Moderator: volvite
leanit wrote:I did this replacement last week. Thanks much for the above guidance. Summary of info that may be of interest:
2006 Frontier Nismo
Upper steering bearing failed well over a year ago with about 60k miles on it. Did not make a *bang* when it failed. Just began wobbling.
Bad play in steering wheel and somewhat increased turning effort at times, but I still drove it for 18k miles without any major issues.
Contacted Nissan USA, citing their service bulletin, the superseded part number, and anecdotal evidence from this and other forums that this is a widespread defect that should probably be a recall. I suggested that in my case, I would do the labor and would be happy if they'd buy the parts or even go 50/50. They told me to pound sand. This may have soured me for life on Nissan. We shall see.
Ordered the parts from Courtesy at a far better price than my local stealer. Love Courtesy. Great service.
The replacement took about 3 hours at a leisurely pace. Now that I know what goes where and how to undo the airbag retainer, I could probably do the whole thing in an hour.
Getting the headless ignition bolts out was actually quite easy with a screw extractor. The metal is just the right hardness and they're not too tight. Replaced with 8x20mm 1.25 allen bolts from the hardware store. Easy.
It steers like new.
The service bulletin calls for a new coupler at the bottom of the steering shaft. Even discounted, it's over $200 for that part alone, and I honestly can't see that it's any different than the original. It's possible that you could do this repair without changing that piece, but can't promise it to be true.
There is some talk that the bearing may be a serviceable part. I removed the circle clip but wasn't able to get anything inside the assembly to move. I think it's staked together in a couple spots. At any rate I scrapped my plan to recoup some of the cost by rebuilding/reselling the original.
Was your steering column replaced due to the bad bearing and free play? I was under the impression that the 2008+ models didn't have this issue. What kind of problems were you experiencing?merrion13 wrote:We just had the steering column replaced on our '08 with 75K.
Bought the car almost a year ago from Carmax and I sprung for an extended warranty for $1500 for 3yrs. Between the steering column, tie rod end and alignment, I've already made $900 of my $1500 back.
Still, I've never had steering column issues with any vehicle I've ever owned, and that even includes 2 Land Rovers!