Rattle in left rear
 

Hi newbie here from down under.

I have a late 07 MY07 auto touring hard top with 104,000Km (65000 miles) on the clock and have a rattle in the rear whenever I go over a bump.

Going along smooth road no noises until I hit a small indentation in the road.The noise occurs in the left rear as the wheel goes down and comes back up.

So far we have replaced the sway bar links and bushes, removed every panel inside the trunk/boot, the two rear shocks have been replaced, the CV joints are good.

Today we removed all internal panels and then removed the shocks and drove the car up and down the drive way ( there is a lip in the concrete driveway of about 1.5 inch) with out shocks and there was no noise.

The shocks are brand new and not OEM

Anybody have ideas what it could be

There's a shitty paper gasket in between the top of the shock and the body. Had mine replaced a few times under warranty, and then finally got smart and made my own. Got a small sheet of rubber (about 3mm thick, called valve packing) at the hardware store and cut my own gasket. 40K miles later and not a single sound from that area since.

that is more than likely the issue

My car makes more wierd sounds than my garbage disposal, how in the world did you pinpoint a paper gasket on top of the strut, you got skillz

car been out for a while and this is one of the known issues

Im pretty sure I just put that messed up paper gasket somewhere in the mix when I replaced my shocks... Guess I should have added some rubber gasket in the mix...

Im pretty sure my exhaust runs on my suspension from time to time, im just hoping that is all its hitting. Its a charley hotel away from my coil bucket. Thats about the only noise that concerns me.

Nissan knew what it was, they just didn't have an improved part to fix it with. There's a thread somewhere on here about the rubber gasket fix, too.

Thanks for the input guys.

We have fitted the 3mm rubber at the top of the shock and the noise has reduced but hasnt gone away completly.

Any further idea's?

Thanks again

Still could be in the top shock mount. Many guys upgrade to the KYB bushings:

Thanks I have ordered the KYB bushings, so will have to wait till they arrive.

Will let you know how it goes

Thanks to everyone for being so helpful

I had similar noises from the rear of my '08 350Z. Replacing the paper gasket didn't fix it. I finally put a thin piece of teflon-like plastic (actually UHMW-PE) between the rubber bushings and heavy washers at the upper shock mounts. It's been absolutely quiet for several years now.

Did the KYB bushings help?