MAX99SE

This happens sometimes, maybe only twice a day. Sound is quite loud. I was wondering if anyone had the same problem or might have any ideas on this. I am pretty sure if I take it to the dealer, those idiots will say "could not diagnose" as it is infrequent. Want to get this fixed before the warranty period ends ....... Thanks.

Daniel B. Martin

Nissan dealerships employ some of the best technicians in the business. Please give them a chance to fix your car before labeling them "those idiots". You may be pleasantly surprised.

Even if they can't find the problem you will come away with paperwork establishing the existence of the problem during the warranty period. That puts you in a strong position to request, and get, a no-charge repair even after the warranty has expired.

MAX99SE

I will definitely take the car in before the warranty expires, but I speak from personal experience. Maybe it's just my dealer, but I doubt it. I have taken the car in for other problems before only to come back with a "could not diagnose" report. Things like "cricket-like" noises from the air vents, dragging noise when making turns, driver seat creaking noises etc. Anyway, no disrespect meant to any good mechanics out there.

Mr. Nismo

iTrader: (36)

I believe there is a recall for that noise. It has something to do with the brake linkage or something. Take it in if your warranty is still good. You should have no problems.

97MaximaSE

Please let me know what it is. My car is out of warranty and it happens to me to. Always comes from the rear though.

bmxsteve

hey guys, i have the same problem. It happens a couple times a day, especially right after i start the car and Im backing out of my drive way and I hit the brakes, I hear the "click" sound. Thats the only way I know how to describe it. Is it worth having the dealer look at it? What do you think it is? Thanks!

Speebs

iTrader: (2)

hehe... it sounds like you guys have something sliding around in your trunk

MJM97MAXSE

I think I have the same noise coming from my wheels. I think its coming from the front though...

- Mike

Mr. Nismo

iTrader: (36)

LISTEN UP PEOPLE!!! Take it to your nearest dealer and ask them if there is a recall for that. I have been told, and I also had the same problem (99 SE-L), that there was a recall for that noise. It has to do with the emergency brake linkage or something like that. They should not charge you a dime and you do not have to have warranty. Try it!!! It does'nt hurt to ask....

phatmax95

iTrader: (29)

daaaannnneeeee, I LOVE THIS BOARD!!! i had the SAME problem and i finally said something to myself TODAY about it..(what IS that??).. anyways.. i would be happy to know what exactly it is.. i thought it was something in my trunk?!?! but nothing was in there.. i probably would have asked about that today too... mannnn, funny how that happens...

whitemax99gle

yeah!! mine does that too.. it does it right at the very end of braking.. Sometimes, I also experience a moaning sound (even when the emergency brake is down)

97MaximaSE

I get the moaning sound too but only in reverse

Eric L.

Yeah I get the moaning sound when I've been driving at high speed and slow down but don't stop. For example, at a bridge toll plaza. When I roll forward (no gas or brake), I get a groan from the front brakes. My dealer heard the problem, documented it, and told me it was the calipers releasing slowly and it's nothing to worry about. So far, it has been little more than a minor annoyance, but I have it in writing, so I'll take it to the dealer if it gets worse.

MAX99SE

Someone here said that it might be a recall for the emergency brake linkage ... called my dealer this morning and he said that there is no such recall. He also told me that there would be a charge to diagnose the braking system!! I am taking the car in tomorrow. BTW, I found two
TSB's that match some of the other problems I am having and I am going to take them with me. If you are interested, look up this link and search for your year of manfacture.
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/proble...ervicemmy1.cfm

Anyone know how I can put pressure on the dealer about this. My car has about 33,500 miles on it, so I am still under warranty.

Thanks.

Daniel B. Martin

Let's distinguish between a Recall and a Technical Service Bulletin. A Recall is (usually) a problem related to safety or emission controls. The manufacturer has an obligation to notify owners in writing. There is no debate with the dealer about whether the repair is needed, or who will pay for it. The repair is needed and Nissan will pay for it.

A TSB is the means by which Nissan notifies its dealers of a recognized problem and a recommendation for diagnosis and remedy. There is no formal notification mailed to owners. The repair may or may not be needed on a specific vehicle. The bill may or may not be paid by Nissan. There is room for the dealer to exercise his judgement.

