I'm a owner of a 2002 maxima se. Bought the car last year around May so its been less then a year ago. Car now has 114K and hasnt given me any issues but one. Ive been trying to figure out this knocking/bangging noise around the front end since day one I bought the car. I started off with replacing front and rear brakes and rotors because they needed to be done. Went with R1 concept drilled and slotted brakes and rotors. Also picked up 4 nice goodyear eagle rsa 235/55-17s. Slightly bigger then stock but I like it.

This bangging noise has been driving me crazy so after talking to a mechanic, he told me to replace the struts and endlinks. Me trying to save a few bucks went and got some low priced complete strut assembly for $180 shipped to my door off ebay. Also picked up a set of $20 endlinks as well. Got them in about week after and put them in my self. Took me about 2 hours for all with hand tools. Very simple. Took her for a drive and the bangging is still there. I did realize that the parts were kinda cheap and hardly weight anything so I took my chances. After driving the car for the whole winter like this, I deceied to go back to the mechanic and explain what I replaced and with what. He told me that I would get what I paid for and cant really expect much from $90 strut assembly shipped to my door. So I kinda understood.

After doing some research on this site I see that lots of remembers go with monroe quick struts so I went with that. Got them for around $300 shipped from rockauto. I did notice a huge difference just in quality and they were way much heavier so I was alittle excited. Took no time in installing these and notice a hight increase in the front right away. Went for a drive and the bangging knocking noise is still present.

So now I come to the experts to ask for your help. My front end suspension has been checked and everything seems good and tight. Dont see no funny plays no where. This bangging/knocking noise happens over any little dip, bump, pot hole.

Any ideas guys?

 

read this and post your question here:

http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...on-thread.html

 

I'll give you a quick answer: I bet it's your passenger side engine mount.
(Guess how I know ? ... and yes, my mechanic told me my mount is OK. It wasn't.).

I replaced mine with Anchor #9031 ($27 + shipping from rockauto.com) and never been happier.

 

So even though its on the passenger side, would it still sound like if it was thru out the whole front?

 

Well, it could. It's also possible that one/more of your other mounts is bad.

The mounts on the Maxima start acting up at around this time (~ 12 yrs, 120k miles) and the passenger mount tends to go first, at least from my experience. There is a simple test: put your left foot on the brake, and with your right foot, hit the gas - and watch how much the engine moves. BTW, when we did this test on my car the engine moved about 3/4 inch. My mechanic thought the mount is not great but not really bad. Well, it was bad and the source of all my clunking (and I too replaced struts, links, bushings, ... and the clunk persisted until I replaced the mount).

I feel so strongly about this because I did experience exactly the same symptoms you describe ("This banging/knocking noise happens over any little dip, bump, pot hole"). Also, I would get this lisping/rasping noise whenever I accelerated out of a right-hand turn.

At any rate: don't do any other repairs until you determine that your mounts are (are not) OK.

Good luck!

 

I had a similar issue. It was the passenger motor mount. Bought one off eBay and it fixed the problem.