I have had my 96SE Max for 6 months now and I am hearing progressively worse grunting noises from the car suspension at low speeds. After reading some past posts it sounds like it may be the strut bearings... can anyone confirm?
Where would be the best place to have this corrected.... a Nissan Dealer??? FYI - I have and Eibach/Tokico setup put installed by the previous owner.

Also I'm not entirely happy with the Tokicos - their damping sucks in my opinion. Is there recommended struts that can be installed without having the stock suspension parts??

Thanks for the help once again!

 

Equip yourself with a 4-foot length of small diameter vacuum hose. Raise the hood. Have an assistant turn the wheel right left to produce the grunting sounds. The motor does not have to be running for this test. You put one end of the hose in your ear position the other end near the top of the struts. This will help pinpoint the origin of the unwanted sound. It could be coming from the strut mounting bearing or strut mounting insulator. See Chilton (page 8-9) or Haynes (page 10-6).

 

Thanks for the reply Daniel,
I'm going to do the above and see if I can locate the problem. Should it be the bearing or insulator causing the issue is this a tough job to do for an aspiring driveway mechanic without a ton of equipment/tools? The local Nissan joint is quoting about 4 hours labor (not having seen the car yet) - I don't mind buying a few tools to save handing it over to the repair shop, if I have a decent chance of success. Should I tackle this one??

 

This job can be done by the home mechanic. Read the Haynes repair manual (pages 10-5,6). Do you have the necessary tools? Note the warning in step 3. Now you are prepared to decide for yourself.

I assume the dealer's estimate of 4 hours is for both sides. It will take more time for the driveway mechanic who has no prior experience with this particular job. You don't have to do both sides on the same day. Consider doing one side on a Saturday and the other side on a Sunday. You will probably need an alignment after completing the strut bearing replacement.

The spring compressor pictured in Haynes looks like Harbor Freight #3980. At $10 + S/H that is a low price for this kind of tool. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...temnumber=3980