Coucoui6

update, i just finished installing everything last weekend. and drove to my in-laws place... about 2.5 hours on the road. the shocks performed nicely but i wanted more. i felt like my front torsion bars are sagging. so to be cheap and increase my spring rate... i added coil helper springs on every dampener. the rear ones was easy to install and it helped alot. the front independent suspension was a bit tricky... it was a tight fit but once the front A arms was compressed there's room for a helper coil to work. all in all... i like the helper coil on the rear but not sure how i feel about it in the front. my inital reaction was the truck felt a bit tips with the fronts helper coils on. but after driving my pathy home the suspension settled down abit and now its better. but i still need an alignment and a weeks worth of driving before i can make a final conclusion. right it is now much more stiff. the rancho is controlling rebound and my helper coil is resisting compression. i would recommend the rears to anyone that tows or their pathy stock suspension is sagging. the rubber boot would not fit with the coil springs so i used a thick pair of hiking tube socks to slip over the coils. this is not perfect but good enough to prevent dirt and dust from sitting on the dampener rod.

okay... i guess mine rancho's are normal... but i thought the 5000's were gas charged. the special was 4wheelparts.com. i paid about 150.00 with tax for all four. so that is about $37.50 each... cheap. thanks.

okay... every new shock i've installed on any vehicle the shock would always extend. especially high performance gas shock, ie. bilsteins on my bmw m3. i just got rancho 5000. it seems to dampen by rebound control. the shock does not extent on its own. is that right? now i know few shock, ie. koni's performance single adjustable dampener allows for only rebound adjustments. so far i've only replaced my fronts...( old ones was blown last weekend at the desert ) but it doesn't seem any stiffer than my last OEM replacements. so the installation is straight forward. am i missing something? or this is the normal rancho 5000 behavior. most everyone on this site states the 5000's are on the stiff side. i don't see it. i've also have not installed the rears. i got the buy 3 and get 4th one free special ... coucoui 6

i recently cut the front control arm bottom bushing but the top bushing is just a soft rubber dome. i not sure if it is worth replacing them with lower profile urethane ones. cutting the dome seems to be useless considering the bushing is only maybe 3/4" tall. i also cut the rear bushing ... my oem rear bushing has 2 rubber loops... i just cut the bottom ones out.

over the past year, i 've replaced front sway bar bushings, end link bushings, strut rod bushings, rear upper and lower trail arm bushings and shocks. all helped me out alot. i used only urethane bushings from 4x4parts.com

okay. i drove from temecula to LA yesterday with car full of people again. and the "klunking" is still there. i will say i was in a rush so i drove 75-80 mph. i noticed that my pathfinder was much more stable since i installed both top and bottom trail arm bushings. even my wife noticed less sway or twitch on the highway. in the past, i never liked driving past 65 mph because of the pathy was abit unstable but now it feel much better. as for the klunk... i only have the pan hard rod left but i am also reconsidering the exhaust pipes. but why will the strange sound primarily happen when the truck is under load. if the exhaust pipes was the cause wouldn't it happen with or without load? coucoui 6

okay i just finished my lower trail arm bushing... with urethane ones! i also cut some of my rear bump stop to give me more room. i have not performed a good test drive yet but.... in my evaluation under the pathy. i was wondering can my pan hard rod be bottoming out and "klunking" against the frame? this "the klunk" seems too happen when i have a load in my pathy and then traveling over a bumpy surface. ie. passengers or heavier item in the cab than driving over speed bump or up a shopping centers ramp...etc... have anyone experienced their pan hard rod hitting against the frame? ie. the passenger side where the pan hard rod connected with the frame.

okay... the mystery is back. the top trail arm bushing did help, but last week i had to pick up family at the airport with luggages. and guess what? the klunking sound came back. so my next move is to replace the lower trail arm bushing and re evaluate the pan hard rod also. if it still "klunks" than i'm out of suggestions.

here is some of my pictures... flexing... http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn284/c...i6/easytrai.jpg http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn284/c...6/easytrai6.jpg http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn284/c...6/easytrai4.jpg http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn284/c...6/easytrai3.jpg

i'm sure it was only a 15-20 min. job... but i was bend over on this one. i really wanted to take my part back home but i already promised my wife a leasure lunch. so i had to drop it off to save time.

