The Nissan Path

Took the 2008 Pathfinder into a shop and asked them to look at the rear drive shaft as I thought it was having issues. They called me and told me they were looking for a new drive shaft for it and would have to take it somewhere to have it fixed......I immediately knew they didn't know WTF they were talking about and told them I'd be down to pick it up.

Next day, take it to Firestone Auto Care. Guy calls and tells me the drive shaft and u-joints are fine, I need new tires and a camber/toe kit to adjust the rear toe. I knew I needed new tires soon so I did it.

Ok. They did the tires and the Pathfinder is 90% back to normal.

Here is my issue. I still have a slight vibration in the rear. Before I replaced the tires it was horrible. Got them replaced and the vibration is only noticeable under load, when I'm accelerating, and it's not too bad but it's there.

It feels and sounds like u-joints to me. I'm going to take it to yet another shop and have them look at the u-joints to see if it's the issue.

Is there something else that would cause the slight vibration when accelerating? No noise, no clunking, just a vibration in the rear.

have them drop the driveshaft from the rear diff and check the rotation. I bet your needle bearings are corroded. It may not exhibit as extra play or anything that looks too bad.

I replaced the u joints on my 06 last summer; they looked in good shape, but seemed dry. I still had a vibration.

Had NTB put some new tires on and alignment this past December and it really rides good now; the old tires were cupping out some on inside.

anyway, may want to see if you have something similar.

If it's 4WD, make sure you check the front driveshaft U-joints. The front driveshaft spins even in 2WD mode.

I found out my ujoints need to be replaced on my 05 pathfinder...i thought it was bad tires...bought new firestones in October.

Luckily its a simple fix...

The R51 Pathfinders have a driveshaft that have the same you join fittings on both ends and can, believe it or not, be installed backwards causing all kinds of vibration if the technician did not mark which side of the driveshaft is toward the front and which side of the driveshaft is toward the rear. Hopefully, the technician marked the pinion flange and the U joint at the end of the drive shaft on the rear differential area so that the driveshaft is install the correct direction, taking into affect the balance as well. If there was an error in any of this, and the driveshaft was not reinstalled exactly the way it came out, you will have vibration especially under acceleration. Good luck!

Thanks for this info. I had all the u-joints replaced and it took care of all of the vibration under 75 mph. Anything above 75 mph and there is still a noticeable vibration. I'm going to take it back to the shop this week and see if they can take another look at it and see if it just needs balanced now.

~ryan

Try to accelerate/decelerate when you feel vibrations just by gas pedal. If vibrations change noticeably, then it's driveshaft definitely.