I'm hopingsomeone may be able to give me some tips.

I have a 2002 Maxima A33. For some months I have had a regular yet intermitant clunking noise from under the car somewhere around the engine bay area.

I have replaced the following as a process of elimination ( they needed doing anyway):

• Both lower control arms and link pins,
• left, right, front and rear engine mounts
• and the mechanic has checked over the suspension.

All seems in order. Yet everytime I drive over slightly uneven roads, clunk clunk clunk.
Its driving me nuts.. not to mention the expense.

 

Front swaybar end links. Very common and not expensive to replace. Get the Moog brand if you can (they are beefier).

While you are in that area, replace the sway bar bushing with ones from ES.

 

Not sure if by link pins he meant the end links.

I would have said either LCA bushing, endlinks, or motor mounts. Since the op has replaced all of those, I would go with swaybar bushings.

Is the noise exactly the same both before and after all the repairs?

 

If you don't want to spend any more $ you can always remove the sway bar end links and eliminate the sway bar as a possibility. If you already replaced the end links then you'll have to assume the bushings are to blame (which is possible).

Though so are tie rods and such as well .

 

The sway bar end link mounting hole to the LCA is a clearance hole that I thought was too much. So, if you don't have it tight the end link can moves during bumpy road or cornering. This movement is I believe what's causing the clunk and not necessarily that the end link is busted. I was surpised about this condition when install my Moog End Link. It was clunking right after install. The moog end link is bigger so there is only 1/16" gap between the end link to the LCA bottom and because the end link can move, it hits the LCA one the way down. You can simulate this using the floor jack on the LCA, if you see the end link doesn't move when the LCA is pressed up, then that's the problem. I repositioned the end link stud right smack in the hole center and torque it good the clunking was gone. A bad end link would exibit the same clunking also, but I would check if your end link is loose.

 

Check the top hats of the strut mounts.