I am getting a weird noise coming from the passanger side suspension. It is a popping noise, almost sounds like something is about to fall off. Anyone have any clue to fix this?

 

You need to be more specific. What suspension are you running?

 

I am running the OEM suspension. I was previously running Eibach springs and swapped back to the OEM's. I checked and looked if everything was tight, all the bolts are in place. The noise is a poping noise; it seems that it makes the noise when the shocks are compressing over a bump.

Sorry for the short post last time, I was in a hurry.

 

i had a popping sound coming from my right front strut and nissan replaced it for free. the noise went away until it started up on the other side so they replaced that strut for free. all the noise went away then i replaced them with gr-2 and have not looked back. edit-the noise only showed up when i turned to lock at a low speed like turning into a parking spot but it would pop on the opposite side i turned to.

 

noises while turning may be because of a bad strut bearing... the small plastic piece that the strut body travels on when turning... If that thing is bad, the whole strut/spring assembly may not be rotating freely and causing those noises...

 

Mine's been making that same noise since I installed Illuminas on stock springs last week... every so often when landing on the front suspension kinda hard, I get a hollow "pop" noise from the front passenger area, especially when the front end lands off a speed bump. I think the front passenger side strut I did in a hurry, but I remember making sure everything was aligned (strut bearing, bushings, etc)
I hear this while turning or going straight... I've heard it while cutting into a left turn quickly (when the front right spring compresses), and it happens all the time when the front-end lands after going over a speed bump.

 

Also note that the noise didn't start up until a few days after the install... almost as if the condition has developed and is worsening over time.

 

Same situation here....

 

Same here, but it only happens to me when it rains.

 

Fixed my problem. The nut on top of the strut was loose, so I torqued it down. I guess I should have checked that after Carquest put the fronts back together.

 

Why are you giving advice on something you know nothing about......?

 

Sprillis and 2k2nyc - do this: With your car parked, bounce you car up and down on the passenger side. I could hear the noise this way and it made it easy to hunt down the source. In my case, the end of the bottom of the spring was scraping against the perch. I reseated the spring away from the edge of the perch just a bit and made sure the isolator was placed properly. No more noise.

 

I had what sounds like the same thing....turned out the strut was bad, replaced under warranty....you probaly will not be able to reproduce the sound by bouncing the car, and there is no visual sign that the strut was bad...but have the dealer replace the strut under warrany and you should be set.

 

I hope my Illumina isn't bad... not exactly wanting to go through the process of having it replaced and having another alignment done

What's the torque spec for the top nut? (IN FOOT-POUNDS, NOT NEWTON-METERS...)

I'll have to inspect the spring's perch; that is a plausible explanation, although I went through some effort to ensure the spring was seated properly, it could be too close to the perch...

 

Let me know if you find anything. Even though I resolved the ugly noise coming from the bottom of the spring, I still have an issue with something sounding loose on the front passenger's side. I've checked everything I can think of:
1. Bolts are torqued to spec
2. Spring is seated properly
3. Top is facing out on the tophat
4. Strut bearing is in good condition
5. Can't be a wheel bearing since it goes away when I put on OEM strut

This loose sound on the passenger side has been ongoing since I installed the Illuminas. If this passenger side sound is happening to many Illumina owners I'm getting concerned. I'm growing confident the issue may be the strut itself since the loose sound went away when I swapped back to OEM and came right back when I reinstalled the Illuminas.

Let me know if you guys have any other ideas.

 

Check you Illumina documentation - If I remember right it's really low: 10ft lbs.

 

I have th HP Tokicos w/ the same problem

 

Huh, the fronts I used 50 ft/lbs, rears I did it by hand kinda estimating based on how compressed the bushing looked (they said something about 7-10 ft/lbs for shocks of a certain type, I figured that applied here...)

I'll try retorquing these to 10 ft/lbs after raising the car a little bit to decompress the bushing...

 

50?! Ouch, I remember the Illumina documentation warns against overtorquing the top hat bolt. They said it can damage the "sensitive adjustment mechanism" Hope no damage has been done. Lemme know.

 

Hrmm. Something just doesn't sound right about that. The adjustment piece in the middle shouldn't be affected by the clamping force between the top hat and the top threading--the adjuster goes down the center of the rod.

If anything, I'm worried that I've permanently cracked the rubber bushings, and will have to replace them sometime soon.

 

What rubber bushings are you referring to?

 

Maybe it's the strut bearing I'm referring to... when you tighten the top hat nut on the front struts, you have to be compressing *something*

 

Actually, forget about that--the proper torque spec for the front struts' top hat nut IS 44-65 ft/lbs (looking at a parts explosion diagram from the shop manual through alldatadiy.com)

Exact specs are 59-88 (6.0-9.0, 44-65) which is represented as Nm (kg*m, ft/lbs)

Also, for the rears the top hat nut is 20-24 (2.0-2.5, 15-18) so 15-18 ft/lbs...

While I'm on a roll, here's the torque specs for the strut tower nuts--

Front: 32-38 ft/lbs
Rear: 18-25 ft/lbs

I did my fronts to ~35 ft/lbs, and the rears kinda "by-hand" using a ratchet

 

Also, there's a TSB for noise from the right front suspension, Reference# NTB00-030, Classification FA00-003

APPLIED VEHICLE:
2000 Maxima (A33)
Service procedures call for the following:
1. Add 1 washer to bolt head which supports the Power Steering switch. There are 2 of them, and the PS switch is very close to the right-front strut tower nuts.
2. Remove the right-front strut assembly, remove the spring, remove the rubber lower spring protector (rubber collar), and put a bead-width amount of 3M Scotch-Grip Rubber and Gasket Adhesive to the center/inside of the spring protector
3. Reinstall the rubber spring protector leaving about 1/4" overlap off the tip of the spring. Reinstall the spring/strut back onto the car.

I'd probably advise anyone who changes springs/struts to use that 3M Scotch-Grip stuff on all the spring protectors on all the springs, overlapping it by 1/4". Call this a new "standard procedure"

I'd bet that this is my problem, since I never noticed this problem with the old struts (therefore I doubt it's the PS switch banging against the strut tower nuts...)

 

Err, whoops, erroneous analysis -- the Power Steering switch bolt problem is that the LOWER part of the bolts are banging against the upper spring seat, which could be my problem... the washers raise the bolts up a little so there's more clearance under the strut tower. So this could be my problem, in addition to the spring (I'll have to see if my spring protector is exposed a little, and if it's not, I'll try the power steering bolt washer method)

 

Had now have again same issue. First time problem was not enough lubrication between the rubber part that threads on the spring and bearing. coilovers a little different but some lithium grease solved the prob for about 5 months, back to the drawing board once it stops raining and warms back up.

 

Actually, my 2k3 came with the scotch-grip crud on the isolator. And yes, I would recommend putting it on the isolator for aftermarket springs. Mine shifted and caused noise without this.

 

Mine's definitely not the power steering switch, as I've shimmed the bolts with a couple washers (2 of them per bolt, after that the bolt won't catch its threads...) and it still makes this noise.

Looks like I'll have to buy some of this scotch-grip crap and pull apart the front right strut...
At least the noise isn't that much of a pain for now... it only happens when I hit the front right suspension hard, and even then the noise is similar to going over some bumps, which I can't hear with the stereo up anyway
This'll probably be a 1-2 week from now kinda job...