sc88pathy, my 14.5 to 17.5 city driving is a big gain. now if you are using 31" wheels and your doing 16.5 for both highway and city type driving that is what the new CAFE rating is for our pathy ... check out www.fuelefficiency.gov. i will say your are doing a bit better than the new ratings because of your tires are big. two thought on big wheels... if you are driving hwy the big wheel can save you gas... it like having another hwy gear. but if you are doing all city... it will hurt your MPG alot! big difference. so i did one tank of gas 2 weeks ago with about 150 miles of highway and the rest city. during this tank of gas i had other passengers and alot of AC use.... my mpg mods was only my fuel heater, acetone and xylene... I am happy to report 18.5 MPG... with mix use. these numbers seems small but it is really big improvements. ie. my city number from 14.5 to 17.5 is 20% improvement is MPG and on a 20 gal tank of gas. this 20% improvement will give me an additional 60 miles of driving. that is big! once again, i'm posting real world info. i see your live in Santa Cruz. your will have a bigger temp range from season to season... is temp will affect MPG... ie. cooler the motor the more gas it uses. as far as weight ... for every 100 lbs of savings can equate to 1-2% MPG gain! and my Channel bumper is heavy! as for you other comment on 75% throttle for HP and fuel use ... i think that is correct for power stand point. but Max MPG no. now i'm not perfect with my driving but driving for max MPG, you will try to use min. fuel as possible to sustain a save and reasonable travel speeds. so for the 95% of socal drivers that means driving like your 95 years old! your throttle should never get past 50%. as for automakers ... 14.7% is the stochiometer for your fuel to air ratio... that is too much... you know we can lean our cars out more and get good emissions with better MPG. other countries dont all have this same fuel:air ratio.

okay... i just want to report that the mystery is gone.... i finally got around to replace my rear upper trial arm with some urethane ones... i did take the bottom trail arms out and its okay not great. some cracks but small. i think will do those later. fyi... i took my trial arms to two shop to have them press the old bushings out... everyone wanted to charge me min. 1 hr at $95.00 per hr rate. wow. inflation . i thought shops was only just 55-65 per hr. i never thought the current rate would be $95.

additional thought.... things that is definitely hurting my MPG... 1. my big tires. with spare. 2. my spare rear rack... more weight. 3. my c channel front bumper. poor air dynamics and heavy. 4. my air box alterations. it triggers the MAS. 5. my exhaust leaks could be a factor. 6. my 3" lift. push more air on the road. if the above items was not their i think i maybe able to get closer to 20 mpg on city driving! fyi. please look at www.fueleconomy.gov for some good info. as for other forums just do a google search... there is a bunch... with topic like hypermiliing or www.metrompg.com

FYI to all that is reading this tread... i know the focus is on forum is pathy and offroad with HP mods or suspension mods. i really dont what to debate anyone on concept or thories. i just thought i would post info that is helping me with my new focus, MPG efficiency. i just hope to help others if they want this info. prior to my tread... i searched and no real info was on this forums. if anyone who reads my posted info and don't think it will work or don't want to try it. that is okay but please don't be pestimistic and post snake oil comments. i'm in experimental mode. ie. i'm not sure if my new brisk racing plugs will work. i just found another guy with a 4 cyl. sidekick... i really liked his page and he was able to document improvement with the brisk racing lgs plugs with the use of Granatelli's MPG/Plus Performance Ignition Set. (and no he is not selling anything or sponsored) once again i only used nology hotwire because granatelli did not make wires with oem type end connectors for our pathy. i will post my results after a few full tanks of gas... i have a gas/MPG log in my car. so here is my final thought on header or intake mods for fuel efficiency. there is alot of performance shops here in my area advertising these thing for gas savings...... the biggest savings is driving behavior. if you drive conservatively ie. keeping the rpm low and slow acceleration and slow decceleration. the modified intake and exhaust will not help. factory pipes is more than adequate for these condition.

i picked up these tip on all the different forums that focus on MPG... some info was crap but some came from good sites. the fuel heater is to make the gas more volitile and expand... gas is denser when cold just like air. now i also read but will not do is radiator block and hot air intake. the thought is to increase the operating temp of your motor so the ecu will inject less fuel. other mods include modifing the O2 signal to be rich with EFIE units.

