Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Miner is not happy!!

Was alone and off-road in Southern Namibia when the corrugations I was driving over suddenly became very 'violent" with the whole of the front of the Patrol vibrating as if it was about to fall apart.

Realised something was wrong so stopped and got underneath to discover that the support arm that the steering damper fastens too had come off the front axel.

Somehow the nut had come undone and the bush had come off and the arm had slipped of the fastening. This is in a Patrol that has only done 20 000kms!!

Tried all sorts of things to fix it but nothing lasted more than 100m, found I could drive and steer at about 15km/hr - being 140 kms from "civilisation" it was long and painful drive.

Managed to get hold of Nissan roadside assistance who said that as I was in Namibia they couldn't help but would find some one who could and would call me back - still waiting !!!!!!

Anyway eventually managed to get to Karasburg where Wimpie from Carley motors very kindly helped. Got a nylon bush that we had to split to get it to fit, cut the top off a shock absorber to make a big enough washer and found a nut to fit.

Then limped back to Jhb. Phoned Nissan yesterday and they will fetch the Patrol today to get the right parts on and check that nothing else is loose and about to fall off or was damaged by the vibration.

scary stuff! Glad you are ok.

The Steering damper connects the Panhard to the draglink , which end broke loose? I would not expect that the damper has such a great effect not on a new vehicle. is there not another problem in the front suspension?



Apologies re-reading it sounds like your Panhard came loose at the one end and this I expect to create serious havoc! Those nuts are generally very tight, was anything done on the suspension , new higher springs or something fitted that might have caused the shop to undo the Panhard and they forgot to re tighten it? Without a panhard any up and down movement of the body will change the direction the front wheels are pointing.

If Nissan wants to charge you for a whole Panhard then tell them to get off, you can buy the bushes from them as well.

"You can buy the panhard bushes seperately - here's the part numbers: Lower Bush (all models) 55135 01J01 Upper Bush (std type) 55135 01J10 Upper Bush (Balljoint Type) 40110 VC000 I replaced ..." from http://www.patrol4x4.co.za/viewtopic.ph ... ush#p32276

ek wag ANGSTIG om te verneem wat het hier fout gegaan ..
i wait ANXIOUS around to quistion what have here fault go have.

Waiting to hear the outcome on this one....never heard of it happening before

I forgot to mention that this all happened on Sunday.

Andries you are correct it was the panhard rod that came loose on the passenger side. The car is completely standard, no one has worked on it outside of normal servicing ( Mark White Nissan), and the installation of fog lights and tail lights. The patrol gets used once a month at most, so its a mystery as to how this happened, makes one wonder about PDS standards

Driving it off road and even on the gravel road to Karasburg was no fun.

It's still in my driveway waiting for Nissan to collect it for inspection and repair.

Sorry, I not understand so nicely.

Did the panhard rod come off/break, or was it only the nut on the steering damper's ens that unscrewed and dropped off?

Peter when I posted first, I hadn't checked the name of the part, I just saw the damper attached to it.

For clarity the nut that holds the panhard rod to the shaft on the passenger side, came off and the bush then fell off so that the pahhard rod was loose on the passenger side of the Patrol.

Ah, OK.

There is supposed to be a little pressed-steel locking nut screwed up against the nut.

To my mind, this thing doesn't really work, but if the nut was properly tightened, it really shouldn't unscrew. But it might be worth using Nylock nuts instead, although it will make the fitting take a fair amount longer.

Miner is happy again

Picked up the Patrol from Mark White Nissan yesterday afternoon.

Nissan fixed everything free of charge, and carried out an inspection to make sure there were no other potential problems.

No reason as to why the nut came off, allowing the panhard rod to come free at one end, unless someone finds the nut and the bush, in the bush :-) I guess we will never know !

So a big thank you to Nissan SA and Mark White Nissan