Are 1999 Altima suspension parts interchangeable with the 2000 Altima GXE?

[wakeskater17]

If you don't feel like reading the backstory skip to the last two paragraphs of this post for what I actually need.

I have a 2000 Nissan Altima GXE with a manual transmission. I just bought the Altima in July 2011 and it has 201xxx miles. It has treated me well so far. Anyways, I crashed into a curb on my way home from the gym the other night going about 20-25mph. There was about 2 inches of snow on the ground and my brakes suddenly went out, or I hit a patch of black ice, I'm still not sure. I'm an above average driver in bad weather conditions (I've actually even trained a few friends on how to stop by pumping, maintaining control of the car by countersteering, and many other techniques). I tried pumping, fully pressing them, everything, and when that didn't work I tried strategically accelerating to get out of the slide. Nothing worked, so when I realized a crash was inevitable I made the decision to hit the curb sideways, otherwise I would jump the curb and hit the tree right in front of it, or I would hit one of the parked cars. Luckily I was in my own neighborhood so when I hit I was able to get it parked with my brother's help and walk home.

This was my first crash/scrape/anything that would damage a car ever, and I been driving 8 years total. 6 of those years I've driven almost every single day. Well at least I can say I've still never been pulled over haha.

Anyways, when I hit the curb the front drivers side wheel hit and bent the control arm very badly, sway bar end link broke, and I don't know if the drive axle or front strut are bad yet until I take it apart.

I was going to try to replace the left front suspension all in one piece because that would probably be cheaper than buying it all separate. I will also probably do it all myself because my dad was saying a shop would charge around $1500+.

The point of this whole post is that I found a 1999 Nissan Altima that's being parted out cheaply, and I'm wondering if the parts are interchangeable with my 2000 Altima. Also, does anyone have an exploded view of the front suspension (i think, im not very car savvy but my dad is) assembly?

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you.

[BeeCee]

It's all interchangable. 98-01 is all the same shit for the most part.


The strut/spring assembly's on 00-01 are a tad bit lower then 98-99's, is really the only difference.



Make sure the 99 is a manual tho, automatics and manual's have 2 different axles.

[lifeofbean]

Exploded views here

You'll need to swap your spring and strut over (use a spring compressor unless you like losing parts of your face), otherwise that side may sit a little high. If the 99 is automatic, you'll need to re-use your CV joint/axle (the hub is the same though). As long as it wasn't driven much, the axle and cv joints should be fine. If one of the boots is split, replace the axle.

If the transmission is leaking around the axle, now's a good time to get a new axle seal - it can be (carefully) pried out once the axle is out, and a block of wood and a mallet will get the new one in. And it will dump out a lot more oil than you're expecting when you pop the axle out. You'll need a prybar to get it out of the transmission, don't try to yank it by the axle unless you like destroying CV joints.

Black ice is a bitch, I did pretty much the exact same thing about 10 years ago, with pretty much identical damage to my old Civic.

Get a new wheel too, it's more than likely bent to hell. Discount Tire has steel wheels for about $55, and can swap/balance the tire for about $10. Add sales tax.