willard00

iTrader: (1)

ok for the past few weeks i have been hearing a rattling sound from my front right side of my car when going over bumps. im almost positive its something with my suspension. i just replaced my old stock struts with KYB GR2s about 3-4 months ago and i never changed the strut mounts. also, i was told i may have blown one of the GR2s...but is it possible that they have blown that quickly (or likely)?? i have checked and checked every bolt i can. nothing seems to be loose. i was told to check the sway bar bushings, i looked at them and they seem to be alright...but then again i dont know how to tell if they were bad. they had a few cracks in them but werent really dried out or anything. i tightened the bolt that holds the strut/spring assembly together as tight as i could(the one in the middle of the 3 strut tower bolts)...but i was thinking maybe its too tight...because wouldnt you want it to be a little loose so the spring is pushing away from the strut a little and keeping everything nice and tight? does that make sense to anyone else or am i just making that up? haha

i searched and found a similar thread in the 5th gen forum that gave a great explination of what it sounds like. they said "it sounds like pop corn popping when youre going over bumps 'pop-pop-pop' " (obviously its a little deeper of a sound than popcorn though, and no, not like something is popping out of place)

thanks in advance for any help. i know ive posted about this recently in a different thread..but i lost the link and the title wasnt really acurate to what my problem was. so sorry for the semi-repost.

ps-im strapped on cash right now(just out of college looking for a job), so im trying to be almost positive on what my problem is before i replace anything. or else ide just try the strut mounts to see if they cure it since theyve never been changed.

pps-i have also just found a thread in the 5th gens saying people have fixed this problem by getting new wheel bearings. how plausible is that for our 4th gens? would a bad wheel bearing make a jingle noise? like a coule coins being shaken? the past 2 days ive gotten that type of sound. nevermind. i just jacked the car up and did the 12 & 6 shake test for play and there wasnt any. however i found that if i tryed to spin the wheel there was a slight clicking noise...is that normal??

willard00

iTrader: (1)

forgot to mention that i pushed down on every corner of my car and each time it would go down, come up. there was no excessive bouncing. which means struts are good right?

mikey chalupa

I don't know about the clicking sound. I had GR-2 with Progress Springs and never got that kind of a sound. It might be the springs rubbing up against each other, but you did say it happened when you jacked the car up.

willard00

iTrader: (1)

huh? i didnt say anything about a clicking sound....

i did a little google research and found out that bad strut mounts will give a little bit of play, which mine seem to have. im gunna call nissan today to see how much they are and figure out if im going to buy OEM or KYBs. (unless OEM are nearly the same price, ill probably go with KYB). i really can not think of anything else that might be the problem...

phenryiv1

iTrader: (19)

I think that he was referring to this:

willard00

iTrader: (1)

oh yea, completely forgot about that...lol. im going now to get some strut mounts and hopefully put them in today if im not feeling lazy from hockey this morning. ill update with whether or not they did the trick!

phenryiv1

iTrader: (19)

Are you 100% positive that everything was put back together in the right order and right orientation?

kc10fish

iTrader: (1)

had the same problem - jack the front of the car and then tighten the bolt in the middle. on mine i couldn't tighten it anymore with the weight on the car. when jacked i got one full turn out of it.

As for the strut mounts -

Lift the hood, put car in drive but creep it – apply the breaks (strongly) and look at the strut coming through the middle of the mount. If it makes contact with the fwd side of the mount you have a bad mount. That is what happened to mine. Another example of a bad mount is when going down the road around 60mph and applying the breaks slowly and lightly you will have a slight sound like what you’re talking about with a little shimmy.

kc10fish

iTrader: (1)

PS: i went with the KYB mounts but have monroe mounts as backup's. the monroe come with the strut bearing's and kyb's i dont remember but i think they did not come with them. the monroe's were 35 bucks.

good luck and let us know what you find.

phenryiv1

iTrader: (19)

That was a mistake, IMO. I would guestimate that 95% of people with non-OEM strut mounts end up with binding due to premature bearing failure.

kc10fish

iTrader: (1)

no failure as of yet - but its only been a month - with hard driving in the moutains. But i must say that i will when i have to, i will go with the OEM bearings. As for the mounts - time will tell. Is there any other mount that you know of after market that is better? I throw up every time i hear the dealers prices.

phenryiv1

iTrader: (19)

Well, the stock mounts themselves don't really go bad. The bearings might, but I have seen mixed reviews on opening them up and using white lithium grease to re-lubricate them. I did that on the I30 and the 00 and never had a bearing go bad on either one. I replaced the bearings in the 96 Maxima and never had a problem there either.

I say keep the stock mounts and either replace or re-grease the OEM bearings. Replace any cracked rubber bushings, but nothing metal really needs to be replaced.

This from personal experience.

kc10fish

iTrader: (1)

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=477524

found this in the susp/brakes fourm. o yeah and i ment brakes not breaks. so sorry. just woke up.

willard00

iTrader: (1)

hmm..i went to the dealer today and got 'strut mounts'....except not. they guy gave me just the bracket with the studs that you screw the strut tower bolts on to. ugh....gotta go back tomorow. ill try jacking the car up and tightening that bolt. i hope it works.

phenryiv1, i have also heard that KYB strut mounts werent as good as stock. but since i asked for strut mounts at the dealer, and didnt get them...i ordered some anyway. if you could tell me what it is i want to ask for at the dealer than i will cancel the order.

MorpheusZero

iTrader: (10)

I think this is what he's talking about. The part number is in the photo.

kc10fish

iTrader: (1)

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=511884

here is the how to and the parts page. Enjoy - please be careful when taking the strut out. Good luck.

willard00

iTrader: (1)

morpheus....that is what i want, but didnt get. i just called tirerack to cancel the KYBs because i was able to tighten the bolts more when the car was jacked up but they were already sent out. instead of losing $15 for shipping i may just install them to see if they fix the problem completely (if i cant tighten any more bolts & the problem doesnt go away). but after i tightened the bolts took it for a drive and the noise was still there, but not as bad. im thinking i need to tighten the bottem bolts more too...which im planning to do after dinner.

on the passengers side, i jacked the car up and tightened it. at first it was semi-hard to tighten but then suddenly became quite easy and just kept turning and turning...that means i reached the bottem of the threads right? or should i keep trying to tighten it more? i should mention only the passenger side front strut sounds loose...

Max Noob

iTrader: (5)

bad strut bearings will make weird clicking/popping noises when your are turning your steering wheel. they dont make too much noise over bumps.. when my bearings blew, you could totally tell because they were cracked. also when you turn the steering wheel, you either feel a little too much play or a little tightness in the wheel at different parts of the turn.