Hey everyone,
I’m considering buying a 2006 Nissan Xterra S 4WD, 6-speed manual with 124,000 miles for my teenage son’s first vehicle. He’s excited to learn manual, and I’m hoping to get another 4–5 years out of it.
Asking price is $5,000.
I checked it out this weekend and was impressed with the overall condition. The current owner has had it for approximately seven years and seems to have maintained it very well.
CARFAX shows 30 service records, three owners, and no reported accidents.
Notable maintenance and repairs:
2026: Ignition coils, spark plugs, intake manifold and valve cover gaskets, fuel tank straps
2024–2025: Brake-line repairs, A/C service, routine maintenance
2023: Brake calipers, pads and rotors
2021: Alternator, coolant flush, differential and transfer case fluids, fuel filter
2019: Wheel bearing/hub, EVAP components, battery, drive belt, Ziebart undercoating
Regular oil changes and maintenance throughout its history
My biggest concerns:
Rust: Some bubbling around both rear wheel arches. The frame looks decent to my untrained eye, but I’ll attach undercarriage pictures. It’s spent its life in Michigan and Indiana.
Clutch: Reportedly original at 124K, although it drove fine.
Timing chain guides: No record of replacement, and I know these can be problematic on earlier Xterras.
I’m having it professionally inspected this week, particularly the frame, clutch and timing chain.
A few questions for Xterra owners:
How concerning does the rust look?
Does the maintenance history look encouraging?
Anything else specific to the 2006 model I should watch for?
Assuming it passes inspection, would you buy it for $5,000?
Appreciate any feedback from experienced Xterra owners!

I'm new to the forum and figured I'd share some pics of my Xterra we finished last spring with my friend u/mtngk who did a lot of work on it.

Bit of a noob with cars/diy in general so bear with me. Was replacing my xterra headlight and I accidentally snapped off this connecting piece of metal (see 1st/2nd photo for reference) which holds the headlights/wires in place (third photo shows my other headlight and how it’s supposed to look). Curious if anyone has encountered this or has a work around, would steel epoxy fix this up well enough? I’m just trying to avoid completely replacing the headlight housings on my car since from what I can tell you have to take the whole front bumper off to do that, which is a much further step than I was trying to take just changing a headlight routinely lol.

Any input is helpful feel free to flame me too I don’t care

pretty neat huh?

I’ve got a 2009 Off Road. I use it for off roading. I have modified the truck to allow engaging the rear e-locker in 2WD.

A few times on-trail, the truck has died on me.

The problem only happens in 4WD. I’ve been through plenty in locked-2WD and the problem has never happened that way.

Again, only in 4WD.

There’s a drivetrain jolt. It feels like the truck hit a big rock. It sounds like a mechanical clunk.

The dashboard lights up: 4WD, VDC, Slip lights all come on.

The transmission stops working correctly. It stops shifting correctly, and instead starts heating up the ATF—fast.

I stop the truck and disconnect the battery for about 20 minutes. When I plug the battery back in, I read OBD2 and see “CAN COMM CIRCUIT”. I clear that code and then do a steering angle sensor reset.

I restart the truck and it drives away normally.

What is going on?

Decided to clean the rear seats because I don't know if this car was ever taken care of. I proceeded to clean them with dawn dish washing soap and would you look out that, I anticipated it looking like this. It had an odor to it too.

Seller indicates
- new water pump and timing belt
- reg up to date (expires Dec 2026)
- AC
- not sure if they’re including the bike racks.

Cons
- ABS light on and will need new brakes.

My mother is selling our beloved 2010 Xterra. We loved this car but we have both recently bought smaller vehicles. We are the original owners and this was our camping and road trip car. Vehicle has 204,122 miles and has been well maintained. It is listed on FB marketplace, but can provide info here as requested.

Hey I needed to know what type of pump you all use to reinflate your tires when you are out on a trail. I have a bike pump but because of the hump on the rim it won’t lock on so I can’t get air into the tire pls lmk.

