The Nissan Path

Hi all,

While driving over good pavement yesterday I heard a loud Crack in the rear end. Sure enough I pulled the rear wheels off today and the passenger side spring broke!

I had just found an indy mechanic who specializes in Nissans, but he's not taking new jobs until August due to health reasons. I was planning on replacing the rear control arms in August.

So do I need to replace the springs immediately, or is it ok to drive with a broken spring? We have camping booked for July and August which means pulling out 1500lb Bushranger tent trailer about 1000km/600 miles... I'm assuming that is out of the question with a broken spring?

Driving with a broken rear spring and worn rear control arm bushings while towing a trailer is very risky for causing additional damage and potentially dangerous. A "death wobble" is a term that describes an uncontrolled back and forth sway of the rear end due to badly worn out control arm bushing, somewhat common with old R50 models. I haven't heard of this with an R51 but with all you have going on, you need to get that fixed. Your vacation fun with others depends on it.

Agreed, there will be no towing.

Replacing the coil springs seems fairly straight forward on these? I may locate some Moog springs on Monday and attempt the swap next weekend.

Is the bolt connecting the rear LCA to the knuckle prone to seizing? Will the bushing need to be replaced?

Those bolts/nuts may be hard to move if they are rusted from salt. Otherwise, they will come off easy enough with a nice long breaker bar wrench. Hit with a good penetrating lube spray the day before and again just before wrenching on them. Control arm assemblies come with bushings.

To clarify, in the service manual the schematic refers to part #9 as "Rear Lower Link." But this is the same part that my mechanic referred to as the" Rear Lower Control Arm" and also known as the "Coil Bucket," right? These terms are interchangeable?
I just want to make sure I'm asking the right questions, before I really F something up lol.

Also, does the wrench with 175 next to mean that's the ft/lb torque? What are the other numbers in the brackets? And what does the X in the circle mean?

That's correct, Nissan is just calling the control arm a link. There should be a callout someplace in or around that diagram showing the measurement units, but in this case it's NM (Kg/M, Lbs/Ft).

Spatula wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 11, 2023 8:36 am

To clarify, in the service manual the schematic refers to part #9 as "Rear Lower Link." But this is the same part that my mechanic referred to as the" Rear Lower Control Arm" and also known as the "Coil Bucket," right? These terms are interchangeable?
I just want to make sure I'm asking the right questions, before I really F something up lol.

Also, does the wrench with 175 next to mean that's the ft/lb torque? What are the other numbers in the brackets? And what does the X in the circle mean?

My bad for being incomplete. I was only looking at #6 as the lower control arm, which it is, but so is #9. I guess that's why Nissan calls them front and rear lower links instead. For #9, the bushing #8 is sold separately and that is the item that is typically going to wear out over time. As VStar mentioned, the torque shown is 175Nm (18kg-m, 129lb/ft) The X in the circle means do not reuse. However, when the used nuts and bolts that have this indication appear to be in perfectly fine condition, that indication is typically ignored.

Thanks!! I'll give my Nissan dealership a call Monday and try to get new bolts, nuts and bushings.

Success! New rear Moog 81119 coil springs, new nuts & bolts and used a whole lot of PB Blaster. I did have some trouble getting the air bags to fit in the new springs, they were really formed to the shape of the old coils. Wheel alignment scheduled for Monday; hosed down all the F&R adjusting bolts with PB Blaster too.

Good Job! enjoy your trip.