Posted: Sep 02 2008 at 9:52am | IP Logged

On Friday August 29, 2008 I had a major failure with my 2001 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab with a supercharger.  While I was driving my Frontier, the driver rear bearing in the axle failed.  My Frontier has about 152,500 miles on it. 

The failure of the bearing caused the tire and axle to seperate from the vehicle while I was driving it.  When the axle came loose, it ripped all break lines and I had no way to stop the vehicle.  It basically dragged on the axle and friction stopped my Frontier. 

Luckily I was not injured and no one was hit by the tire / axle assembly.  However if you are a Frontier owner, please be aware that this could happen to you.  I have contacted Nissan about this issue as well as the NHTSA.  The cost of the repair is not huge, but the safety factor is something you should be aware of. 

Posted: Sep 02 2008 at 1:25pm | IP Logged

..

bobincinti;

Welcome to the group!

I had a discolored rear bearing in my Jeep at 182,000 miles, with no prior service, and replaced it before it burned out.  I trust zero maintaince unless I do ut myself or SEE it done!

But the problem here is, you say, you lost the all the brakes.

All modern cars for many years have had dual master cylinders to guarantee you will have brakes front or rear should the other fail for any reason. 60 percent of the braking is done by the front. So what did NHTSA think about Zero brakes?

 Have a good one and C U later Don S..

I joined a self help group but I'm the

only one that ever shows up.

Posted: Sep 05 2008 at 9:56am | IP Logged

NHTSA is going to send an investigator to take a look at this.  Nissan had a recall on the 2001 Frontier, but every model was not included.  I have the supercharged model and that was not included in the recall. 

I found the recall notice this week on Motor Trends web site and I gave it to the mechanic working on my frontier.  The reason Nissan recalled the Frontier axle is that water got into the axle through the ABS Sensor.  So they had a series of failures. My Frontier had water in the axle, so the bearing housing rusted, which caused the failure.

With 152,000 miles on it, I expect problems.  However I don't expect wheel assemblies to fall apart under normal road conditions.  Several people in another forum put some pictures up showing some jeep axles seperating, but they were off road and I would expect something like this to happen.  But not on blacktop and this truck was never taken onto a 4x4 trail off road.  Driven in the grass  but not on a 4x4 trail.