My FSM gives the torque for the M10 bolts that attach the ball joint to the control arm as 35-45 ft-lb. But as I was tightening past 30 the bolts that came with my ball joints (marked with a "10" on the head) started to pull apart. I tried again with some new 10.9 bolts that I have and even those feel like they're stretching. They feel kinda spongy instead of torquing up crisply. This is all with my wrench set below 35 ft-lbs; I checked that I was indeed using foot pounds.

What could I be doing wrong here? Any ideas?

Top bolt with the big crack is what came with the Moog ball joint; bottom bolt is my non-JIS 10.9 M10x1.25.

Edited December 7, 201312 yr by bacarl

Look at Post #18 here - Suspension Bolts - Inventory - Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis - HybridZ

Looks like there's a mistake in the FSM.

You'll need to convert Newton-meters to foot-lbs. Newton Meter Conversion Chart (Torque Units Converter, Metric)

Edited December 8, 201312 yr by Zed Head

I had the same problem. The FSM refers to the compression rod bolts. I could torque them down to spec with no problems, but the two bolts that hold the ball joint to the LCA can't be torque to 61-71Nm (45-50ft-lb). Mine didn't survive it anyway.

There was an old thread on our club site here (in dutch) about this problem and the conclusion (after consulting Nissan) was to torque these two bolts to the Nissan grade 7 spec. instead of the grade 9 like the two compression rod bolts. The grade 7 spec is 25-35Nm (18-25ft-lb).

That worked for me after fitting new (parts car) bolts.

Chas

Edited December 8, 201312 yr by EuroDat

Nice! Thanks a million, guys.

One correction to my earlier post, these bolts are M8's, not M10's. The TC rod bolts are M10.