Nissan Armada Maintenance and Repair

gorio1

btw, i have 41000 miles on the vehicle and always drive in freeways, i dont overload (max load 2 adults & 2 kids) and never use this truck to pull a boat or something. Thanks again

tidester

I think the luggage rack will contribute to greater susceptibility to crosswinds. Being situated farther above the vehicle's center of mass than the rest of the vehicle, the rack will generate more torque when buffeted by the wind. It's also possible that your 720 affected your suspension system.

In any case, I don't think it's wise to be driving an Armada at anywhere close to 100 mph.

tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper

shark715

Tidester, sounds like it's fairly obvious that the issue is related to the 720, given that he said that's when the problem started (and assuming the roof rack was always there). It's odd that whoever did the alignments did not pick up on the issue, but unfortunately there are a lot of shops that just push the jobs through....the techician is paid on the number of alignments he/she completes, and that leads to shoddy work. Also, did he tell the alignment shop(s) the specifics of the problem he is having, or did he merely ask for an alignment, assuming that would cure the issue? It's very possible the truck is correctly aligned, but something in the suspension or steering systems is bent or damaged. I would suggest that he find a body shop that specializes in frame straightening (many body shops don't have the equipment to properly do that, as the equipment is wildly expensive). Chances are his frame is not bent, but shops like that have the expertise (and the patience) to thoroughly check all the suspension and steering components to make sure everything is within spec. Unfortunately there are many components that are subseptible to damage as manufacturers (not just Nissan) are using weaker and lighter components to save on cost, as well as weight for fuel efficiency reasons.

uga91

At about 7000 miles on my 2008 Armada, my odometer went away. The display went blank where the odometer should be. Took it to the dealer Monday and they spent 2 days with it before deciding it was going to take a while to fix and they got me a rental car. They said they had never seen that before and had to call Nissan engineering to figure out out to fix it. Has anyone here had or heard of this?

uga91

well, it's fixed--they said a relay went out and that's what caused the display to stop

knerkowski

Can you tell me did it make a noise when first turned on? I had my ac compresser replaced and mine is still making a noise.

denjo

We are about to purchase a 2004 Nissan Armada. We have been doing our research. We had read about the front brake problems. When we asked the dealership about it, he said he called Nissan. He told us it was only in the U.S. We live in Canada. Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks.

shark715

I can confirm that you are being lied to! The brakes are no different whatsoever. Car dealers will tell you anything to get you to buy. I would strongly urge you to avoid buying one of the early Armadas. They had lots of problems, not just the brakes. When Nissan opened the assembly plant in Misssissippi, they had huge quality control problems that they even admitted to. Take a look at Consumer Reports and you'll see that the '04 Armada makes their list of "vehicles to avoid" and look at their frequency of repair records. You can do much better.

dean25

Hi...have you been able to fix this problem? Mine has not gone away and I will be making the time to take it in soon. Let me know if you have an update. Thanks.

roadtrip01

I have an 07 that I bought new. The only problems Ive had were the carpet pulling away from the floor,(which was replaced at no cost) and the passenger door windows giving me wind noise. The passenger side rear door window was loose to the touch it would move side to side. Has anyone else had window problems.
Everything else is fine on this. I love driving it. I also need advice on tires. My crappy continentals are worn now as I am at 36,000 miles they dont make me feel confident on wet roadways. Any ideas? Oh yeah, I also run Mobile 1 synthetic oil in the engine, its changed religiously at 5000 miles is it really necessary to pay the dealer for this 30,000 mile service? are there any suspension upgrades recommended for towing heavy trailers. 07 SE 2wd

Thanks! :shades:

tt30

I love my 2004 Armada. Just drove from Minneapolis to Denver to Grand Canyon to San Diego and back... No problem with windows at all. 47,000 miles on Continental tires, but would need a replacement as well - so would like to hear an advise on tires too. I've done 30K and 45K service, and I also use synthetic oil for 5,000 miles.

roadtrip01

Today I did some research on tires and found Michelin lattitude for 280 each right now if you buy 3 you get 1 for a $1.00. this deal runs through the 15th of April. My truck will be sitting on those come Thursday!! These tires have a 720 tread rating. The LTX M/S that were on my old truck had a 600 tread rating or something close to that, and those were able to last to 60,000 miles so I believe these tires should take me to 100,000 miles. My window was tightened up today at the dealer at no charge. They removed the door panel and tightened something up. That stopped the wind noise!

papalote

I just got my 4x4 Armada 2009 (4K miles) and been several times with the dealer for noices. First a chassis braket was loose, then the exhaust manifold had a leak producing a pinging under passenger foot. Now and while moving I hear a continuos squeak in the rear ac control dashboard. Can I spry some DW40 inside the dashboard? has anyone had this problem?

