gv280z

I just checked out the Nissan lift for the Pathfinder on the Rough Country page and all it shows for the front is the upper control arms, so what actually provides the lift in the front? Aren't the UCA's just for leveling out the suspension geometry? So is it just assumed that the owner / buyer knows that he's supposed to re-index and crank the t-bars or does the lift automatically happen once the UCA's are installed....?

Nice, I like it. How you like those Cooper mud terrains? Ride, noise? Any offroad time yet with the new mods? Truck looks good.

I wish I had the money for these kinds of mods and the experience to go with it, but I don't. I cannot comment on any of them but of course I do recognize the ARB brand and that's the whole point. I seriously doubt this has anything to do with product quality, but more so it's the psychology of a hugely recognized brand name and all the macho mod guys out there are really happy to buy that NAME with their locker or manual hub or whatever. ARB has the market share because they've always had the market share, it comes down to PR. I'm sure there's no reason TJM wouldn't have 90% of the market share if they had been able to woo spend happy gear heads first, and then (the 2nd half) wage a really good PR campaign through branding, look and feel so when a couple of guys show up to a rock trail climb in Lostinthedesert, Utah, some dude can brag about his new TJM locker and everyone will say, "Oh cool..sweet man, yeah I love mine, it's been great!" It's just there because it's always been there. I just bought the house I'm living in from my Mom and with some few little odds and ends still left hanging around and I still find myself saying..."uh, why do I have this random thing here? How long have I just been overlooking / ignoring these random dishes in the cabinet?" It's like stuff belongs to the house, that's been there for so long that we've just accepted it and live and move right around it without even noticing. I think this ARB deal is the same thing. Who knows, maybe TJM is bunk, maybe they're not paying their R&D department 10% of what ARB pays their guys, all anyone can do is research whatever there is to learn and then throw em a bone and see what happens. It'd be great to get up the same trail just as easily as the guy infront of you for half the price and let 'em all know about it.

Installed a filter charger Yay! Sounds great, power seems to be up a little, really good engine response. Total cost like $38 for 3" adapter and Spectre cone air filter from O'Reilly Auto parts. Question, the MAF adapter has a port for the installation of pcv valve, should I take advantage of this? Is there any benefit to moving the pcv from it's stock location into the air intake tube?

I don't know about any previous versions of the Cooper A/T but my AT3's have been great, they're wearing really well, still look practically brand new two years later and they haven't stranded me offroad yet. I was also interested in the General AT2, that looks like a great tire...I've also had my eye on the S/T Maxx, STT and Hankook MT totally blew the competition out of the water during the 4x4 Offroad Mud Tire challenge, the Hankook ran away with 1st prize, I like that one and then (but not in this order) I have to include the Tread Wright Guard dog like Bushnut is running, can't beat it for the price, I think I might like to try a set some time.

I am thinking of doing this. I've been wanting to start atleast trying to learn how to do front end work and start trying to replace all those bushings and tie rod ends and ball joints and stuff but it seems / looks incredibly intimidating. After reading this particular write up atleast I think I can pull this one off and I'm looking forward to doing it. I've seen bits and pieces on other threads about poly-urethane bushings? I guess as opposed to natural rubber bushings? I'm gonna have to research this. After replacing the front compression rod bushings, what can I expect to change in the ride of the vehicle, will it be smoother or less jarring over bumps? What's the benefit, other than keeping the front end tight(er).

I agree with Precise and Nunya, either sell it and buy a 4x4 version, OR go straight to SAS.

I'd lose my mind, I think my heart would just stop beating from shock to experience -Celcius / Farenheit. I think it might be +35F here in TX and that's friggin cold...

Oh yeah, almost forgot the hauling aspect: I tow a Yamaha GP760 jetski on a single trailer during the water season and it is small and light, trailer and ski combined but 20 mpg would be impossible, I can definitely feel the added strain on the engine, it's probably a bit less fuel usage than when driving in 4 wheel drive, I don't know..they might be about equal. This engine was built for low end torque with big gears which means you don't get very far for the amount of power the engine is making. Hey look at the bright side, Fracking is here to save us, I don't know about you guys but here in Houston Tx we've dropped down to around $2.20 a gallon for regular. Which is scary because we're in for a hell of an adjustment, you know kind of how the earth's crust adjusts when two mantle plates run into one another and the one on top starts to get a sort of spring loaded tension on it as the other plate slides under it....then it finally lets go, and adjusts itself. Yeah...our economy here is based on energy so its going to get screwed up for a while.

