Cross member, heater hose, rear diff bushing

[veritas]

Sup everyone,

Just got a call back from the dealership and they told me these 2 were top priority out of 5 or so things. It's a 2015 with only 53k miles, cross member makes no sense (no accidents or potholes)..
but it would mess with my steering/make noises every time I turned to the right, plus it was "looser" to the right.

Anyone replace theirs and have a more realistic price of what I should be paying?
Thinking of going directly to an Infiniti tech to offer cash..

- Front cross member needs to be replaced (video below)
$2200 part, $4470 with labor
Can anyone let me know the exact part number?

- Passenger side heater hose leaking.
$300 parts, $880 with labor
Does anyone remember the part numbers for the heater hose clamps?
3x 92527-7990B and 1x 01558-00521?
I know passenger side hoses are 92401-JK20A, 92402-JK20A and I'm going to use an aluminum connector. Everything comes out to ~$80 on InfinitiUSA and I can just pick them up at the same dealership

Also told me my rear diff bushing was leaking but "doesn't need attention right now" since it's not affecting drive, along with a few other things. Feel like he told me this so I wouldn't get even more sticker shock and take it somewhere else lol. I'd have to replace the entire subframe since Infiniti only sells it together... deciding between buying Whiteline KDT911 to do it myself or sealing it the "cheap" way..

 

[SCY7H3]

Hi!

I watched your video with the steering rack moving around. The steering rack bolts up with two bolts to the front cross member. When those bolts are loosened the rack will move around. Now the issue here is there's not enough info to tell whether the bolts need to be tightened and you're good or if these bolts loosened up and over time the mounting holes in the front cross member rounded out so much that it's not possible to just tighten the bolts. It might be worth dropping that manta ray shaped cross bar (PN: 544B2-1CA0A) (see Fig 1), undoing the two bolts on the steering rack and seeing how rounded those bolt holes are on the front cross member. You can do this with the car on the ground. Just remember that once the steering rack is loosened, your alignment will change and might need that adjusted later. But I think with what's at stake, that's the least of your concerns.

If you look at the second screenshot below (Fig 2), you'll see that the steering rack is mounted as follows. Two bolts (PN: 54459-1MA0D) going through a bracket (PN: 54442-1CA0B), going through the steering rack, going through the front cross member, then two nuts (PN: 54588-JK00A) up top. I had an issue some time back where my steering rack would make a sound if I turned the steering rack while parked. Turned out to be an issue with that bracket (PN: 54442-1CA0B). At some point Infiniti upgraded the bracket with one that had a red gasket/paper on it that would prevent noise. I don't know if that's what caused it for you or if the rack was unbolted before and it wasn't torqued correctly? I also know that the nuts/bolts should be replaced every time they are loosened. They're cheaper than replacing everything else that could get damaged if they loosen.

So yea, I'd first investigate to see whether you really need a new front cross member by seeing if the holes are rounded and if anything else is damaged as a result.

Fig 1: cross bar




Fig 2: Front cross member




For your heater hose leaking, the two hose part numbers you mentioned are correct. There's three clamps that these two hoses use.

Here's a screenshot:



Part number from left to right as follows:

92521CA (PN: 92527-7990B) - 1 of these
92521CB (PN: 01558-00521) - 1 of these
92521C (PN: 92527-7990B) - 2 of these

Is the hose leaking or is the coupler leaking? You mentioned you'll use an aluminum coupler. From what I recall and googling that coupler, it's made of some high heat fiberglass reinforced plastic. Never had an issue with these and I typically use what's OEM unless there's clear evidence it fails often.

That coupler PN is 92417-JK20A (Lookup code 92417 in screenshot above)




As for the rear differential bushing, I just did the Whiteline KDT911 upgrade. The OEM bushing will fail again at some point. You'll need to drop the muffler, the resonators, disconnect the axles, the propeller shaft, the abs sensors, the sway bar. Then drop the differential with a jack, that thing is heavy. Make sure to make match marks between the axle and differential and the propeller shaft and differential. I used a drill and a medium sized bit to drill out the rubber around to get the rubber core out. I then removed any remaining rubber from the bushing. Then I used a hack saw blade to saw through the metal ring that remains from the bushing. It's not very thick and doesn't need a sawzall. You don't want to cut into the subframe's cylindrical part. Once you cut through the bushing's metal ring, that will come out freely or with a hammer and chisel. If there's any corrosion here it's a great time to paint or just leave it as-is and have the Whiteline bushing lubed and pressed in. I used a combination of a bolt, nuts, washers or sockets and steel plates to press it in. The Whiteline kit comes with the bushing for the diff side as well. I chose not to use them but if you want to replace them you'd need to find a way to press them out. Infiniti does sell those bushings.

One thing to mention though is that while you can replace the rear diff bushing, there's a few more bushing on the subframe itself that bolts up to the car. Those bushings are not replaceable so if you feel like you'd want to refresh those bushings as well, then the whole subframe might be worth replacing especially when the car is already 10 years old and who knows how much longer infiniti will be supplying parts.


Hope this helps and if you have any questions, ask away!