After dialing in my 2011 QX56, I hit a deer and insurance totaled it. We weren’t able to find another 2011 so we just jumped ahead a few years to a 2016 Limited.
4wd, cooled and heated seats, HBMC, basically every option. Bucket seats are a meh but the wife likes them in the back vs the bench we had on the 2011.
My goal is a mom mobile that can handle fire roads and mild trails. 4 kids means no removing third row. So hitch carrier or roof rack is the way we will go.
So far I’ve been catching up on maintenance.
Oil changed to Castrol syntec 5w30 and a K&N HP-4001 oil filter. It’s easily 2.5x the factory size. I was on the fence about the new 0w20 spec and the 2011 seemed to run so much better on 5w30 vs 0w20 I just went 5w30.
Transmission serviced via the manual using 11qts of Idemitsu Type S. This fluid is the same as Nissan Matic S because Idemitsu makes it for Nissan.
Transfercase serviced with 2qts of Triax DTF-1 (Shell TF0870 spec same as OE Nissan fluid)
Wife complained about the lack of lighting in the 2011 so I went ahead and got a bunch of Sylvania Zevo 168 LED bulbs for the ceiling lights and door puddle lights. Big improvement. Almost too bright. I also put them in the license plate lights too. I used Oxilam 912/921 LED for the rear turn signals too. They have built in resisters so no hyper flash and look like they belong in there.
To do:
Spark plugs
Differential oil and chase down a slight gear whine
Moog 81085 and 1” spacers. I have the spacers but no springs yet
New tires for the 22” wheels. Likely 285/45R22
I have 18” armada wheels and tires also but I want to upgrade those tires too. Not sure what I want to do because we drive 6-700 miles each way and usually a few hundred max off road on trips so any kind of M/T isn’t really necessary. I like the Continental LX25 but they are harder to find now.
I want to do the courtesy lightning kit, but it says it’s for 2017+ armada and 2018-19 QX80. I don’t know what changed on them.
I also want to explore skid plates and sliders. That’s what was vulnerable on the 2011.
Also I may play around with photoshop and see how an Armada ARB bumper lines up on the QX. I’d love one of those especially since we already killed one with a deer.
This is a mild wheeler at best.
4wd, cooled and heated seats, HBMC, basically every option. Bucket seats are a meh but the wife likes them in the back vs the bench we had on the 2011.
My goal is a mom mobile that can handle fire roads and mild trails. 4 kids means no removing third row. So hitch carrier or roof rack is the way we will go.
So far I’ve been catching up on maintenance.
Oil changed to Castrol syntec 5w30 and a K&N HP-4001 oil filter. It’s easily 2.5x the factory size. I was on the fence about the new 0w20 spec and the 2011 seemed to run so much better on 5w30 vs 0w20 I just went 5w30.
Transmission serviced via the manual using 11qts of Idemitsu Type S. This fluid is the same as Nissan Matic S because Idemitsu makes it for Nissan.
Transfercase serviced with 2qts of Triax DTF-1 (Shell TF0870 spec same as OE Nissan fluid)
Wife complained about the lack of lighting in the 2011 so I went ahead and got a bunch of Sylvania Zevo 168 LED bulbs for the ceiling lights and door puddle lights. Big improvement. Almost too bright. I also put them in the license plate lights too. I used Oxilam 912/921 LED for the rear turn signals too. They have built in resisters so no hyper flash and look like they belong in there.
To do:
Spark plugs
Differential oil and chase down a slight gear whine
Moog 81085 and 1” spacers. I have the spacers but no springs yet
New tires for the 22” wheels. Likely 285/45R22
I have 18” armada wheels and tires also but I want to upgrade those tires too. Not sure what I want to do because we drive 6-700 miles each way and usually a few hundred max off road on trips so any kind of M/T isn’t really necessary. I like the Continental LX25 but they are harder to find now.
I want to do the courtesy lightning kit, but it says it’s for 2017+ armada and 2018-19 QX80. I don’t know what changed on them.
I also want to explore skid plates and sliders. That’s what was vulnerable on the 2011.
Also I may play around with photoshop and see how an Armada ARB bumper lines up on the QX. I’d love one of those especially since we already killed one with a deer.
This is a mild wheeler at best.
