Hey guys,

2003 QX4 here with a nasty wobble problem

When driving with my foot on the gas, as soon as i let go, i get little "left-right" shimmy. The car rocks hard to the left, then immediately to the right, and then settles. Its even worse when at high speed on the highway, or a trunk full of cargo, the shimmy continues, almost to the point where i loose control.

Any ideas what it could be? Im stumped and im trying to sell the car, but nobody wants to buy it with this issue. Any information is super helpful.

Here's a video: https://imgur.com/a/WGymdHg#cxfL7Oj

You can see right when i get off the gas (at 0:14) how rocky the rear axle is. I cant figure it out for the life of me. The rear shocks look old, but when i push down on the bumper on the rear, it bounces right back up and settles immediately.
All shocks and bushings look to be in good order as far as i can tell

sounds like this could be your issue...

search.php?keywords=death+wobble&terms= ... mit=Search

Not so affectionately referred to a "death wobble", it's a sure indication that your rear control rod bushings are shot and probably the track bar bushings as well.

so something like this would get me right?
https://www.carparts.com/details/Infini ... TID=zlaaff

rckeeps2 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 08, 2022 7:28 pm

so something like this would get me right?
https://www.carparts.com/details/Infini ... TID=zlaaff

That will get it sold without the wobble but given the 3mo warranty indicated, that set may not last more than a year or two before they need to be replaced again.

Great, I might take the gamble. I had the lower arms replaced 2 or 3 years ago, should i start with just the uppers, or just do both? The wobble is pretty nasty.
Is there any way to check the condition of them before i take them off? I was under there and grabbed them and shook them, and they seemed solid, but now that I know they're the culprit, i could probably check more thoroughly

rckeeps2 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 09, 2022 7:10 am

Great, I might take the gamble. I had the lower arms replaced 2 or 3 years ago, should i start with just the uppers, or just do both? The wobble is pretty nasty.
Is there any way to check the condition of them before i take them off? I was under there and grabbed them and shook them, and they seemed solid, but now that I know they're the culprit, i could probably check more thoroughly

Inspection can take two forms. One, is to get under there with a flashlight and examine the bushings. If you see any cracks in the rubber then they're compromised. The other is to firmly get ahold of each arm and twist. A good method is to grab each arm at about the middle with a pair of vise grips and try to twist them. If you can move them more than about a degree or two the bushings are no good. If you had the arms replaced a couple of years ago that is a really shortened life. Some people have had this happen when they installed and torqued to spec but failed to do so with the car on the ground.

Great, okay, thanks! I'll check it out and update here with my findings. Thank you

Fixed my death wobble!! Bought some new upper and lower control rear arms (the ones linked above), and tossed them in and maaannnn does it drive straight now1 Hasnt rode this smooth in years. Fought a few bolts, but an angle grinder took care of them, and replaced it with some new hardware. Thank you all so much for your replies!!

rckeeps2 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 28, 2022 6:12 pm

Fixed my death wobble!! Bought some new upper and lower control rear arms (the ones linked above), and tossed them in and maaannnn does it drive straight now1 Hasnt rode this smooth in years. Fought a few bolts, but an angle grinder took care of them, and replaced it with some new hardware. Thank you all so much for your replies!!

I have been meaning to replace mine, just havent gotten around to it

For the bolts that you cut, what did you replace them with? OEM ones? Grade 8 or 10.9 bolts?

If you got regular hardware, may I ask the dimensions of them ?

Thanks !

From my local ace hardware. They were all M14, 1.5 pitch, around 100mm in length. I cut the ends to size for a couple of them so I could get my sockets on the nuts, which is part of the reason I needed new hardware in the first place, since the factory bolts were a little too long for my sockets too and they stripped a little.
Definitely want class 10.9 bolts.

rckeeps wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 30, 2022 10:52 am

From my local ace hardware. They were all M14, 1.5 pitch, around 100mm in length. I cut the ends to size for a couple of them so I could get my sockets on the nuts, which is part of the reason I needed new hardware in the first place, since the factory bolts were a little too long for my sockets too and they stripped a little.
Definitely want class 10.9 bolts.

