I've ignored this problem for 20K miles. I'm a bone head. I admit it. But I've had enough and decided now to fix the problem. Would appreciate your advice.

20K miles ago I replaced the oem struts on my '01 GXE with KYB GR-2's off Tire Rack. I hate the #@^^ things! Stiff and jittery ride. Put new KYB mounts on too. Right away I noticed a rubbing/knocking noise from the front when backing up or going forward at low speeds...like when I backed out of the garage. Drove normally on the streets/highway. Took the car back to the installer (not Nissan) who said the noise was due to new mount rubber and the noise would eventually go away. I didn't believe him, but he also would not do anything more. A year ago, I took the car to Nissan for a different problem and the service manager told me when I picked the car up....by the way, "we think you have a loose strut." I said I know, but continued to ignore the probelm until this fall when I took the car to another mechanic I trust, but he told me he could find nothing wrong. And that "rubbing/knocking" noise I heard a year ago...it's gone now! Honest. However he did point out that the main passenger side strut bolt stuck up about a 1/8" more than the driver's side. The passenger side seemed like the noisy side to me too. Recently I noticed that the passenger side reddish/orange flange-thingie (sorry) was out of position on top of the strut. Here is a pic...notice the broken flange at 3:00 o'clock. The driver's side is noticeable too, but not nearly this bad.



What the #**! is going on? I have half a notion to bite the bullet, yank the whole set up out and put Nissan oem struts & mounts back on. I am frustrated.

Thanks.

 

dont be mad youre not the only one. i have the same noise in mine when I back up i hear it, also when i go over a speed bump, it sounds like when a balloon is being squeezed. any other time nothing.

oh and that orange piece is just a gasket between the strut tower and the strut.

 

Hmm now you guys got me worried.

 

my front passenger side gone bad 6+ months ago, hoping when i lower it, it'd be gone....

 

All your strut mounting nuts should be the same height. Something is not sitting correctly.

 

That's the gasket you see (which you shouldn't see) and as someone mentioned, the studs should all be the length. It looks like your installed botched the job. Have you tried to tighten those nuts?

 

are the nut misaligned it looks like the camera angle, from where he was standing.

 

Have you tryed getting in contact with KYB? You should send them those pictures, they might be able to tell you whats going on, and how to fix it.

 

I'm convinced the installation job is botched too. I suspect that the KYB mounts that I had installed at the same time (replacing the factory mounts) are part of the problem. All the nuts are tight.

I like this car and plan on keeping it. I want a comfortable ride. Not interested in a lowered look or sporty handling. Am seriously considering replacing the mount, bearing and struts with Nissan oem parts, but using Tokico struts Nissan used on the SE model rather than the GXE Tokico struts like what came with the car. When we test drove the car b4 buying, we actually liked the ride of the SE better, but for reasons I've long forgotten bought the GXE. Oh well.