It seems getting worse. sounds like something from directly behind the audio control panel got loose. When the road is very bumpy, the noise is like "duh.duh.duh...". When the road is bad, the noise is amplified and becomes clunk. The noise is not the squeaky noise from the panel (I had heard those). What's behind the audio control panel?
Appreciate any suggestion/help. Thanks.

 

Any ideas?

 

Is there a writeup on how to take out the center console?

 

This might have very little merit, but just wanna put the fix here for others who have the same problem. After tons of searches, I found a old post dated back in 2001 in which the guy had the same noise "seemingly" from behind the center console and turned out to be some bent heat shield for the exhaust. For me, it was the rust-off metal parts on the two rubber hangers for the cat underneath the center console position. They click clunk the bottom of the car making it sound like it's from behind the console. So if you hear similar noise, be sure to check if the exhaust parts are making the noise rather than something "behind" the center console. It sure can be deceiving.

 

this is the weirdest example of a thread that solved itself, dude i congratulate u on helping urself solve ur problem by searching a 2001 y. thread, u r the only one that contributed to ur own thread, U OWN THIS THREAD !!!!

 

This http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....=58751&t=29245 is the post that helped me. He did take out his center console and found nothing. Thanks to him, I didn't have to.

 

Good job on finding the problem yourself!!!! sounds like that irritate the heck outta me and i dont rest untill i find out what it is.