I have noticed a low rattling noise from the front right wheel or suspension since installed my Illumina/Progress combo a few weeks back. It almost sounds like the wheel or the strut is loose and moving just a little as I drive but I've checked all bolts/lugs more than once and found everything plenty tight.

A friend suggested it could be the strut bearing. I'm not sure what this part is or how to confirm it's failure.

Any other ideas what might be causing this noise?? Thanks in advance guys!

i had a very similar problem from the same side...rattling and also vibrations..im lowered and took it to dealer and they fixed it under warranty. twice. sound came back twice and they changed the WHEEL BEARING. have it checked out

i have the same problem from the same side. some time it feels like the wheel is loose and a rattling sound is made when i hit a bump........

woah, thanks for the quick response! That's exactly what I expected it to be. I just swapped out my girlfriends Pontiacs hub bearing assembly which was bad and making similar noises. So I assume you put the OEM suspension back on before visiting the dealer?

Does anyone know the part numbers needed if I were to do this myself?

I swear i've been hearing the same noise, most notable on
speed bumps, when car makes side to side motion.
I have 22K miles now, sounds like a trip to the dealer.

and i thought i was the only one..

I had strange noise coming from my passenger side
wheel....like a wobbling sound while in motion....more prominent under slower speeds.....my Nissan service dept replaced wheel bearing/hub assembly under warranty...

seems to be a common 5th gen prob...

I too had the same problem. For me it turns out that eibach springs I have were a little loose in the strut. After jacking the car up I just rotated the spring counter clock wise, backing it away from the lower stop mark on strut about a inch and a half. No more rattling over bumps.

Thanks for the input on another idea, but this doesn't seem to be what's happening in my case - my springs are seated in the same spot on the perch on both side but the sound is only occuring on the passenger side.

could this be caused by the strut bearing??

I just had both my front bearings replaced on my 2001 with 47K miles. Everyone tells me the car is too new and very low miles to be having problems with bearings already.

It would be the strut bearing if you heard grinding sounds when turning the wheel left or right. I changed my recently, but without success in locating the same/similar noise. fyi..The bearing is plastic .. i'll get a pix when i get a chance.

Hmm.. i get a sqeaking noise from my front passenger side whenever I go over speedbumps at an angle.

I thought I was the only one with that squeaky noise over speed bumps .... what in the world could that be.... I have 2003 SE with 8K miles on it only ....please help

Same here -- creaky spring sound in front passenger side when traversing bumps turning left.
Come to think of it -- i've had clicking sounds on full-lock left handers since DAY 1!!

I'm assuming it's just "normal" spring sounds -- but it's got me wondering.

gr

I get a creaky noise in the front left wheel whenever I turn hard right at slower speeds. All it takes is the slightest bump. It is more of a nuisance than anything and it is starting to **** me off. I have had it looked at by two mechanics and both said it was the wheel stop and it's "normal" (I don't think so). One mechanic greased some steering mechanism and it stopped for about two hours. I looked on the Nissan website and found a recall for a Transverse Link - Does anyone know if this could be it?

Also, there has to be someone out there that knows what this creaking is and if it is covered by warranty? Please help so that I don't have to keep my radio on all the time.

Here is a link to the TSBs in our Stickies....

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=29351

Go down to the Transverse link part and see if your VIN is in there....

I get a "tapping" type of noise on the front right on progress/tokico blue setup - just started a month or 2 ago and seemed to get better for a moment when I replaced the front tires. I thought it was the wheel about to fall off! Almost sounds like it may be a little higher in the suspension rather than the wheel bearing, but with all of the descriptions here and on the survey post, I think that may be it. I'm going to first try the spring isolator, which is what I'm hoping for, then try turning the spring, which is my second hope. Then I guess it will probably be the bearings because as my luck has it, it's the most expensive. Thanks to the Org for once again helping me diagnose a problem...

I have the same issue. Had it when I had my coilovers as well. I bet it's a sway bar bushing or something Obscure like that.

shortly after i bought my 02 max i started to hear a lose sound from the front end, after looking the thing over at considerable length i found the problem, the sway bar was not connect, no one had disconnected it, i believe that the nuts just got lose and back all the way off, i ended up haveing to buy new links because the olds where beat up to much to reuse.

I also have this problem... although I'm not sure if it's the wheel bearing yet. It sounds like some pipe beneath my car is loose and a nut just needs to be tightened for the sound to go away.

If it’s the wheel bearings then it’s pretty serious. The wheel bearings on most newer vehicles are sealed and do not require any maintenance. A bad wheel bearing will typically make grinding, whining or squealing noises, and you can often feel the looseness or roughness if you raise the suspension and rotate the wheel by hand. Worn wheel bearings should be replaced, because failure may cause the wheel to come off the vehicle.

How much would it cost to replace the wheel bearings?

