03 pathfinder trailing arm bushings failed after 3 months

[850pathfinder]

I replace all 8 trailing arm bushings in the begining of march for the classic fishtail. Slowly the past 3 weeks the fishtail has been coming back and is full blown again. I used OEM nissan bushings. Could something else be causing the premnature wear of the bushings. Its strickly a street car no offroad. I am going to replace this tinke with whiteline polyurethane bushings and replace the springs with moogs. Excel-g shocks were on it when i bought it but want to change those to something better as i dont quite enjoy kyb shocks. Any favorites?

[Hawairish]

When the trailing arm bolts were tightened, was the truck on a lift/jacked-up, or was the truck on the ground?

[850pathfinder]

No i tightened it off the ground no tires. That would make alot of sense if their suppose to have weight on them.

[Hawairish]

Yep, they should be tightened while on the ground. The OEM bushings use rubber that is bonded to an internal metal sleeve and an outer one. That rubber twists/flexes with up and down travel. If you simulated down-travel only while it was off the ground and tightened everything up, then you've put a pre-load on the rubber at its static height. Up-travel will then add only more load, effectively shearing the rubber from the bonded metal over time.

Poly doesn't have this issue because it's not bonded to the metal...you can tighten it at any height, but no harm in also doing it while the vehicle is on the ground.

[atraudes]

I've heard of a number of other users here saying their rubber bushings failed after only a few months as well, so I'd still recommend using poly. This does make me wonder if those users tightened their bolts in the air like you did though...

[Hawairish]

Yeah, it's not uncommon, since the work is done in the lifted state. But, it's in the FSM in the Suspension section regarding upper link, lower link, and panhard rod:

When installing each rubber part, final tightening must be carried
out under unladen condition with tires on ground.

[Upgrayedd]

When I replaced mine I had it jacked up with the axle sitting on jack stands. So it was in a lifted state but yet "on the ground". I installed new Moog arms and no problems yet (knock on wood).

[Hawairish]

When I replaced mine I had it jacked up with the axle sitting on jack stands. So it was in a lifted state but yet "on the ground". I installed new Moog arms and no problems yet (knock on wood).

As long as it represented 'on the ground and unladen', that should be fine. "Unladen" also refers to having a full tank of gas, spare tire in place, and any other stock conditions without passengers or cargo.

[850pathfinder]

So should i go with the super expensive 4x4parts bushings or the whiteline bushings that are 100$ cheaper. Pressed bushing or split design?

[Hawairish]

The purple bushings that AC sells are premium bushings made by SuperPro (and the price is competitive for the brand). You can't go wrong with them. However, I run generic poly bushings (split design) from eBay in the rear and they've been fine...cheaper than SPP and Whiteline. I do run SPP up front though, and both sets are holding up well. To me, poly is poly is poly for the most part.

[Platinum04]

I highly recommend you buy the split poly-urethane ones. I replaced mine about 5 or 6 years ago, still going strong, no deathsway. I reused the same upper and lower control arms, I just removed the old bushings in them with a reciprocating saw to cut the inner sleeve, a vise and a socket to push out the metal bushing.