There is no time limit for applying a TSB, because a TSB is nothing more than a piece of technical information. You may think of a TSB as an addendum to the factory service manual.

Perhaps your complaint is addressed by this TSB ...

Service Bulletin Number: NTB99031
Bulletin Sequence Number: 500
Date of Bulletin: 9905
NHTSA Item Number: SB604997
Make: NISSAN
Model: MAXIMA
Year: 1999
Component: BRAKES:HYDRAULIC SYSTEM
Summary: EXHIBITING REAR BRAKE GROAN / HUMMING NOISE AFTER RELEASING BRAKE PEDAL. *TT

MAX99SE

Yes, Daniel, that is one of my problems (3 at present), but that does not describe this post. Seems like there is no recall info available for 99 Maximas on the NHTSA website. Anyway, will post what the dealer found tomorrow.

MAX99SE

The dealer said that the parking brake cable was loose, hence the dragging noise and the metallic thunk noise. They have installed a new cable under one of the TSBs and so there was no charge.

After driving the car this morning, I am yet to hear the "thunk" noise. Also, the overall dragging noise is gone. Hope this did it....knock on wood.

The TSB they used was the one Daniel posted in this thread before. I had another TSB which described noises from the air vents, but they could not diagnose that. Oh well! That's still minor.

My suggestion would be to print out the TSB for your year from the NHTSA website and go to your dealer. They should be able to take care of it.

deezo

iTrader: (3)

I definitely had this problem when I while stopping in reverse when parking. I had the dealer check it out and it was the pads binding. I bought the car from a Subaru dealership and they just put on any type of pad. Since I went to aftermarket pads, I don't have that problem anymore.

MAX99SE

Folks, the "thunk" noise is back again!! I cant believe I have to take the car in again. Daniel, now you know why I was calling the dealers what I was calling them before. I will be asking them to check out the brake pads binding next. Maybe that will clear up the problem. I am getting frustrated .... why do I have to tell the dealer what to fix? They are supposed to be the experts right?

Daniel B. Martin

Yes, they are supposed to be the experts.

IMHO the dealership should have invited you to make a test drive with their technician riding as a passenger, so he could hear the noise. Did they do this? Did the technician hear the noise but fail to fix it? Or did he never hear the noise?

It is reasonable to think that a sound which is heard when you apply the brakes is coming from the brakes. Most often that is the situation. However, if they can't find anything wrong with the brakes they should look further. Look for something which shifts position when the car decellerates, something which shouldn't be moving but is. Look at the engine mounts. Look at the transverse link bushings. (Transverse link is the name used in the factory service manual. Most techs call this a control arm.) Check the stabilizer bar (roll bar) bushings. Tighten all the big bolts which fasten the front suspension to the body of the car. Examine the front springs to see if a small piece has broken off the end. Check the exhaust system. This may sound like a lot of work, but with the vehicle up on a lift it is a fifteen minute process.

MAX99SE

Daniel:

They did not ask me to take them for a test drive. Boy, I wish you were working on my car. I am taking the car in on Friday again and asking them to take a look at the brakes etc. Could it be due to the "brake pads binding" like another person had posted on this thread? I will ask them to look at the other things you have mentioned, but they are going to tell me that they will charge me for this diagnosis (although I am still under warranty). Luckily last time they did not charge me because they fixed the emergency brake cable that was covered by a TSB. Will keep you guys posted. I dont know what I am going to do if they tell me - could not diagnose!!

Daniel B. Martin

I don't think so, but at this point I'd be willing to assign blame to poltergeists.

Service charges may be negotiated with the Service Manager. It's fair to point out that this service appointment is really a continuation of a previous one, and is necessary only because they failed to fix a warranty-covered problem. You are giving him a second chance and should not be charged for being a cooperative customer.

MAX99SE

Hi Daniel:

My car is in for the 3rd time today for the same problem. I had to involved the Service Manager as I am at 36500 miles. I told him to lookup up old service record and he did not hassle me any more.

The metallic noise has become quite loud. Once or twice I day, as I start moving from stop in 1st gear and then hit the brakes, I hear this metallic click noise. The dealer has looked at the brakes twice and says everything is normal. I dont know what to do if they say the same thing again. I guess my only option is to get the car diagnosed at a good mechanic and then approach the dealer again. I am getting tired of this dealership!!!

