Frame And Members problems of the 1997 Nissan Pathfinder

1997 Nissan Pathfinder left front strut tower about to collapes due to severe rot.

Rust/corrosion in unibody at lower control arm/strut assembly on 97' Nissan Pathfinder passenger side. The problem/failure is equivalent in severity to the situation Nissan is recalling for the driver's side. (pe11004) also (NHTSA campaign id number: 11v244000). If the corrosion becomes severe enough, the stresses involved in the strut assembly operation loads, compounded by the lateral loads created by steering, and handling, may cause the lower control arm, lower ball joint/strut mount to separate from the unibody. This would invariably result in a loss of steering control, and quite probably, in a highway speed failure, throw the vehicle into a skid as the passenger side wheel stuffs itself into the wheel well area.

I noticed that the steering in my 1997 Nissan Pathfinder se was pulling to the left and I had experienced some resistance while turning the steering wheel, so I began to inspect the engine compartment and wheel wells. I found that the driver-side shock tower has almost completely separated from the rest of the body of the vehicle. The way it has bent away has caused it to put direct pressure on both the steering column and the master cylinder. If the tower was to fail completely, I'm reasonably certain that it would shear off the master cylinder (leaving me without brakes!) and possibly sever the steering column.