Truck notes

I've been driving an '07 Frontier for five and a half years now; got it brand new in March '07.

It's been a pretty good truck overall; but I wanted to make a note for anyone else out there driving something on a similar chassis. (That'd be the Frontier, XTerra, Titan, and possibly the Pathfinder.)

FIX YOUR REAR AXLE BREATHER. Take out the piece of junk $20 part that Nissan put in and move the vent to somewhere that it's not going to get corroded and/or plugged.

It's a $25-and-half-an-hour fix. Excellent directions here.

What's the problem with a corroded breather, you ask?

The rear differential builds up pressure with changes in temperature and altitude, and eventually will force oil around the axle seals, destroying those in the process.

Replacing axle seals means tearing apart most of the back end. Doing it yourself is an all-day (all-weekend) job; having a shop do it is several hours of labor plus a few hundred in parts (regardless of who does the work).