First big post. . .installed Bilstein 5100s for a 2" li

[canderso]

So I picked up this 2011 Nissan Pathfinder Silver Edition 4wd truck in of course silver. Didn't want to cause confusion with the "Silver" tag on the back of the truck with something that wasn't, well silver.

Anyway, my research began immediately looking for a lift for this truck. I plan to do light off roading. My son and I hunt upland birds and waterfowl. We get back into the woods throughout the northeastern states for hunting birds, kayak/canoeing in the summer, and launching our 16' duck boat on many dirt/unimproved ramps in the winter.

After reading lots of information here, talking with the guys at PRG, Rancho and 4x4 parts, I ultimately decided on the height adjustable Bilstein 5100 front shocks, Bilstein 5100 HD rear shocks and 2" spacers. While I have the wheels off and the suspension unloaded I decided to take the opportunity to install the Air Lift 1000 airbags in the rear coils.

Here are some pics along the way. I had some help (also a teaching opportunity) from my son and one of our family friends.

Here she sits prior to the lift:


I marked above each of the wheel wells with blue painters tape and made a mark at a reasonable whole number that fell on the blue tape. In this case, we chose 35" and made a mark.

Front


Rear


Front driver side wheel removed. Suspension in stock configuration.


It was easy enough to unload the springs using my floor jack, but when it came time to get the lift springs installed, there was NO way they were going back in without a coil spring compressor. A quick run to the AutoZone and rented the needed tool. Back in business. Took a little bit of time to get the springs compressed enough. Then we were able to complete the installation.

Front driver side after Bilstein installed at the +2" height. *****NOTE: The strut in this picture is assembled WRONG! Assembling the strut like in this photo will result in an incredibly harsh ride and could be extremely dangerous and I would suspect potentially fatal! DONOT assemble you strut like this. Read down further for correct assembly and correct assembly photos. *****


Had to sacrifice some blood along the way. My hand slipped off the wrench and I cut a couple of fingers pretty good. Got some blood on the new truck. Well, now she is mine for sure.





Driver side rear wheel removed, stock suspension installed.


Factory rear lower spring pad on left. New +1 3/4" lower spring pad on right.


Stock coil spring set into the new lift spring spacer.


Air Lift 1000 airbag installed.


My Pit Crew with the new lift spring spacer installed with the airbag in place and air line temporarily run.


New Bilstein 5100 shock in place. This wraps up the rear install.


We got both rears done and the front driver side done before it got too dark to keep working. I took some preliminary measurements at the driver side rear. The line previously marked at 35" now measures 37". That puts me at a full 2" lift in the rear. I will not consider that my final height as I still need to finish the front passenger side.

Hope to wrap up the front tomorrow afternoon. Then off to the alignment shop on Tuesday.

[volvite]

Looks good. My father did the same thing with me and taught me how to work on family cars. Now I still work on my cars and family when they come to visit. They always seem to need something fixed.

[staynlean]

Man what a great post, thanks for sharing and i too am planning on doing this exact same lift. Let us know how the ride is afterwards as well as how much "lift" you actually got and then the alignment results.

Great post, good looking Path Sir. Best of luck to you. Please post those results pictures!

[iheartmypathy]

looking forward to seeing the after pics!

[canderso]

Well got back out to the truck this afternoon to finish the job. The front passenger side proved to be much more difficult than any of the others. The top nut on the strut assemble was rusted fast. I soaked it several times yesterday during the course of doing the other three corners. I also made sure to wet it down very well before closing things up last night and heading in at dark. Today, I soaked everything down again before I got started. It wanted nothing to do with breaking loose.

I loaded the strut assembly by placing my floor jack under the LCA and then lifting upwards. Using an 18mm wrench on the top nut and a 8mm wrench on the top of the strut. No dice. Ended up stripping the top of the strut post. Put the air ratchet on it. . .nothing. Couldn't get my impact hammer on it.

So, I got primal on it! I had to break out the nut cracker, a freshly ground cold chisel, 3lb sledge and some other select tools of destruction. After some persuasion and persistence, the nut came off. In several pieces.

Here is just a quick picture of some of the tools used during this project. A few select wrenches (8mm, 17mm, 18mm, 19mm, 22mm), similar size sockets in 1/2" drive, air ratchet, impact gun, coil spring compressor, slotted screw driver, cotter key tool, pickle fork, and diagonal cutters.


Figured I should try to address the front suspension disassembly a little better. The rear is really straight forward. Remove the sway bar end link, 17mm wrench.


After removing the cotter key, loosen the upper ball joint nut (22mm wrench). I found it helpful to have the suspension loaded, loosen the nut, run it all the way off of the ball joint, then turn it back on a few turns. Once it is back on, you can break the ball joint free from the UCA. Having the nut on the ball joint stud a few turns keeps the spindle from breaking away and falling away to fast and uncontrolled.


Next, while the suspension is still loaded (under tension) break the top nut free on the strut assembly (18mm wrench or impact gun).


Once the top nut is loose and removed, you can SLOWLY and carefully lower the floor jack to unload the strut assembly. Again, do this in a VERY SLOW and controlled manner!

Once the strut assembly is unloaded and the spring is at rest, you can remove the bottom spring bolt (19mm wrench and socket).

Then remove the strut assembly and prep the new assembly for installation. The new Bilstein shock has five grooves with a retaining ring secured in the lowest ring. The lowest ring is for factory ride height. Each ring up from the bottom adds 0.5" of ride height. Thus, if you choose the top ring, you will hopefully achieve a 2" increase in ride height. I went with the top ring.