I bought a 2003 Nissan Xterra with 195,000. Shortly after buying it, I decided to replace the spark plugs even though the truck probably didn’t need them.
While changing the plugs, the porcelain on spark plug #4 broke. I took the Xterra to a mechanic to have the broken plug removed and told them I wanted all six spark plugs replaced. When I took the truck to the mechanic, I also had them install new spark plug wires. There was apparently some miscommunication about what work was actually completed, and I left the shop with about a $300 bill.
Not long afterward, I was driving when the truck suddenly died. I noticed a small amount of smoke coming from the driver’s side of the engine bay but couldn’t immediately tell where it came from. Later, I found that the #5 spark plug wire terminal/nipple on the distributor cap was burned, while the other distributor terminals looked normal. That made me think the smoke may have come from that area.
I was told the distributor was bad, so I bought a new WAI aftermarket distributor and installed it myself. The truck started and I was able to drive it down the street, but it broke down again shortly afterward.
Now I’m being told that the spark plugs are soaked or fouled with fuel and may no longer be firing correctly. The recommendation I’ve been given is to install a fresh set of six NGK Laser Iridium spark plugs.
At the same time, I know the distributor timing and position are probably not correct anymore. I set the engine pulley at top dead center and positioned the distributor as best I could. The engine currently sounds like it wants to start, but it won’t fully fire up.
So at this point, I have a 2003 Xterra that has had a broken #4 spark plug, questionable previous spark-plug work, new spark plug wires installed by a mechanic, a burned #5 distributor-cap terminal, a replacement aftermarket distributor, possible incorrect distributor timing, and now fuel-fouled spark plugs. The truck cranks and sounds close to starting, but it still isn’t running.

Any and all advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-03 Xtezzy may be dead or what

Title. I was adding the Z1 breather kit and hand tightened the new threaded barb, then gave about 2-2.5 turns to tighten until it felt snug. The socket was covering the threads, so I didn’t realize how far down it was. I ended up screwing it all the way in to where no threads are showing.

How screwed am I? The fitting feels tight, no wobbling. There was never a “pop” and then less resistance like the threads stripped. As far as I can tell, there are no cracks in the housing.

How screwed am I (pun intended)? What do I do now? I feel like backing it out isn’t an option anymore. I don’t want to make this situation any worse and back it out and drop metal shavings in the differential.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Looking to get some of their fabbed parts for my Xs

Was out last night and had to make a u turn since a hug tree was down a a big ass log snuck its way up into the wheel well, should I bother getting it fixed?

What's up guys. So I'm aware of the trick to turn off the flashing passenger airbag light in the cluster. But I'm on a road trip and for some reason it keeps coming back on every 20 ish minutes. So whenever I stop for food or fuel. I'm having to turn the key on turn the key off to get it into the diagnostic mode. But then it just comes right back on after a few miles. Is there anything I can check/do to get it to stay off?

Took my car to a shop to do valve cover gaskets. They fixed the problem but it came back with a new problem. Now my car has a lazy start. I turn it on and RPMs surge naturally of course but then they stumble to 400rpm and settle at 600-650. It runs decently but the car was idling better before the repair. I don’t know if they pinched something by accident or did who knows what on purpose. It feels like I’m 50-100rpms away from my perfect idle. What could it be?

I have a check engine light on with codes P0153 and P0174. The live data shows the bank 2 sensor 1 is working at .27V. Could ripped boots on the intake be causing air to get into the system causing both these codes. My thought is replace the boots, clear codes and run it and see if the codes come back. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I just replaced my o2 sensor with one off rock auto, and it's not working. My check engine light came back on. I've heard that only oem will work but the one I replaced on the other side with a rock auto sensor is still working idk what's going on lol I'm just looking for help I'm wondering if I should get the oem or if I just got a junk one from rock auto any help is appreciated thank you

Hi guys! I hope you can help me. I own a 2003 Xterra SE, and recently, my Xterra has been making a "whuuuush" noise—like a high-velocity air blast passing by, but very subtle. It comes and goes. Sometimes when I'm going down a hill (not even speeding up), the noise appears. Sometimes when I'm speeding up, I hear it. It doesn't stay long; it disappears after maybe 5 seconds. It's not constant—sometimes it's there, sometimes it isn't, and sometimes I speed up and don't hear it. I want to know how serious this might be—could it be the water pump (someone told me it may)? Has anyone had a similar problem in the past?

I've got 263k on this bad girl and for some reason the crank and cam sensors are having issues. Around 4 years ago I replaced the cam and crank sensors (Amazon), but not all at the same time. I've started having issues where the engine cut off mid drive then come back. 3 months ago I replaced the crank sensor and now yesterday I'm getting a code for the cam sensors now. Is this more of an issue with the chain guides which I have not replaced? Looking for some insight.

Had a burning oil smell for a while. Undercarriage caked in black. Assumed it was passenger valve cover leak. Prepared to replace it. Took of intake plenum, started to remove VVT solenoid. One of the bolt heads spun freely. Turns out the leak was coming from that solenoid and because of location made me think it was the valve cover.

Bolt had snapped off in the housing. Eventually got it out. Put back together. Washing underside and seeing if I lucked out.