Hi All,
Just wanted to give my experience with my front end noise in hope to help others.
My 2000 Maxima started to make noise as I drove over bumps in the road, over the next 3 months the noise got worse and all it took was a small dip or rise in the road surface to make a racket.
Brought the car to a auto mechanic to check her out. He shows me that my sway bar end links are shot.
He also tells me that my ball joint, tie rod ends and struts are fine. So I go out and but Moog end links and install them. Wow, about half the noise is gone. Not good enough for me. So poking around I find that my outer tie rods are also noisy. I just grabbed the tie rod and try to move it and I can hear the noise from them and with 144,000 miles I figured that my struts must be due for replacement.
I replaced the tie rod ends and the struts too. BTW: driver’s side strut was gone completely and the pass side was a bit better but still bad.
Now my Maxima rides so much better and just about all the noise is gone. I still think my ball joints are bad so I just might replace them soon.
-quadcells