Sentra Suspension Clunking

willembop · Oct 6th, 2003, 09:26 PM

My 98 Sentra SE 2.0 has had suspension clunking in the front end. At first it happened mostly upon initial acceleration while turning. Seems to come from either front strut or hub area intermittently. Over time it has become increasingly frequent, until now I get several mild clunks upon acceleration and then again when braking.

I have replaced the axles and upper strut bearings. Everthing else seems tight. (I have stock springs on KYB AGX struts.) I autocross the car, so the suspension takes a pretty good beating. The clunking seems worse after each autocross.

One of the Sentra guys at last Sunday's autocross said his old Sentra SER had made a lot of noise in the front end. It turned out the control arm bushings were shot, and installing new control arms cured it.

The local Mossy Nissan has new control arms in stock for $142 each. These come with new bushings and ball joints. I guess I'll get a pair and install them next weekend.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Bill in San Diego

Ninety-Nine SE-L · Oct 8th, 2003, 09:26 AM

I don't know much about the control arms, but it's prolly worth a try. Only 2 things I can think of is the axle/CV joint (which u already replaced) or the spring isn't set very well on the strut assembly (very unlikely)

Skinny G · Oct 8th, 2003, 09:10 PM

Also check your lower ball joint. Play there can show up that same way (just did mine!).

Dealer will sell you a complete control arm, jobber can sell you just the ball joint, which must be pressed in. I couldn't get just the joint from my local dealer (might be year specific).

G

willembop · Oct 11th, 2003, 06:38 PM

I put in the new control arms today. No clunking now. Suspension is quiet. I ended up with a lot of rubber bits and dust in the driveway from pulling out the old arms. Even though they looked okay, the rubber in the bushings has clearly deteriorated.

The replacement turned out to be an easier job than I imagined, although it did help to have air tools. You need a pickle fork and BFH to break the ball joint loose, 22 mm wrenches for the control arm pivot bolt. Smaller wrenches (17 and 14 I think) for the other bolts, and a torque wrench to get it tightened properly. The Haynes manual described the procedure pretty accurately.

Bill in San Diego