bosco08

I have a 2009 Armada that I bought at the end of February. After its first wash, the car was guys noticed dull spots about the size of a quarter up to the size of a half dollar all down the drivers side and above the doors on the drivers side. I took it in to the Nissan dealership that I bought it from. They had the detail man use a "Magic" liquid to get the spots out. When I left if looked okay to me. Then a few days later, I had it washed again. Out in the sun I noticed the majority of the spots back again. Where the spots were gone, swirls appeared from the "Magic" solution. I returned, yet again, to the dealership. They are sending my Armada to a body shop for the drivers side to be clear coat buffed and repainted if the buffing does not work. I recently got hail damage on it and took it to get an estimate. The estimator said that if they repaint it, it will never look right and that I should get my money back or trade it in because I will never be happy with it. Any advice on what I should do would be GREATLY appreciated. :confuse:

bud_foxx44

Has anyone ever heard that you have to clean the sunroof drain plugs on an Armada? My wonderful dealership charged my $101 to clean 4 drain plugs. The 2007 Armada was leaking water next to the passenger door. I assumed it was covered under warranty. Stupid me.

Thanks in advance for any comments.

shark715

They aren't really drain "plugs", they are drain "tubes", and they can get clogged with leaves and other debris, especially if you often park under trees. I believe all vehicles with sunroofs (except the after market flip up type) have them. I can understand why it would not be covered under warranty, but $101??? You could have flushed them out in a few minutes with a garden hose.

bud_foxx44

Shark, does it say it anywhere int he owner's manual to check and clean them?? Where exactly are they? I have had sunroofs in different cars for over 20 years and never heard about them.

I still think my dealership could have have told me over the phone to check them but they say they can't diagnose over the phone. Meadowlands Nissan WILL NEVER SEE me again!!

Thanks Shark

shark715

Bud, I've had several cars with factory sunroofs and I've never seen a manual that calls for periodic cleaning of the sunroof drains. Normally they never need to be cleaned because normally the only thing that would get in there would be a minimal amount of water that might get past the sunroof gasket. Did your dealer mentioned what they were clogged with? Open your sunroof and look inside from above the truck. Pour a small cup of water outside the frame (not inside, where it will go into the headliner) and you will see it go down the drain(s)...there will be one or two on each side of the frame (and watch where it comes out under the truck). I'm generally not a big fan of dealers (I call them "stealers"), but they are right...there's no way they could have diagnosed the problem over the phone, and assuming they spent a hour diagnosing and fixing the problem, you can't expect them to do it for free if Nissan won't reimburse them. On the other hand, you should question if they even tried, as they make a much higher profit off non-warranty repairs versus the flat rate that Nissan reimburses them for warranty work. You should contact Nissan and complain that the repair should be covered under warranty (assuming your truck is still under warranty) because the sunroof drains stopped working the way they should. It will be interesting to hear what their excuse is, or maybe they will cover it if you make a little bit of noise. But if it turns out you somehow allowed something to get in there and cause the problem, it's understandable why they won't want to cover it. If you politely ask to be reimbursed, they just might see a way to do so in the name of good customer relations. I also live in north Jersey and have heard bad things about the service department at Meadowlands. I wish I could recommend a better dealer, but I've been to many other Nissan dealers in the area, and they all seem to be dishonest.

boaterkevin

My front windows just started going down on their own, I park the car and come out in the morning or in the afternoon and the windows are down a few inches or all the way down. It doesn't happen all the time....Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kevin

uga91

Somebody is messing with your keys. If you hit the unlock button twice and then hold it down, your front windows will open. Do you have kids? Do you have a prankster for a room mate? Someone is fooling with you.

sean288

I have the same thing happen but my daughter burnt her hand. Called nissan they said there was no recall and I should bring it in to the dealer. So pay 50.00 bucks to have some guy say yup she stays on.And then what......They will fix it or pay. You would think in this day with all the crap going on that service would be a top thing guess nissan has no respect for the peaple who buy there cars..

rmsing

bud_foxx44

Folks, I have an unique problem. My 2006 Armada, the needle on the speedometer feel off and is sitting inside the clear plastic. The warranty is expired so how do I go about getting this fixed? I really don't want to go back my dealership for this one.

