Lowering Spring problem-Miam need your input

[JonathanPrem]

Recently I got my lowering springs installed and my vehicle has this weird shake when i get on and off the throttle @ 80km+. Went to my mechanic and he said all my bushing and mount are sold; He also mentioned that maybe my springs are defect or my 22's are the problem which i think is kinda of weird.

Does anyone have or had a shake where when you step on the gas your Vehicle jumps one way but once you get off it come back to where it was. Its kinda of hard to explain this shake.

Any input would really be helpful,

[fueler]

ya sounds like sway. could be related to rear panhard rod or rear trailing arms.

Did this shake develop at the same time you got lowered?

[fueler]

what you can do is park your pathfinder. yank the ebrake tight. get on the ground and look at the rear axle. have a friend push the pathfinder (rock it back and forth) forwards and backwards. The pinion angle on your axle should not move. When i did this, it was pretty obvious which bushing had gone bad.

[JonathanPrem]

Shake happened after 1month to 2months. Its happened couple days after i put on my 22's I might get the balanced. Plus my axle is new since my old one had a bent stud flank.

[JonathanPrem]

what you can do is park your pathfinder. yank the ebrake tight. get on the ground and look at the rear axle. have a friend push the pathfinder (rock it back and forth) forwards and backwards. The pinion angle on your axle should not move. When i did this, it was pretty obvious which bushing had gone bad.

I did something similar. I had the ebrake on, then i put it in drive with feet on brake and pulsed the throttle to see if any bushing where gone. Only thing that made noise was passenger side ball joint.

[miamiheat3332]

sorry jonathan, i dont have this problem, as long as the road is smooth my pathy accelerates nice and smooth and the ride is good. so it is most likely your 22"s not balanced, or as other people have mentioned the links and stuff like that. how many miles does your path have? mines at 112450 and the rides smooth as hell on a smooth road, knock on wood, mine are still good.

another thing im thinking of is that the tires are so low profile on your 22's plus the stiffness of the lowering coils, it might just be that your feeling it because theres not much between the road, but i doubt it since you said it pulls to one side or something.

[JonathanPrem]

Its shake is like a jerk feeling. Tomorrow im gonna put my 16s back on to see if its still there and take a better look underneath. I'll put a video on how the shake/jerk feeling is.

Thanks for the help so far

[Innovazn]

Ok.. so i been looking at all the lowering threads i could find and im still confused...

exactly what do i need to get?!
the struts ok, KYB GR2 front driver, front passenger 169.12 canadian
Rear shocks, do they come as 1 or is it as a pair? KYB Gas-A-Just 54.47 as one 108.94 as 2
and the lowering coils 423.00

all together 701.06

anything else im missing!?

fyi my pathy is already sagging to the left a bit, shocks have seen its days cars got 205k still running strong but im wanting a better handling and a slightly lower ride.

[miamiheat3332]

ok.

2 KYB Gas-a-just shocks < REAR
2 KYB GR-2 Struts < FRONT

4 2" lowering coils.

then there is some other parts recommended to change out when you put in the new struts and shocks, like new bolts, new strut rubber seat thing, forgot what its called. Too late at this time so i dont feel like listing everything, but that should get you started.


... damn i started some sort of lowering pathy revolution lol. after i took the first shot at it, 2 people i think joined me and now you im guessing, or maybe only jonathan has it. not sure.

[Innovazn]

ok.

2 KYB Gas-a-just shocks < REAR
2 KYB GR-2 Struts < FRONT

4 2" lowering coils.

then there is some other parts recommended to change out when you put in the new struts and shocks, like new bolts, new strut rubber seat thing, forgot what its called. Too late at this time so i dont feel like listing everything, but that should get you started.


... damn i started some sort of lowering pathy revolution lol. after i took the first shot at it, 2 people i think joined me and now you im guessing, or maybe only jonathan has it. not sure.

yeah the lowering coils is as a set which is 427.00

i know how the struts are sold, have to buy specific by side

its the shocks that i wanna know if its sold as a pair or on its own.

[miamiheat3332]

usually sold on its own, unless it states, i bought mine all from 4x4 parts to simplify it and not have to order from 20 different places. i think later on i checked and i might have overpayed like 10$ compared to if i got the struts from somewhere else or the shocks, so i did'nt really care, also 4x4parts sells them individually.

[Innovazn]

usually sold on its own, unless it states, i bought mine all from 4x4 parts to simplify it and not have to order from 20 different places. i think later on i checked and i might have overpayed like 10$ compared to if i got the struts from somewhere else or the shocks, so i did'nt really care, also 4x4parts sells them individually.

everything im getting is from 4x4 parts and having them ship to the great land of canada (BC) so thats what im following, when you got he shocks was it a pair?!

[miamiheat3332]

no i just checked it now, you have to get 2. I think 50$ for 2 shocks would be a little cheap lol.


also just a heads up i remember i think it was qxxx4 he ordered stuff from america and then got killed with customs, it was for like weatherstripping for the windows for his Q from courtesyparts.

[Innovazn]

no i just checked it now, you have to get 2. I think 50$ for 2 shocks would be a little cheap lol.

kk.. so i am looking at about 700.... easy to self install?

i have a way of getting past the customs thing. dont worry.

