XPLORx4

This is a poll to see how many people here have aftermarket bumpers installed on their Pathy.

Also, winter blend gasoline can sometimes reduce fuel efficiency compared to summer blend gasoline. http://www.topspeedracer.com/better-gas-mileage-in-summer-than-winter.html

Cold temperatures wreak havoc on mpg, also, because it takes longer for the engine to warm up and for the transmission fluid and gear oil to warm up, too. If you have an AT, the torque converter will slip longer until the ATF is warm. Your records go back to April '12, while the weather was warmer. Have you been running the same wheels, tires, and drivetrain since April?

LOL. This is why the Calmini R50 bumper never made it to market. I bet there are still fewer than 25 Pathy owners who actually own winch bumpers already, and I bet fewer than another 10 who have custom tube bumpers they built themselves.

I'm thinking about doing this to my Pathy, whose KS has been busted for about 10 years. Just to be clear, you completely cut the original wires leading to the stock sensor that is still bolted beneath the intake plenum, right? And you just leave the other end of the cut wires inside the original wire loom that routes behind the plenum? I found the knock sensor (22060-30P00) and KS harness (24079-31U01) on ebay for $78.85. Do you know of a lower price? The knock sensor itself runs $160 at nissanparts.cc! What the heck!?

That's a brilliant solution!

That could be the problem.

A subframe is a smaller "frame" onto which the steering system, front suspension and engine mounts are attached. This smaller "frame" bolts up to the unibody chassis and is not part of the unibody itself. The big part shown in this drawing is the subframe for the Pathfinder: http://www.trademotion.com/media/images/oe/collision/3/3617150.gif Live axle front suspensions don't typically have a subframe. They're configured similarly to the rear axle of the Pathfinder, though sometimes with fewer links.

Manual or auto tranny? Check for brake lights always on (could be a bad brake switch) or reverse lights always on. Or, it could be a bad park/neutral position inhibitor switch (AT) or a bad clutch switch (MT). There are other possible causes, but these are just a couple. Read about the cruise/ASCD (Automatic Speed Control Device) system starting on page EL-162 after clicking this link.

Fixed it for ya.

What is your overall budget to lift the truck? Spacers should be cheap, custom 3" lift springs more expensive, along with other problems (such as topping out under most normal driving conditions), with a subframe drop being the most expensive, but probably most problem-free.

You probably don't want 3" lift front springs, because then the front struts will be almost fully extended when the truck is parked on level ground, so whenever you drive over even the slightest road imperfections, your suspension will make all sorts of horrible clunking as the strut hits its maximum extension, which is known on this forum as "topping out". The front wheel camber will become excessively positive and may be very hard, if not impractical, to correct without a lot of extra effort. You might be able to get away with installing 1" strut spacers between the top of the strut and the chassis strut tower, but the jury is out on whether this will allow the CV axles to bind when the suspension is fully unloaded. What is your budget?

Oh yeah, I guess you can do both of those to achieve 3", but technically, that's a 2" lift + a 1" lift that are sold separately and not offered from one source as a combined 3" lift solution. Just semantics, I suppose. Meh.

What I meant, is why 3" only for the front and not also the rear?

There aren't any commercially-available (i.e. "retail") 3" lift kits for the front suspension. There are only 2" lift coil springs and a 4" subframe drop. If you want anything else, it would involve custom fabrication. Just curious, why do you want a 3" lift kit only for the front?