Thanks in advance.

stever

The tach needle was sticking on my Nissan Quest. I removed the cluster from the dash and tweaked it a bit. Maybe you can open yours up and figure out how to reattach the needle.

fwiw, here's how mine went:

Fixing a Stuck Tach in a Nissan Quest

jsnieri

Hey My car stalls and looses power after it has been running for an hour or so on long trips. It will begin to loose power and then stall and backfire if I try to accelerate when going uphill, and then will not go over 2000 rpm . I discovered on a trip from the beach yesterday that if i turn the motor off, i get power again, but then eventually the same issue comes back--- Didnt know what you eventually figured out what the issue was---thanks for your help j

momof4now

Sounds like the same thing our did. We finally found a nissan dealer (in Ft Lauderdale, Fl) that was able to diagnose the problem and fix it! It turns out it was the fuel pump. It has to be tested under pressure to find the problem. Hope this helps! Cost was $800 parts and labor to fix the problem, but its been 2yrs and we have had no problems since!

jaytoll

What modifications, if any, need to be made to my Armada SE to safely "flat tow" it behind my motor home ?

Jay Toll

shrpsaw

I HAVE 2007 ARMADA. I HAVE HAD 3 FUEL PUMPS 1 @ 20K MI, 1@56KMI AND NOW 1 TODAY @ 80K MI. THEY HAVE A FUEL PUMP PROBLEM. NOT ENOUGH PRESSURE FROM THE PUMP.

ikeii1968

I have a 2005 Armada and was having the same problem with stalling, this past weekend, I purchase a IPDM (Integrated Power Distribution Module) from the dealership for 137.00 and replace it, so far no issues. At the dealership they call it a controller, it is under your hood behind your battery black fuse panel. It only took 5 minutes to replace and only tool that I needed was a screwdriver. Look at post # 612, it has a link that shows you exactly what to do to replace this.

Thanks ginor for your post!!!!

ikeii1968

shrpsaw, the problem is the IPDM, not the fuel pump itself. Try that and you should be good to go. I changed mine this past weekend and have been driving it everyday since and so far no problem. Read post #612 and it will show you the diagram on how to replace it yourself. Called a Controller at the dealership. Total cost of repair for myself 147.10

ikeii1968

I talked with a parts manager at one of the Nissan Dealerships this past weekend, it looks like there is going to be a recall on IPDMs for the Amarda's. He told me that the prices of the part has doubled from 164.00 to 346.00 at the dealerships. He said about 2 weeks ago, they decided to do a recall on them, so be on the lookout. I know that is it a popular item right now, seems everyone is having an issue with them.

ikeii1968

I just found the link for the recall for the IPDM. Recall should start December 2010.

Here is the link to the recall:

http://www.nissanextendedwarranty.com/recalls/nissan-recalls.html

pfirefighter2

I have an '06 Armada SE. When I first purchased my Armada it ran like a champ. Later it began hesitating while going down the road and eventually got to the point where it would die and sometimes not restart for a while, if at all. We received the recall letter and had the ECM relay replaced. Since then it worked good for a while, but now it has a severe hesitation/will not get over 2000 or so rpm's. It seems as though the timing is off. My wife carried it to AutoZone and they placed their diagnostic scanner and got the following report.

1 MAF sensor
2 Large Vacuum leak
3 Catalytic Converter
4 O2 Sensor

I can replace parts with the best of them, but my diagnostic skills are lacking. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

suranceman

Boaterkevin
I have a 2008 Armada that has the same thing going on. I have carried into dealer, of couse they say they can't make it do the things we say it is doing, so we are having to live with it at this time. Servicwe maaer did some playing wiht the switches in driver side door and said he had it reparied. Friday an Saturday they went down on thier own so I don't think anyone is playing with your keys. Some one mentiend auto battery may not be strong enough to handle all electronics, am going to look that way. However, it was doing this with 10,000 miles and it now has 44000 miles. I know it is aggrevating as with rain in auto, someone stealing with windows down, etc. If I find out for sure I will reply to you.

caitlinrai

I have a 2005 Armada and so I noticed my exhaust hanging the other day and this morning I went out to see what happened. It has came loose from the catalytic converter. It look like there was a clamp there of some sort that rusted away. Any help???? Anybody know what part I need and i can fix it myself. Thanks

rshe

Mine rusted away behind the muffler. I just went ahead and replaced from the cat back with a Gibson Side Swept exhaust. $450 shipped and it has a great mellow tone. Not loud at all....

caitlinrai

Gibson seems to be the manufacturer of choice. I see a lot of people recommending it. Thanks

servant2others

Mine was the brake booster

uga91

My 2008 Armada would squeal on cold, damp mornings. Took it to the dealer and they replaced the serpentine belt for $175 and the noise is gone. I know there are folks who do it themselves because they buy the belt for $50, but they did it in an hour and it was worth the charge to me.

tcolon68

Im considering change to synthetyc oil on my 09 armada after almost 30k, my ? is what kind or brand should i use or what's best for phoenix, Az climate?

scott174