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

MAX99SE

Hi Daniel:

My car is in for the 3rd time today for the same problem. I had to involved the Service Manager as I am at 36500 miles. I told him to lookup up old service record and he did not hassle me any more.

The metallic noise has become quite loud. Once or twice I day, as I start moving from stop in 1st gear and then hit the brakes, I hear this metallic click noise. The dealer has looked at the brakes twice and says everything is normal. I dont know what to do if they say the same thing again. I guess my only option is to get the car diagnosed at a good mechanic and then approach the dealer again. I am getting tired of this dealership!!!

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

mintermman

this sucks, i have the same thing, and have been checking everywhere and so has felix266 (he replied to me when i sent this out on the test and now all those test threads are gone ... some weren't just postwhoring) oh well. I hope someone somewhere finds the solution to this metallic noise.

97MaximaSE

mine turned out to be my hardware kits for my break pads...try that out there cheap to buy and it cant hurt

DoGGy

yea even if they do, they want all the money in ur pocket just to have the problem checkout. last time when my 94 altima's airbag light went on and stayed on, i took it to nissan dealer. the dude wanted 150 bux JUST TO CHECK IT OUT AND SEE WHAT was WRONG. then he gave me quotes of 600-1000 DOLLARS for fixing it. haha yea right dude, i fixed it with 33 CENTS. all i had to do was get a new fuse from radioshack ( 3 for $1). of course, i didnt know what to do untill a friend of mine told me. so they might be the "best" but they want all the $$. srry but its the truth

techie

All dealers for all makes and models are the same, I also have a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I had it in for a recall once and asked them to check the ABS because the light had come on once before I had brought it in. They said the $80 diagnostic pointed to the cable bundle in the rear hatch, but they needed to do a $400 diagnostic to see which cable it would be then charge to fix it. I said no, the light hasn't come on since.

For all with the slight groaning after stopping, it's probably the binding of the pads due to any number of small reasons. It will probably just go away, change of weather, wearing of pads, new brake job.

Street Reeper

Bump


Just found this thread as I am having the same problems see "??Popping Noise when coming to a stop, any ideas?? See my thread for a detailed analyisis of my problem.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=264247

So did anyone ever find out what the problem was, did it go away?

Street Reeper

All you fawkers have PM's or emails

supercobraz

I have the same problem, that clicking sound when backing up. My other big problem is my brake wearing out. I have a 98 with 98,000 miles. I am on my 3 set of rotors and my 8th set of pads. The pads are not wearing out so much as the rotors are warping. I should say that it is the from rotors and pads that are wearing out. I can see that the rear brakes just are not doing their job at all. It's to the point where the rear tires have no brake dust at all. My emergency brake does not stop my car and barely slows it down if I apply it while driving. Anyone know anything. I will take it in to the dealer soon as no brake shop has been able to figure it out. My dealer had the nerve to tell me they couldnt help me since I failed to bring it to them so they could do their $400 2-wheel brake job.

Street Reeper

I have gotten one email back that said they installed a brake hardware kit and it fixed the noise problems.

However your rotor problem sounds more serious. How much time passed before you had to change pads, as well as rotors. The front rotors are typically the ones that take the majority of the load so it is usual for them to wear faster, of course not to this extreme.

Have you noticed any loss in power, or does your car feel slugish? Have you ruled out the fact that your front brakes might be engaged all the time. Perhaps your caliper is not releasing as much as it should when you let off the pedal. The brake piston sticks out more and more as you use your brakes. This is needed because as your brake pads wear down the caliper piston needs to stick out more so that it can apply the same kind of pressure. Reseting the piston is somthing that you do during a brake job (I use a pair of channel locks and twist it counter clockwise.) I wonder if one, or both may be defective? It seems odd that both rotors would be messing up so it could be that your car is pressurizing the brake fluid when it shouldn't which makes your brakes slightly apply against the rotors while driving.

