ok First, Stats

2001 Nissan Maxima SE 20th Anniversary
3.0L with 5 speed Manual Transmission

Tons of new suspension parts. Passenger side ball joint, tie rod, CV Axel. Drivers side tie rod. Manual Trans Flush and refill with redline gl-4. I am almost certain that no one ever changed the gear oil. It was filthy. I installed that stuff a couple thousand miles ago and have not produced any noises or vibrations. It seems to be a noise from the Trans on the Driver's side. It started soon after the flush.

It should also be said that the all too common Lower Radiator Support Rot has taken a pretty good grip. It is not rotted through though. It seems to still be holding the weight of everything well.

Here are the conditions that it occurs under.

It only occurs if the car is moving and in 1st or 2nd gear. It is worst in 1st gear. When i let the clutch out and start moving it makes a low pitched muffled rattle/growl noise. There are no drivability problems. No shaking or anything. Just the noise.

I have been thinking maybe a bearing in the trans. But then i keep thinking maybe i should eliminate the potential problems that don't involve me taking out and tearing down my transmission.

I have only owned the car for a couple of months, so maybe it is a normal sound. i have no idea. Ideas??

 

Just wondering if you found a fix? I also have the same noise in my 2002 Max.. Thanks

 

Pull out your 1080p phone and take a vid.

 

My car does the same thing. I'm curious as to what that noise is myself. I have a 2003 SE and mine is also a manual.

 

Brake dust shield, maybe when they put ur suspension back together it was bent.

 

My car has a growling sound too but only when I turn on the a/c.
Could be anything. Take out your iphone6 or whatever and take a vid.

 

well i have really not found anything else out. I have been listening to my car but no other serious symptoms have manifested. It seems to jerk a little bit while in gear when it is cold, but that is pretty normal. I know it is not a dust shield because it would be a constant noise. It is more intermittent. It will happen more often when the engine and trans are cold. I think i might just check my trans level again and see if there is any loss of fluid since it has been a while since my trans flush. I will take a video and post it if i can get it to make the noise while the camera is on (you know how those things go). Thanks for all the input though!!

 

Cool keep us posted!! I am still trying to figure it out as well!! thanks

 

Hey guys, im also hearing a growling/rattling noise when im under load in first or second gear, third gear doesnt do it at all, its really only when the car is cold. When it warms up, theres no noise. i thought it could be a motor mount thats gone bad, causing the exhaust to twist when the engine torques on acceleration? does this make sense to anyone? I say this because i had a stainless 2.5" exhaust on this car and i thought it was because of that. i thought the exhaust was banging under there when hitting bumps or what not so i went back to stock exhaust, then i noticed the exhaust would hit the cross member under the exhaust in the middle of the car, so we removed the crossmember completely. it still growls and sounds like a rattle. if i let the clutch out real slow and accelerate slowly it doesnt do it, but if i agressivly take off first and second gear it is pretty noticeable.

 

this sounds like a reasonable theory. The real question is how do you narrow it down to the engine mount. Because like everyone is saying it could be coming from anywhere. You are describing my symptoms exactly though. Have you tried anything to diagnose it? And if it were just the engine mount... why does it go away as the engine warms up? Should the problem continue even after that? This problem is haunting me but hasn't caused any real issues yet so i haven't really looked into it. Well i did some more research on the forums and found something that kind of helped me narrow it down... I have been hearing a bang whenever i shift out of lower gears... This means it is more than likely an engine mount... Man i love my maxima... but this thing is a huge money pit... All of this without even having started addressing the rotting radiator support ... ugh...

 

I thought it could be the engine mount because when we accelerate the motor torques one way and when we let off the engine goes back to normal position, however.. When the motor warms up i'm thinking that the flex pipe is warm so it has a lil easier flex to it. I could be very wrong.. But that's my theory. I have had this noise on my car now for almost 2 years and I never understood how the noise goes away when it's warm.

 

Well because of your awesome theory i did some further testing on my car. I went home and got my neighbor to be an extra set of eyes for me (he is a very experienced mechanic). I pulled up the e-brake as high as i could, i put it in first and revved the engine until the car started to creep forward a bit and the engine did not move more than an inch. (this is normal deflection for an engine mount).

My conclusion... it could still be that my radiator support is what is causing all of this... Even if that thing loosens just a little due to the rot, it could make all of the difference. So your theory still holds some water.... I just have to repair the stupid lower radiator support... and the list goes on and on and on...

 

Yeah those radiator supports are the worst on these cars. I've had 5 maxima's and they all do it. I just had my radiator support done earlier this summer and it still does that noise. But that doesn't mean it's not that. I was hoping it wasn't the motor mounts and maybe it was something less minor. I really hope we can figure this out together lol. It would be a relief for me for sure. I've been hearing this noise for a year or more now. I even changed my stainless catback out to stock because of it and it still does it. Makes me want to put my exhaust back on lol.

