The Grackle

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Side by side pic of the OE Nissan Coils next to the Moogs. I knew there had to be a difference in the 2wd and 4wd coils and finally found the free spring heights are different:
2WD : 345.4 mm (13.6 in)
4WD : 356 mm (14.0 in)

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westslope

Wheeling
Do the pink and turquoise paint spots on the OE front coils have a purpose?

I see the OE coils have plastic/vinyl/nylon cover at the top but the cover is absent on the Moog coils. Purpose? Advantage?
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Do the pink and turquoise paint spots on the OE front coils have a purpose?

I see the OE coils have plastic/vinyl/nylon cover at the top but the cover is absent on the Moog coils. Purpose? Advantage?

I'm honestly not sure what those colors mean but I've seen them before on some Toyota coils so maybe it's related to manufacturing/quality control? That pic shows them upside down, the vinyl covering at the bottom is where it sits in the perch and is to prevent noise. I had to spray the moogs weekly with silicone to stop them from squeaking in the perches.
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
$20 dollars later and I have 4 new snap-rings coming from Summit Racing. Bilstein warranty support seems to be MIA at the moment although I'm not expecting too much from them.

I still can't get over the Bilstein snap rings just falling off as soon as the coil weight was removed, if one of those had popped the prior day on I-10 through the Louisiana swamp bridges they'd probably be just now removing my carcass from the water haha.
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Can't believe it but Summit was somehow able to ship the replacement rings out today and I should have them tomorrow! Reassembly should be a piece of cake now that I know how to do the jack compressor method now. Looking forward to a much better ride quality and actually being able to stuff the tires again like the old days.
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Well that was definitely not a piece of cake haha. The fedex guy dropped them off around 9 this morning so I got the rings installed, double checked the fitment, assembly order, etc. Got out there to do the install and 20 minutes later the sky goes black and a massive storm comes through. I just put on a rain jacket and kept working but everything was soaked from then on which sucked. About 3 hours later I had both sides installed and the only thing I need to go back and fix is the abs wires, the two ends got pulled out of the plug at one point and now a few dash lights are on.

I took it on a test drive and the difference is unbelievable. It's hard to believe that the same shocks are up there because the ride is completely different now, it's like a completely different truck. They just soak up bumps small/large now and the steering wheel doesn't get jerked around in the process. Braking no longer causes dive and acceleration doesn't lift the front way up anymore. I normally sell low mileage parts I remove but those moogs coils are going in the dumpster, not going to pass that problem off on someone else.

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General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
I never realized until now you are 2wd!

It's the only reason I can get away with nonsense like 3" lift spacers on 5100's with 4wd springs haha.

2006 me didn't care much about 4wd and now I've owned the thing so long I can't get rid of it because it's like a family member at this point. Next truck will definitely be 4wd and this one will prob be retired to DD duty but man nothing will teach you how to drive off road like the lack of a front drivetrain to fall back on. When everyone else is airing down all 4 wheels I'll be airing up the front tires and dropping the rear, have to keep that front end light!
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
I got lucky with the abs sensor, apparently I was putting the prongs back in the wrong way. I flipped them around and then they went into the plug no problem and the lights went out. Easy for the win!
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
I've been testing out the new front suspension setup over the past few days and am really happy with it. One day I hit some forest service roads that have been ruined by the FS dumping softball sized gravel on what used to be a dirt/gravel mix so it wasn't smooth exactly but I nailed some large potholes/washboard there and the 5100's just ate it up without complaint.

The next test was a 2 hour drive for a daytrip (turned into overnight ;)) to a state park for some hiking with a new girl I'm dating and the next morning on the way home she actually was able to nap for an hour of the drive which sadly was kind of amazing. I haven't had a passenger in two years that could get that comfortable riding in the X because the ride was so harsh haha.

And lastly, I'm getting better gas mileage (~2 mpg's) and the truck feels more responsive on acceleration. I remember before a lot of annoying brake dive and then the front lifting a lot on acceleration as well. Looked like the truck just had a ton of power to other people but it was really annoying and I didn't even realize the lifting was using up some of the available power off the line or that it affect gas mileage enough to be noticable.
 

Xterrorista

Charcoal Briquette
Supporting Member
Location
Denton, TX
I've been testing out the new front suspension setup over the past few days and am really happy with it. One day I hit some forest service roads that have been ruined by the FS dumping softball sized gravel on what used to be a dirt/gravel mix so it wasn't smooth exactly but I nailed some large potholes/washboard there and the 5100's just ate it up without complaint.