Thanks so much for the info. I want to have the replacement hardware on hand before i start the project so i dont have to run around last minute. I do have another question or 2...

were the bolts for the lower trailing arm the same size? I was looking at Nissan parts diagrams and they have different part #s for the bolts at either end of the trailing arm

Also, did you need M14-1.5 bolts for just the lower arms ? or did you cut the upper arm bolts too?

Thanks again

The biggest pain to remove was the forward most bolts for the upper arms. They were the only ones I actually took the angle grinder to to cut off. Kinda a pain to reach, but not too bad if you undo your sway bar. I jacked my hubs up a little to relieve the tension, unbolted the end link brackets that are right in front of the upper control arm bolts, then put them back after. Having access to a jack made a huge difference when putting the components back together, as it was easy to raise/Lower the axle to get everything lined up and take tension off things. The other side came off fine after a lot of impacting and breaker bar tugging, but eventually broke loose without needing to cut it.

The frontwards bolts on the lower arms were tough on one side, and alright on the other. I stripped the nut on one side and just needed a new nut, and the other side came out okay after a couple mins of fighting it.

The 4 rear bolts for all 4 arms came right out with my impact, no problem at all. Super easy to reach from under the rear of the car, too, just crawled under there and impacted all 4 in 30 seconds.

I HIGHLY recommend spending a couple days prior to continually soak them in PB blaster. I didn’t and spent 2 days fighting the lower front bolts with no progress until I finally started cracking them loose.
I’d also recommend getting a set of deep impact sockets, as all the bolts are a little long (like I mentioned earlier), and I couldn’t seat my socket on them completely which is probably why I had such a hard time. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to only use my breaker bar, and the impact driver was a life saver. They’re all just through bolts with nuts on the other end, so a couple of them started spinning in place without actually breaking loose of the bolt, and it’s hard to hold the bolt in place while also putting all your weight on the breaker bar, so an impact was crucial

Yes they’re all M14-1.5, around 100mm. The lower bolts have a guide thing on the end of them, and the uppers don’t, so that’s probably why they have different part numbers, but they’re all the same size and pitch and around the same length. You can look under your car and see the front lower bolts and see what I’m talking about without jacking your car up.

What a huge PITA.

I went to the dealer and got OEM nuts and bolts on hand in case i had to cut the old ones out. I had 2 diablo sawzall blades meant for thick metal and was feeling pretty good.

2 lower control arm bolts came out no problem....the ones by the rear axle were frozen in place. Maybe i bought the wrong sawzall blades but they barely made a dent into the bolts. I ended up using an angle grinder and 4 discs to get those bastards out.




Only seemed like 1 out of the 4 bushing for the control arms was bad, but it rides true and straight now so i cant complain !

Nice work!
Yeah, I imagine the sawzall wasn't very helpful. Angle Grinder did the trick though

MisterH wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 09, 2022 9:53 am

rckeeps2 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 09, 2022 7:10 am

Great, I might take the gamble. I had the lower arms replaced 2 or 3 years ago, should i start with just the uppers, or just do both? The wobble is pretty nasty.
Is there any way to check the condition of them before i take them off? I was under there and grabbed them and shook them, and they seemed solid, but now that I know they're the culprit, i could probably check more thoroughly

Inspection can take two forms. One, is to get under there with a flashlight and examine the bushings. If you see any cracks in the rubber then they're compromised. The other is to firmly get ahold of each arm and twist. A good method is to grab each arm at about the middle with a pair of vise grips and try to twist them. If you can move them more than about a degree or two the bushings are no good. If you had the arms replaced a couple of years ago that is a really shortened life. Some people have had this happen when they installed and torqued to spec but failed to do so with the car on the ground.

