smash

I got a 98 max for a while and it has been great. Now its making weird suspension noises. I did both front axles about 2 years ago and sway bar bushings with ES poly about 5 years ago. Its now at 129k

When I go over bumps i have a squeak on the pass side. Very annoying, hard to make happen when the car isn't moving. So i cant listen for it. As time went on it now is on the driver side as well. Not as loud or consistent as the pass but its there, similiar noises. I was thinking it was strut tower bearings but i'm not 100%. Does it sound like it could be? What esle could it be?


My 2nd issue i found when looking into my squeak noise. I jack up the pass side wheel, and i can feel the tire wobble a bit at the 3 and 9 and at the 12 and 6 . I spoke to a couple people and they told me it was the wheel bearing. When i took everything off to get my bearing pressed, i noticed the hub was just a hair wobbly. Got the new bearing in and it was solid, installed it and drove around for 10 minutes. Came back and it still wobbles. I'm thinking maybe bad bearing, ( i got timken) and 2 new seals put in.

Both ball joints and tie rods boots were NOT broken. Everything came off pretty clean minus the rust of course. When i grab the tie rod to move it, it moves with some resistant but i can make a metal hitting metal noise on both sides, does that mean they are shot and could be the cause of my wheel wobble? Steering from the wheel is tight and not loose or wobbly.


EDIT:
So i had some time today to play with it. With the car in the air, i can get play at 3/9 and 12/6. I looked to see what was moving, since i thought it was arm bushing, i mainly looked into that. Nothing was moving. It was the axle, moving. I put a pry bar between the stud of the ball joint and bottom of the axle and instantly the play/wobble is gone. So i know its something there. Ruled out the tierod and control arm for now. I'll get those replaced later on.

I just replaced the wheel bearing, but not the hub. Could the hub cause this play? Seems to have enough wobble/play to be just about .5-1.0cm. I made sure the axle nut was tighten. It was and i re tighten it again. It seems to have more wobble then before.

Seems like my issue is either wheel hub, wheel bearing or axle.

TheMaxima

I'm new here but make sure your lower control arm bushings are ok and intact...that might be causing the wobble and squeak..i had just replaced my max bushings because of a front end squeak

Kico

smash a bad tie rod could be your symptom for the 3 & 9 wobble and a bad ball joint would explain the wobble at the 12 & 6 and from what you explained I would replace them and add grease fittings to them and grease them now and again and they will last longer with no wobble or squeak.

BenL

Have to agree. I usually check the joints with the wheel off by pulling on the knuckle hard while watching the joints, any visible play in the joint itself is bad.

smash

how is doing the lower control arm on these cars? It was a LOT of rust when i did the wheel bearing and took longer then normal

I think i could start with tie rods since they are cheap.

BenL

Control arms aren't too difficult (a few extra steps beyond taking the spindle out)... brute force (or air tools) is really all that's required (I had to use a breaker bar AND a pipe to get mine out thanks to rust) and if the 'serviceable pin' doesn't come out of the bushing sleeve it can be a royal pain (good idea to have a couple handy in case of this, especially if you have no other transportation available). I will say this though, if you do the control arms it's absolutely necessary that you have a torque wrench capable of >100lb-ft torque handy, you don't wanna go guessing on torque and have it strip the threads or have bolts fall out on you while driving down the road.

As always take all safety precautions possible, and keep track of where every last bolt went.

smash

yes reading around this looks like a pan in the butt.

would there be any other parts that could be a result of the wheel wobble once i tackle he control arm. tie rod end and the wheel bearing?

it looks like 3 bolts on the silver pin and then 2 more large bolts. which ones need to be torqued?

smash

what are the good brands for these arms? ebay has them on the cheap but i think they are easily broken.

larso1

Are you certain the wheel is not bent? If everything else is tight.....

BenL

There are 3 bolts on the serviceable pin (silver pin) and 3 bolts on the back of the control arm (1 short + 2 long) holding a plate which presses on the bushing to wedge it, and of course the nut on the serviceable pin, all of these need to be torqued to 87-108 ft-lb torque per FSM (FA-21, I just set the torque wrench to 100 ft-lb when I did mine and went to town).

I used mevotech personally (www.rockauto.com), no complaints as of yet.
I personally avoid ebay for major components, even if only for peace of mind... don't exactly want to be the person to find a big problem with a major component if you know what I mean.

A good point, be sure that you're certain of the cause before spending a lot of money on something that shows similar symptoms.

smash

Does not come into play. My wheel wobbles when jacked up. A bent wheel doesn't do too much when not rolling. But it isn't bent. Ive driven on bent wheels and thats not the problem. When rolling i get a squeak noises, but everything seems tighten and smooth. When jacked up, i can wobble the right front wheel only.



A couple people are saying no to mevotech and dorman because they are unknown and most likely taiwanese companys that aren't much better then ebay items. Ive been on here searching for a mevotech failure, while some say they are junk no one really posted up a failure. I found the thread where someone say it was defective but it was because the new one didn't have a pivot pin. So it wasn't exactly bad, the guy just didn't know.

Looking at raybesto, Deeza and mevotech.

eddie982

iTrader: (10)

Dorman appears to be an American company http://www.dormanproducts.com/default.aspx, and their control arms come with a limited lifetime warranty. I can't imagine them to be that bad if they're offering that.

asand1

iTrader: (1)

ES bushings require grease. I guarantee after two years its time for lube.

asand1

iTrader: (1)

Just read the whole post. Ball joints and tie rods are in order. Timken are about the best bearings out there.

smash

pretty much why i went with them. Plus i'm about 80-90% sure they are OEM vendors for the maxima as well.

trying to do research on mevotech

smash

I edited my top post but here is what i found.


So i had some time today to play with it. With the car in the air, i can get play at 3/9 and 12/6. I looked to see what was moving, since i thought it was arm bushing, i mainly looked into that. Nothing was moving. It was the axle, moving. I put a pry bar between the stud of the ball joint and bottom of the axle and instantly the play/wobble is gone. So i know its something there. Ruled out the tierod and control arm for now. I'll get those replaced later on.

I just replaced the wheel bearing, but not the hub. Could the hub cause this play? Seems to have enough wobble/play to be just about .5-1.0cm. I made sure the axle nut was tighten. It was and i re tighten it again. It seems to have more wobble then before.

Seems like my issue is either wheel hub, wheel bearing or axle.

RobMaxima04

try looking at the bearing first

MaxiTan

I hate to hijack the thread or anything, but this might pertain to the subject matter. I have a similar problem with my 1997 Maxima. When I brake or even slow down through engine braking the wheel will wobble and the entire front end will shake. I can't figure out whether it's the front left or front right wheel doing it, but I can sometimes correct the issue with a little jerk of the wheel.