The next test was a 2 hour drive for a daytrip (turned into overnight ;)) to a state park for some hiking with a new girl I'm dating and the next morning on the way home she actually was able to nap for an hour of the drive which sadly was kind of amazing. I haven't had a passenger in two years that could get that comfortable riding in the X because the ride was so harsh haha.

And lastly, I'm getting better gas mileage (~2 mpg's) and the truck feels more responsive on acceleration. I remember before a lot of annoying brake dive and then the front lifting a lot on acceleration as well. Looked like the truck just had a ton of power to other people but it was really annoying and I didn't even realize the lifting was using up some of the available power off the line or that it affect gas mileage enough to be noticable.
That's crazy about the better gas mileage! I thought it was a fluke but the first tank after swapping got 14.4mpg vs the 11-12 I was averaging. I wasn't going to say anything yet cause I didn't wanna jinx it~
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
That's crazy about the better gas mileage! I thought it was a fluke but the first tank after swapping got 14.4mpg vs the 11-12 I was averaging. I wasn't going to say anything yet cause I didn't wanna jinx it~

I thought the same at first too but after the 2nd and 3rd fill ups were both around 16 in mostly city driving of all places I took notice. Good to know that someone else noticed something similar!
 

Xterrorista

Charcoal Briquette
Supporting Member
Location
Denton, TX
I thought the same at first too but after the 2nd and 3rd fill ups were both around 16 in mostly city driving of all places I took notice. Good to know that someone else noticed something similar!
It's gotta be because they're smoother on the Giddy ups and Whoas.. I would've bet money it would've been worse after lifting~
 

Xterrorista

Charcoal Briquette
Supporting Member
Location
Denton, TX
Probably is that, I can say for a fact it's easier to drive without always trying to compensate for the lift/sag in the throttle response.
Your's must've been bad. I could tell an improvement on minimizing lift and dip but it wasn't something that was causing me wrinkles before..
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Your's must've been bad. I could tell an improvement on minimizing lift and dip but it wasn't something that was causing me wrinkles before..

Yeah it was pretty bad, I think over time I just got used to compensating for it. What really caught my attention was night driving when the headlight beams would drop way too far down when braking and then rise back up blinding oncoming traffic level on light acceleration at red lights.
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Sitting at a drive through the other day I heard an annoying high pitched whine that I thought must have been coming from another car but it kept coming back after truck warms up so checked it out today. Thought it might be the idler pulley but it turned out the serpentine belt tensioner has a lot of wobble in the bearings. It's a NAPA part with 62,000 miles and a lifetime warranty that requires me to remove it first and bring it in to exchange so looks like I'll be going with a rockauto Gates version this time around.
 

SledheadX

Wheeling
Supporting Member
Location
Rochester, NY
Sitting at a drive through the other day I heard an annoying high pitched whine that I thought must have been coming from another car but it kept coming back after truck warms up so checked it out today. Thought it might be the idler pulley but it turned out the serpentine belt tensioner has a lot of wobble in the bearings. It's a NAPA part with 62,000 miles and a lifetime warranty that requires me to remove it first and bring it in to exchange so looks like I'll be going with a rockauto Gates version this time around.
Don’t order just yet... When I get home from work I’ll see if I still have a valid discount code. I’m getting them every few months or so.
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Got the new belt tensioner this morning and went ahead with the install. The old one was a NAPA version and the new one is a Gates but the markings on the back are identical so these are definitely the same part except NAPA wants almost 30 more dollars for it. It seems like the bearing was fine in the old one and so was the tensioner spring but the dust shield was offset somehow and was rubbing on the pulley just slightly. That would explain why it wasn't the usual chirp noise and instead sounded like metal rubbing metal.

Also went and had my front windows re-tinted this morning with 15% Llumar CTX ceramic tint. I used to have 32% Llumar that was installed in 2007 and held up incredibly well over the years I just always wanted it a little darker because our windshields let in a ton of light.

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General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
That declaration of victory was a little premature, the noise is still there. I checked out all of the pulleys while I was replacing the tensioner and everything seemed ok so I'm not really sure what it could be.

After some research I have a feeling it might be the alternator starting to go out on me. Yesterday I was driving with the windows down and at one point got a strong electrical burning smell that I thought was coming from a lightpole or something but I've seen a few people say that comes with a dying alternator. I'd be upset but I'm pretty sure I brought this on by that whole driving in the ocean thing last year haha.