Yeah, I can say I’m one of those people, haha. I made that mistake of torquing while the vehicle was off the ground and axle hanging. I replaced my arms about 6 years ago on my 1997 Pathfinder with some cheap 1Aauto links that have surprisingly made it this far. I paid about $130 for all 4. Now it’s showing signs of needing replacement. I don’t get a bad sway on the highway, even at speeds over 70 mph but it has gotten rockier so I know the time is coming. Everything else suspension wise is up to par and replaced with quality parts. The links were the only things I went cheap on at the time.

Is it the lower ones that usually cause the sway? What’s the function of the uppers?

And any recommendations for some good aftermarket links. Moog only sells the upper links so I would go for that. And for the lower, the best brand I found was Dorman.

The 4 link rear suspension is intended to control rear axle deflection and the lowers do the majority of the work in keeping the axle stable. If you think about the forces applied to the axle during driving most of that is front to back and lateral; which exerts more force on the lowers. The uppers might only account for 30-40% of the potential movement. When I did mine I got all Moog but I'll bet the other brands are nearly the same.

Okay, I’m Replacing them again this weekend.

Is it safe to reuse the old bolts again? I got them off last time with some heat so didn’t have to cut anything out. Or is it better to simply buy new bolts and nuts?

A1218 wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 22, 2022 7:22 am

Is it safe to reuse the old bolts again? I got them off last time with some heat so didn’t have to cut anything out. Or is it better to simply buy new bolts and nuts?

Nissan recommends replacing them, as do other automotive makers and every other model, yet most DIY mechanics don't bother if the bolts and nuts look to be in good shape.

Been dealing with this for a while. Tried fixing it one time, twisted (not stripped) the nut. Haven't felt like borrowing a jack and chocks again though, so haven't had another go.

Whenever it wobbles I just give it a little gas.

Fosty wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 22, 2022 4:36 pm

Whenever it wobbles I just give it a little gas.

Take care. If it gets really bad, it is possible to lose control.
It's often called a death wobble for a reason.

mdmellott wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 22, 2022 9:23 pm

Fosty wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 22, 2022 4:36 pm

Whenever it wobbles I just give it a little gas.

Take care. If it gets really bad, it is possible to lose control.
It's often called a death wobble for a reason.

Yes, it is definitely not a fun experience when those links are really shot.

I changed all four out yesterday, used Dorman for lower links and Moog for the upper links. For my 1997 they did not have Moog for the lower links. The only trouble I ran into was completely rounding out the sway bar link bracket on driver side, but a socket bolt extractor took care of that in no time.

Whats strange though is that I hear my differential humming more than before. Ive always had a humming when cruising between 30 and 50mph for several years now (maybe over 10?) but now it just seems more pronounced since I changed the links. I know I may be making a strange comparison here but I honestly did not hear it as much before. Maybe Im just looking for noises.

Make sure you have the vehicle back on the ground, with full weight on the suspension before torquing everything down.
Tightening everything up while it's still in the air, and the axle hanging down, can cause stress later on. That may contribute to the noise in the driveline.

Buzzman wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 20, 2022 5:46 pm

Make sure you have the vehicle back on the ground, with full weight on the suspension before torquing everything down.
Tightening everything up while it's still in the air, and the axle hanging down, can cause stress later on. That may contribute to the noise in the driveline.

The noise has eased up over the weeks since installing them. But yes, I did drop the weight of the vehicle onto the axle before torquing the bolts down.

doode wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 08, 2022 11:16 pm

I went to the dealer and got OEM nuts and bolts on hand in case i had to cut the old ones out.

Do they have them on hand?
I keep reading about people just going to the dealer and buying them.

Fosty wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 07, 2023 8:15 pm

doode wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 08, 2022 11:16 pm

I went to the dealer and got OEM nuts and bolts on hand in case i had to cut the old ones out.

Do they have them on hand?
I keep reading about people just going to the dealer and buying them.

They ended up having to get them from another service center, but it only took one day.
My dumb a** only bought half the amount, so I just used the old ones and replaced the one I had to cut off.

Finally fixed it after years of putting it off. Feels great. I'll post the before and after pic later.