The directions that came with the Bilstein shocks clearly state to first place the spring base onto the shock, then the rubber boot gets secured with the zip tie. After that, a newly supplied washer goes on above the boot, followed by the metal collar from the original shock. Eventually at the top you will add the original rubber bushing, the original upper washer, and lastly a new top nut. The last three items don't go on until the strut assembly is back in place.


So it all went back together. Compressing the coil was a bear today. Things were just not going to be easy today. Oh well, again persistence wins and I got the strut assembly in place and installed on the vehicle. I forgot to take a pic of this side reassembled, but it is done. . .trust me on that one.

** Side tip, you can remove the caliper and rotor from the steering knuckle to get the LCA to droop even more if needed. Once you remove the caliper be sure to secure it with heavy duty zip ties or a wire hangar of some sort to keep pressure off of the brake hose. The brake hose limits the travel of the LCA. I found it helpful to get a little more droop out of the LCA to assist in getting the "lifted" strut assembly back into place.

[canderso]

Once everything was reassembled and the front passenger wheel was reinstalled, I set the truck back on the ground for some measurements.

The front fender measured 3 1/8" higher than the original measurement.


The rear fender measured 2 1/8" higher than the original measurement.


I also finished routing the air lines and installing the Schrader valves in the rear bumper cover. I put them on each side of the hitch facing down. Will see how they work out. Once they were finalized, I filled each side with 10psi and took some final photos.

Profile after lift was completed and air bags set at 10psi. Right now I feel like the front of the truck is higher than the rear. I felt that she sat pretty level before the lift. I know lots of people have mentioned feeling that the front is raked lower than the rear. I will have to see if the front springs settle a little. Worst case scenario, which I rather not think about, is that I have to pull it back apart and move the clip that sets front ride height down one notch.


Front view, not sure if you can get a read on the alignment or not. I plan to take the truck somewhere Monday morning to drop it off for an alignment. I have the LCA cam bolts but didn't have the required 21mm wrench or socket to remove them. I will supply them to the alignment shop to have them install them while working on the truck.


And lastly the rear view, post lift.


It appears the BF Goodrich Long Trails were factory tires. I bought the truck with only 20k miles, figuring it was an off-lease, early trade in situation. The spare tire, which I assume is factory is also a Long Trail. The tires are in nice shape and will get me through the summer fine. Come early fall, I will likely swap over a pair of BF Goodrich KOs in preparation for winter hunting trails and ramps. In the meantime, I will get what life I can out of these.

Perhaps the funniest thing to this whole ordeal is that I tend not to modify my daily drivers. This one I haven't even owned for two weeks yet and I have installed the lift and the air bags. As you can see in the photos, I still haven't even gotten my permanent registration from the State yet! My son was joking with me today about having temp tags and having the vehicle torn apart already. Well, she is definitely mine now.

[NVSteve]

Nice job, well documented & looks great!

[doctahjones]

looks great, nice write up.

keeping the front rake, or at least keeping her level was why i opted to just do 1.5in in the front versus the full 2in. i had a feeling if i went full 2in it would be too high in the front.

however, i actually only got about an inch lift in the front. weird that you got more than 2in out of it. guess that's the difference between the v6 and v8 front springs?

eventually i plan on getting the loaded rancho (i think?) coil overs for the front.

[canderso]

doctajones- I thought it weird to get the 3+ inch of lift out of it as well. I plan to move them down one notch perhaps two. I really don't want to do the job potentially two more times to get the truck level. I will, however, do what I must.

I was wondering about what the weight difference is in the front end between the V8 and V6. Right now, I do not like the ride. It is "jouncy" and harsh. It feels like driving a F250 or F350 with no load in the truck. By compressing the springs as much as necessary, you have moved past the "soft" portion of the spring and are at the heavy end of the spring now. It bounces a little just driving out flat city streets.

The camber is definitely out. It is plain to see visually by looking at the side of the truck from an angle. I will wait to have the alignment done until the truck is level.

I am curious if Rancho uses a different spring rate with their loaded strut assembly to take this into account.

[doctahjones]

i'm 99% sure they use a different spring load in the rancho's vs what's in stock.

according to the intarwebs there's a ~400lb difference in the v6 vs v8. the oem springs would have to be different imo.

when i did mine, i just got the '1yr alignment' deal that my local NTB store. that way i could get it aligned a few times and not have to worry about any realignment charges

[iheartmypathy]

looks great!!!

[canderso]

iheartmypathy- How would you describe the ride of the Rancho +2" struts compared to stock?

[canderso]

Made a call to 4x4parts.com (Automotive Customizers) and figured out my problem.

TO anyone installing these Bilstein 5100 height adjustable shocks, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT to install the lower spring seat correctly. I installed mine upside down. This has allowed for additional lift, excesss compression of the springs and an absolutely horrible ride. Stupid me. Learn from me. Install them correctly.

Fortunately, my work has a fleet service garage. I have been granted access to bring my truck in Friday morning and pull the struts and reassemble them correctly. I will post pics of the currently incorrect installation and then the correct installation. I will also tape and make measurements on the front fenders again to see where everything ends up.

At that point, I should be able to install the LCA cam adjustment bolts for prior to getting the alignment figured.

Again, I will update more Friday.

[FLiPMaRC]

Awesome work!

[Clay350]

How is the ride quality now? I need to do something to my suspension. The stock setup handles and rides so bad. Somehow the ride is soft and at the same time jitters all over the place like a stiff suspension. Its like a f250 truck but soft suspension.