Just bought '04 Pathfinder and I have a couple questions.

[MarketBuy]

Did the obvious checks when I bought it. No residue in the oil, antifreeze is perfectly clean, nothing I found while checking it out.

But I notice that it smells a bit rich while it's idling and also occasionally I'll see a little bit of smoke as I accelerate from a stop and ONLY in first gear. Was worried it could be the head gasket but there are literally zero symptoms of that. Runs nicely at a low temp, no power issues, coolant and oil are completely clean, etc.

Is this just normal for a Nissan? I've only ever had BMW's so I have nothing to compare this to.

Mileage is 80,000 miles. No visible leaks in the engine, records showing all oil changes and maintenance, I'm stumped.

You guys are the knowledgeable crowd. Any thoughts?

[IanH]

Mine smells rich sometimes too under some circumstances.

If you start and move the car a short distance and shut down, when you restart it will be rich. My two 97 4 cylinders did this too, SR and GA engines, and were prone to flooding and non start. There is a recovery built in to the ECU on these, don't know about our Pathy's, hold gas peddle to floor and crank, this shuts down the injectors until you release.

Re: smoke.
There are rare but known issues with the PCV valve and / or the Valve cover baffles to the PCV causing Oil consumption.
Watch your Oil level these engines use some Oil, but we are talking 1 - 2 pints per Oil change. If its worse then find and read info on these issues.