The Nissan Path

Hello all,

New to the forum and just purchased an 06 Pathfinder 4x4 LE

Overall pretty nice to drive, but the body roll is killing me. I know it's an SUV, but is there anything I can do to tighten it up a bit? Heavier sway bars, shocks, timbren spacers, etc?

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks

I think the V8 Pathy has a larger front sway bar than the V6. Changing that would be a simple swap that would help body roll.
Can someone here with a V8 Pathy measure the diameter of the swaybar? I would love to know the difference.

The V8 front bar is only 1mm bigger, still not enough in my opinion.

Some people have reported that the airbags that you put in your rear springs have reduced body roll. I can't remember their exact name, but someone will chime in. I think they are under $80.

at the risk of sounding like a careless teenager here,

<------- ive powerslided and skidded the pathfinder a lot, on/off road

its got a very nice slide, and i think its grip on the roads and weight distribution make it one of the few 4x4s that dont roll easy.

what are u worried about ?

I recently swapped out to Bilsteins which made a big difference in control, but there is still a lot of roll. It's actually very good as far as SUV's go....but I'm still trying to improve. I was going to go with the rear airbags next but I personally think nothing short of progressive springs will truly help.

One quick thing to check is that the sway bars are tight. My rear sway keeps coming loose and the handling goes to CRAP when it does. An '06 very likely needs new shocks by this point as well. So start with the easy stuff.

Are the end links still connected? Some guys like to disconnect the end links for off roading. I removed my sway bar completely off of my Titan and my Jeep (traded the Jeep for the Pathy).

It only has 55k miles and the shocks still rebound fairly well without bouncing alot, but I'd be willing to swap them out if the handling would be better. (any recomendations would be helpful)

I was hoping there was a larger/stiffer sway bar, or maybe switching to poly bushings would be a quick fix. Also didn't know if hte LE model was setup like this and I could swit5ch somethign out with SE, or SE-Offroad components.

So it looks like my options are:
-shocks
-1mm larger sway bars
-airbags - is this refering to the timbrens, or do they make an airbag system

I think the tires are part of the problem too, but they're new so i'll have ot deal with them for awhile.

Bilstein makes two really good struts. The 5100 are the height adjustable struts, and the HD are the OEM height struts. Both are a major improvement over the OEM struts.

HD is what I went with. They're better than when the OEM's were new. My '08 has 25k miles and when I pulled the OEM shocks and compressed them beside the Bilsteins...they were about half as quick to return. Nevermind the far better tuning and design of the Bilsteins pays off on the road.

But it still has a lot of initial motion going into the turns or big dips. Stabalizes fairly well but that initial motion annoys me. I think stiffer springs are the only real answer.

Oh and if you really want to soil your pants take a 45° uphill turn at 60mph and jam the brakes halfway through...like if a deer ran out in front of you. Confused is not quite the correct word for the suspension. Really made me think twice about the handling on this rig because I drive 60 miles of that kind of road every day. My Tundra never wallowed around like that during hard braking.

The deer example is what I;'m talking about. It handles nice unit lyou do something unexpected then it falls all over itself. By teh way I had atundra that I swapped out for hd shocks and bigger sway bar and it worked perfect.

Looking or a similar fix. Also saw the reak spring air bags and they look a bit cheap. Anyonme used the mwith any success?

Do you have much bump-steer? I get it pretty bad over frost-heaves on the highway and certain bumps other places. Feels like it's jumping sideways. There's another thread around here addressing that but I haven't found a solution. Perhaps springs could help with that too but some of my research says it's inherrent to certain designs and alignment can have a lot to do with it. I haven't had alignment checked yet but it's also on my list.

I also added a rear-sway on the Tundra and was pleased with the improved handling. But even with the stock setup it never lost composure the way this thing will in a panic situation. It set up a lot higher too.

Airlift 1000 airbags in the back end really made a big difference on body roll. Also, when I upgraded to Goodyear Fortera TripleTreds I noticed another substantial improvement in body roll and handling.

I have the Airlift airbags in the rear, as well as stiffer springs from King Springs in Australia. Those changes still haven't completely solved the bobble-head feeling you get sometimes...

I was thinking of some kind of combination of splined bars and end links like those used in stock cars might be feasible, like these parts:
http://www.1speedway.com/Swaybar_Arms.htm