Dear rocky2, First, I will take you at your word that you genuinely want to be enlightened. You wrote, "I think we are considering two different scenarios. You are taking only into account strut length when the wheels are off the ground. I'm talking about centering the strut rod piston in the shock body when using longer springs." First, I would like to remind you that we agree that we are not talking about the same things. I understand that what YOU are talking about is centering the piston in the available stroke of the strut while the suspension is supporting the static weight of the vehicle. This is actually an excellent solution, except in your example of the Pathfinder strut stroke being +3.5"/-3.5" (total of 7"), with the AC 2" coil spring lift added, the stroke would then be +1.5" [extension]/-5.5" [compression] (total of 7"). In order to center the piston in the strut, the rod extension would need to be 4", not 2": +5.5"/-5.5" (total stroke of 11"). A 2" strut rod extension to a 7" long strut rod will yield only 9" total stroke, and will not achieve centering the piston, for the result would be +3.5"/-5.5". When you measure the AC coil springs while they're sitting on the ground all by themselves, just removed from the shipping box, they are pretty long. If I recall, they're probably at least 16" or 17". The stock springs, when sitting on the ground all by themselves are somewhere around 13" or 14". Note that both the stock springs and AC springs are too long to fit inside the original 7" strut or even an elongated strut with a stroke of 11". This is why in order to install any kind of coil spring into a strut, you need to use a coil spring compressor or strut compressor. If you don't compress the spring, it will be exceedingly difficult, if not humanly impossible to assemble the strut. If the uncompressed spring is too short to fully extend in the strut, it will dangle around and fall out of place during suspension movement when reinstalled in the vehicle. OK, for argument's sake, let's assume that you've managed to install AC 2" lift coil springs into a strut whose total stroke is 11", so that when the static weight of the vehicle compresses the suspension, the piston is centered in the stroke. At the moment, everything works great (except for alignment issues caused by the altered suspension geometry). You won't ever get the topping out problem. Problem solved, right!? Perhaps, but if you drive the truck on uneven terrain that might possibly allow the suspension to fully unload and extend to its maximum length of 11" (remember how long that strut was before you reinstalled it in the truck?), the suspension A-arm will drop 4" lower than it did when Nissan assembled it in the factory, the CV angle will become greater than its design tolerance, and I guarantee you that something will break. If not the CV joint itself, the boot will tear. Or perhaps even the ABS sensor cable or brake fluid line will overstretch as the A-arm drops below its design tolerance. I will remind you again that you are taking about STATIC LOADED COMPRESSED SUSPENSION, while I am talking about FULLY UNCOMPRESSED SUSPENSION. So, we are metaphorically defending two different things: you're defending apples, and I'm defending oranges. I will reiterate my firm position that I cannot and do not advocate to any Pathfinder owners the use of any type of device that alters the overall distance between the chassis strut tower and the ball joint while the suspension is uncompressed, UNLESS such a device is accompanied by other hardware that also lowers the center of the differential output flanges by the same amount. Installation of such devices (not SFD) carries risks that may result in driveline failure. I take this position because I believe that the risk of binding a CV axle is too great when the knuckle/hub drops lower than its intended design, which is common when off-roading, and even more so without a swaybar. However, I am sure the forum members, including myself, would be greatly indebted to any owners who have installed strut spacers, strut rod lengtheners, or other devices that increase the strut tower-to-ball-joint distance (without any kind of subframe drop) to get their trucks up on a lift or jackstands (under the frame, not under the suspension), lock it in 4WD, crank the steering wheel full left or full right and videotape the CV axles in action while someone else applies the accelerator. If the CV axle doesn't bind or the boots don't split, then I would change my position and would confidently support such a device, bearing in mind that the positive camber issue is not fully addressed except by camber bolts or elongating the upper holes in the lower strut mount.

By the way, we both 100% agree that while there is weight on the front suspension on level ground, the best place for the shock/strut piston to be is centered in its stroke.

Hi rocky2, I think I'm not understanding your terminology, so I'm getting confused. From what I can observe, replacing the coil spring in a stock strut will not lengthen the distance between the strut tower on the body/chassis and the ball joint on the A-arm when the wheels are off the ground. In fact, you can completely remove the spring from the strut altogether, reinstall the strut, and the distance between the chassis' strut tower and the ball joint will still be the same as when the spring is installed. However, if you increase the distance between the chassis' strut tower and the ball joint, whether by lengthening the strut rod OR by installing a spacer between the strut assembly and the tower, the distance is increased. It is this increased distance that can compromise the integrity of the CV axles. It only takes 1/3 of a rotation to bind and potentially break an overextended CV joint. As long as the overall distance between the strut tower and the ball joint is the same as factory specs when the wheels are off the ground we can assume that the CV joints are operating within specified tolerances. I have never been an advocate of any kind of suspension modification that increases the maxiumum distance between the strut tower and the ball joint, thereby increasing the maximum CV angle, because I believe the risk of breaking a CV axle is too great while driving off-road, where there is a high likelihood of having no weight on a front tire that is also fully turned right or left. There may be some users on the forum who have successfully installed 1" spacers between the strut tower and the strut mount ("top hat") but I have doubts about whether they have hung one or both front tires in the air while off-roading without a front sway bar. Therefore, I could become an advocate of increasing the distance between the strut tower and the ball joint only if there is a similar increase in distance between the chassis and the centerline of the front differential output flanges (aka subframe drop). By no means am I advocating "topping out" as a means for limiting suspension travel. I'm just stating that this is what happens already. With longer/stiffer springs, this just happens more frequently and with more force (due to the higher spring rate) when the wheels are ON the ground. By the way, I bet this pheonomenon would be far less prevalent if the rebound valving of struts made for the R50 was a lot firmer. That is, the compression valving could be high-speed, while the rebound valving could be very low speed. Unfortunately, I think the more popular struts, such as the KYB GR2, are gas-charged and have faster rebound valving than compression valving.

