I bought a beater 2000 maxima SE for my 14 year old to learn to drive early this spring. We checked it all out and replaced all 4 blown struts with complete assemblies. I then got sick and couldn't work on it all summer with him, but he was able to drive his mom and I around town. Still had a horrible knocking up front, but the strut issue was remedied.

Figuring it was probably the right front motor mount, I bought a $27 one from amazon.com and put it on last night. Took a few hours because I broke a bolt in the bracket (long story), but after drilling it out and extracting it and then replacing it with a shorter M10 x 1.0 bolt and putting it all back together, the car now drives like a dream and is quiet up front. The old mount bushing was split/broken in multiple places and this new one made all the difference. We also unplugged the two electric mount connectors while we were in there. Simple repair, super easy to do. I see why people get confused though because it totally felt like a loose suspension part when in fact it was all motor mount.

 

Those noises are tricky.

Don't forget to do the TB coolant bypass and unplug motor mount(s).

 

Yes. The "same" thing happened to me; spent a lot of time chasing suspension problems when it was the passenger-side engine mount. Very common on these cars - should be on top of everybody's suspect list.

Make sure you neutralize the IACV/ECU problem so common in our cars. Have your son read this document: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6O...1fNlF5QjQ/view .