Leaderboard

Got to try out my new tires in some mud this weekend! Very impressed for $100 on Amazon.

'05+ (R51) are IRS, '04 and back (R50 and WD21) are solid axle. The biggest thing I'm aware of with the R51 is the strawberry milkshake of death (SMOD), which happens when the trans cooler in the radiator fails and mixes coolant with tranny fluid, making a foul pink milkshake-looking schmoo that destroys the trans. Easy to prevent but can become expensive very quickly if you don't. Some of the VQ40 engines also had timing chain issues.

I think it’s about time I introduce myself. My name is John and I’ve been a lurker in this Forum for a while. I’ve owned many civics in my days as well as a Infiniti g35 and lowered e39 wagon. I never thought I would own a lifted suv in my life but sometimes things just happen. My father passed away in January and left behind this vehicle. It’s a 2001 LE 4x4 automatic with factory LSD and 135k “babied” miles. We were originally going to sell the vehicle but decided against it. The car is in great shape mechanically and inside with some battle damage outside from the brush guard. My father loved this car and this was prob his most prized thing he owned. He worked hard and spoiled my sister and I growing up but never gave himself anything nice except this car. I know he would be upset if we got rid of it especially since it’s not worth much. Needless to say this car has sedimental value to me. I want to thank everyone on this forum for sharing great ideas and awesome photos. I look forward to seeing more of your builds and being able to spend time wrenching on my own vehicle with my 8 year old son. I plan an taking the car on the Washington discover trail with my family this summer and other adventures. My mods so far include: OME front hd springs OME rear md springs New front struts and rear shocks 15” steel wheels with 31” duratracs All new fluids in the transfer case, transmission, diffs. New belts and pulleys Full tune up Power valve screws fixed Removed the brush guard Retrofit headlights I’m in the process of replacing the idle control valve oring so my ecu doesn’t fry. I also scored a complete rear tire carrier mount that will be installed once it’s a little warmer. There’s also a Rola roof basket sitting inside the car. I’ll be using the conduit mount method I learned from this forum. Future plans include: Arb front bumber Fluerys 1” spacers front and back Full size matching spare Full vinyl wrap Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@mjotrainbrain encouraged me to post this video. There seems to be no simple guides to lift kits, and the difference between spacers and springs, especially in how they affect the front suspension. While I'm no suspension expert, and this video is missing alot, especially in terms of rear lift options (and I forgot to mention the possibility of AC spring top-out, though I haven't had any issues with it myself), here's a small introduction into the lift methods available, as well as the brands that sell them, and an attempt at explaining why spacer lifts affect the suspension geometry different. If there's any info in here thats technically incorrect, feel free to point it out. Im sure there's stuff missing, so feel free to comment. Thanks!

Hello everyone. Just wanted to share my headlight retrofit with you guys. This is my 6th set of lights that I have retrofitted so far and and by far the easiest. The factory lights were super easy to separate and has plenty of room inside. I ended up the morimoto d2s 4.0 since I had those lying around. There are definately more projector choices out there but will require more custom work. The 4.0’s work well with our lights and use oem d2s bulbs which is a plus. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quick write up of the retrofit process. This is for the facelift r50 with plastic lens headlights. Parts list (I get most of my stuff from theretrofitsource.com) D2S 4.0 (replaced by the 5.0 now) Morimoto HID kit with relay harness Apollo 1.0 shrouds I don’t have pictures of some of the steps but it’s pretty self explanatory. First remove headlights and bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 200-205 degrees (wife gave me a funny look here). I set mine on a baking sheet with foil so the plastic doesn’t melt. Take them out of the oven and separate the lens from the housing. Start by prying from the top of headlights and work your way around. It shouldn’t take much effort at all. If it’s a struggle then bake a few minutes longer. Once you have the lens separated u will want to remove the headlight bulb lens thing in the middle. next step is to remove the 2 adjusting screws all the way out and pop off the ball mount for the reflector Once everything is separated you will need to grind down the back of the reflector so that the projector will sit flat and also have enough thread protruding to put the lock ring on. A belt sander makes quick work and keeps it nice and flat. Make sure you try and keep the surfaces flat (same amount removed all around). Next install the projector, centering ring, and locknut. The centering ring helps align the projectors so that they are horizontal (benefits of our h4 lights). The Apollo shroud will be a tad too big to fit our reflector so this gets trimmed on the bottom. The shrouds can be glued in with silicone. I used some window butyl rubber to hold mine on and never had problems falling off. The projectors are also dual beam so don’t forget to plug in the high beam solenoid wire. With the new projectors mounted go ahead and bolt the reflectors back into the housing. Place the lens on top and set in the oven to reheat the glue. Press everything back together and enjoy your new headlights. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

the weekend in pinamar argentina with friends!

The more you describe it, the less it sounds like anything drivetrain related. Can you get a video of the noise it's making? Might help for tracking it down. Any other known issues?

Thanks for the feedback! It’s good to hear that you’ve had such awesome results with your spring lift over such a long period of use! Hopefully this video isn’t too late to help a lot of people out.

PathyDude17, excellent job on making this great video to explain the different methods to lift the INDEPENDENT FRONT SUSPENSION of the R50 without installing a drop-bracket lift or “subframe drop (SFD) lift”. Thank you!! I wish that someone had posted this info 10 years ago to spare the hassles and numerous debates over CV axle angles, why they do or do not break, what spacers do, and what the purpose of each OME spring is. I would like to add that I had a custom spring manufacturer install 2” lift springs in my Pathfinder in 1999, long before AC even sold stuff for R50’s. I have never used spacers (which weren’t even available back then anyway). My Pathy has almost 209k miles on it now. I would guess it has somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000 actual off-road miles on it, most of that on very severe rocky terrain in which tires frequently become airborne. In 20 years of off-roading, I have never grenaded a CV joint. The broken CV joint phenomenon started occurring after the introduction of spacer lifts. Granted, there are side-effects of using 2” lift coil springs, primarily “topping out” the strut, which occurs because the “at rest” position of the strut is closer to its maximum extension, allowing medium-size road irregularities, driveway humps, speed bumps, etc to cause the strut to max out more easily. The associated loud “thunk” can be disconcerting to the uninformed R50 occupant. Note again that in 20 years and over 200k miles, I have never experienced a suspension related failure due to topping out. I hope the video helps all viewers make better informed decisions on how to lift the R50 FRONT suspension.

Moved to the FAQ section and pinned. This video should be a great resource for anybody interested in lifting their R50!