What's weird though is the noise immeditely goes away if I tap the gas, it only shows up at dead idle.
 
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General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Finally got a video of the noise, it's still hard to tell where it's coming from but I'm focusing on the alternator because the idler/tensioner/belt are new and the noise doesn't change with steering input or the ac turned on/off.

 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
If it isn't oil filter whine, maybe it is the Kanuder valve. ;)

I don't think it's the oil filter, I only use Nissan filters and the noise was there before/after the last oil change I did. It's hard to get a good look at the alternator but I could see a bit of corrosion on the outside of it so I wouldn't be surprised if some salt water got all over it last year. But hey, one should never rule the kanuder valve without checking first haha
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
I took a long screwdriver and held it to the alternator body to see if I could hear it better that way, only problem was it had stopped making the noise but even then it still didn't sound great. I'm figuring the truck is approaching 190k now so even if it isn't the alternator it wont hurt anything to replace it other than my wallet.

I was looking on ebay and found an alternator out of a 2016 Frontier that had been t-boned on the drivers side with only 15,000 miles on it. Offered $60 bucks and it was accepted so looks like I'll be installing a basically new part on the cheap.
 
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General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
I'm hoping this new alternator fits without too much modification needed, I'm pretty sure I have the 110 factory version in there now and I've seen a few threads saying two have different connector locations. I pulled images from RA to overlay/compare in photoshop and the 130 amp version has the battery post further down than the 110, the engines/manifolds are the same across all models so if there's a fitment issue I'm thinking it has to be because of the connector shape instead of the alternator itself.

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General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
I finally replaced the passenger side headlight housing with a Nissan unit, a bodyshop replaced it with a TYC version back in 07 after I cracked the original and there was a noticeable difference in beam quality from the original drivers side headlight + the clear lens aged badly and had weird distortions in the plastic that couldn't be sanded out, it looked like the plastic might be decomposing. Took me 30 minutes to transfer the painted interior trim from the TYC to the Nissan headlight.

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Brunnie

Bumpers Installed
Supporting Member
Location
Colorado Springs
I'm hoping this new alternator fits without too much modification needed, I'm pretty sure I have the 110 factory version in there now and I've seen a few threads saying two have different connector locations. I pulled images from RA to overlay/compare in photoshop and the 130 amp version has the battery post further down than the 110, the engines/manifolds are the same across all models so if there's a fitment issue I'm thinking it has to be because of the connector shape instead of the alternator itself.

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Now if you can make it work, that would be a great mod for when an alternator dies. Document how it goes, and what you had to do.
I also heard a comment that possibly an alternator from a Titan might work. I wonder if that is true, and what the amperage of a Titan alternator is.

EDIT!!
So it looks like, from RA, that the 145 amp Titan, Frontier, Armada and optional Xterra alternator(s) are the same, and have the connectors up where the 110 amp position shows.
Keep in mind that I was looking at the new alternator, not a rebuilt or re-manufactured ones.
 
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General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Now if you can make it work, that would be a great mod for when an alternator dies. Document how it goes, and what you had to do.
I also heard a comment that possibly an alternator from a Titan might work. I wonder if that is true, and what the amperage of a Titan alternator is.

EDIT!!
So it looks like, from RA, that the 145 amp Titan, Frontier, Armada and optional Xterra alternator(s) are the same, and have the connectors up where the 110 amp position shows.
Keep in mind that I was looking at the new alternator, not a rebuilt or re-manufactured ones.


I took a screenshot from RA for the 145 amp version and the plugs line up with the 130 amp version when the mounting points are lined up, I think it just looks like the 110 because of the way they have it rotated.
 

Brunnie

Bumpers Installed
Supporting Member
Location
Colorado Springs
I took a screenshot from RA for the 145 amp version and the plugs line up with the 130 amp version when the mounting points are lined up, I think it just looks like the 110 because of the way they have it rotated.

Yeah, I didn't take screen shots, and didn't really look at mount positions to align everything, I just looked at where the connectors were.

Epic fail on attention to detail. :(
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Yeah, I didn't take screen shots, and didn't really look at mount positions to align everything, I just looked at where the connectors were.

Epic fail on attention to detail. :(

They don't make it easy haha. I still can't find any pics/videos of what the 130 looks like installed, just a few post where people say they had to bend either the post or do something with the connector shape.
 

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Getting a bad feeling that fedex lost my alternator. It's been sitting at a facility just outside Atlanta for two days in a row now and hasn't been scanned since arriving...
 
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