I didn't get 20mpg when I did have 235s Kumho highway tread tires mounted, but I don't remember losing that much either when I stepped up to my 31s and by the way I think it greatly improved the overall look of my ride, I love my 31" tires. The 235s will be a lot lighter and more nimble but you may only get 1 or 2 mpg increase out of them. If you're a weekend warrior and only in light to moderate terrain I'd suggest you use a Cooper AT3 or Nitto Terra grappler, BFG A/T KO 2 or General Grabber AT2, you really can't go wrong with any of these. I occasionally see new sets of Cooper ATR's on trucks but I don't know where they got them from, that was a decent A/T tire.

Abertooth, for some reason, call it instinct or whatever, after reading your last post something new occured to me, have you considered that you may have 1 or 2 clogged catalytic converters? If you were to go to a muffler shop like a meineke or somewhere like that, I bet they wouldn't charge much just to cut out the cats to inspect them and see how bad they are, if they're not in bad condition, they'll just weld 'em back in, probably cost 20 or 30 bucks in labor. They shouldn't balk at that, it's not illegal to take a cat out and look inside it, it's not like you asking them to delete it or anything.

Are you getting black smoke and the engine sputtering around 2 or 300 rpm? Does it die when you're braking or slowing to turn? What you're experiencing sounds very similar to what a LOT of people have to deal with at some point. For me it was the Gunk fuel service at Kwik Kar with a vacuum line 20 min iv drip that cured my ailing IACV aka idle air control valve. Ever since then it never came back.

Dude Nissan jipped you on your E-Brake! Or is yours up under the dash like my 91 HB was....That little 12 valve 4 banger truck was fun to drive! Damn I miss my little truck. I miss all my cars..actually, except for the Rabbit...don't miss that one. Oh and the Pulsar...that car sucked.

SUP MAN!?! You know, when I first read this I was like...damn fool, I got you covered! And then I read a little further and when you first mentioned "People with standards" I thought you meant like, class and good taste, hehe...Still though I wasn't worried, for I knew you'd be happy with my cupholder system....and then I got to the automatic and E-brake part...hmmmm....then I got it, it's been soo long since I've owned a stick shift I forgot you actually DO use the parking brake! Heh...sooooo....all I've got for you are those stupid little things that slip down inside your window slot. I think some guys use a drink holder that plugs into the ashtray holder too. Here you go, a little pricey...but looks good: http://www.andysautosport.com/products/autoloc__BWCH.html That's all I can find Bro. Seriously.

This is cool! I love watching the back and forth Both of you guys trucks look great and I am really liking the recycled roof rack from the volvo, very nifty and looks great! Jamba I like your fender flares and tire / rim combo, that truck looks tough! Give us some more details please!

I've never done a search for "misfire" so I don't know what comes up. Everything I told you came straight from me thinking about things that could possibly be causing your problems. I mentioned a swap because I mis-read you had mentioned doing a timing belt swap, and I thought you meant engine swap. Failing ecu? It seems to me that they can halfway fail, have some circuits go bad and still manage to start and run the vehicle. I don't really understand it, it's just a notion, you know? Maybe someone else can explain it better. Fuel filter is easy to do and bad dirty fuel could certainly affect the way the engine runs if the gas is so dirty it's almost not even combustible, it may cause mis-firing symptoms. EGR valve, I don't really know why I said this other than the fact that it's an integral component of the systems that run your engine and you hadn't already mentioned it. About the throttle position sensor, I never said anything about it being loose, It may be bad or just have dirty contacts and not making a good connection. If it were malfunctioning, the ecu would never really know how much gas to send to the engine for it to run correctly. Anyway I'm just a 39 year old dumbass that's owned about 20 cars over the last 24 years and read everything automotive that I can get my hands on, you know it's not like I've picked anything up along the way, I'm just throwing random bs at you so I can feel like I have something important to say. I'm sure the others can give you some good solid, helpful information. Good Luck.

pvc, egr, fuel filter, seafoam / injector cleaner, hook up a donor ecu from a known good running similar year model and engine d21 / wd21, you might have a failing ecu, also there is a delicate little "timing disc" (for lack of a better term) contained beneath a plastic protective "plate" inside your distributor underneath the rotor, make sure that little disc is clean of any foreign debris, dirt / dust, I've got a feeling it works similar to the way a laser reads the microscopic pits and blanks that work like binary code in a cd while it's spinning inside a cd-rom drive. Also you might have a bad throttle position sensor. Unhook it, spray some electrical contact cleaner on the contacts in the harness and re-connect. Oh yeah, vacuum lines, check those too. Are you saying you did a vg33 swap and that's the engine that's running bad?

