TowndawgR50

That was both odd and a huge bummer because we were using @hawairish truck to tour the state parks and ruins. Heard the noise after a relatively flat and smooth FS road around Sedona. Found the swaybar snapped clean and was dangling. There was a vastly different and unstable feeling at freeway speeds in turns. Upon leaving Sedona we hit 17 which is a couple hours from PHX and mostly downhill if I remember correctly. The initial lean isn't the concerning part, its the opposing "sway" the springs have which causes a back and forth motion compounded by driver input to correct it. Kinda like speed wobbles on a skateboard, except slower. I'm glad you have replaced it. I know a lot of folks like to take the rear sway bar off for supposed increase in rear axle articulation but that just isn't the case with these rigs. I have retained my sway bar as has @hawairish and I can flex as much as folks without it, if not more due to my extended rear trailing arms. For something that's used strictly on the trails there wouldn't be an issue but for anything that has to drive to the trails, let alone serves as a daily/only vehicle its a huge gamble and could have disastrous results. #GetYourSwayOn

What?! No link to that video?! I'd love to get my hands on your QD32. Share the video!

Any Nissan FSM ( Factory service manual) can be found here https://www.nicoclub.com/nissan-service-manuals

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.

Sounds like the differential pinion. Are you lifted at all? Increased angles on the pinion will cause this. Do you also have any on/off acceleration related clunks or mechanical engagement type noises?

Sorry to hear this! The past 6 months has been rough for R50 owners. At least its just the bumper and some minor body damage. I don't have one handy but I know there are a few donors in the yards around us. Tacoma has 2 of the same body style, Lynnwood has a couple and so does Arlington. There is a yard near @zakzackzachary in the peninsula that supposedly has a few as well. Not sure on the colors but you should ar least be able to find a bumper support.

WOW! Love this! Please share more about this one!!!

Welcome! I was running 2" of spacers when I first got my rig and broke a total of 3 CV axles before ditching them in favor of springs. Not a single problem since. Camber bolts will not correct CV axle angle with a spacer lift. We stress this because its all too often the spacer lift is seen as the first choice due to the initial cost. In the end its far more expensive to deal with a broken CV axle+spacers than the initial cost of a set of springs.

Took a quick run with the dogs yesterday to play in the snow

Thanks!

I wouldn't tow with a rear differential lunch box. They're great for a dedicated trail rig but under load they lock the rear axle up, which would be most of the time with a trailer.

Lol, was just going to say and @hawairish beat me to it. I do have a complete axle swap that Im not going to use. I cant use the lunchbox setup for my rig as I need to tow a trailer.

There are no lunchbox locker options for the rear axles on R50's without switching from 33 spline to the somewhat hard to find 31 spline axle shafts out of an early Supercharged Frontier. @hawairish covered the details in another thread but its a pretty involved job if you can find the axle shafts

Thats pretty close to a few of us for sure. I'll definitely try and tie you into the next gathering.

Get a Bluetooth OBD2 reader and download a free scantool app for your phone. The readers are super cheap and will give you very easy access to the issues that pop up. This one is only $11 on Amazon and there are far better ones for more money but if you just need to read codes these work fine. It will allow you to scan the ECU with your phone app the moment the code comes up and provide a basic description of the issue. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PJPHEBO/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_N4fdEbY1YYENZ I have something similar and have had great success using it on multiple vehicles for that past 6 years to read and reset the Check engine light error codes as well as get live data streams on various sensors. I'd wager it has something to do with your O2 sensors (common issue with the 01+ 3.5 rigs). The check engine light will come on and off intermittently without driveability issues. Nissan put out a TSB for dealers to reflash the ECU and fix the constant O2 sensor problem, related to the time required to reach operating tempature I think, but I've never known anyone to do it. Just heard stories. Check for a broken shoelace sized woven metal grounding strap on the passenger side exhaust pipe, close to the catalytic converter. Very easy to spot. Should go from the pipe to the heat shielding. Not all rigs came with them but I believe most early 01's like mine did. A running theory is that they break and cause these prolonged intermittent Check Engine lights to pop up but there isnt a whole lot of evidence to back that up as it appears the newer rigs with similar proplems never had them. Some, inclduing myself, have had the O2 issue resolved by replacing this broken exhaust grounding strap.

Welcome! Nice rig! Sorry for your loss. Does your truck have the manual transfer case or electronic? (switch in the dash). There are a bunch of us in the PNW. We did a couple portions of the Washington backcountry discovery route this year and will definitely do more in the future. Very fun and great views. What part of WA are you in?

Your rig looks great. How was the outdoor area you went to? Off road park or just federal land? I was just at the JY this week and saw a set of the same wheels with decent tires. Not in the market for any but your setup makes me think that if I had to do it over again I'd probably have stuck with the OEM wheels for my KO2 AT's and aftermarket 15's for my KM2 MT'S instead of getting the TRD wheels.

Depending on time and the amount of maintenance you need or want to do when the power valves screws are done its a great time to do- - Knock sensor - Spark plugs - injectors/injector o-rings - Thermostats ( there are 2) - Intake coolant hose (buried under the intake) - valve cover gaskets All of these require the intake manifold to be torn down.

This is a common problem with the RE4R01A automatic transmission in the Pathfinder. Its likely the reverse clutch basket snap ring. It will break and the debris have the tendency to start to damage forwars gears, although some have had a loss of reverse with no other issue presumably from a clean break that snap ring. This year has been a bad one for the R50 automatic trans. Quite a few have had this issue. You need a rebuilt trans or to rebuild the unit in your rig.

Looks great! I had those wheels when I first got my rig and I never gave them the time of day. Changed over to other OEM wheels off a toyota and a refurbished set of mag's pretty quickly but yours is the second rig I've seen with nice rubber mounted on them. They're really growing on me. Definitely get the power valves taken care of. Worth every penny of labor. I sourced all the required OEM gaskets from Courtesy Nissan of Texas for about $80 and did the job myself. I suspect a few hundred dollars in labor, not including parts, is a reasonable amount for a good shop. Not a terrible job if you're inclined to try it yourself.

This is a great tool. 100% reccomend it

The rear main seal is located at the back if the motor and is only accessible when the transmission is removed. SFD=Sub-Frame Drop This is the primary method of gaining lift over 2" in the R50 platform. To install the SFD the transmission does not come out, but allows you to drop it down a bit to gain access to the upper area of the transmission. You cant drop the mated motor and transmission very far but the small amount of room gained by using the control arm bolts in place of the OE subframe bolts will make the job much easier. The work required to replace a rear main seal opens up opportunities to do preventative maintenance on a variety of other items that require access to the same area. Oil pan gaskets, coolant crossover pipe gaskets etc. The oil cooler does not require the transmission to be dropped to service it and can be done with minimal tools and a pair of jack stands.

Dropping the trans is only a pain because of tool access and hard to reach fasteners. Having done the RMS job as well as the SFD the method I would use if I had to do it again is similar to a SFD installation. By using rear trailing arm bolts in place of the OE subframe bolts you can leave most of your engine components as well as wiring in place and drop the entire subframe a few inches. @hawairish tought me this method and it works very well. This will facilitate tool access and open up a lot room in between the top of the tans and the trans tunnel to see what you need to get at like the upper bell housing bolts, the nickle plated breather tube assembly thats bolts to the upper bell housing and the coolant cross over tube. Then while you're at it toss in a pair of gaskets for the coolant cross over tube because that also requires the trans to be dropped and a SFD because all the work to get there is the same.