The car has been making this weird noise lately.

Details:

-It comes from the front driver side suspension area whenever the car moves forward. (Not backwards, in reverse the sound is NOT heard)
-The noise is very similar to the sound produced when the brake heat shield is bent and touching the rotors, or some metal piece is being dragged under the car scraping over the pavement.
- brake application does not make any affect on the sound
- pavement condition does not make any affect on the sound either
- sound disappears when making tight left turns and becomes progressively louder (with more Gs) when making right turns.
- Could be a coincidence, but when the LTB (stage 1) was still on the car the sound was heard only during tight right turns.

Today I put the car on the jack-stands to check out what's going on, but everything seems to be nice and tight. The brake heat-shield in not bent and the brake pads still got plenty of material left on them. Tie-rods and ball-joints are also in a perfect condition. When I tried replicating the sound when the car was on the jackstands (starting the engine and putting it in gear) it was nice and quiet.

To me it seems like it's a wheel bearing, but only because I don't think it could be anything else. (I have 0 experience with bearings, so I could be wrong.)

Any thoughts or ideas about what could be causing the noise are appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

If the noise depends on direction of a car, then it could be the wheel bearing as you said. I think you can check it with the car on jack stands and shaking the wheel left to right, up and down to see if there is a play.

 

I would have to guess wheel bearing myself, but without seeing it and being able to play with it, I can't say for sure.

 

Ok, thanks for confirming guys. Looks like this Saturday will be a long day...

 

first, jack up the car and see if there's play in it.

If you decide it's the wheel bearing, my recommendation is to just buy another knuckle/spindle from the junkyard. $50 for a wheel bearing and $130 for a hub+ hours of hassle sucks compared to a 30 min unbolt/rebolt job with a junkyard part.

...... As a matter of practice with FWD nissans, you should ALWAYS replace the wheel bearing and the hub at the same time. when the bearing goes out, it often ruins the hub too- so if you just replace the bearing and keep the old hub, the bad hub will ruin the new bearing in short time.

thus the junkyard comment.
OR.... find a good junkyard hub for about $50 and then put a new $35 bearing into it..
still cheaper than a $130 wheel hub from nissan. :shrug:

 

Thanks for recommendations Matt! It's all new to me.

BTW, I did not notice any free-play, at all. There is some minor roughness when I rotate the wheel by hand (In other words, it takes slightly more effort to rotate the wheel through the first, say, 10 degrees than through the other 350) but I think it was like this since I first bought the car, 2 years ago.

 

that could be due to the LSD or a brake rotor rubbing the pad a bit as well. unfortunately not much of an indicator.

good luck sorting out the problem. sometimes these are a PITA to find.

I've got a clunking in the chassis/suspension somewhere that's been getting worse over the last 2000 miles, but I can't find the sucker. all bolts are tight, no play in bushings or wheel bearings, etc. I'm beginning to think it's just the ES control arm bushings that have dried out and are squeaking.

 

OK, noises are gone!

Put the car on the jackstands once again, to make sure that I did not overlook anything, and what a surprise - after a few minutes, I see that the driver side brake dust-shield barely touches the rotor.