front and rear suspension

nissanowner1 · Oct 14th, 2006, 09:27 AM

hello guys. i went to 3 different places to try to figure out the problem of my truck. here's the dilemma: i have a 1997 nissan pathy 3.3L v6 4x4. it has 159k on it.
1.when i am driving on the road, i am feeling some creeking noise in the back and front.
2. i am also experiencing the rear end of the truck kind of like fishtailing or swaying left and right. i am not sure the term for it. something like dogsledding or something.
so, i took it to a guy that was recommended by a co-worker. he said that the bushing was worn out on the right side. he also said that i needed struts in front and shocks in the back. he charged me $240 to replaced 4 bushings on the right side. i am still having the same problem. so after 2 months or so i went to sears to get my alignment checked. sears guy told me i didnt need an alignment. he told me that my problem is somewhere else. finally after an hour or so the guy called me out to show me the problems. he said that the upper and lower control arms are bad. and they also found out that i have a rear right axle seal that was leaking. not too bad. basically sears told me they cant do anything unless i get my seal fixed. they told me to go to another place that deals specifically with rear axle and drive shaft. the next morning i went to that place. after 2 and hours of them trying to figure out what was wrong with the truck, the manager told me that the front and rear suspensions are bad. i was charged $38.95. here are the parts that they wanted me to get:
rear suspension
upper and lower control arms left and right.
stabilizer bar.
stabilizer connecting rod (sway bar links) left and right.
panhard rod (track bar)

front suspension
stabilizer bar
stabilizer connecting rod

basically the point of this post is that after spending alot of time and almost $300, the problem wasnt fixed. now i have to spent i believe close to $1000 dollars just to get the parts. these are my questions:
should i get after market parts or do i gotta go with OEM?
i definitely dont have a choice but to fix the truck. this is my only truck that i used to earn a living. so if i do have to buy OEM, do you have a place that i can check out besides everythingnissan.com?
i hope somebody doesnt say google

**88pathoffroad** · Oct 14th, 2006, 06:00 PM

Just do the rear axle control arms first. It's a very common and fairly well publicized problem with the R50 rear end. See if that doesn't fix the problem. Repair shops only want your $$$, they don't care if it gets fixed or not. Take some initiative and tell them what to do for you for a change.

You can get the bushings by themselves, but pressing or cutting out the old ones is a PITA. Replacement control arms are about $110 each from a Nissan dealership, you may want to shop around and find the lowest price for those.