The Nissan Path

I've been getting a clunking from the back, mainly when taking left turns. Crawled under today and found the rear sway bar completely loose on the drivers side. I could turn the bolt with my fingers. I'm sure this also explains why I've slowly felt the handling degrade over the last couple months. Has anyone had this happen before? Not sure if these things just work themselves loose (i drive a lot of rough roads) or if it just was never tight from the factory. Anyone know what the torque on these should be?

I lost a nut from the front sway bay. It seems that they work themselves loose to me.

Drove my normal route this morning and the handling is much improved. I would say it's been somewhat loose since I bought it in December and has slowly gotten worse. It feels better now than when I first bought it. Everything else on the bottoms seems tight. Anyone that thinks your handling has degraded should check the sway bar connections.

Crawled under to scope out my upcoming shock replacement project and the sway bar was loose again. Finger loose. I'm betting that connector is just bad on that side. I tightened the crap out of it this time so we'll see.

use loctite

JAHBLESSINGS wrote:use loctite

I'll second that. There's an awful lot of movement at that connection.

Yeah, that's the plan before replacing it. I'm planning to do the shocks this weekend and will be under there with more time to spend on it. I think I'll take it all apart and see what makes it tick. It just has a bolt/nut on one end and some sort of a bushing on the other. Funny that only this one is working loose, but who knows. I drive some pretty rough and twisty roads so it gets a workout for sure.

The upper rear shock bolts are fun to access for sure. I did them by hand but air tools would help a lot.

pawjr74 wrote:The upper rear shock bolts are fun to access for sure. I did them by hand but air tools would help a lot.

This will be a project for me next week. Tried last year with hand tools, and could not budge them at all. And I have a 4 foot pipe!

I bought new bolts and nuts, so I will replace them. If worst comes to worst, I will cutt the bolts.

t

skinny2 wrote:Crawled under to scope out my upcoming shock replacement project and the sway bar was loose again. Finger loose. I'm betting that connector is just bad on that side. I tightened the crap out of it this time so we'll see.

Checked mine on Sunday. They are 'TOIGHT' and not goin anywhere. Maybe someone removed yours and screw up the thread in the nut?

+1 to the Loc-Tite idea....

t

Got home from a little trip yesterday and found my PF sitting there with a lovely flat tire. I picked up a huge spike somewhere last week and it leaked out while we were gone. As a bonus, I'm not sure the tire is fixable.

So while I was pulling off the wheel I decided to swap out the shocks. I didn't have any trouble with the bolts. I sprayed them with PB Blaster and after finding the right extension/ratchet combo to fit in the tight quarters, I had them off in no time.

Double checked sway bar and it was still tight so maybe I just didn't put enough torque on it the first time. Time will tell.

Of the few miles I've driven with that sexy spare installed....the Bilsteins definitely have better rebound control and the turns feel a little better. I think the fronts will be required as well and maybe springs. I was hoping for more improvement but I will await my race track of a commute tomorrow before final judgment.