The Nissan Path

This past Christmas my family came in town and I had the Path loaded up with people and luggage. 7 passengers (5 adults and 2 kids in the 3rd row), 5 suitcases (2 checked size, 3 carry on), and a stroller. I was using a hitch rack for the stroller and one of the checked size suitcases. Unfortunately one of my airbags had a leak so the airlift was not useable. As expected the rear was sagging somewhat.

When I drove over a speed bump I noticed the rear end oscillating a good bit. I was wondering how much is normal and if my rear shocks possibly need to be replaced? Is there a good way to test this? Are the shocks affected by temperature the same way the hatch struts are?

Here's a good YouTube vid on how to check your shocks/struts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiW0ISi8N-w

I would say get those airbags fixed.

I have RadFlo's in the rear and still had the wobbly rear end probably because of the rear tire carrier and spare. I've heard nothing but good about the RadFlo's even then they were squirrely, but the airbags helped tremendously.

smj999smj wrote:Here's a good YouTube vid on how to check your shocks/struts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiW0ISi8N-w

Thanks. I've owned the truck since new and can't say I notice much difference in the handling, but who knows. Slow changes over time are sometimes hard to notice.

NmexMAX wrote:I would say get those airbags fixed.

I have RadFlo's in the rear and still had the wobbly rear end probably because of the rear tire carrier and spare. I've heard nothing but good about the RadFlo's even then they were squirrely, but the airbags helped tremendously.

Yeah I should have the airbags fixed soon. Certainly before any more heavy loads.

My 2012 Silver had recently started going downhill rapidly with the driveability of the vehicle. From the day I bought it with 20k miles on the clock, it always felt weak in the rear with excessive sway but I started having serious problems with bottoming out and if I hit any divot in the road at highway speeds, I had to hold on the the steering wheel for dear life. The only way I can describe the way it was acting is like towing a tongue-heavy trailer. The rear end would almost get away from me. I loaded up the family - 4 adults and 3 kids - for a short trip into town and I became so untrustworthy of the vehicle, I was ready to dump it. After reading on here, I bought some Air Lift 1000's to install in the rear but before doing so, since my Pathfinder is still under the 3/36, I figured I would give the dealership a shot before I started working on it. They immediately noticed the problem, installed two new rear shocks (among some other little issues like squeaks and creaks and failed rear door struts) and I swear the vehicle rides like new now. The shocks were completely shot at 28,000 miles and just those two bad shocks completely ruined the vehicle. I've had bad shocks before but never had them affect a vehicle like it did on the Pathfinder. I'm still going to install the air bags but a good set of shocks makes all the difference in these vehicles. I'm back liking my Pathy once again.
I'll be out of warranty by the time this second set of factory shocks go bad and will look into some Bilsteins but for now, it's great!