Since about January I've been trying to diagnose a front end clunk/rattle I get when the left front tire goes over a small crack in the road (not a bump, a crack). Around 10-20mph can be heard. Took the whole sway bar off and drove it with no change.
It has been looked at by two mechanics. It got much much worse. Up to speeds of 45mph could hear it. After about the 4th time of crawling under the car, I finally find a small tear in the compression rod bushings on both sides of the car on the bottom of the bushings that you can see easily. Replace them and find the top end of the bushings are torn pretty bad. Definatley needed repairs! Problem is that the car is sooo much better BUT the original small rattle is STILL there. After being through the service book a few times checking all ball joints, etc several times in the last few weeks can't find any more signs of worn bushings anywhere else. Sat my wife in the passenger seat and hit different places under the car with a rubber mallet. Only thing that sounds right to her is when I hit the lower part of the strut about 3-4" from the bottom end where it starts to become a bigger diameter. I would take it to more mechanics but they said the only way to diagnose a strut is to bounce it and listen (which I've done and does not reveal the noise), check for leaks(none), and make sure the insulating mount is OK by checking that the top 3 nuts are tight - that when the mount goes bad one gets loose usually.
Also recently checked the top arm for the second time. I tried to get the arm out without pulling the shock and saw the whole front bushing and 90% of the rear. Looks good.

I have also a few times checked the torque on everything I can get my hands on from below and through the engine compartment.

Questions.
How do you test a strut for rattle noises? What would that necessarially mean if anything ?

Would the upper arm bushings cause a rattle? I've seen the TSB and that implies more that the bolts are not torqued properly. Did the TSB once and by taking one bolt out and the other most of the way out I've basically performed it again and got a new set of wrenches that allowed me to get it torqued to specs. this time.

I want to get the aligment done after replacing those compression rod bushings (it's going on 2 weeks now!) but I don't want to get it done then replace a strut in the next few weeks and need another alignment obviously.

Any last minute advice??? I am going out right now to remove the whole sway bar since I've come back to the beginning and fixed some things and take it for a spin. And look at every bushing one more time tonight. I'm ready to just get the alingment done but I've still got one annoying rattle that's on my last nerve and obviously something must be worn out

Ideas??????

Most likely unrelated - had to replace the left wheel bearing in the middle of all of this becuase it started howling sooo bad. Nothing ever changed with the rattle during that repair but it is a part indirectly contacting every bump. The right side may be starting to make a slight noise but it is hard to tell with the condition of my current tires.

 

buy louder exhausts... i know my car is rattle box but i cant hear them over my exhaust.

 

Yeah, but this little rattle got to be huge in just about 3-4 months and ended up being a very necessary repair. I'm ALMOST to that point but don't want to get multiple alignments this year.

 

Took the sway bar completely off and went for a drive. No different.

Only new thing I can add is that I went through an empty public park and noticed if I creep over speed bumps much slower than normal I can get a small noise when the left tire first touches the bump and starts to compress. Basically letting the car roll up to the bump and not climbing up it at all. Can't say that it really does that backing up over the bump after I've been all the way over it. Other than that it's always been reacting to cracks in the pavement from what I can tell, not bumps. Might be a clue.

 

left tire?? im assuming ur in the car.. try pushing the tire... when ur in park get out and with ur foot on the tire give it a push if it makes a noise its ur upper and lower control arm (were they meet.. u will have to replace them both.abought $800) if im not mistaken thats a problem i had..

 

Louder stereo also helps, but the exhaust is key.

 

No noises with that test. Thanks for the idea.

 

Jack the car up and shake the $hit outta the wheel. Left and right, up and down, and try to recreate the noise. it might be a ball joint or a tie-rod. Or it could be a motor mount or something else. but if you shake the wheel and have no play or noise, it's probably not suspension.

 

Tried this tonight. No noise.
Also, the problem I have with checking the ball joints with a pry bar with the service manual method is that all of them at some point when you are putting pressure on them start to pivot. And there is no good place to put a magnetic base dial inidcator on anything to get good readings. But 3 different mechanincs have checked ball joint and tie rod play so I guess it's ok.
I'm at the point that if I get off work on time tomorrow it's getting an alignment and keep the stereo on. How much do those noisy exhausts cost anyway

My last minute save will be if the aligment tech can find anything for me while he does his pre-aligment checks. I'll be sure to let him know not to just glance at it.

 

Dude, an alignment won't make a rattle go away. Take it to the dealer, and have them find the noise. It sounds like your LF strut/mount. Most shops won't charge you anything if they don't find a problem.

 

Rubber mallet

 

What in the world led you to believe that I believed that would fix it? I needed an aligment after replacing my compression rod bushings. Was wanting to find the last rattle and believed it was the strut and wanted to replace the strut too if I could prove what it was since I would need another alignment after a new strut.

Anyway, the two Nissan dealers around here want $41-83 for just the diagnostics charge. And you would have to pay 2-3 times more than doing it yourself so you get the guarantee that if they misdiagnose it there will be no charge for the part - I wonder if they still charge you for the labor? I was at the point of giving up becuase from what I read on the internet people's experiences with stuff like this seems to be a big guessing game with most mechanics. True, most shops I've talked to about this including the dealers said that if the part doesn't fix it I don't pay for it and they take the part back. Kind of just was at the point that the noise is less of an inconvenience than people playing swap the part with my car.

I was already at the point that I think it's related to the strut so I appreciate the vote for the strut/mount. Did you base this on any clues that I gave???

 

You never know, if you decide to pay the $41-83 for the dealer to find it, it may be a common thing that they see all the time. Yeah from what you were saying it sounds like the strut/mount. But I don't replace a strut without replacing the mount at the same time. Also, something to think about, the most common clunk problem I see is with sway bar links, just something to think about. A pontiac I had at work yesterday clunked and needs links, and my Z has a little rattle/clunk in the rear that I just bought a set of links for too cause I found the RR one had some play.