becca

All I hear is a knocking sound coming from my right front wheel area. I have an 01 Max SE with 17" al alloy wheels. small dips and bumps will make it knock. Most pot holes are on the right so that's where I'm hearing most of it..I've replaced the sruts and the strut mounts, sway bars, and control arm. I hear this is a popular noise but no one has come up with something other than the items I've changed. Could it be brake caliper, or perhaps the CV axle ? I love the car but that knocking sound is enough for me to sell it.

Also the rear end bottoms out and is super squishy when navigating a turn with a dip. This Maxima has more to offer than this I'm sure of it. I need your help and opinions.....other than that the car flies !

Thanks

 

metro273

I can't help you with your rear problem but as for your front knocking, you might wanna check the sway bar links. They attach to the control arms. You have to check them with the car on the ground, so that means that you have to get on your back and check them while someone else bounces the car up and down. If you grab the link with your hand, you'll feel them "knock" as the other person bounces the car.

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becca

Thanks metro, I'll take a look but I think that was one of the first things I changed. How about the brakes ? I'm going to check that in the next few days......

brianw

Brakes won't go knock knock... now if the lug nuts are loose, maybe.

Rear, have you changed the struts?

mlp

anyone else had this problem?

I just bought an '02 SE last week that is making the same sound, usually when I am accelerating through a right hand turn or a right curved offramp. Anyone else had this problem or able to determine what it was? Has 42k miles, auto tran.

 

mlp

BTW, mine ended up being a faulty motor mount. Fixed under warranty and has no more noise!

nelsito65

Mine was driving me nuts and it turned out to be a bare upper end strut spring hitting against the upper spring housing through a ripped rubber insert (don't know the name of that part) which sits between the spring and the upper metal spring housing. I covered the upper spring end with the insulator, which had slid down to the bottom, rotated the rubber insert around the housing 180 degrees so the small ripped part is not in contact with the spring and then re-assembled the strut. I drove the car around the same road ripples where I used to hear all the clunking and the noise is gone.

smj999smj

I've run into some Maximas that had clunking noise from the fromt brake calipers over bumps. The fix was to remove the slide pins and lubricate them with silicone brake grease. I can't say that it's your problem, but you may want to try if all else fails.

Nissan actually had some issues with the rear bottoming out and offered countermeasure coil springs per a TSB. but it only applied GXE & GLE models. If you have an SE, you may want to consider replacing the rear shock absorbers (I prefer to call them struts, but Nissan calls them shocks).