brother in law's 2002 Maxima, and he also has the resin engine cover, and I can't seem to trace the origin of the wires, nevertheless the location of the spark plugs.

Can anyone please clue me in?

On my pathfinder, I've tried looked at the engine from the bottom up, still don't see any wires. I am now guessing that I have to remove one of the front wheel well covers to get at the spark plugs and the wires? Kinda like what you have to do when changing the oil filter on the 2002 maxima?

Thank you for your help

-Sage

EYE 35

Sage,
There are no spark plug wires on the VQ engine.
Each spark plug has it's own coil pack attached
directly to the top of it.
Six plugs and six little black boxes.
Hope this answers your question.

Pyrophilus

That is interesting because I thought that initially, but then courtesy nissan parts lists spark plug wires for this VQ engine. I checked the two local nissan dealers here, and they both stock "spark plug wires" for the 2001 Nissan Pathfinder... They look just like spark plug wires

My engine is fine, except in very cold or wet weather, the engine does not catch the first time when starting. It almost acted like old cars when they have moisture in the distributer cap (but then the nissans are distributorless).

Maybe I should ask the dealers why they sell the wiring...

sammax89

I have a 2002 Pathy LE and I can tell you also there are NO plug wires. The 2001 Pathfinders came with 3.3 engines initially (hence the need for dealers to sell wires for that portion of the year), but then were supplanted by the VQ35 later in the year... hence the addition of "3.5" emblem next to LE or SE to distinguish the running change. All 2002s have the 3.5, so no extra emblem is necessary!

I had a couple of incidents where our Pathy would take a longer than normal amount of time to turn over. I thought somethin' was wrong (a neighbor has a Honda Pilot and the thing fails to start regularly, but it's a POS), so I asked my wife if she ever noticed it when she started the Pathy (it's her daily driver). She said: never.

Did a little research and found out interference from something on the key chain can cause the immobilizer to malfunction.

Sure 'nuff... took the Mobil Speedpass off my FOB and Voila! never occured again. Never go to Mobil anyway. This is not weather related (I'm here in Orlando area... it's 85* today), but make sure you do not have something that can interfere with the immobilizer (other chip key, speedpass, EZpass, etc) before you declare there is a problem.

Hope you find satisfaction. (Pathfinder is great,huh?)

tbpnyc007

2001 Pathfinder had VQ35DE as well.
96-2000 the Pathfinders had the VG33E.
My dad recently got one of the last 2K2 Pathfinder LEs, it feels like the tranny is slipping from 2-3 on occassions, maybe its time to have Maximum Tuning do their magic and VB her.