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I got to get into the woods near big flat brook near me I need a wing person to film stuff, I wish I could've gotten video of the creek bed I found.. Rocks are fun and nothing has stopped this truck so far so I need to go to rausch creek Sent from my LM-G710VM using Tapatalk

Did a lot of Takata airbag replacements while I was at the dealership. I did notice a report a while back that in some cars, the replacement inflators are being recalled for the same problems the originals had. I always was suspicious of the whole idea of putting an explosive device a couple feet in front of me for my safety. Now, the average car/light truck has an average of 6-10 explosive devices packed around the occupants and they still have issues with them. Did a lot of reprogramming of the airbag control modules in Frontiers, Xterras, and Titans because it was discovered that when the truck was tilted far enough and hit a bump right, it would think that it was rolling over and fire all the airbags and pretensioners off. Was told that it kinda ruined a trail run when it happens.

Another excellent video Tyler! I'm looking forward to seeing you tackle that obstacle at the end again in the future with more upgrades.

Well, COVID 19 shut down my school for at least the next month, so I’ve been back in Idaho since Sunday. Already went ahead and made a trip to my favorite trail!

If you're replacing any hoses, the bypass hose is the one to do. It can be done afterwards but is a pain to get to. If the rad hoses are in good shape you can probably leave them. I've never replaced the key on any of mine, but that's not saying I've done things right either. The cam and crank seals have bit me in the ass like Slartibartfast as well. My crank seal started leaking 3 months after the job and of course before a long weekend road trip was to take place lol. The parts are pretty cheap on rock auto, so if you can stretch it I would just do it all. @Mr_Reverse aren't the keyways only an issue on the earlier VG's? I've never had a problem with any of mine, but they are all 94 and up. I do recall several people having issues with the (basically square tooth belt time frame) versions. I'm pretty sure they changed the design at one point. The VG33 style is definitely different.

Cleaning the upper slide on the B pillar (by your shoulder) helps a lot with seatbelt retraction. Hold the belt up and (mostly) out of the way and you can feed a thin piece of wire or something between the belt and the slider, and use that to scrape the schmoo off the slider (being careful not to damage the belt webbing of course). The belt should slide more easily afterwards. Mine doesn't shoot back like a tape measure, but I don't have to feed it in by hand and it doesn't get caught in the door. I imagine taking the seatbelt out and washing the hell out of the webbing would help a lot, and probably slow the accumulation of schmoo on the sliders as well. I'm not entirely sure where the schmoo comes from. I assume it's human slime of some variety, but it's not like I drive shirtless or wipe myself with the belt. (We're not out of TP yet.) Also, a dealer failing to honor a lifetime warranty because their VIN archive sucks is some serious BS.

Awesome man, glad to hear you pulled the trigger on the ACs I was about to say something about reusing the old struts but I actually think you’re probably right that they have lots of life left in them. My originals lasted over 200K before crapping out, so no reason yours should be needing replacement yet unless you’ve been jumping the damn thing lmao

Wanted to bump this old thread so that I could chime in for anyone on the search for new hinges - 2nd gen hinges DO work. They bolt up without any modification and are a nice upgrade from the brittle old plastic hinges. I took the plunge on a pair on eBay after scrutinizing pictures and was very pleased to find out that they install very easily. They swing up and down without any binding - the only issue (and this is totally surmountable) is that they make the glass stick out a few millimeters further away from the hatch, making a small (maybe 2mm) gap between the glass and the window seal at the top. My plan when I have the time is to cut some shims out of rubber and install between the hinges and glass to push the glass closer towards the hatch and hopefully create a good seal against the window gasket. I'll make an update to this thread when possible and see about taking some pictures as reference. My 32 year old hinges were splitting apart and I was having a tough go of finding decent looking replacements, so this was a big win for me.

I brought my PF in and they said, "It's not bad enough for them to warranty." ? It's pretty annoying. It'll retract like 1/10 times but usually I manually feed it back in.

Ordered some AC springs for the front. Plan is to swap the springs into my current struts and use all existing hardware and just replace springs. Might need camber bolts so I'll order those also and return if not needed. With only about 36k on the odometer I know the struts have some life left even though they are 16 years old at this point. Hoping to get to 80k before upgrading struts and mounts. Crazy 4x4parts charges $60 for shipping where as LRDirect only charges $40 and is coming from the UK and arrived in 4 days.

Same situation here, I haven’t been going crazy with the lift height (SFD and whatnot) because it’s my daily driver as well. I figure the 10% of time I’ll be off-road will be somewhat mild stuff that a 2 inch lift can easily handle. The AC springs were chosen one because I wanted the beefiest things I could fit up there in order to offset the weight of any bumper I put on in the future, and two because they provide a true 2” of lift whereas the OME HDs and MDs are a mixed bag as far as I can tell. Some guys report close to two inches, some are closer to 1. I don’t like the look of a heavily raked truck , so I made sure to have as much lift as possible in the front without going for spacers (because of the potential for binding CVs) I’m sure you could get away with the HD OME coils and be pretty close to the same height as AC coils, but again who knows? The 9447s offer between 2-2.5 inches in the rear after settling, so I played it safe and went with the ACs to keep things level I also really like the ride quality of the ACs, even though some people warned me that they would be a bit harsh. I find them firm but not jarring at all, and so far they’ve handled every massive pothole around here without bottoming out once lol

Not my rig but I was lucky enough to pilot this beast through AZ recently. HUGE thanks to @hawairish and his family for hosting us and letting the wifey and I use his vehicle to tour the Sonoran desert and the Colorado plateau. His rig is the most well sorted R50 I've seen. Everything is so well tuned and thought out. From the numerous mechanical upgrades and trick incognito pneumatic setup to the camping/fridge organizer in the back. It left me super inspired with a laundry list of things to improve on my own truck.

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I had two washers on mine but it wasn't working anymore. Then I cut a strip of rubber mat and wrapped it around the striker, fixed with some glue for rubber. Now the lights doesn't flicker, and closing the rear hatch is much softer than ever, without that hard iron-to-iron sound.

Thanks for all replies, all problems have been solved, this is why these forums are so great! Fog lights were fuse, horn and cruise were clock spring. I installed part all the way toward the column resulting in contacts being too far away from wheel. I loosen retaining clamp, pull it forward and retightened. Door ajar light was the common tailgate latch senser. I simply moved the catch toward the rear of the car. Problem solved.