ofcourse that your bone stock pathy will give you better thank mine. if you have bone stock wheel size also... i posted that i got 14.5 mpg prior to my mpg mods and alter driving habbits... i now get 17.5 all city and i'm able to better your 16.5 with highway mix... and stock wheel size... that is real gains.... i'm not just posting crap info... as far as headers...i do under stand that it is only exhaust.... and for the most part will not affect air intake or fuel. but please bear with me and my example. the motor can be viewed as one big air pump. the faster you allow it to intake air the faster it will expel it.... but the opposite can take place ... the faster the air is expelled the more your intake can take in air thus trigger MAS and ECU to give more fuel. nothing is free with horse power... it take more air, spark and fuel period!

if you read any of the forum focused on MPG... headers and exhaust upgrades are not of concern... why... because if your driving for fuel efficiency... you will never be at WOT thus stock exhaust pipe will do just fine... i know header give you horse power but horse power take more gas. the ignition system can provide a better burn... but yes. alot of after market ignition stuff is just snake oil... but i guess i was reading more of the positive rather than negitives for MPG. FYI... alot of the MPG forums actually suggects hot air intake rather than cool... and to block the radiator. why??? to allow the motor to run hotter. your ecu will taper off the fuel. coucoui 6

okay... i know there is alot of snake oil stuff out there... but i thought that i will post what have worked for me so far. i have a pretty stock 95 pathy with a poor man's lift and 31" timberland tires. my intake has six 2" holes drilled in my air filter box (before the filter) and i have aftermarket muffler weld in place. these are all my performance mods... no more. problems that may affect my MPG: i have alot of small exhaust leaks with my exhaust system held up by hose clamps. my cat is abit rusty to the point the metal sheld is loose but i still pass Cali smog without problem. okay here is what i did to increase my MPG. i made sure my tires are pumped to max. manufacture psi: 40 psi for my tires. i am drive more conservatively now... ie. trying to accelerated slower and keep my rpm under 3K . once my truck is moving i try to keep my rpm to under 2.5K rpm. i mix 3oz of acetone and 3 oz of xylene per 10 gals of gas. i made a fuel heater with 5/8th copper tubing. i took 3' of tubing wrap it into a small coil and placed it over my top radiator tube. and then routed the fuel line from the fuel filter to the copper tubing and back to the rail. so far i am happy to report i've been averaging 17.5 MPG on all city driving and 18.7 MPG with a mix of highway/city. i've now did a tune up... by replacing my ignition parts. i have 135K miles with factory original stuff. New OEM spark plug cap and rotor cap, i use Brisk Racing LSG performance plugs ( not the LSG Brisk halo plugs) but my plugs was expensive... about $15 per plug with shipping. it was recommended by another site that i read and liked. i am also using nology hotwires. now the nology was alot.... i got the purple ones from nopi.com because it was $218 rather $238. plus i had a $20 coupon. i only used the nology because it was the only performance wire with factory specific plug ends. all the other low Ohm wires was generic and not specific. i am now driving my 1st tank of gas with my new parts and without acetone/xylene. i will provide feed back later. thanks, coucoui 6

Chriskaw440, i just ordered my rear trail arm bushing from 4x4parts.com. i got 2... one for each side. my wife is not beefy enough to help rock the pathy's rear end and the clunk is worse. so i'm tired of hearing it. i will check the lower rear trail arm once i get the new urethane part... thanks for you input. coucoui 6

my lift is also ultra cheeeeeep. i used a rubber coil spacer on top of my coils and cranked up the t bars.

no power...it's okay... my a/c is the best amount all of my vehicles. it blows hard and cold.

update... my last trip out i only unbolted my rear and left the front alone... i did this for two reasons. first to see the difference and 2nd to minimize the stress on my newly installed compression rod bushings and sleeves. my old sleeves had a hole in it from metal to metal stress. i was suprised to say the rear sway disconnect was all i needed, ofcouse my trail was not very difficult but i felt that the front could be left alone. thanks everyone.

okay... here is my update... i decided not to go with the disconnect and just manually unbolt my swaybar from the links each time i go offroad. i have some nice pictures of me flexing without bars... its awesome. and yes, i am using a bunge cord to hold the bar up once i unbolt it from the links. will update with pictures later.

i wonder if my rear clunking is from the control arm/ trail arm bushings... how much damage would i do if i just left them broken? i must say the clunking is pretty annoying!!!

my shocks are only about a year old. so i know their still good.... thanks. update. my exhaust remedy did not fix the clunk..... i think its a bushing to the top control arms now.