Postby smj999smj » Fri Aug 24, 2018 11:51 am
As far as the starter, cost depends on what you want as far as quality, although is a bit high just for the part! You could always shop around for a better deal. In my experience as a Nissan Tech, the best quality starters are the genuine Nissan/Infiniti remans. In your case, it would be Nissan P/N: 2330M-0W011RW and they sell for around $300. A lot cheaper would be aftermarket alternatives, but often the quality is not as good and the part may last a long time or you may be replacing it again in a year or less. Rockauto.com has a number of new and reman options. If the "new" options, I would probably go for the Bosch ($115+shipping). I've used a TYC starter on a Taurus once and it lasted about two years before it failed, again. When ordering from Rockauto and dealing with reman starters, you have to send back the old part to get back the core charge. The make it fairly simple in that you can print out a discounted shipping label from their site under your account and they will deduct the shipping cost from the core charge owed to you, if you want. Usually the shipping charge on a starter is around $10. Of the reman options, I would go with the $82 (+shipping, +core) REMY starter, which I've had good luck with, or the $135 (+shipping, +core) Denso. The REMY and Bosch have limited lifetime warranties; the Denso warranty is 12 months. REMY is the same company that was once known as "Delco-Remy" and part of GM for many years until they separated and know is owned by Borg-Warner. Denso was once part of Toyota until they separated and now is the one of the largest automotive part suppliers in the world.
As far as how hard the starter is to replace, that depends on your mechanical capabilities. The starter is on the right side of the engine and bolted to the transmission bell house by two bolts (I think they are 14mm heads on the bolts). There should be a 12mm nut holding the battery cable to the starter solenoid and a harness connector in which you need to depress a tab and pull the connector out. Always disconnect the negative battery cable before attempting to replace the starter. If my memory is correct, you need to remove the skid plate and get it from under the vehicle, pulling it through to the front of the engine, but don't quote me. Autozone.com should have the procedure listed in their free repair guides at their site and I would think there is probably one or more YouTube vids demonstrating the procedure (you may have more luck searching "Pathfinder" than "Infiniti QX4."
The positive battery cable is part of the engine subharness and runs about $330 from the dealer and about $100 less from online dealers. I'm not sure if the Nissan Pathfinder and Infiniti subharnesses are the same; most likely they are, but I'm just not sure. There is no aftermarket option for it. The question is do you really need it? What's wrong with it? If it's just the terminal end that is bad, the are cheap, aftermarket repair options that may work. If the internal cable is corroded badly, replacement of the subharness may be necessary. Without seeing it in person, I cannot say.