How to Replace Engine Drive Belts 1996-2004 Nissan Pathfinder

Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years.

In this video, we are going to be removing and reinstalling the engine drive belts in a 2000 Nissan Pathfinder. If you need parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1aauto.com. All right, we're going to pop the hood right here. Pull that lever. There's a release right here. If you go to the center to the right a little bit. Right there, I'm going to grab the prop rod right there.

All right, we're going to disconnect the negative terminal on the battery using a 10 millimeter wrench. Loosen it up. A little looser. Pull that out. Set that aside.

All right, pull two clips over here, here, and right here. There's two clips over here, and then this one gets pulled up from down underneath. Pull up and pull the air filter out. Use a straight blade screwdriver. Pull this hose off. Over here, I'm going to disconnect the connector right here. There's a button on the back side. Push it down.

Pull the connector off. This is the connector for the mass airflow sensor. Disconnect that. Little retainer right here. Pull that off. Take this clip off here so we can move the throttle cable out of the way. I'll take this one off too, and that one there--just push it out of the way.

Next, we can use a straight blade screwdriver. Loosen up the worm clamp on the throttle body. Let me pull that out of the way. Pull these hoses off using some channel lock pliers, just pinch the clamp and then twist it back and forth and do the same for this one. Pull this box out of the way.

So I need to take this lower cover off. I have a 10 millimeter bolt here. There may have been other bolts here. This vehicle is missing some. Take this one off. Use a 10 millimeter socket and extension and a ratchet. Over here, there's a bolt. There's one right here. There may be one right there, right there, and right here. Pull it down.

All right, so this lower part of the fan shroud has to come off. Take and grab the center right here and pull it past that little nub right there. Should be able to slide this off. Up here on the fan shroud, you can see there's a little tab right here. Can you see? You're going to push down on that tab. You can pull out and it's going to release the lower part of the fan shroud, and then do the same for the other side. A little tricky to get your hands up in here and I'll take that piece off. You can rotate it, pull it down, and pull it up. These little clips right here--both sides.

A little bit of rust on this clamp up here. I'm going to spray it with some rust penetrant before I try to take off the clamp. Let me get some channel locks to hold it so it doesn't twist while I'm doing this. It's like this. Loosen this bolt up. As I loosen the bolts, it loosens up on the clamp. Pull that clamp aside.

You can grab the upper radiator hose. Twist it a little bit and peel it off.

Next we're going to take this hose off right here, there's a clamp right here. You just grab it with your fingers, pinch it, and pull that off. Then we'll pull the hose off over here. That goes to the coolant reservoir, and we'll just set that aside. Next, I'm going to take this 10 millimeter bolt out on the fan shroud with a 10 millimeter socket and ratchet. We'll take this one out as well. Pull that bolt out. Then the fan shroud should be loose.

All right, so I'm just going to pull this up over here. Once I pull that up, then I'll be able to clear this hose over here. Pull it up over there and gently pull it out.

First, we're going to take off this AC belt. The tensioner is right here. It's not an automatic tensioner, so it's a manual tensioner, so we're going to have to start by loosening this nut right here on the front of it. It's a 14 millimeter. Just loosen it about a half a turn, and then the adjuster is over here. We're going to use a 14 millimeter socket. We'll start loosening it. As we loosen it, the belt is getting looser, the tensioner is going down. You can take the belt off here, just like that, and then bring it around the fan.

So we are reusing these belts because they're new. If we were replacing them, this would not make a difference, but we want to label these from where they came off so you don't put them in the wrong spot. So we're going to put AC on this one cause it's the AC belt, and we'll label the others as we go.

So, next we're going to take off the drive belt. This drives the alternator and the water pump and that's it. And the tensioner is right here. We're going to use a 14 millimeter socket and a ratchet, and I'll just crack this free. Just go about a half turn. And then the adjuster is over here on the side. The adjuster for this is a 12 millimeter. So we're going to use a 12 millimeter socket and extension and a ratchet. We're going to loosen this up, and that's going to bring the tensioner up and take the tension off the belt.

Once there's enough tension off the belt, we should be able to slide it off. Take it off here. Go around the fan just like this--just like that. This one's the drive belt, so we'll label it drive.