An easy way to check this is first to see if your car feels as if the brakes are slightly engaged during normal driving. Another things would be to drive for a prolonged time at night and stop in a very dark area and see if your rotors are glowing (this depends on how severe of course your rotors are warping, if they are lasting years than chances are the problem is not as bad as this) or unaturally hot.

Other than these two points what are the condition of the pads when you take them off. Again if it is both rotors warping at a steady rate I would say that somthing with how your brake fluid is being pressurized is off.

I hope this at least gives you some direction, feel free to PM me if you find anything out or have any questions.

Bump for you

supercobraz

Street Reeper
Thanks for your input. I can turn them and get three brakes jobs out of them. They will work according to how much and how far I drive. For instance, I had them done at Midas in Feb, they were rather rough sounding but other then that ok. Then the last of may, I took a road trip and sure enough, before I got back after about 2200 miles, I went straight to Midas and had the rotors turned again but the pads were fine. They changed the pads anyway though. That was in May. I took another trip in Sep. Same results. They were fine when I left Austin, but by the time I made it to Jackson, I had to take it to the local Midas. At that time my rotors were too thin to turn again. So when I got back, I have now put on my 3rd set of front rotors. I didn't go over all the brake changes, just the past 9 months or so.

Midas did the hardware work in Feb with no results. I think it's getting worse though. I have had Nissan OEM pads, ceramic you name it, same results. Now I'm force to go to the dealer and see what the hell is wrong with the brake system.

Street Reeper

Well that is somthing entirely different and strange. I can't see how the rotors would be wearing without the brake pads too.

Have you noticed your rotors warping more with brake use, or with distance traveled in miles? You said you took a road trip, I would guess that this was on the highway where you would not use your brakes a lot. If this is the case I wonder if your rotors are rubbing on somthing. Is the wearing occuring on the inside or outside of the rotor? I wonder if it is coming into contact with the shield on the back side, or your caliper some how.

Did your car always eat up rotors or just when you went to midas?

supercobraz

I got the car at 25K and they changed the pads and turned the rotors before I took the car home. That was in March of 2000. The rotors were warped by Sep, can't tell you the milage right off hand. The man at that shop told me that I needed Nissan pads because my rotors were getting so hot they were melting the ones they put on at the Mazda dealer where I got the car. I looked at the pads and sure enough, they looked melted on the edges. Well they put on Nissan pads. That was in August 2000. By may of 2001, I they were warped again and also put on new rotors because the others were too thin. So I think they had been turned at least once before the 25K mark that I got the car. Changed and turned them in Jan of 2002. That was when I switched to Midas. Those lasted the longest. Nothing warped or anything for an entire year. Then came the series of brake jobs I discribed in the opening post.

Nothing is making any noises while I'm driving, I get great gas milage and accelaration o I don't think anything is rubbing, but don't know for sure.

I can say this, I have a truck and I've driven other cars and I believe me car throws you forward when the brakes are applied then any other one I have driven. That leads me to believe the rear brakes are not working properly and causing the fronts to heat up too much.

twiggy144

your rear calipers are frozen. HAd the same problem. replaced the rotors, right side rotor, and pads of course.

supercobraz

I would say they are warping more with use then distance. I think they are warping on the trip because of getting on the brakes at really high speeds. I'm sure they heat up in a hurry then. I think the problem is in the rear brakes, because they don't even get brake dust on the rims anymore. I'll get to the bottom of it...hopefully it won't cost me too much...

supercobraz

So I should replace both calipers on the rear and also change the rotors and pads? So new calipers and a complete brake job for the rear... That's what you are suggesting I do. Well, I think I would need new rotors anyway after all this time.

twiggy144

I wrote a story on this same problem I had.
To summarise, I was able to diagnoze I had only one frozen caliper, which I replaced. Both rear rotors were rusted to the point I decided not to resurface them. So I waited for a few weeks for a sale, and a sale promotion came at my favorite car part store. Then I purchased all the required parts.

my full story:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=257978

supercobraz

Ok, read it. Were you going through rotors like I discribed? It sounds like I have an extreme case here. I can't imagine two different brake shop never even suggested that might be a problem. I'm sure they would have been glad to slap new rotors on and charge me out the waazoo. I can't afford to let Nissan do that kind of work, I know we are talking well over..well alot of money. I'll call around and price the calipers.