Hey all, I am new to this site, so I'll give a little info. on my car. I have a silver 1987 Nissan Maxima sedan with 220,000 miles on it which was bought new by my parents in 1987. It was my first car in high school and has since worked its way around family and back to me once again. However, it is not the pristine car it was when I last drove it at 170,000 miles. Now the problem I have is this horrible popping and grinding noise coming from underneath the car when I turn the wheels left or right at low speeds. I had the rack and pinion replaced, and the tie-end rods, so to my enjoyment the car handled beautifully, but the noise is still there. Any suggestions on what the noise could be? Thank you for your help

 

CV joint?

if that's the case, it's usually easier and better to just replace the whole halfshaft. most stores might carry your halfshaft and give you a lifetime warranty with it (i.e. AZ) where just the joint is a special order part.

my blazer does that, usually in 4H when I'm stopped. there's a horrible resistance when I steer and when I crank the wheel, it's a painstaking thump and popping. it also grinds and jumps when I shift from 4H to 2H.

but I'd have that checked into, possibly a ball joint. I dunno, I'm not a front end expert.

Dan

 

This will likely be the CV joints...usually, bad ball-joints will make the noise most of the time, regardless of speed. It could also be the problem I have - a bad strut mount...

 

As for the bad strut mount, my uncle who was driving the car just before I got it replaced all four struts, and it was making the sound for him long before that, so I don't know if replacing the struts would have or should have cured the noise if the problem was a bad strut mount.

 

well, in my case, BEFORE I hit a pipe and tore out my driver side control arm and half of my tranny, the mount itself was good, but the bearing in it was shot...and this contributed to a lot of noise...right now, after hitting the pipe, the strut rod has pushed completely through the mount...

But I'd strongly suggest checking the CV shafts...it's sad, but the shafts are actually a little cheaper, at least here locally, then the strut mounts are...and are about the same amount of labor to change, for all purposes...