My wife and I drove out to Ka,ena Point last Saturday to head to our secret spot for Puka Shells. Boy, that main road has really deteriorated since the last time I was out there. This presented a challenge for my new Off Road Xterra and my driving ability, made more difficult by always trying to take a path less terrifying to my wife. I took some detours when possible to try to avoid some of the worst sections, but at times that ended me up in more trouble than the main road. I turned around before getting to our destination.

This was the first time I've had my new Xterra off road. There were no problems with performance, but the rear suspension or something was making loud awful groaning noises as the Xterra flexed and articulated over some of the more uneven ground. My first generation Xterra was quiet as a mouse going over worse than this. I looked under the rear to see if there was anything obviously binding, but could see nothing wrong or any bright spots around the shocks or sway bar. This was the reason we turned back. My wife was in such a panic over these noises and I've got to admit it sounded like something was going to give at any moment. No groaning sounds on less severe terrain. By the way, we were just crawling along. Got to figure this out or my wife will never come with me off road again. Plus, something is just not right. This can't be normal. I've scooted around under the Xterra and cant spot anything that doesn't look normal.

Any ideas?

No idea. I haven't even looked under the new X's yet. I know this has been a problem with the rear end sitting too low, are you hitting your bump stops? Maybe try and put some chalk on your shocks, bump stops, sway bar and see if u can find if anything is rubbing.

Haven't messed around with my Xterra for a while because of health problems but got enough energy the other day to crawl around under my Off Road Xterra to look for anything obvious that could be making the groaning sounds in the back. Nothing. I did discover that my Off Road has less ground clearance than my stock 2000 XE 4x4. I don't care what the stats say. It was a tight fit under there especially in the front, and I've actually lost weight since I had the 2000 Xterra. Those skid plates are a joke, too, and I was not impressed with build quality in general.

Lopaka, are you still around? I've been afraid to come in here. I saw too many people pass from CA when I was in Hawaii and I was being a coward since I didn't think I could take hearing you weren't around anymore. I'm so sorry that I ran when you needed friends the most.