Xtigga

Test Drive
Location
Denver
New to SUVs and new to Nissan.
I purchased this last month from the original owner for $2500.

2001
5 speed
4WD
185,000 miles

I moved to Denver from Phoenix and I wanted something a little more capable of inclement weather. I had a couple friends back in P-town who had Xterras. I've always liked them and thought they'd be a good introduction to off-roading.

The PO took pretty great care of it, but neglected it for the last 3 years because it was only used as a guest car for visitors.
So I've been making it nice again.

PO made the roof rack, but i'll probably be retiring it. It's pretty poorly welded together.
It also looks like he modified a Shrockworks bumper because none of the ones on their website have the bull bars cantered forward. And again, the welds are pretty awful so I need to grind those and possibly reweld. He also made the rock sliders, which aren't bad but need to be rewelded.

I believe the tires are also oversized.

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And I know it's not a V8, but I had to. It's too perfect~
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More to come!
 

kirk

Butterfly King
Moderator
Supporting Member
Location
Allen, Texas
Welcome from Texas!


Wonder if they upgraded the torsion bars when they added all that weight up front.
 

Xtigga

Test Drive
Location
Denver
For Torsion bars, does anyone have major recommendations?
https://www.4x4parts.com/i-18981696-xterra-torsion-bars.html
https://swayaway.com/product/torsion-bar-set-99-03-frontier-xtera-2wd4wd-v6/

Those are what I found on Google. Other companies/brands seem to be around the same price and spring rate increase. I come from tuner cars so I don't know anything about different off-road brands :D



More pictures! The previous owner took pretty good care of the interior. No major tears and most panels fit properly and didn't have any cracks :p But I'm way too anal about a 16 year old car, so I got a little carried away!

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This isn't my first time going overboard on an interior cleaning. Soooo satisfying. Totally worth it <3


It smells so much better now. I'm missing a couple plugs and interior trim pieces which I'll be grabbing at the pick-n-pull this weekend.
 

Xtigga

Test Drive
Location
Denver
Bingo! Peel & Seal is roofing material from Lowe's. It's about 1/4 the price of Dynamat but does basically the same thing.
 

Xtigga

Test Drive
Location
Denver
Work has been slow lately so I had time to re-purposed some junk conveyor belt rollers into shifter knobs because METAL.

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And while I was dicking around with interior trim, I decided to make that stupid cubby under the radio bezel more useful.

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https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OAn5C5CgW-4/WiTxSlVqGTI/AAAAAAAAADk/u721DGgqcTIWYEhS7BgobblezEtA5JpBGRNQCLcBGAs/s1600/20171105_223123.jpg


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Xtigga

Test Drive
Location
Denver
Those knobs are effing awesome. When do you start selling them?


Huh, I never actually thought of that. I mean, if there's a desire for them, I could make a few more.


Cool idea putting those gauges in the cubby. Came out clean

I've always preferred this method over pillar gauge pods. Those always look tacky.


Looking good. Looks like you should start a build thread as the mods will only continue to grow.

I wonder if an admin can just move this thread over into the build section....
 

Xtigga

Test Drive
Location
Denver
When I bought it, the owner said the ABS unit needed to be replaced. He had a dealer look at it and was told the entire unit had failed. So for the last 3 years, he'd been driving it around without ABS. Not a huge issue, but he took off $500 from his asking price when I pressured him for more information about it.

Went to U Pull U Pay and picked up the ABS unit for about $50. Hadn't installed it yet, but while I was under the car draining the rear diff to put new fluid in, I found the actual problem.

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He severed the passenger-rear ABS sensor wire when he installed the differential skid plate.

Spliced the wire back together, reset the ABS light, and I've had ABS ever since!

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I also found out that the front skid plate was only held on with two bolts because the rest had been stripped out. So a coworker welded some nuts to some washers and then the washers to the frame.

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I swear the previous owner was a gobbledamn monkey. I keep finding little things here and there that shouldn't be broken, shouldn't be stripped, shouldn't be bent, etc.
 

ThompsonXterra

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
California
I also found out that the front skid plate was only held on with two bolts because the rest had been stripped out. So a coworker welded some nuts to some washers and then the washers to the frame.

I swear the previous owner was a gobbledamn monkey. I keep finding little things here and there that shouldn't be broken, shouldn't be stripped, shouldn't be bent, etc.

My front skid plate bolts were stripped when I bought it too! Dang previous owners lol
 

Xtigga

Test Drive
Location
Denver
Oh man it's been a busy month. Haven't don't much except work! Haven't even snowboarded that much the last several weeks.
I did manage to replace the Pioneer head unit with a new model. Not touch screen, but that's not really necessary imo. Got the new speakers in the front doors, and waiting on spacers for the rear speakers.

Tax returns are coming soon and I'll be redoing the exhaust cause there's leaks every few inches and the muffler is basically rotted.
I'll get DT headers, new cats (will high flow cats pass emissions in Denver?), and possibly straight pipe the rest. Might throw a muffler on but not sure yet.

The big question I have, since I read a post on another forum, was tuning. I'm familiar with boosted cars, where you tune it after just about any performance improving modification. Is that even a thing? I've read dozens of threads on aftermarket exhausts and no one talks about re-tuning after a full exhaust overhaul. I haven't had an NA car in a long time.
 

Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
You should retune the ECU after making a change like that, but our is so dumb its a pain to do it. No chips can be added, no bully dog, it has to be physically reprogrammed.
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
The only option for ECU tuning is to swap to a VG30E computer. The one from the Z. It'll run the engine and the Z has tunability out the ass.

In response to your emissions question, with new cats that are designed to be. Hi-flow you should have no problem with passing a sniffer.
 

Xtigga

Test Drive
Location
Denver
So is swapping the ECU the only way? Or can a local tuning shop reprogram it?

Muadeeb says I can reprogram the ECU.
Prime says I need to swap ECUs.

I'm confused :<
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
If you want to self tune, swap it. If you want to pay big bucks to have someone write an entire new software suite for your computer, don't.
 

Xtigga

Test Drive
Location
Denver
Okay, so let's revisit this VG30E computer swap. Google didn't turn up much info on the swap. It'll run the engine tho? Is it a direct swap? Unplug one and plug in the other?

Will all sensors still function?
I feel like there's a catch somewhere.
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
Lemme find the guide I was looking at when I was considering it. If I remember correctly you have to rewire the harness but the plug is the same. Model years have to be in the same range so that all of the smog / emissions stuff is there.
 

Xtigga

Test Drive
Location
Denver
Lemme find the guide I was looking at when I was considering it. If I remember correctly you have to rewire the harness but the plug is the same. Model years have to be in the same range so that all of the smog / emissions stuff is there.

Sounds good! I'll appreciate any info you've got :D
 

Xtigga

Test Drive
Location
Denver
So in the meantime, in case I can't end up getting this ECU swap to work, what's the most I can do to the exhaust before a tune's needed? Just headers? Headers and a new y-pipe? More? Less? At what point does the factory ECU fail to compensate?
 
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