Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Jip Tinus, stem saam met daai statement
was daai patrol nie dalk in n ongeluk betrokke nie,iets anders sal ook eerder gebreek het voor daai bearings die gees sal gee

A theory on the patrol's predisposition to wobble is that the king pin preload is lot less than the cruiser. I also changed my shims and it made a difference on my shake. The shake is not a wobble really . you will know when you’ve experienced a wobble.

However I still believe that most of our shakes are not worn components but incompetent tyre fitment centers. I had my tires balanced at 2 reputable shops and only the third one got it right (this was with HT tyres) which in theory is easier to balance. I stood by while they balanced it (al 3 shops) and all of them balanced to zero, but the third one located the rim by the wheel nut hole and not the spigot. They started to run the tyre and the technician immediately showed me the bounce, he rotated the tyres on the rim and all was gone. I fitted BFG AT’s later at the same shop, drove out and they were sweet, in the 100K I’ve had them on I’ve one balanced them once when I fitted a TPMS. I do have a slight shake now but at 100k they really are up for replacement and squeal like a…..

I agree with you there.....

I have had the tyre balanced and as soon as they take it off the machine and put it straight back on again and run the tyre it shows up as being off balance.... it tyre guy said its just the machine.... yeah frigggin right.... bad workman blames his tools...

I have also been to 2 different places to have the wheels balanced and they did it a few times till it was right for only one day and then the next day I got the wobble again out of the blue.

The patrol was wobble free since I got it (7000km driven by me - 123000 km on the clock) its only when I rotated and balanced the tyres that the fun started.

About a week before the rotated the tyres I took the sway bar off to go offroading and I don't know if this maybe damaged the steering/suspension setup?

I also played around with the wheel bearing preload but I could not preload it to 160 NM after greasing them as I dont have the right tool so the
bearings are currently set at hand tight.
I have ordered new bearings as the current wheel bearing races have scoring on them.


What is this spigot that everyone talks about on the rim? Is there a certain way the rims must be located on the hub of the patrol?

Noel, removing the stabilizer can't affect the shake.

If you didn't remove the bearing races from the hub, then the 160Nm pre-load isn't really important, just make sure you have worked all the grease through.

The fact that it started after balancing and rotation should tell you exactly what the problem is.

The patrol hubs are larger than other cars with the same PCD. But if you have standard wheels, then they will be right, it's only if you have aftermarket rims fitted that you may have a problem. Having said that, a bit of dirt on the flange faces or the rims where they bolt to the flanges can easily cause these types of issues, so that might be worth checking.

Peter Connan wrote:Noel, removing the stabilizer can't affect the shake.

If you didn't remove the bearing races from the hub, then the 160Nm preload isn't really important, just make sure you have worked all the grease through.

The fact that it started after balancing and rotation should tell you exactly what the problem is.

The patrol hubs are larger than other cars with the same PCD. But if you have standard wheels, then they will be right, it's only if you have aftermarket rims fitted that you may have a problem. Having said that, a bit of dirt on the flange faces or the rims where they bolt to the flanges can easily cause these types of issues, so that might be worth checking.

Thanks for your advice Peter.

I see when fitting the rims its a very tight fit on to the flanges and it only sits flat by screwing the nuts in fully so I will def clean around flange/rim faces.
Am running standard alloy rims and slightly smaller tyres than stock.
I am also going to try and get TWT to balance the wheels through the stud holes as some one suggested.

The wheels shouldn't really be tight on the hubs. Perhaps there is a layer of rust or something causing you some issues?

I would put in a bit of careful work with emery tape there.

Just thinking outside the box a bit.... but some ally rims don't sit properly on the Patrol hubs, and the inside diameter edger of the rim needs to be machined back a millimeter or two as there is a rounding on the Patrol hub that prevents the rim fitting flush. ( I recall the incident at the Patrol 60th with Andrews Patrol that lost the front wheel due the this exact rim fitting issue !!!!)

ricster wrote:Just thinking outside the box a bit.... but some ally rims don't sit properly on the Patrol hubs, and the inside diameter edger of the rim needs to be machined back a millimeter or two as there is a rounding on the Patrol hub that prevents the rim fitting flush. ( I recall the incident at the Patrol 60th with Andrews Patrol that lost the front wheel due the this exact rim fitting issue !!!!)

I think I will take off one front rim and take some pics to post and also inspect it closely

So I went back to TWT for the third time to redo the wheel balancing.

As they checked each wheel I was watching like a hawk.

All 4 wheels where out of balance which I cant understand as they balanced them last week in front of me and in that time I had not gone off road just highway driving.

One of the tyres was found to be faulty, they say it had tyre hop, you could see the tyre running uneven on the balancing machine so we swapped it out with the new spare wheel.

I took it for a test drive and it was perfect , no wobble or shakes etc so very happy.

They said I must return the tyres for a replacement from Goodyear as its a manufacturing fault as the tyre only has 5000km on it.

I got the tyres on special from Tyremart so will go chat to them tomorrow and see what they say about getting a replacement tyre under warranty.