The Nissan Path

Hey guys,

Completely new to the forums today. I just bought my very first car! She is a 98 Pathfinder, got about 151 thousand miles on her already, i was driving her home on the highway last night and noticed some serious sway if I got above 60 mph, there's also some sway when I'm at slower speeds around 0-20mph. In the 30 to 55 mph range she's golden. I did my research and am thinking it's the sway bar bushings problem it seems to be pretty common.

My questions are, what's better, replace the bushings? replace the control arms? is there something else it might be? can I do either of those things myself?

Like i said this is my first car, I'd love to learn more about cars in general so if it's something that I can do myself I'd like to. If not Oh well. Any input or advice would be great! thanks so much guys!

The big problem the R50's had was with the bushings in the upper and lower rear suspension links; Nissan even has a TSB addressing the issue. Laborwise, the easiest way to fix this is to replace the complete links that have the bad bushings. Removing the old bushings from the links can be a real pain in the tail! That said, some have replaced their bushings with polyurethane bushings. Another problem could be bad struts; leaking struts were a fairly common occurance on the front. For a stock replacement, I always liked KYB G2's; KYB is an OEM supplier of struts and shocks to Nissan and they have a lifetime warranty. A broken sway bar link could attribute to this problem, but is less common. Only way to tell would be to make a visual inspection of the sway bar links and of the rear suspension links. The upper link on the right, rear side was the most prone for failure. A "bounce test" and visual inspection for leaks can confirm bad struts or shocks.

Thanks so much for the quick reply!

What would I be looking for when I look at the links? am I just checking for damage to the bushings? or is there something obvious?

Look for splits and dry rot cracks or any signs of seperation in the bushings. The upper links are best viewed with the vehicle jacked up and the suspension hanging. When they go really bad, it makes the ass end sway all over the place and makes for a way to exciting driving experience!

Check out this extensive thread about this issue: http://www.topix.com/forum/autos/T5LSTPR50NPCO9CTL