Looks good! What size tires are those? I'm running 265/75-16's and I'd need to run some wheel spacers in front in order to fit 285/75-16's. How'd you get them to clear the front struts?

LOL, that's funny, because I've been admiring your build over on ExPo! I've been wanting an awning for quite a while; what length is that ARB, and how much did it cost? Pics of how you attached it to your rack would be cool to see.

As rocky2 plainly and clearly pointed out using easy-to-understand language and excellent diagrams, the stock strut with stock springs allows for an equal ratio of compression and extension (50:50, or 3.5" in either direction, for a total of 7"). With different coil springs, whether for lifting or for lowering, the ratio of compression:extension is different. For our purposes, we are addressing lift springs. With a 2" lift, the compression is increased to [a little less than] 5.5", while the extension is reduced to just [a little more than] 1.5". If you wanted to restore the compression:extension ratio back to 50:50, you would need to add a 4" extension to the strut. But for practical purposes we only want to get the extension back to the stock length of 3.5", so only a 2" extension is needed. Double-wishbone IFS designs, such as on the Nissan WD21, WD22, and many Toyota vehicles, the suspension extension is limited by bump stops or other methods that are disassociated with the shock or spring. However, on a suspension design that uses MacPherson struts, the suspension's maximum extension is limited by the maximum length of the strut. On a RWD vehicle, the only practical limit on the stroke of the strut is determined by the suspension geometry. The lower A-arm can only swing downwards so far before the suspension geometry is severely compromised. However, on a 4WD vehicle, in addition to preserving suspension geometry, the stroke of the strut is limited in order to prevent the front CV axles from operating at excessive angles when the suspension is fully unloaded. As mentioned above, if the "at rest" position of the suspension is 2" higher than stock, not only is the suspension geometry (camber and toe) altered - requiring corrective countermeasures, but the "at rest" position becomes too close to the maximum travel. So, lengthening the strut to provide it more extension seems like a good solution. The problem with lengthening the strut is that it can no longer prevent the CV axles from operating at excessive angles. Note that under normal use, this isn't an issue because the suspension will rarely be fully unloaded. However, when driving on uneven terrain, this could be catastrophic, resulting in destroyed CV joints. No matter which type of suspension lift components are selected (strut spacers, coilovers, stiffer springs, strut inserts, strut rod extensions, etc.) the maximum CV angle must never be exceeded. For this reason, it is inadvisable to lengthen the struts (simply to avoid "top out") without ALSO installing additional hardware on the lower suspension components or other means of limiting the downtravel. This is why a subframe drop is also an important thing to consider.

The headlights are JDM headlights. Only R50's sold in the Asia-Pacific market came equipped with them from the factory.

Probably the only mods I made that turned out being worse for me than better have been: Front swaybar disconnects: the design of the R50 swaybar makes disconnecting it for offroad use impractical because it bangs around on the CV axles or can bind on the suspension brackets when the wheels turn. Solution: remove the front swaybar. Been driving the Pathy without any swaybars for 12 years. Electric fans: due to the locations and type of wheeling I do, it is too risky to rely on the alternator to provide the only means of engine cooling. The e-fans never really did provide the kind of performance benefit I had expected (ie. better fuel economy, better engine performance), and they proved more troublesome in the long run. 5 years ago, I had an alternator fail on me in Death Valley, which also indirectly took out my cooling system. Well, I drove as long as possible with just battery power before I needed to stop and have another truck jumper-cable charge the battery. I could have gone much longer if the electric fans weren't running full-speed to keep the engine cool. So, I ditched the e-fans and I'm happily running the stock mechanical fan again. This year, I will likely add a 12" auxiliary pusher fan in front of the A/C condenser to keep sufficient air moving through the radiator at low speeds for rock-crawling in warm weather. Rock lights: inexpensive tractor/utility lights were mounted under the truck, but didn't last very long. I may eventually replace them with LED light strips.

Here are some pics, as requested: Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Just the lights Reverse lights

The link in the first post lists the price at $740.