What can cause my Max to have a noisy ride? I rode in my Moms Avalon and my Sis in Laws Accord and the ride was smooth and quiet. But when I get in my Max the ride is noisy, feels kinda wobly, and feel every bump in the road. What could be causing this?

 

Nissan build quality
Can't you tell it's much superior to Toyota

 

INDEED

 

Oh man, read some more posts and you will find out that noise is a big problem prone to 4th gens!!!! Rattling, paint, all around build quality. I can go on and on and on.........

Sweetsound says we have "Minimas" not Maximas.

 

the avalon, accord and our Maxes are three considerably different cars. the tires can also add to your "noisy ride". changes in road surfaces are pretty evident in these cars. of course, some tires are noisier than others. i'm not sure about your "wobbly" feeling (mine feels pretty tight). also, like others said, there are lots of rattles, though, i've quieted most of mine.

 

Noise? Am I the only one here who's car rides almost silent inside? I don't have any squeaks or rattles.

 

lucky you. even my third brake light casing started to rattle the other morning. my '95 has stock gxe struts/springs and i live in a rural area so the roads are relatively free of potholes.

 

That's like getting in a Diablo and complaining that its engine sounds louder than the Maximas. I don't know what kind of Maxima you have, but if its an SE with stiff suspension, and 16" (or larger) V rated tires, its going to sound louder than a toyota/honda with soupy suspension and 15" P rated tires. The Maxima is still much quieter than any American car...

 

my car is relatively free of rattling noises. Wind noise is a little high, but whatever, I can live with it.

My wind deflector on my sunroof had a problem once, though. I was racing someone down a 3 lane highway with no cars on it, and when I hit ~110 mph, one side of the wind deflector came loose, and the wind was vibrating it up and down very qickly, like 60 hz or more. It was extremely loud, and i thought the car was going to explode...

It was easy to fix though, and I have not had any problems at 115+mph since then.

 

man, you drive fast, but then again texas is a big state. i've gone 80mph a couple of times (wow, huh?).

 

well, yea, i do drive to fast, but not on a regualar basis. I have on broken 100 3 times in my car. we do have quite a few straight roads. This was on southwest parkway, which has some curves on it, but I was on one of the straighaways.

Ever since I got my radar detector, I have been speeding much less, because it goes off so much, and I never can find the cop when it goes off. I still accelarate at WOT overy so often....

 

Somehow, I feel the same issue with my car.
I have no ratling or that kind of things.
It just the road and wind noise that louder that I expected from this car.
Even my friend's 2001 VW GTI and 94 bmw 325 is more quiet that my maxima in term of road noise.
Its even worse when it rain, I can actually hear the water splashing to my front fender all the way.....
I never really sit on the back of the car.... but my friend said that its even worse on the back.... you can really hear the water from the wheel.....

Is there anyway to reduce it?

FYI, my car has Toyo all season tires on it (205/15/60).

It just feels funny driving a luxury/sport sedan in the rain and you have to talk loud when u drive in rain.....

 

You can always try handling mods if ya dont like the way it rides. Front strut bar, rear sway bar, and struts and have a big impact on the ride feel of your car.

SuDZ

 

If you think that's bad, Try drivin in the rain with 18"s. Talk about loud in the back!!!

 

You can try some of the asphalt undercoating in the wheel wells. Should help with water noise in the wheel wells, and makes them look new again. About $3.00 a can at AutoZone. My only complaints are wind noise from the sunroof's wind deflector and tire noise, but I can live with those.

 

i never noticed any rattling or poor ride quality till i lowered my car. new tires and an alignment later it feels a little better. now all i need is those kyb's...

 

How do you apply that? can you just spray it to the fender with the tires on it? or you have to take off all tires??

 

The more I drive it on freeway.... the more i can feel it!!!!
This car is so noisy~!!!!
it's even noiser than my 96 GTI w/ 18 inch!!! I mean... ROAD NOISE!!
Anything I can do to reduce that? or is every maxima like that?

 

that is scary as hell when you dont know what it is.

 

Sometimes if my car is in park and im sitting in it while the engine is running I will attempt to start it as I can never tell if my engine is running. It is really quiet.

 

Its because Nissan sux especially in the 95-99 years and they dont know how to build good cars with good resale. Go figure why Honda and Toyota outsold nissan which was on the brink of bankruptcy. This car remains my first/last/only nissan.

 

Use it like spray paint. You can tape things if you want, but I didn't. Just be careful.

 

keep in mind that doing this will add some wieght to the car, slowing it down

 

tried it, I just started with 1 can... I might probably need more....
what do you think?
I haven't test it on freeway...

 

I think nissan got cheap making 4th gen. one of my friends has a 93 maxima se automagic and when i am sitting in the car while its ideling, i cant even feel if the car is on or not. It is so much quiter than my 95 gle and rattles lot less then mine does. WHen i drive around and hit small potholes my dash rattle like hell and also too much road noise on freeway.. i guess we ll just have to live with it.....

 

I agree with your assessment. THe older generation maximers seem to have better build quality. MY neighbor has a 89 Maxima with about 150K miles on it. He uses it as his beater car going to and from work. He drives through tons of potholes he tells me, etc. Here is the thing that I noticed between our two cars. His paint is better, even though this guy is lazy as hell and NEVER washes his car--most likely once a year after the winter, and his paint is in fantastic condition. His engine is also quieter when it idles compared to my 97 GLE. I noticed the engine in the 4th generation got a little louder (idling) than the previous generations'. Those engines in the earlier generation were so quiet...and lastly the road/wind noise...I have been his car a few times and I have noticed the quality of the leather and the plastic used is superior to the ones in mine.
anyway, long story short and to the point. Nissan doesn't build cars like they use to... it is sad to me, but what can you do...

 

Man, something must be wrong with yours. Me and my bro's car are comfortably smooth and fast. The only noise I hear is my intake when dirving hard otherwise I don't even hear it!

 

This has been the most disappointing thing about my Maxima. It's super fast, super reliable and looks great. And I can toast my friends whenever I want. But the amount of rattles has become annoying and even embarrasing.

I have an 99 SE with the Bose stereo. Has anyone else had problems with the speakers rattling? Every little bump in the road causes them to make annoying clicking sounds. Especially the tweeters on the front doors.

And I've had a few problems with the sunroof cover, as well as some noise around the back bumper-- maybe it's the spoiler? It's hard to tell what's rattling when you're driving.

My 86 Chevy Nova with 190k miles didn't rattle this much.

Anyone have any ideas on how to help reduce some of these noises?

 

turn up the stereo..
i don't notice much rattling sound on my car, only things i hear is some of the stuff bouncing around in my trunk, and the spare change in the cups holders. but on the other hand i also have a 1988 camry with 200,000 miles on it and the enigine is quieter than the max.

 

My car is still super quiet. I've got Intrax springs, KYB/Koni, FSTB, 16" K1s and V-rated 215/55s and my car is very quiet on the highway and around town. My wifes 98 Legacy GT wagon has more rattles and road noise than my 96 Max. At idle, the Scubby vibrates the car slightly. You can't feel a thing with my Max. Remember that automatics do virbate slightly at idle simply because the car is in gear. In a manual, the tranny is disengaged from the motor at a stop therefore creating little vibration, if any. This is by far the quietest and best built car I've ever owned (86 Accord, 90 CRX Si, 94 Z28, 94 Altima, 97 Altima, 98 Legacy GT).


Dave