Intellectual *******'s "Midlife Crisis"

Idaho06x · Sep 14, 2019

I have a similar rig, '06 manual S. Those bigger tires look sweet. Bought mine for the wife 2 years ago. Had another kid, so had to get something bigger. I drove the X for the first time in over a year and realized the thing feels like it's going to fall apart. Look down, check engine light is on. I'm like "were you going to tell me about any of this?" to which she responds that she had been telling me she thinks it's a POS for months. Well, long story short, the dealership test drove it, scanned the code, and said it needs a new fuel pump and rides like a stagecoach from the 1870's, so they'd give me $2k for trade in. It only has 96,000 miles. I'll keep it and fix it up if that's the offer.

Replaced the rear u-joint first. That fixed the major rattles. That's when I noticed the suspension is hammered. Went to adjust the parking brake, discover axle seals are shot. Fuel pump is in fact going bad. Guess it's a maintenance weekend. Yesterday and today my brother and I did the following:

Front struts (stock for stock)
Rear shocks (stuck for stock)
Rear axle bearings and seals (Timkin set10 bearings, SKF seals 50600)
Vent mod
Differential and axle housing clean out and fluid replacement, it was quite nasty
Front differential fluid replacement (old fluid looked great, probably didn't need to do it)
Parking brake pad replacement
Fuel pump replacement

I have new leaf springs from Michigan truck springs showing up Monday.

Doing the melt mod and throwing some more aggressive tires on there to get me through the winter. Next summer I'll start really modifying things like new UCA's, AAL, Bilstein 5100's, etc. Pretty much trying to get to where you're going with your X. My focus right now is getting it working right, then moving towards more off road capability.

IntellectualRedneck · Sep 15, 2019

Idaho06x said:
I have a similar rig, '06 manual S. Those bigger tires look sweet. Bought mine for the wife 2 years ago. Had another kid, so had to get something bigger. I drove the X for the first time in over a year and realized the thing feels like it's going to fall apart. Look down, check engine light is on. I'm like "were you going to tell me about any of this?" to which she responds that she had been telling me she thinks it's a POS for months. Well, long story short, the dealership test drove it, scanned the code, and said it needs a new fuel pump and rides like a stagecoach from the 1870's, so they'd give me $2k for trade in. It only has 96,000 miles. I'll keep it and fix it up if that's the offer.

Replaced the rear u-joint first. That fixed the major rattles. That's when I noticed the suspension is hammered. Went to adjust the parking brake, discover axle seals are shot. Fuel pump is in fact going bad. Guess it's a maintenance weekend. Yesterday and today my brother and I did the following:

Front struts (stock for stock)
Rear shocks (stuck for stock)
Rear axle bearings and seals (Timkin set10 bearings, SKF seals 50600)
Vent mod
Differential and axle housing clean out and fluid replacement, it was quite nasty
Front differential fluid replacement (old fluid looked great, probably didn't need to do it)
Parking brake pad replacement
Fuel pump replacement

I have new leaf springs from Michigan truck springs showing up Monday.

Doing the melt mod and throwing some more aggressive tires on there to get me through the winter. Next summer I'll start really modifying things like new UCA's, AAL, Bilstein 5100's, etc. Pretty much trying to get to where you're going with your X. My focus right now is getting it working right, then moving towards more off road capability.

Sounds like you've got a really good start! 96k miles is nothing! Still lots of life left if you put a bit into it like you have been. Yeah they will take abuse, but at one point you have to invest. It's going to be a night and day difference when you're done for sure.

Idaho06x · Sep 15, 2019

Took it out with my brother after we got it down off the jack stands. You're right, totally night and day. The leaf springs are definitely worn out (which is weird for the mileage, but maybe this is an Xterra thing), but the new shock absorbers did seem to help. Front end feels like brand new. Did some mild wheeling in street tires and was pretty impressed. It was the first time I've had it off road as it was a soccer-mom kid-hauler until a couple weeks ago.

Intellectual *******'s "Midlife Crisis"

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