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I probably could have updated this sooner, but here's the update on my old QX4. It's now 100% guaranteed that I'll never get it back, pretty sure it's scrapped. I saw it pop up for sale a few times over the spring, with the price slowly decreasing. Eventually I began to see listings on Facebook for it being parted out, and now all signs of it are gone. It kinda sucks, but it seems appropriate. The unibody held up the whole time from what I understand, but I can't imagine the strut towers had very many more miles in them. From the final for sale posts, I gather that it was ran very hard towards the end, as it had a busted passenger side mirror, some body damage, and a hyrolocked engine. At least it went out in 4x4 with mud flying! Seems very fitting, a very different end to it's mechanical life than where it started on the luxury car lot. Just figured some of y'all would appreciate a final update, and it does finish up this thread finally. I believe I have screenshots of some of the for-sale ads, which I'll add here when I find them.

the bilsteins supposedly need some adjusting to be fit, but they are good quality

When I did my lift back around 2008 I reused my shock mount bolts. Some people need a camber kit for the front struts, which are basically eccentric lobe bolts for mounting to the knuckle. I'd also suggest replacing the strut top mounts with new OEM mounts, if you are paying for this to be done. When they wear out they clank. If you do the work yourself and don't mind redoing you could roll the dice. I bought my 01 in about 06 with 136k miles. I did my lift myself probably at 150k in 08. The only things I didn't do were assembling the spring on the strut (it was much too stiff) and the alignment. I drove it to 265k before it died. I never had to replace my strut top mount. But unless it was done by the previous owner, this is unusual service life. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

If I had to do another SAS (Im planning on another once I graduate), I'd lower it some (around 4-6" total lift), change the angle and mounting location for the upper mount of the coilover/airshocks, put the axle side coilover/airshock mounts an inch wider on each side, ditch the doubler, make a different trans crossmember with a slot for the front driveshaft, triangulated 4 link instead of parallel, ditch the cradle. In an ideal world, I would sas a 3.5 next time. A bigger motor couldn't hurt either.. Overall I think it was fine considering it sat around 26" of lift. Less lift would solve so many of the headaches. I never experienced any death wobble or shaking luckily.

Possible the phaser is failing. I have seen cam timing codes caused by failed gaskets in the timing cover causing low oil pressure to the phasers. Usually in those cases it is for both banks. When you did the timing chain kit, you made sure the oil screens were clean and in place in the cover before you put the cover back on?

Went to 2N33, Pilot Rock Truck Trail today. It's about a 12 mile stretch along one of the highest ridges in the San Bernardino Forest. It's filled with multiple off shoots from the main trail that offers anywhere from beginner to expert level wheeling. It runs along Silverwood Lake in the beginning and you end up near Lake Arrowhead at the end. Extremely beautiful. I managed to make some friends in a pretty nice F150! Together we went up some of the more challenging off shoots, it was epic! I got some free pinstriping and even got spotted for the first time because I was afraid of rolling. We ended the trip with pizza at Lake Arrowhead Village and a beautiful view of the lake. On the way home we got a surprise, the Rim of the World Highway. Yes, its that high... Google it. 2N33, Pilot Rock Road, a sweet trail... minus the trash. I ended up taking home a bag full.

So I went to Hungry Valley SRVA in Gorman today! I drove through a few green circle trails and found the 4x4 practice area. I spent a good hour or 2 there learning my truck. After that, we ate lunch and drove over to Rattler Trail, a blue diamond trail. It was awesome! The more I drive the truck through difficult terrain, the more I yearn for more advanced trails. I am assuming the LSD and brand new tires help considerably. The park is pretty big, I think the ranger said about 20,000 acres. Which doesn't include the fact that the park sits right on the Ventura County Line. The main road connects you directly to the Los Padres NF, right into a bunch of different trail systems and campgrounds. I didn't go in because I didn't have a map for that area and phone reception was bad too. Definitely going in next time. Exploration options here are more than enough, a pretty impressive place. All in all Gorman was really fun and beginner friendly. Sometime next week I'll come back here, do Pronghorn Trail, and take a few more pics along the way.

Hey, thanks! I finalized my wheel choice because of your youtube video. I recognize the custom tube bumper up front!