 

well at least i feel better about it not just being my problem. I could not find anything on this problem, so i am still guessing. But i did see online in a M/T take out and breakdown that he was repairing his big dif bearing. I will post a link later but if it is that.... ugh... I do not feel like doing a trans overhaul. The trans in these things are a lot heavier than most manual trans axles. Still doable... Just don't know if i wanna do it lol!

 

I hope someone else can chime in. I have yet to get my car on the lift to see what could be causing this noise but I don't really have access to a lift really. I will start working on my car again soon. Wife just bought a new vehicle so I can now stat working on it more. My car has 250,000 miles and still running strong.

 

ok well i think that the whole radiator support theory might be holding some water... I just had my car up on the lift for the past few days. I was doing an oil change and changing the drive belts and the Power Steering Tensioner bolt snapped... ugh... FML... So i had to order that part. I figured while it was up in the air i would get the iac and coolant bypass done and get some dimensions for my radiator support. Well it was MUCH worse than i thought. MUCH worse. It is rotted on both front and back and is sagging already. So i put a make shift support under there for the time being so that my engine wouldn't hit the floor. My GUESS is that this could be the source... I will let you know going forward if this fixes my problem. Plus i am trying to do a write up on the support replacement. Either way i will let you know how it goes.

 

on the subject of the radiator support.. ive had 5 maximas.. 3 4th gen and 2 5th gen and have had to do the radiator support on all of them, and let me add its not hard but its time consuming.. u have to take the whole front end off if you dont know this already. its well worth it though.. i actually had them done by my mechanic who is the one who got me into these cars and he is the one i got all of them from, he did all my hard work and made my life much easier. it might be that but mines been "fixed". This last one i just had fixed when i got my body work done so i cant say if thats the problem, cause it wasnt completely replaced. they just gut out the section that was bad and put in a new section.. all the other ones were so bad they had to replace the whole entire thing.. it would be nice if that was the issue though.. i would definatly have the entire thing done if i had to do it again if this is the problem.. im not driving my max at the moment its actually being takin off the road for the winter.. trying to keep it from rusting. hes got 250,000 miles on him and im trying to make it last as long as i can. been a good car though cant get rid of it. keep us posted man.. i enjoy hearing your responses. thanks

post some pics of your max!! heres mine..

 

I have a 2002 4AT and I have the same growling mainly between 2nd-3rd and a little between 1st-2nd. I don't know what causes the sound but since it goes away after the car is warm I'm very very skeptical that any support or mount of any kind is the culprit. Simply because the properties of the rad support and motor mounts don't change at all after the car is warm. They're just simple mounts.

My mounts check out OK ( less than 1" of engine movement under load) and my rad support is rust free. That being said, I'd be happy to eat crow if someone replaces one of those parts and fixes the problem.

 

I still cant figure it out either! 2002 Max AT.. I hear it under the Pass side firewall-You can hear like a rumble noise just before the car shifts from 1st to 2nd--When the car is hot--The noise is almost gone! HOWEVER-while in park at curb idle-I can hear a slight rumble/Growling noise-BUT if i go from Park to Drive and Power break the car ever so slight--I no longer hear the noise it becomes dead quiet! My mounts also are good-No engine movement.. The exh is not touching anything its tight and good.. No heat shields making noise either.. Totally lost with this! Keep me posted if you find an answer! I will do the same! Thanks... Mark

 

Thanks for chiming in AT guys!! That is super interesting, and somewhat comforting. Mine is a MT and i thought that the trans might be the other culprit. But since it obviously isn't the source... I am at a complete loss... Maybe it is a normal noise for this car... I am tackling my support this weekend, I will let you guys know of any changes. Any other ideas are welcomed and appreciated because i have not a clue lol!

Some deductions that may help in diagnosis... It only happens while in motion... When testing my engine movement in first gear and e-brake on i did not hear the noise. It still very well could be the transmission... I was trying to think of some of the components that AT and MT share in common and a few came to mind. But only one or two of them would make noise only while in motion... the differential bearings are what i am thinking.... but i have not a clue. There are no leaks from my MT yet. And there does not seem to be any drivability problems, just the noise... so stumped...

 

well here is the link to the noise. It is under "growling under load noise" on youtube. So annoying not to be able to find the answer to this. Any insight would be awesome!

 

I did forget to mention one detail... I didn't think it would have anything to do with the noise, but after further research on the forum i am finding that it may have something to do with it. I have a P0430 Cat Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 2) code on my car. Some folks have said that either the cat or the shield was the culprit on other threads. When i put my car up in the air today to start my radiator support project i will be trying a couple things to see if anything holds water.

1) trying to wiggle the CV Joints to see if there is any play at the transmission

2) checking my Cat and Tapping it, to see if there is a rattle.

i will let you know what happens!

 

I haven't done anything to confirm this, but my latest theory is that this noise is related to bad timing chain guides/tensioners and maybe the sprockets as well. Someone above mentioned they here the noise from the passenger side behind the firewall which would support the theory. I have had the sprocket noise on start and I have the classic whistle that's caused by bad tensioners. Does anyone else with the growling have these symptoms as well?

 

Nope. My problem noise is coming from the driver's side. And the noose is only while the vehicle is in motion so that eliminates the possibility of it being timing chain related.

