hello, I am new in the forum.
I am trying to replace the driver-side lower trailing arm. when I bought the bolts the guy at Nissan told me that the two bolts are different sizes one longer than the other. I could not figure it out where the longer bolt was going until I found out that I am missing one piece which the truck did not have when I took the arm off. apparently, it is called Dynamic Damper Assy-Rear Suspension
I was wondering if some models don't have this or the previous owner just took it off.

The previous owner probably removed it. Unfortunately, it may now be a discontinued part like what I have on my '02 Pathfinder. Mine is Nissan part number 55490-2W110 which is installed on '99 thru '04 Pathfinders.

mdmellott wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 20, 2020 12:34 pm

The previous owner probably removed it. Unfortunately, it may now be a discontinued part like what I have on my '02 Pathfinder. Mine is Nissan part number 55490-2W110 which is installed on '99 thru '04 Pathfinders.

is this part important, can I just drive it without it?

That's the part number for my '02 Pathfinder, 3.0L, AT, P/4WD. You didn't indicate what year, engine, transmission, and drive type you have so I don't know if it's the same part for yours. Oddly enough, the Nissan factory service manual I have for my '02 does not even mention or show these dynamic dampers. I know they relieve shock stress in the system but I'm not sure how critical they are. Without this stress relief, I suspect the control arms may wear out quicker if driven without them. Replace both trailing arms at the same time or else you will have more problems with the suspension control.

it is a 1998 4x4, Automatic with a 3.3 engine.

Your part number is 55490-0W006. Curious thing though. The Nissan diagram for yours and mine shows a donut shaped damper and that is indeed what I have on mine. When I look at Nissan's image of just that part on mine it is what I expected to see. A donut shape damper. https://www.nissanpartsdeal.com/parts/n ... 5=SE;6=AT)
When I look at Nissan's image of yours, it's a squarish sort of shape that would not even mount where the diagram shows it and certainly doesn't use that longer bolt. https://www.nissanpartsdeal.com/parts/n ... A005,55490
This would not be the first time I have seen Nissan's documentation wrong. You might actually still have these dampers mounted somewhere around the same area. The more I think about it, the more I am inclined to think you don't need these donuts and probably never had them. Either way, these are discontinued as well.

OK.....I will stop thinking about this now, after this post. The diagrams are a mix of all possible variants but these dampers are not all applicable for all variants. In your case, those donut shaped dampers at the lower control arms are only applicable on 2WD models for the '98, not your '98 4WD model. However, they are applicable on both 2WD and 4WD models for my '02. I was wrong about those squarish shaped dampers. Those are actually shown in the diagrams. They mount at the area where the upper control arms mount on 4WD '98 models but are not applicable on the 2WD models. My '02 shows them applicable for both 2WD and 4WD but I only have one factory installed when indications are that I should have two and I know one did not fall off and was not removed by a previous owner. There are dampers attached onto the upper control arms as well but I don't want to look at this anymore. Bottom line is, you don't need them, you never had them, the dealerships have a hard time figuring this out so they told you the wrong thing about the longer bolt and the damper, and I don't like anomalies.

Thank you mdmellott, I was so worried I was worried that I had to go to the wreckers and buy those Dampers, and I knew it was not going to be easy. I really appreciate your help.