I hit a pothole or large crack and my rear hits it hard and it makes a dredful noise. HUGE thud/clank!

i have a rear sway bar on progress.....

starting to worry me. Maybe the centerpost where the rear by is attached to the car?

Ideas? Thanks

Greg

 

blow the struts out?

 

sorry, forgot to mention. I tried that already. new ones installed. I thought that would fix it also but saddly it didnt.

Thanks.

Greg

 

so youve already looked at it?

can you duplicate the noise by bouncing the rear end?

if so, put it on a drive-on lift, or ramps and feel around for the noise while someone jounces the rear end.

 

no, only hard hits like when you go from low to high road when they are under construction. Could it be how the rear sway is installed?

Yea, jumping on it dosnt exert enough force fast enough...I think.

Greg

 

yes, you could have damaged the rear sway links, which would make a more pronounced sound when the bump is uneven.

could be a lot of things, unless you have a set of chassis ears, itll be tough... you might have someone put their hand on the upper strut just to eliminate that possibility, and maybe get a better idea of where its coming from.

 

First off, did you mean to state in your first message that you think you ran over a large pot hole or crack and that you think that may have caused the "bottoming rear suspension" problem or do you mean that when you go over these type of "bumps" is when you have the problem?

I have a '01 GLE that has had this problem since a year after I bought it new. There is a service bulletin on the car that includes your year. It states that if a dealer finds this complaint from an owner and the situation is varified, the dealer should replace the rear springs with Nissan's newer, upgraded springs. If under warranty, it will be done at no charge.

When I took my Max to the dealer and complained twice while under warranty, they did nothing. When I became a member of this forum, I found that this is a wide spread problem with at least the '00 & '01 Max's and also found the servive bulletin here. My car was out of warranty then and I called Nissan and complained. To make a longer story short, I purchased and replaced the springs myself (found how-to's here on the forum). Since the replacement it has been better. Not as good as it should be but better.

What's really happening is that when you go over those type of road defects (in my case with more then 165 lb. me in the car) the rear springs completely compress because they are a mis-design. The new springs are a little beefier but should be more still. I don't know if the SE springs are different but I haven't notice SE owners complaining. As for me, I love everything about the car (since I upgraded the front brakes) but still can't get past the poor rear suspension. I get very embarassed when driving with others and need to explain every time I hit a larger dip in the roadway and the rear suspension "bottoms". When the '07 models come out next year I'll be looking to replace it with an '06 Audi or BMW leftover. GOOD LUCK!

 

move the u-clamps on the sway bar out as far as possible....this is a well-known problem that is easily fixed....

 

No, you move inward. They should be ~4-5 inches away from the bend, don't ask me how I know this....

 

it happens when I hit them not because I hit one and then it started.

Like I said, I replaced shocks and springs and the same thing is happening. Once I get a free weekend again I will dig into this more I guess. Moving the U clamps and what not. Too bussy this weekend. wedding stuff and moving a friend. Ugh....again.

Thanks

Greg

 

better yet, if its quick and easy, take the sway bar out altogether...

and why would the problem start after hitting a hard bump... is that normal?

 

Wouldn't that make the u-brackets hit the lateral link? I'm guessing that's what's going on.

 

I say if the sway bar is the suspected cause, just take it off and drive around w/o it to see. I have the Progress too and its easy to install/uninstall. If you can determine that it is the RSB that is causing the sound, slap it back on and play around with the clamps on the trailing arm to see if there's a way to eliminate the "clunking". The brackets on the beam shouldn't make much of a difference if they're on right, so try the brackets on the trailing arm. I would think that the farther "in" (in as in towards the center of the car, towards the end of the bar) the brackets, the less likely you'll get the clunking.

Bear in mind that moving these brackets may change the handling characteristics of the car.

 

It may also depend on how far out your brackets are on the beam, because I remember that if you slide em too far out, there are some weird welds toward the outer ends of the beam that make the surface uneven and in my recollection, if your brackets are over those that will cause clunking too. FYI, here's how my brackets are positioned on the beam:



You can see that they're not all the way at the bends of the RSB, but like an inch or 2 inwards.

 

hey nice muffler

 

thanks for the pic. I will look into that.

I think it did start after that was installed.

Greg

 

The Progress RSB and I am sure other bars tell you how to position the brackets. And the position Puppet has them in is correct.

 

Thanks... now if my camera wasn't dead, I'd take some pics of the new one too...

I didn't have the instructions, just Jason's (Soonerfan's) experience with the positioning of those brackets and it works great for me... but yeah, check the instructions again...

 

HAHAHA....instructions.

Greg

 

Yaaa, finally had time to work on this and moving the brackets fixed it.

Greg

 

Bottom of the page:

http://www.moodym.com/maxima/tech/addcorsb.html

 

My 03 isn't bottoming but the rear springs are not as stiff as my 02 for some reason. I've already replaced all the shocks/struts with tokico hp, but the rear is still not as stiff. My 02 even with 2 normal size adults didn't sag much at all but my 03 sags alot more...I am wondering if the previous owner installed gle springs in the rear but i can't tell. I am thinking about buying some new SE springs for the rear and having them installed....

 

If you are going to install springs, I wouldn't bother getting stock. Go aftermarket...