[miamiheat3332]

will you be installing by yourself or with a friend/relative.

[Innovazn]

will you be installing by yourself or with a friend/relative.

cant do it alone, no toools or jack, hopefully with a mechanic buddy given hes got time as well as me (both busy schedules) worst case scenario i bring it to a shop

[miamiheat3332]

Ok if with a buddy it makes it alot easier, my dad gave me a hand which makes it easier and it goes faster.

[Innovazn]

Ok if with a buddy it makes it alot easier, my dad gave me a hand which makes it easier and it goes faster.

estimated time taken to take apart and put all together?

[Ron Burgundy]

If you/your friend are experienced it's not all that difficult of a job. Especially if you've worked with dissasembling struts before. You won't have to compress your new springs so that'll save you a bunch of time.

With unforseen complications, I would set apart 2 hours per spring (a total of eight hours).
Provided nothing goes wrong and everything runs smoothly - 1 hour per spring (a total of four hours).

In short, I would be sure to have a day or two off from work/school following the installation to give yourself ample time, as well as in the event something does go wrong and your car isn't driveable.

[miamiheat3332]

Yeah it took me about ~7hrs but that wasnt working too hardcore either. Also after you do your first strut and take all that apart, the next side is like half the time.

[Innovazn]

Yeah it took me about ~7hrs but that wasnt working too hardcore either. Also after you do your first strut and take all that apart, the next side is like half the time.

so... how much would you say it would cost if i drop it off at a shop to get it done?

[miamiheat3332]

Dont know, i havent taken my path to the shop or dealer since like 30k when i still got those free oil change coupons lol. But it will cost some cash you could spend on something else. like HID's, headunit, subs, etc.

[Innovazn]

Dont know, i havent taken my path to the shop or dealer since like 30k when i still got those free oil change coupons lol. But it will cost some cash you could spend on something else. like HID's, headunit, subs, etc.

got all that... lol just the lowering and 22"

i heard your 20's rub? i kinda dont want to do any trimming of any sort and trying to find something that wont rub on me.

[miamiheat3332]

No i said like 2-3 more millimeters and they would, but they are PERFECT fit in my case. 20"x9" rims, 265/45/20 rubber

[Innovazn]

No i said like 2-3 more millimeters and they would, but they are PERFECT fit in my case. 20"x9" rims, 265/45/20 rubber

so would 22" fit without rub?!

[miamiheat3332]

depends with what rubber, your defiantly going to need to go with rubber bands for it to not rub.

[Innovazn]

depends with what rubber, your defiantly going to need to go with rubber bands for it to not rub.

im cool with rubber bands

[yakabod]

Any pics of of the lowered QX4? Is there a big difference in looks? How about performance? With those kind of tires, how's the ride quality compared to when you had the stocks were on?

[miamiheat3332]

there is no lowered qx4.....

heres mine after i put the rims on

finally-new-wheels-t501993.html

and at the bottom of my post with pictures in this thread is you can see the height of it about 2 years ago

hid-fog-light-conversion-t507576.html

edit: heres also if you want to see how it looked with the snow tires and lowered, before i put on the 20;s

new-pics-of-path-and-2nd-car-t494557.html?hilit=other

Performance, well lets just say most cars stay in the dust on a curvy road or tight highway exit. remember your in an SUV so i consider that a pretty big deal.

I have the 16" stock rims which have snow tires on them and thats what i road on for the majority of the drop so far, but i got the 20;s like 2 months ago,

On the stock ones, i had more tire roll, but it cancels itself out because you have really sticky soft rubber.

When i put the 20s on, the tire is obviously more low profile, and there is like no tire roll now, and in the dry i guess i can push it a bit more cause of the lessened tire roll. But with the snow tires, i had like dry weather traction in rainy conditions, but the low pros i have now still do preform extremely well in alot of water, was coming back from NY on the parkway about 2 wks ago when we got that huge rain storm over here, and i was taking the turns pretty fast for that weather. They held up fine, obviously i wouldnt try anything stupid like i would with the snow tires when its wet, but thats common sense.

Ride quality, obviously is going to be a little better on the snow tires, but not much, ride quality in general, well if you go over a s*** part of the road, beleive me you will feel it, i have this one uneven train crossing by where i live, and if i dont slow down to like 35 mph which it still will bump u around alot, i can only imagine if i went 50 like with my other sedan and you dont feel anything, with the lowered suspension cause the springs are much more stiff, i guarantee youd end up with head thru sunroof situation LOL. But anyways if the roads fine, rides fine and in return you get superb handling performance most cars have trouble keeping up with cause of the soft suspensions, that is keeping UP with an SUV.

Reason i lowered the pathfinder is i dont take it offroading, for offroading i rather get an old suburban or something and wheel the s*** out of that, then wreck a good car like the r50, but its lowered, and it still has alot more ground clearance between underbody components and most new suvs and crossovers. Our underbody components are hidden really well up into the floor. But as here on the east coast i need to have something 4wd for the snow, which it can also perform in with the snow tires i throw on for the winter. so i still get my SUV use out of it, i dont tow with it anymore, i only did a couple a times before it was lowered, but roof rack is really handy for most things. and ive had a TON of weight on that thing. But in the summer its like a sport car. haha.

thats my view on it.