Is the "sway bar" you're refering to also known as the "stabilizer bar"? The "stabilizer bar" is a bar that joins the front two tires and sits in the middle of the car. Theres 4 bolts on each side that hold it in place. 2 for the "stabilizer clamp" and 2 for the body. But if this bar was loose there should be severe drop in steering performance and I haven't noticed that.

I have the same clunking noise, Vogtland Springs.. OEM struts, thought it could be the struts, but since most of you have aftermarket struts I would rather think it's something else causing the clunking... Hopefully someone finds the solution that seems to fit my problems. Love the look of the drop, just can't stand that noise!

Ditto on the same noise from the right side. Its deff. the wheel bearing though but its under warranty so back to the ol stealership I guess.

I had both of my wheel bearings replaced about 6 weeks ago. I did not change out the suspension prior to taking the car in for repairs and it was covered under my extended warranty (along with a damaged driver's side hub assembly). I don't see why you would need to change back to your OEM setup.

steering response improved after I put the new links on, and it accually is called a sway bar according to nissan since that is the term they used to order the new links. shortly after installing them i heard the clunk again, anytime the suspension was contorted in odd ways (such as hitting a speed bumb at an angle) check the links again and they were tight, so i took it to me local mechanic he looked and took out a small pry bar and sure enough when you put pressure on the link it moved, so we torqued the nuts until we could not get then any tighter without break, never had the issue since. so the "sway bar" is worth looking at before you start throwing money at your max

This thread was started some time ago - I myself even posted-up with this issue.
I believe the most common cause of this problem (according to many other threads) is the sway bar busings, or end links, or whatever other people have been calling them.
The seem to wear permaturely on our vehicles regardless of age, mileage, or susp. upgrades.
I haven't changed mine yet, but it's on the list of to do's.

Agreed with 3xsholoser.....b4 you start throwing stupid money at your Max for wheel bearings and new struts - replace these for about $15 ea., and go from there.

gr

I had that same noise and I thought it was my struts but it turned out to be my link pins that hold my front sway bar in. If they are gone you can wiggle the sway bar by hand or with a small pry bar. $140 to fix them as apposed to 400-500 for just new struts and shocks. Check it out.

Does anyone have a pic of the sway/link ends so I can see where exactly they are???

I say it might be strut related, or swaybar related.

GOOD LUCK!

I don't hear any rattling on my car but just today i heard some sqeaking sounds, pretty faint, i thought it was the saturn in front of me because i never heard this sound before heh, but i turned off the radio rolled down the window when i wasn't near the saturn anymore and it doesn't happen all the time nor on every bump, but when i was going over some bumps slowly on a crappy road that made my car sway side to side just a little bit, since i don't have much body roll with the suspension but thats the basic idea of when i heard it, but in traffic moving slowly on the highway i heard nothing, very odd, wondering if it'll get more noticalbe over time.

I posted on this a while back. 43K later, still no more clunk... (:knocks-on-wood

http://f.maxima.org/showthread.php?p...03#post3435703

Basically, sway bar end links. They are at the very end of the sway bar, close to the tire. Sorry, no pics . A word of warning. Mine had to be cut off with a blue tipped wrench (the old cutting torch).

I have some similar problem. Not grinding for sure. It's only apparent when i step on the gas moderately hard - doesn't really do it when im off gas - doesn't really do it when i'm WOT.

It's like (one of those new years ratchet noise makers except much lower in tone bass wise)

This was after I was slammed with my Ksports.

Bearing?

Just to agree with BARC, my sway bar link pins had to be cut off with a torch as well.

For those of you that replaced the end links, where did you buy them from? Dealer? Aftermarket?
Thanks.....

This is an incredibly old thread but I guess it's back on.

I had my front sway bar links replaced because I had a loose noise coming from my front wheels. The strut is also blown and I'm wondering if the blown strut caused the links to fail since I'm hearing the sound once again.

I found my noise issues were resolved when I swapped back to stock struts and H&R's on the front only. I'm guessing the lower drop on the Progress caused might have had something to do w/ it - perhaps the links were strained or bound up a bit with the different angles caused by a significantly lower suspension (my Progress springs seemed to sag further after a few months). But then again, not everyone reports noise. Nonetheless, it wasn't a strut or wheel bearing since all is quiet on my H&R/OEM setup.

Yeah I've also been getting a clunking noise from my front left wheel. I'm dropped on ksports, and I've checked my wheel bearings and they seem fine. So I guess I also have bad end link bushings too. I get the clunking noise when I go over pot holes, or even going slow over speed bumps.

I have noticed the same problem over the last year or so (I know I should have taken it more seriously right away). Anyway, it's gotten more noticable over bumps or speed bumps and making turns. I've got an '02 that is almost49 months old with 38k and I took it in while under warranty a few times with this complaint just to hear them tell me they couldn't reproduce the noise. About time I got on here - only took me a few minutes and I got more insight than from any mechanic/con-artist I've gone to. I'll have to take a look at these sway bar links.