The vehicle was taken to the dealer several times but the failure was unable to be determined. We only sell 100% genuine parts, and all parts here are brand new and made in a high specification. The behaviour is when the car has been standing in sun for the whole day. When it is is very hot the car has been standing outside in sun for long weather, the speedometer cluster doesnt work. Hands down the worst vehicle I have ever seen, if Nissan does not pay for this I am taking them to court. I had a Honda that had one of these mysterious electrical 'gremlins' and I eventually got rid of it because of it. The failure mileage was 54,205 and the current mileage was 75,312.
I don't think I will ever buy a nissan again. I searched the internet to see if there was possibly a computer bug - but so far have found nothing. They eventually came back but have been going on and off now for the last couple of months. Ok i did the instrument cluster mod that slickroger posted way back, i did mine probably a week after he posted it, but i decided its too much of a hassle to match all my interior lights to blue. I could duplicate the problem right away by removing the relay. The number of life-time cycles are in the 100000s or millions. A solution is still under investigation, and a dealer has not been able to diagnosis it yet.
On a possibly related note--- I live in Colorado, and it seem the Pathfinder doesn't have great of power going up into the mountains. Gas, Speedodometer, Tach, and speed control. I don't know what that means yet but I'm thinking it has to tell us something. This is a rather complicated procedure which requires some electronics and computer knowledge. This is a far more easy way of fixing the problem. It sounds like there are definitely several other vehicles out there with the problem.
In addition, my Altima will hesitate during acceleration as if has lost electrical power, and then pop back on. My car has the opposite symptom. My 2002 is doing the exact same thing and also the dealer can't reproduce it and is of no help otherwise. Best guess at this time is connectoritis on the back of the cluster. A solution is still under investigation, and a dealer has not been able to diagnosis it yet. I'm thinking it must be electrical and not fuel related, but don't know for sure.
Thank goodness I found this. Forgive me as it has been awhile since I been into it. Although, I think you have to disassemble to ck solder joint underneath. Now, to your, or anyone's knowledge, can this problem have anything to do with intermittent door lock issues? The contact stated that the instrument panel failed to illuminate. I checked the boxes on drivers side, near battery and under left panel near washer fluid tank and can't see to figure out which one controls the dash based on the abbreviation on the panel.
I pretty much have to floor it to get going 70+ mph going up steep and not-so-steep inclines. I posted on Craigs and disclosed the speedometer issue - now for two weeks. However, everything will come back to normal. I have read many compliants for the 01 Altima for this issue on the. It might be worse when the car is hot but I have not proved that.
It was a few times a day before that. I hope that helps some! The cruise control will also kick off if it is being used at the time. Also, like towncivilian pointed out, there is a blue coating on the back of the cluster face which will give any bulb color a blue tint. This must be some sort of error code. This was how i fixed the same problem when it resurfaced. My Altima does the same thing the everything on the dashboard is out. If your car is not updating the values by distance but by time and it does that once every 10 seconds, you have 1,8 million writes.
Anyway, hope this info helps someone and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that mine stays working. As normal behavior, these lights go away after the car has been started so, the car starts fine - but all of the cluster is dead. The contact was driving approximately between 10-15 mph on wet road conditions. I expected the gauges to really start failing once the hot weather got here. This was how i fixed the same problem when it resurfaced.
Everything on the dash is out - speedometer, odometer, tachometer. I have to open a case and wait days without a vehicle to see if Nissan will cover this since I am out of warranty. The failure mileage was 8,300. It sounds like there are definitely several other vehicles out there with the problem. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic for body damage repairs.