So....I am getting a very loud BANG! inconsistently. Sometimes I can't MAKE the car do it, other times it will do it loudly (just once) when pulling a hard left or right turn at pretty much any speed....also does it, to a lesser extent and not as loud, over bumps in the road. When I get the "big bang" it is not felt through the steering wheel, but it is loud and can be felt through the floor of the car....

Location: From the driver's seat, I swear its somewhere in the middle of the car, down near the inner passenger floorboard. My wife was riding and thought it came from below her seat.

I've checked out all of the suspension and it looks fine. Bolts are tight, etc etc. I haven't taken apart the spring/strut assembly because it really doesn't sound like the BANG is coming from the outside area of the suspension there. Tie bar bolts are tight as hell (gave them a pop with the impact to make sure). Like I said though, I can't feel it through the steering wheel, which I would expect if it was a suspension assembly piece or something dealing with axles/hubs/wheels.

The possibilities, and you tell me what you think:

1. bad motor mounts. I've never read anything about these causing a serious bang when they're bad, just some vibration (which I do not get at all). The bang does not happen on hard launches or stops either, which usually could signify a bad motor mount.

2. y-pipe or exhaust hitting something. I know the usual crossbrace issues, but mine has about 3" of spacers on it, and the exhaust doesn't appear to be getting anywhere near the crossbrace. Seems kind of loud for that though..

3. is it possible that the ES bushings in my LCA's could be binding somehow? Don't think that this is possible, but

4. coil springs binding? I don't know why they'd suddenly start to do this, and don't think the sound is coming from them, again but willing to consider anything at this point.

I'm at a total loss here. Everything under the car looks normal and tight. I'm going to re-tighten all exhaust hangers but am not hopeful. The sound makes me think of something binding and releasing violently, but outside of springs and bushings I can't think of what it could be...

 

RSB bracket?

 

well irish, it looks as though all of that autoX'ing has started to take a toll on our cars...lol

 

well....Jason (soonerfan) and I just spent 2 hours under the front of the car checking everything there from engine mounts to exhaust to suspension. NOTHING.

Last shot we thought maybe the sway bar (front) brackets were loose or something, so we jacked up the LCA/hub assembly with a 2nd jack 3 or 4 times. Nothing doing. I was like "ok let's check the other side" and he said he wanted to do it 1 more time....jacked it up and up....BANG!....down.....BANG!.

Yup, it was a shot front way bar endlink.....odd since I replaced both of them less than a year ago

Anyhow, happy to report it was a $40 fix.....thankfully.

 

I was just a bout to tell you that

Did you get OEM links?

 

just replaced the passengers side, yes OEM. Might get something stronger to replace that soon, we'll see......

 

hmm...I wonder if my sound might have something to do with the endlink...

so it didn't look bad or when you touched it, it was fine, but it was banging when you jacked it up?

 

with the car jacked up, it felt perfectly normal and looked fine. We put a second jack under the balljoint end of the LCA and cranked it up to look for movement...that's when you could physically see the endlink bind up and then "pop"....

I also noticed that the lower bolt from the endlink to the LCA was kind of loose as well (probably worked itself loose from the binding)...

Worth a try to check your endlinks and make sure they're tightened down, at very least.

 

another dumb Q.. have you replaced your factory ball joints w/ aftermarket?

I swapped out the ones on our Altima a few years ago and wound up with a problem like that about a year later. turns out the balljoint was moving slightly where it was pressed into the control arm, but only when the suspension was loaded more than usual. i.e. when pulling in and out of a driveway or over large bumps. I just welded the ball joint to the control arm and it solved the problem for me.

 

wow..thinking about how bad things could get if a lower balljoint popped out the bottom somehow

not sure if you're asking me or michael....as for me, the lower balljoints are new as of a few months ago, when I put brand-new complete Nissan LCAs on with ES bushings in them.....

In any case, problem solved....now to put the stage 2 LTB back on (again)...

 

my ball joints are factory oem's...