The Nissan Path

Thanks to everyone for making this forum possible. I purchased this pathfinder after 3 years of having my health/life dumped on its head. Bought from a buddy that bought it with salvage title and he fixed it and sold to me. I need this rig to perform flawless as I can't get stranded when I try to get into the mountains. It has 99k miles and I planned on going through everything to give it a fighter's chance including dropping the tranny pan and filter service. Decided to look on a forum to make sure there isn't any major red flags and when I read the Transmission Fail thread my eye balls about popped out. I just had another back surgery and so I had to hire the job out. Called a transmission place I trust and it was really nice being informed and also the shop was well aware. So thank you. Now I'll search out the proper section to learn the best approach to renew suspension/ball joints etc.

ifgator wrote:Thanks to everyone for making this forum possible. I purchased this pathfinder after 3 years of having my health/life dumped on its head. Bought from a buddy that bought it with salvage title and he fixed it and sold to me. I need this rig to perform flawless as I can't get stranded when I try to get into the mountains. It has 99k miles and I planned on going through everything to give it a fighter's chance including dropping the tranny pan and filter service. Decided to look on a forum to make sure there isn't any major red flags and when I read the Transmission Fail thread my eye balls about popped out. I just had another back surgery and so I had to hire the job out. Called a transmission place I trust and it was really nice being informed and also the shop was well aware. So thank you. Now I'll search out the proper section to learn the best approach to renew suspension/ball joints etc.

There were a few, rare cases of radiator cooler failures in 2011 models, but they are not common. I believe I heard of 2 occur in Pathfinders and 1 Frontier. Those radiators had the part # 21460-ZL11A. As far as dropping the pan and replacing the filter, it's a bit of a waste of time and money since it only has a metal screen, not a filter. It's not meant to be serviced. So, the only real reason to drop the pan is to replace it because of rust or impact damage or because the valve body needs to be serviced. A drain and fill usually works out just fine.
As far as ball joints, you can get them on the aftermarket, but Nissan recommends replacing the entire control arm. Moog, Mevotech, Beck~Arnley and A/C Delco are all of good quality and available at Rockauto.com.

Thank you for the info and I didn't realize that was the case on the transmission filter. Crap.

I've been on rock auto and saw the control arms. That's interesting Nissan recommends replacing the whole arm. One thing I learned about Moog. If I buy the complete control arm the ball joint doesn't have a grease zerk and only a 3 year warranty. If I buy the 148 kit then the ball joint that replaces the OEM ball joint in the original control arm has a zerk and has a limited lifetime warranty. I've never replaced ball joints but I assume it will be a job but my assumption is the zerk ball joint is higher quality. However I'd be shocked if I had to worry about ball joints going bad after 3 years. Hmmmmm

The reason why is that most of Nissan's control arms have pressed-in ball joints, rather than bolted or riveted-on like the "good ol' days." When replacing the pressed-in style ball joints, there stands the chance that the hole in the arm can stretch or be deformed if not carefully pressed out or in, potentially leading the the ball joint falling out of the arm while driving, leaving nothing but a snap-ring keeping the knuckle from separating from the control arm.