This makes no sense at all...something is wrong here, I've got the exact same setup, 31x10.50 /R15 Cooper AT3 on Legos, and only briefly once in a while with a bit of weight in the rear, like a lot of groceries, and hit a dip or bump in the road, the rear tire will rub for an instant...never hits the flares. This is a bone stock setup for a 90 Pathfinder, maybe you should remove the spacers, that would only widen the front track putting the tire closer to the outside edge of the fender well.

Honestly there is nothing wrong with 30" tires. Infact, on the contrary, I'd say it's a little more than debatable. Guys being guys of course we like the look of a larger tire and that little bug in our brain that tells us that with more diameter and a larger footprint, we can go over and through offroad terrain / obstacles / muck better than with smaller tires. I'm guilty of all of these, I went from 235 /15s to 31" 10.50 /15s and I'm soooo glad I did and still I want more, the tire bug is continually eating my brain telling me that I need 32 x 11.50 /15s....they'd look awesome! Yes, they would and I might get a tiny bump in ground clearance. But there is a trade off that nobody wants to talk about: Bigger tires raise your final gear ratio, which lowers torque. If you do all your offroading in 4 low, then I doubt this would ever be a problem, but for daily driving it would start to become an issue maybe around the 33" mark. Acceleration and gas mileage will go down. The bigger tires will start to tax the little v6 in some situations if wheeling in 4 High. Also, bigger tires are heavy. Going too big will have those heavy tires putting a lot of extra stress on the hubs, steering linkages and tie rod ends / ball joints that it really wasn't designed to handle. Where as if you're running 30" tires, you'll have a lighter tire and more torque, easier on the engine, hubs, wheel bearings and gearing / drive train. Plus the skinnier, lighter tires I believe cut through the muck a little better cuz they go straight to the bottom of the soft terrain where as a larger foot print will ride on top of the muck more so than down in it. A 30" tire will get traction and go over stuff the same as a larger tire, (not to mention you'll have more power) however if you're in sand you wont get the flotation benefit that you do with a larger tire with more surface area to "float" across the sand. As far as I can see the only real drawback with the 30" tire is the small tire look, and a slight hit on ground clearance. If you were to maybe do a 2" - 3" lift it would solve your ground clearance issues and leave you looking a little silly...but seriously, how many Billy Bad Ass jocks with huge tires have we all seen suckin mud and needing a winch out. There is something to be said for lighter weight, skinnier tires and a little more torque than you'd have with larger tires. It's all science Baby.

you never mentioned backing in reverse to unlock your front hubs after shifting back to 2Hi..? Sometimes I have to do this, sometimes I don't as the fronts usually seem to unlock on their own after I shift back but if the dash light doesn't go off, then I'll pull over and go in reverse about ten feet. It's good to do just to make sure.

Wow, they sound like the perfect shock, how is it that so many people have vastly different experiences with them? I want to try a set now I think.

My last set of kyb I had in the rear were jittery, I thought at first I liked how firm they were, but then the more I drove with them I started getting all this nervous jitter and I finally couldn't take it had to get rid of them. Those Ranchos aren't too jittery are they?

Ok, so how is the ride, harsh, or just a little on the stiff side but not unruly...? Ok for a family run-a-bout?

Soooo what did you upgrade to? If you say Rancho 5000 I'll be really confused because I keep hearing that they are softer than gas pressurized shocks...however I am starting to think more about oil filled shocks instead of gas....I may be due to try a set in a year or so...

Finally installed a set of Monroe Sensa Trac shocks on the front end and threw away those horrible KYB Gas A Just shocks! Much better, no more float! Now I've got a full set front and rear of Sensa Tracs, I'm happy with them.