vahmed

I have this noise like something is loose the dealer said its a bad strut mount so after few months I decided to lower my car and got tokiko illuminas and Tein H-Techs and while doing that I changed the strut mounts also. Now the noise still remains recently got the allignment done after the suspension job and I told the shop guys maybe its a bad cv they checked it out and said that the cv is fine and it seems like the sound is coming from the strurt and that they don't know for sure what it is. Can someone suggest how to diagnose this problem or a trust worthy repair shop in the nj area who wont rip me off. The noise is more when I wash the car or it rains (don't know whats the relation between water and noise) and also going over bumps.

Thanks for your help.

jbreit

Could be a ball joint, or tie rod....? If CV's are already rulled out....

Dealer mechanics as generally not your best bet.

tuff1

I had a noise when going over bumps like something was loose.
It turned out to be a loose y-pipe.

Cal0205

Yea i think my y-pipe is a bit loose. Everytime am at a stop sign, it rattles right under. Its Anonying! It gets louder if I have the AC/Heat fan on high.

tomservo291

Well, is it a popping? From when you hit a dip/hole/rough pavement or when turning...

I had this popping sound that by the time I found the culprit it sounded like my front end was about to fall off. Initially it only happened when turning, but became more pronounced as time progressed. Went to a few shops, all of them found nothing wrong with the suspension visually over the course of a few months, twice I was told that the only way they could find the problem is if they started replacing parts until the noise stopped...

So eventually I got a guy I know that's been a mechanic for 25 years (his old boss taught him how to fix parts that aren't broken rather then replace everything under the sun.. *cough* meineke/midas *hack*)

It took about 2 minutes after I pulled into his driveway before he found the problem, the right front stablizer link had a smidgen (VERY LITTLE) play in it. He was able to feel it as I rocked that corner of the car for him. Hit up the nissan dealership, $27 for the stablizer link, + 3 for each new washer, + 4 for each new bushing (probably could have gotten away with using old washers, nothing wrong with them...) = $41.

With his help it was changed within 15 minutes in his driveway.

Apparently this is something that goes wrong in a lot of cars and customers of shops usually end up replacing entire control arms or other assemblies and by chance are having this fixed simeltaneously and never knowing they got an entirely new suspension for no reason..

Something small that is bolted directly to something such as the control arm (like the stablizer link) can magnify the minute popping sound like a tuning fork and make it sound like your car is about to fall apart, so check out everything... not just the big stuff.