Pathfinders Brake Sizes and Rats Andy Answers Questions from Some of His Recent Popular Videos

What's up, guys? I'm Andy. We got some viewer questions, let's answer them.

The first group of questions comes from the Q&A that I did a few weeks ago. The first question comes from iGambled, and he asked, what are your thoughts on the 2001 Nissan Pathfinder? Well, I actually really like Nissan Pathfinders. I actually own a 2000 Nissan Pathfinder, which is a little bit different. It's got the same body style, it's got a different engine. My vehicle has a timing belt, where the 2001 has a timing chain. So, that being said, make sure you keep up on those oil changes. You don't wanna mess up any VVT valves or anything like that. Also, there is a part of the vehicle that tends to rot away. There was a recall on it, the strut towers. You wanna make sure those aren't rotted away. So, get underneath the front tires, just take a look and make sure that there's no gap there. There is a bunch of videos out there on how to do this repair, so make sure you do your research on the Nissan Pathfinder recalls.

Cliff has a 2012 GMC Sierra and apparently needs to replace the blend door actuator, and he questions whether it's the driver's side. "Not sure where to start, any information would be greatly appreciated." All right, Cliff, the actuator for the driver's side is actually easier than on the passenger side. What you need to do is go under the glove box on the passenger side, there is a panel. You take those 7-millimeter screws out, drop the panel down, and the actuator is right there closer to the center of the vehicle. Disconnect the connector first. Take the bolts out. They're probably a 5.5-millimeter socket that you're gonna use. Take the actuator out, put the new actuator in, put the bolts in, tighten it down, and then plug it in.

Do not plug the actuator in before you have it bolted into the vehicle, it can overextend itself and break the actuator. And also when you start the vehicle, let the vehicle run for about two to three minutes, letting the actuators cycle and finding their places. You don't wanna be moving the heater controls around or anything like that.

Next question, Marcson says," Andy, what's the difference between the front brake rotors and the rear brake rotors? Are they the same? And please let me know." Great question Marcson. All right. Here's the deal. The front brake rotors are generally thicker and bigger than the rear brake rotors. And it has to do with the proportion of how much stopping force you need for the front of the vehicle than the rear. If the rears were the same size as the front, the front brakes would probably wear out significantly faster than the rears. So make sure you're putting the right rotors in the right spot.

The next group of questions comes from the video that we made, "Commonly Overlooked Brake Installation Steps." And this question comes from EZ Ray. Thank you very useful tips. I recently replaced my front brake pads and rotors, and one of the calipers as well on the passenger side. Now I'm getting a vibration at 65 miles an hour. I did remove and grease the slides on the driver side. Any ideas? Should I replace both calipers? Cheers. All right, EZ Ray, I don't think it has anything to do with the calipers. It is always a good idea to replace them in pairs, but it shouldn't cause a vibration.

The vibration could be coming from a couple of different things. If you're driving at 65 and you go to step on the pedal and that's when you're getting the vibration, you feel it in the steering wheel, then there's probably something to do with the rotors, whether the rotor's not sitting on the hub surface correctly. There could be something as little as a piece of sand in there, if you didn't clean the hub good enough, that could cause that. Or the rotors could be warped just out of the box, which is pretty rare, but it does happen. If it's vibrating in 65 all the time, make sure you check your lug nuts, maybe the wheel isn't sitting flush either.

Next question is from Ashlee, she asks, "Is there a difference between the grease on the caliper pins from the back of the brake pads?" If you're doing a lot of brake jobs, you might wanna buy a tub of caliper grease, which you can grease the pins. I personally do not grease the back of the brake pads. That's just my personal opinion. And also, the brake pads themselves sometimes come with a little packet of grease, that's good for the slide pins. And on this packet, it says you can apply it to the backing plates only. I personally would not do that. If you wanna put it where the brake caliper clips are on, you can do that. But I personally would not put it on the back of the brake pads.

The next group of questions are from our headliner replacement video. And Pam has a kind of a funny one. So, Pam says, "There was a funny noise coming from the trunk of a car and found a rat that had been living there for 4 days. Now I haven't been able to remove him. I don't want him to be dead because the dead carcass will smell badly," and then she'll have to pull up the upholstery. And I understand that. "I've tried peppermint and tea bags, which were offensive to him but just drove him further into the car." Leaving the trunk open for a while, and that hasn't worked either. So, her question is, "How do I remove carpeting and panels, in case I have to get him out this way?" So, good question, Pam. Sorry about the rat.

What I personally would do if it was my car, leave the trunk open if possible. Obviously, you've tried some things with smell. Try running the car with the radio on as loud as possible to try to get the mouse out or the rat out with the sound. Sounds kind of bother rats a lot. So, that's personally what I would try to do to get the rat out. But also if you need to remove carpeting, most of the time, you have to remove seats. So take the seats out and then the trim panels. On almost all vehicles, the trim panels generally come up and then get pulled out, and then you can pull the carpet out that way. It's generally not that hard, it's just very time-consuming.

For that same video, the last question is from Jo10Mo. He asked, "Do you have to unplug the battery so the airbags don't go off?" Whenever you're working around any type of airbags, it's always great practice to disconnect the negative battery terminal and wait about five minutes before getting to the job. Although in the area we were working, there was some airbags. It wasn't unsafe for us to just start removing panels. But if you want to, if you feel uncomfortable, definitely disconnect the battery.

And that's the conclusion to our questions for the day. If you enjoy them or you have anything else to add or another question, leave us a comment below. If you enjoyed the video, make sure you subscribe to our channel, ring the bell, turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our videos. Can you edit this together?

Yes.

Andy: Okay. The fear... I don't even know what to say. A little more evenly than the rear... They'll use the same... Let's do that again. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. I don't want him to be dead. All right, yeah. All right, the first... What we're as... Just stop it.