2003 Nissan Pathfinder Rear 6 Piece Suspension Kit TRQ PSA56529

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

What's up guys? Here we have a rear upper control arm. Sometimes they call it a link. Sometimes they call it a trailing arm. We're going to be installing it on this 2000 Nissan Pathfinder. Generally what happens on these, these bushings will wear out and it's better to just replace the whole arm than try to replace these bushings. So if you need control arms for your vehicle or any other suspension parts check out 1aauto.com.

Whenever you're doing any suspension repair, whether you're replacing components or removing suspension components and reinstalling them, it's a good idea to go to a local place that does alignments and have it at least checked, if not performed. That way it'll prevent your tires from wearing prematurely. We're going to pull the tire off.

On this vehicle you don't have to pull the wheel to do this job, but it makes it easier to see and it's easier to do. Before I take the lug nuts off, you can take the lug nuts off with this cap on. I just like to take the cap off, so we don't scratch it. You can get in underneath the cap and pull, or you can use a pry bar and a little rag and pop it off just like that. Then I'm going to use a 21 millimeter socket and a breaker bar. I'm going to break all these lug nuts loose. I'm just going to crack them free. I don't want to take them off completely.

This vehicle has a wheel lock, so I'll put that on the lock, put the key on the lock, and then loosen that one as well. Then I can raise and support the vehicle. I'll take the lug nuts off. Now we're going to take the tire off.

Here's where the upper link is located on the passenger side. It's right in front of the exhaust system in between that and the rear spring. Before I start taking the bolts out, I want to spray the nuts down with some rust penetrant. They're a little bit rusty, and this will help in the removal procedure. We're going to take this link out of the way because we need to access this bolt right here. We'll take these two 14 millimeter bolts out. We use a 14 millimeter socket and a ratchet. These are a little bit tight in there. We're going to spray a little less penetrant on these.

These bolts were really rusty. It might not do too much because it's probably going to be hard for the rust penetrant to go up, but a little bit should help. I'm just going to work the rust penetrant back and forth, just tighten it a little bit, and loosen it again. Get that bolt out, and we'll do the same for the other one. This one's really tight. Tighten it up again. Work some of that rust penetrant. Then this is bolt came.

Now we're going to remove this link and just push it out of our way. That's enough, as long as we can access that bolt. I'm going to support the rear differential with a screw jack. You could use a jack and jack stands. That's just going to prevent the rear differential from twisting or doing any movements when we take this arm out. You want to make sure when you're replacing any of these arms whether it be the upper arm or the lower arm that you only do one at a time. You don't want to take them all out and then have to put them in because the differential is going to do all sorts of crazy stuff. It's just better to do one at a time.

All right, disconnect this bolt. I'm going to use a 17 millimeter wrench on this side, and I'm going to use a 19 millimeter socket on this side with a breaker bar. I'm going to loosen it up. It's really tight. Now I'm going to take this one and break this one free. Now I'm going to put a ratchet on the socket and take this nut off. Then keep in mind when you're doing this on the driver's side, it will be a similar procedure except the bolts will be backwards, and you'll have to take your wrench and stick it in over the gas tank right in there, and then you will use the ratchet on the outside to get that nut off.

I'm going to use a hammer to take these bolts out. I lowered down the differential just a little bit, and now I'm going to pull this bolt out and twist it. Pull it out. Now it's loose. I can pull this bolt out. I can pull the control arm out. This is our old upper control arm. This is our new upper control arm from 1aauto.com. The shapes are the same. The positions for the mounting holes are the same. This new one has a bracket that is for other applications, but it's not going to get in the way of anything. These bushings, although they're not that worn out, there is some dry rot in the bushing so these would be on their way out fairly soon. Get yours at 1aauto.com and you'll be ready to rock and roll.

All right, reinstall this upper control arm. Slide this part into the differential first. Slide this bolt through that. I'm going to push it up into the bracket on the frame of the car. I'm going to have a helper give me a hand getting this bolt lined up. We're going to take a pry bar. I'm going to pry it right here, and then I'm going to be up here with the bolt, and same with the little pry bar in the hole trying to get it to line up. We got the bolt that we started. I'm going to see if I can thread it in.

Generally, the threads will suck the bolts in. I'm just going to line this up, give it some tap with the hand, still lining it up on the back side with a little pry bar. Now I got the bolts all the way in. To get these bolts in, we did have a little bit of trouble, but we were able to get them in with the pry bar adjusting the axle. We did lower the rear differential. That gave us a little more room to pry them in. We did get them in.

Now I'm going to install the nuts on the backside. Install this nut down here. I'm going to use my 19 millimeter socket and a ratchet. I'm going to snug these up in a 17 millimeter wrench on the bolt side. Now I'm going to torque these with the torque wrench. We actually sell these torque wrenches at 1aauto.com. I'm going to torque these to 105 foot-pounds.

Now we can lower the differential. Just take our jack out of the way. Now we're going to reinstall this sway bar link bracket. Install the 14 millimeter bolts that hold this on. Just get those lined up and get them started. We're going to snug these up with our 14 millimeter socket and a ratchet. Get these snug. It's good. Snug this one up.

I'm going to install our tire. Line that up with the lugs. Put the nuts on. Next we're going to put the wheel lock in. We install it in the key and use the socket. Spin that down. We can drop the vehicle down and torque them. All right, now I'm going to torque them with the torque wrench. I'm using a 21 millimeter socket and I'm going to torque them to a 105 foot-pounds and I'm going to do it in a star pattern or a cross pattern. That's going to torque the wheel down evenly. I'll pull this wheel lock off and we'll install the center cap. Just line it up. Just give it a little tap.

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