Greetings from SW Florida

[magicmk]

Greetings from SW Florida/Tampa Bay. So, I've had my 2002 Pathy LE what seems like forever (although it's only been maybe 7 years) and it's been the 4th Nissan I've owned (previously Altima, Maxima, Sentra). Once upon a time we had 3 Nissans in the driveway and this is the last one because it's been damned near bulletproof. Despite the oil leaks, it's at 164k on the original drivetrain and runs like champ. I originally bought it as a spare/utility vehicle, but it got pressed into daily driver service for a few years when the Maxima was totalled. Had to sideline it for a while because it badly needed some stuff replaced/updated and funds were going to other things. But this summer I've finally gotten around to updating the suspension (Old Man Emu medium duty springs and KYB shocks), new rotors and pads up front (first time experience for me on this vehicle, that was quite an unexpected adventure), waiting on new rear brake shoes to arrive and then it's just an alignment and new tires and she's good to go. With the exception of a failed ignition coil episode that required a catalytic converter replacement, I've done almost every bit of wrenching myself on this thing to keep it on the road, and she has rewarded me well.

 

My other cars are an Audi A5 and 2008 Jetta. The A5 I'm in love with and it's a fantastic car all around. The Jetta... meh, it's been a pain in the ass.

 

Couple of other non-essential things I want to get to on my Pathy - repainting a couple of areas that have been eaten up by the Florida sun over the years, and re-upholstering the front seats, which actually is how I ended up here. 

 

There's my intro. Happy motoring!

[92SEPathFindr]

To the Club!!  Post pictures (I use and like imgur) as often as you can and stay well! 

[teixeira]

Lets see some pics

[magicmk]

I only just discovered that Instagram provides an embed code for photosharing. Maybe this will work...?

 

Edited July 16, 2018 by magicmk
photo embedding

[magicmk]

Ok, guess that's not gonna work. Sorry, I'll get them up on imgur as soon as I get a chance.

[fleurys]

Welcome !

[magicmk]

Ok, I know it's been a few weeks (super busy and too many things going on) but I got a few pics uploaded to Imgur. Drove the Pathy last week to Home Depot and my new strut assembly goes "clunk" over small bumps - it appears I left a spacer out on the left strut assembly. Guess who gets to take all that s**t apart again? Grrrrr

A few pics... it looks great sitting on those new OME springs. Leading off with a gratuitous pic of the morning I had to change out the right side half shaft (and did the brake pads and rotors also, so that actually saved me some time).

 

 

Camber is a little goofy up front, but hopefully an alignment might fix that

 

 

[mjotrainbrain]

Yeah, you'll need camber bolts for the alignment, since the camber is not adjustable on these from the factory.  Looks good though!  You'll be real happy with the OME springs.

[magicmk]

On 8/5/2018 at 11:12 AM, mjotrainbrain said:

Yeah, you'll need camber bolts for the alignment, since the camber is not adjustable on these from the factory.  Looks good though!  You'll be real happy with the OME springs.

Oh wow, well there is something I did not know. Thanks for the heads up. I presume an alignment shop (or my Nissan dealer, if I have the alignment done there) would have something like that on hand, yes? Or would I need to alert them beforehand, you think?

[mjotrainbrain]

3 hours ago, magicmk said:

Oh wow, well there is something I did not know. Thanks for the heads up. I presume an alignment shop (or my Nissan dealer, if I have the alignment done there) would have something like that on hand, yes? Or would I need to alert them beforehand, you think?

 

I'm not sure if they necessarily would, the place I went did.  I doubt the dealership would be well equipped to do an alignment with camber bolts, they're used to working with stock vehicles.  It would be worth calling ahead to check.  If they don't have it I'm sure they can have some delivered from a nearby auto parts store.

[magicmk]

On 8/8/2018 at 5:07 PM, mjotrainbrain said:

 

I'm not sure if they necessarily would, the place I went did.  I doubt the dealership would be well equipped to do an alignment with camber bolts, they're used to working with stock vehicles.  It would be worth calling ahead to check.  If they don't have it I'm sure they can have some delivered from a nearby auto parts store.

 

Thanks for the tip! My local Nissan shop seems to be pretty adept at this sort of thing, but I was going to check in advance just to make sure. I did a little research and self-education on the camber bolt options Rock Auto offered on their site, ended up getting them from Amazon because of the 2 day Prime delivery, it was around $44 for the four that I needed.  

 

For anyone who's curious, I went with the AC Delco bolts over the Moog bolts. Moog was going to be my first choice but Amazon's reviews revealed a couple of folks that didn't have such great luck with them, and had to replace them after they broke within a year or two of service. A little surprising, hopefully I will have good luck with these AC Delco camber bolts.

 

BTW, love the black Pathy in your sig photo! Very sharp. Makes me kinda want to shop for a similar front bumper setup for mine, that looks fantastic.

[mjotrainbrain]

53 minutes ago, magicmk said:

 

Thanks for the tip! My local Nissan shop seems to be pretty adept at this sort of thing, but I was going to check in advance just to make sure. I did a little research and self-education on the camber bolt options Rock Auto offered on their site, ended up getting them from Amazon because of the 2 day Prime delivery, it was around $44 for the four that I needed.  

 

For anyone who's curious, I went with the AC Delco bolts over the Moog bolts. Moog was going to be my first choice but Amazon's reviews revealed a couple of folks that didn't have such great luck with them, and had to replace them after they broke within a year or two of service. A little surprising, hopefully I will have good luck with these AC Delco camber bolts.

 

BTW, love the black Pathy in your sig photo! Very sharp. Makes me kinda want to shop for a similar front bumper setup for mine, that looks fantastic.

 

I wonder if Moogs are what the first set I had was (shop that did alignment sourced them, I don't know the brand) because they broke on me too.

 

The bumper is custom made, there are no tube options commercially available.  I'd suggest looking into local fabrication shops!  A good shop will be willing to work on anything, even things that aren't a "regular" offroader.