Believe it or not but I have never personally owned a full size truck.
The single cab short bed 1500 i sold Dusterbd13 from the pickup challenge was the closest I ever came and the brief time I had it could hardly be considered "ownership".
I have had countless full size SUV'S and even a 1966 C10 but a big 4 door truck has somehow eluded me. Until now...
I found a 2005 Nissan Titan 4x4 with 150,000 miles on it at the auction. It didn't have a condition report, which was weird and the few pictures online showed baked paint on the roof and the hood. It was one owner however based on the autocheck and that owner traded in to the Nissan Dealership. I gambled that if the truck was a piece the owner would not trade it on another Nissan.
Here are the only pictures I have at the moment.
My hunch paid off. The truck needs some paint work and a good cleaning but it drives perfect and I found this in the glove box.
Every service record from the 1st oil change at the Nissan dealership to the last one 5000 miles ago. Other than purchasing tires at Walmart it looks like he did everything at the dealer.
Truck is currently at the paint shop getting the hood, roof and fenders painted. I will update the thread as I get a chance to work on the truck.
Oh 5.6 VQ engine. Those sound good deleted muffler.
I am planning to do a leveling kit and a set of bilstein 5100's on the truck. I would love it to have the same stance as this one I found on the internet.
Congrats
thats beautiful ! Z3m + this = some really good months for ya !!
I would love a q70L with the 5.6. I just can't shake my Lexus LS rhat I keep buying every generation of
I've been eyeing these as they're the same price here as the smaller Nissan Frontier.
TGMF
HalfDork
8/4/20 3:13 p.m.
I've got an Armada of the same generation. Basically a Titan with a back end. You're gonna love it.
The early Titan's had a few problems, which by now are probably sorted.
The front brakes were undersized, and warped....a lot. Later models have bigger rotors/calipers.
Exhaust issues are common:
1. the tailpipe rots off of the primary muffler and allows exhaust gasses to cook an important harness in the rear. Watch for it!
2. Manifolds crack and are big money due to built in catalyst. Mine did on my 13. All is not lost, however because JBA makes some marginal headers which don't crack and are cheap. You'll need a tune though or risk running lean. Cajun B pipes sells a whole kit, which I have. Uprev tune makes a huge power difference and adds fun things like rev matching on a manually forced down shift.
Rear diff- Early titans had common failures. later trucks I think had upgraded diffs. Diff vent commonly clogs and forces lube out all the seals. Diff runs dry, boom. check and clean vent regularly or swap to a hose and filter n be done.
Supposedly the trans lines at the radiator like to rot, and reportedly dump all your trans fluid while driving, which damages the trans. Mine still look fine at 130k.
Also rumored and less common, coolant in trans fluid due to radiator trans cooler internal leak. Replace radiator as PM if concerned.
Don't lift it too much. The front diffs are fragile in the older trucks, and don't take kindly to large CV angles. Also shock loading like spinning the front tires and suddenly catching traction is a no no. Plus side? Entire diff unit isn't hard to replace with later year, more robust design. Under normal use it should be fine.
Engine/trans known to go forever with maintenance. I've seen several over 350k, and a few with more.
Very nice! I just bought my first full size too. I should start a thread :D
In reply to TGMF :
Thanks for the input, I will definitely look into the things you mentioned. My wife had a 2010 armada for several years before we bought her 2018. It was a great truck.
In reply to TGMF :
I think the first gen rear diff fix is just a finned cover to help keep the fluid cool. It's a Dana 44, so it's a hair undersized for a full-size truck. Regardless, I'd still buy one. It's not a huge deal unless you're towning big loads or put huge tires on it. In fact, I tried to buy one but the seller never got back to me.
Also, Nisstec sells nice suspension kits for them.
Nisstec Lifts And Stuff
In reply to pimpm3 (Forum Supporter) :
Ended up with a Tundra. Old school tech, hopefully Toyota reliability.
Dibs.
I just wanted to get that on the record.
Nice truck. I had a an 04 that I bought new and kept til last year. Put over 150k miles on it with probably 30k miles towing about 8500 lbs.
I had both the exhaust issues mentioned above. I just opened my wallet and replaced the manifolds with stock pieces. And I was kicking myself for not fixing the rusted off tailpipe - didn't make the truck any louder, I drove it like that for a long time - eventually melted the body harness at the rear of the truck caused the ABS and traction control to fault. Took a few hours carefully picking wires out of a melted blob and re-insulating them to sort that out.
There is a pretty easy upgrade for the later improved front brakes. The later trucks switched to bigger discs and calipers along with larger hubs, but there was one year of Armada brakes with the larger disc but a smaller bore that would fit the early hubs. If you get those discs you can just buy a set of later calipers with brackets and it all just bolts on. There is a very detailed thread on one of the Titan forums with part numbers and all the details.
In reply to sevenracer :
What's a good Titan forum?
In reply to John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) :
LOL, all of us are calling dibs on cars he's just bought!
In reply to John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) :
Titantalk.com
Here is the write up for the brake swap.
So I picked the truck up from the paint shop and it came out great. I am not sure how I managed not to take a picture of it in all its glory but I will try to snag one tomorrow.
This is the only one I took which was from the many hours I spent on the interior.
Speaking of the interior it was gross! I am not sure what was going on in it but it cleaned up well enough.
I ordered a set of floor liners offline for $140 shipped. Very similar to the weathertech but cheaper.
I should have the interior done tomorrow, just have to wait for the seats to dry.
That's a big transformation on the interior. Unfortunately I'm one of those people that get interiors that bad.
Interior looks great. Also reminds to scrub the seat belts too. Pull the belt out and latch it then spray and scrub.
Good point about the seat belts. I will definitely do that tomorrow, before I finish the interior.
No namer lift supports for hood are only $10.99 for 2 on Amazon. Others too for less than $20
I just ordered a set to replace my shovel...
I bought the same brand floor covers for wife's. They have been great and worth the price.
Geez, that interior was filthy! You got it looking great!