Related to my previous post. I did fix my radiator support this weekend. It looks much much stronger than before and I covered it in 4 coats of undercoat... I don't think it should ever rust again. Post coming soon.

But while under the car I did a little investigating... I discovered that neither of my CV joints moved noticeably when shaken and weren't leaking. And that the cat did not rattle. So I am still confounded. But after I fixed the radiator support I did discover that the noise went down ALOT. This leads me to believe it may be related to the CV joints since my support was sagging. It could have put some stress on the dif bearings or toyed with the angle that they entered the Trans. All of this is total speculation of course and I am still confused... Ugh...

 

IMHO, it sounds transmission related. Was my original thought reading the first post and reinforced after listening to the video.

As I've read through, everyone who has this issue as best I can tell has manual transmissions.

Curious, any noise while in neutral? While in reverse?

 

I have a growling noise and mine is an 02 4AT. I don't notice any sound in P/N or in Reverse. The noise typically goes away within just a few minutes of driving.

 

It doesnt seem to be an issue that is only related to MT, it seems some folks have 4AT.

as for noises... No noise while in Neutral, i listened for that to see if it might be an input shaft bearing. No noise when the clutch is disengaged, so it is not the throwout bearing. No noise in reverse apart from the reverse gear whine. (I know that is normal). The only time i hear a noise is when i start moving forward in 1st or second gear. As i mentioned though, i repaired my radiator support and the noise is almost non audible now. I am thinking that the Dif End Bearings were under stress because of the angle from my sagging Rad Support. Does anyone else think that this makes sense? Any other ideas?

 

The noise I'm hearing only seems audible when the car shifts, mainly from 2nd - 3rd. I"ll see if I can video of the noise I'm hearing. Maybe we're talking about two different things.

 

You can compare the noise that your trans is making with the noise that i recorded in the video in this thread. At least then we can better idea of if this is something that only applies to MT

 

I have the exact same issue in my 2001 AE AT. My mounts are new and I rebuilt my rad support with a u shaped piece of steel and it is solid. I get no codes but the noise is driving me crazy.

 

Well i thought the noise was gone, but... it isnt.... I was thinking it could be transmission related... A couple of members have suggested that theory, but it seems as though it is not only a MT problem. So i looked through the diagrams in my AllData subscription and some of the only parts that the AT and MT have in common is the differential and diff output bearings. But my trans is not leaking, and no real drivability problems. Then a question asked by Chris Greg got me thinking... It does not make the growling noise no matter how fast i go in reverse... Only 1st and a little in 2nd. What could this be?

 

Have you checked/changed the wheel bearings..? My `00 SE 5MT has same "growl" that gets more noticeable at 20mph+, and changes pitch with change in speed. Thought it was tire noise at first. Did a "Rube Goldberg" with angle iron on the Rad support, but its holding.

 

that is actually going to be my next step... I have been thinking for some time now that i have a little too much road noise. i have not seen any leaking from the MT... let me know if you have any success!

 

Hey guys, just checking in to see if anyone has figured this issue out. I am getting ready to take my car out of storage for winter and I am going to be trying to get rid of this noise. I'm hoping to get a video of the noise or sound clip of it. I'm not so sure if my noise is related to the noise you guys are hearing. the noise I'm hearing is more like a vibration under the car, it feels like it's coming from under the drivers side floor. Only when accelerating 1st gear second is not so bad and third it goes away. But it only is there when the engine is cold. Once it warms up the noise is gone. I've gone under the car and tried to shake the exhaust but I can't find anything that's loose. I'm stumped. Just hope someone can chime in.. Thanks

 

I have that growl when its cold also 02 I35, until the engine warms up on cold days and most noticable when gears change. I have an autotranny tho. But i strongly believe it exhaust related tho. Once the car warms up on a warm day sound dissappears. If its 35 degrees outside all day ill hear it more. Exhaust related i think.

 

Yeah I think it's exhaust also. Last year I put a aftermarket exhaust on my car and that's when it started doing it. The exhaust I put on was bigger in diameter and I thought that was the reason so I went back to a new stock exhaust, also I have the Nissan y-pipe on mine not sure if that means anything but I thought by going back to a smaller (stock) exhaust it would fix it but nope. But I still till this day think it's something to do with exhaust

 

Found this on YouTube last week. My '04 5 speed AT has this issue. Haven't got around to fixing it quite yet. Makes more sense to wait until I do my plugs. Hope this helps somebody else!

 

Found this on YouTube last week. My '04 5 speed AT has this issue. Haven't got around to fixing it quite yet. Makes more sense to wait until I do my plugs. Hope this helps somebody else!

https://youtu.be/PSHouwr3bR4

 

 

Funny you should bump this. My 2000 has been "growling" when cold for about a month now, it is much improved when warmed up. Most noisy between 2 and 3rd shift, I definitely have lower rad support issues as much of the people posted here.
I'll be letting the car go in about 6 weeks, so I'm not too worried about it. Shame since she only has 117k miles.