All right, we're going to get this power steering pump belt off. We need to raise the front of the vehicle. We have a 12 millimeter wrench that we're going to loosen this nut up just a little bit. Crack it free, maybe a half turn, maybe a whole turn that's about good, and then the adjuster is over here on the side. It's somewhat hard to get to. It's a 12 millimeter. You can loosen it with a wrench or a ratchet wrench. Might be able to get a small socket and ratchet in there. Try it with a 12 millimeter socket and ratchet. Loosen this.

As we're loosening this, the belt, you can pull on the belt and that will pull the power steering pump down. This is loose enough that I can do it by hand. Just keep pulling it down. All right, so now I'm able to fold the belt up and over and off the power steering pump, and then I'll take it off the crank and pull it down.

So we're going to put the power steering pump belt on. Normally you have the coolant fan on here. We have the fan off at this time, which makes it easier to see. We're going to wrap this belt around the crank. On the backside of the crank pulley is where the B channel goes and then over here onto the power steering pump. We'll start it at the top and then we will try to rotate it down. Just like that.

We're going to tighten up the adjuster screw right here. I'm using a 12 millimeter socket with a ratchet. I'm just going to tighten this to get more tension on the belt. Next, we'll take our drive belt, pull the tape off that we labeled it with. Now when you're putting this on, you'll still have your radiator shroud here. You can sneak it past there. Go around the fan just like so and you're going to have the belt start at the crank. It's going to come up to the water pump. It's going to go back here on the alternator.

Let's turn all three of those pulleys. We can put it under our tensioner pulley. Now we're going to tighten up the tensioner pulley right here. We'll take a 12 millimeter socket and extension and our ratchet and we'll tighten up this tension pulley. And right here, when we push down on it, we're looking for about a quarter inch of deflection. That's probably about good there. If you find that the belts squeal, you may want to tighten it up a little bit more and you may have to tighten it if they stretch a little bit.

Tighten this bolt up for the tensioner. Lock that down, that's pretty good and tight. Now we'll take our AC belt that we labeled, pull the tape off. And we'll slip it over the fan. It's going to go around the crank down below. It's going to go come up around and on the compressor and then up and over the tensioner. Oops, slipped off the crank. Just like that.

Now I'm going to tighten the tensioner right here. For this adjuster, you need a 14 millimeter socket and extension and a ratchet and tighten this up. Make sure it's around your pulleys in all the grooves. Same here, we're looking for about a quarter inch of deflection. So we'll tighten this a little more. That's about good. Give it one more turn.

Now we'll tighten this nut down. Now that's snug. Now, if any of these end up squealing or loosen up in a couple days of driving, then just snug them up a little bit more. Now we're going to put our radiator fan shroud on. Slide this over. It's a little bit tight over here. Snug it under here, just like that. There's some pins that lines up down here, and then same on the other side. Make sure that's in and then we'll put the two bolts in. Take this bolt right here and this one right here. We'll tighten these two up with 10 millimeter socket and ratchet. Same with this one.

Put this hose on, the upper radiator hose. Get this clamp lined up. Use a 10 millimeter ratchet and tighten this down. Make sure that's snug. Pull this throttle cable down. Click that in place, and then this goes in over here, like that. Take the air filter, put the air filter back. We'll take the air box. It's going to slide in under here. There we go. Click that in there. Click this in here. Click this right here. Click this one right here. Click this hose on here. There's another coolant hose. This hose goes to your overflow. This gets clicked in over here, here, pushed on there, and then this is going to go right here.

Connect that snorkel to the throttle body and these two little breather holes. Breather hoses. Grab my pliers, squeeze this, put that on there, and then this one can go on here. Move this clamp with my channel lock pliers, push that on. We'll take this, tighten that up right here. Tighten this up. Swarm clamp up with an eight millimeter socket and a ratchet and extension. Make sure it's all the way down. Looks good. Snug that up. This goes underneath this clip, just like that. This wire right here goes over to here. If this clip wasn't broken, it would secure right there and then this plugs into the mass airflow sensor like that.

Now we're going to put this lower fan shroud on. Get this lined up here, get the top part lined up, and that will clip in. This will clip in and then this one should clip in, there it goes. And it's locked in. Make sure that tabs in there, it's good. Put this lower shield back up. This shield does not have all the bolts, so you may have more than what we have here. May have bolts there, there, and there. This one does not have those bolts. Whoops. Good.

We're going to connect the negative post to the battery. Tighten it up with a 10 millimeter wrench.

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