I heard you talked to Bill. I hope yours got fixed because mine is starting again. This time I hear it on the drivers side wheel area when I back up from my driveway and turn the wheel to the right. I have heard it on the passengers side as well but not as bad as it was before just seldom. I talked to the mechanic who told me the Nissan rep installed the removed parts from my car on his and drove it to Cali and no problems.

I think I will wait before I try it to get fixed again and see if more people come up with it rather than try the shotgun approach again.

 

I did talk to Bill, but I haven't had the guts to give the car to my service department just yet. Mine hasn't gotten any worse, and as I mentioned before, I hear it only on the drivers side. It happens exactly as yours does, when backing down out of the driveway and turning the wheel to right. WTF????? This really sucks! There's nothing worse than a "mystery" problem. Perhaps that upper wishbone on yours loosened up again? Bill told me that it was loose when they first checked it, but they changed the part anyway so he wasn't sure if just tightening the bolts would have solved the problem or not.

Let me know if you find out anything else, and I'll do the same. Thanks.

 

Yeah, being that driveability is not affected, I am going to wait a while until more cases come up and they figure out the problem. I going to take it in for oil change and I'll just ask them to take a look and tighten if that is the case but not major case.

 

Until it gets worse, I probably won't do anything either. It does bug me though...I've got an old '94 Ford Taurus wagon with 120,000 miles on it that we use to take our dogs to the park and that car's suspension doesn't make a peep.....

Let me know if they tighten anything up and it works!!

 

Well, I'll let you know tomorrow, I have an appointment to go in for the oil change and they said they can check the steering linkage while they do the oil change and see if there is anything lose.

 

Well I went in for the oil change and told them about the noise, when they had it in the checked the torque on the control arm bolts and found one out of limits so they retorqued it back to specs. You should take it in and just tell them to chek the torque on the bolts and that might be the solution.

 

I'll do exactly that when I take it in for its first oil change. So did retorquing the bolt fix the problem on yours?

 

It seems to have, no more noise that I can tell, we'll see over the weekend, I am doing Autox so that should test it

 

Why are you waiting to take it into the dealer? It was one of the problem areas mentioned a lot. Its a safety hazzard and you should take it in now and not wait.

 

If you read my previous posts, you'd see that it happens only occasionally and does not affect drivability in the least. It is not a safety hazard and there is no point in taking it in to the dealership until it can be duplicated at will.....which it can't. You think I'm going to turn a service department loose on the car to try to find a problem that can't even be duplicated, yet alone identified?? I don't think so. Now that I have little more info from Westpak (thanks, buddy), I will let them retorque all the fittings when the time comes, but thanks for your concern.

 

I am starting to get a squeaking sound coming from the front right. It sounds as if it is in the suspension and it only seems to happen on cold mornings when the car isnt warmed up yet. It is kind of a low pitch squeak.

 

As westpak mentioned, it has become more often. Although I cannot replicate it as westpak did by simply turning the wheel while moving the car, I did hear a series of heavy "clunks" while breaking hard. I wasn't breaking hard enough for ABS to kick in though. The clucking all came from the front right side. Occasionally I have heard the clunking from the rear also at the moment of braking while backing up.

I cannot repeat it myself though as it happens randomly. I am sure on the next hard brake though it will be replicated. I think I am going to go to Palm Nissan since my service department here in Miami didn't know of any Z that had this "clunking" sound het... they have only had Z's with the alignment issue.

 

Yes Mike the problem will not go away on its own just get worse, since having the bolts retorqued the noise has not come back in the last month, so I think that is the fix.

 

Let us know if you find out anything further from the dealership. Mine has not gotten any worse and I still haven't given the car to the service department yet. Sounds like yours is exactly like mine, except I hear the sound on driver's side.

 

Westpak, does this play affect alignment? In otherwords was your car realigned after the second fix?

 

I don't think it affects alignment but I had a slight pull when I first got it and they changed a lot of things trying to fix the clunk the first time so I assume they aligned it and no more pull, I think these are two different problems, but Palm Nissan also fixed pitlizard's pulling problem.

 

I just came across this thread. I'm having the same exact problem as westpak. There is this fairly loud popping sound that come from the front passenger side when I pull ouf of my garage while turning the wheels slightly to the left and also when braking.

I took it to my dealer this morning, and spend a good part of the day there trying to get it to reproduce the sound and did several road tests. It was hard, but I finally figured out how to get it to make the sound on cue consistently. The dealer said they checked the torque on the control arm bushing bolts and they're within specs and they thought the noise was coming from the brake calipers and since the calipers are "designed to move and shift", therefore the noise was normal. Now this noise is a recent addition and definitely wasn't there when the vehicle was new and at times it will even makes the noise even without applying the brakes. What do you think? Is this normal? Are the brake calipers really designed to move and shift and make noise? I've owned more that 20 cars in my lifetime and have never had the brakes make this kind of noise. Guys, I need some help here.

 

Take it to another dealer, they are full of BS.

 

westpak,
great post, i have barely 1, 700 miles on the car, and ive noticed the same noise everytime i back up and turn sharply at slow speeds. Now i know its a problem to correct. thanks again

 

I am experiencing the same problem. I wish there was a TSB!

I've been thinking it's bushings. Every time I back the car out of a parking space, as I turn the wheel, I hear a clunk as something in the front suspension shifts.

I'm expecting a new set of front RE040's (I wish it was a different tire!) at the dealership any day to fix the roaring/feathering problem (TSB 029). I'll have them check the torque on the control arm bolts also.

Thanks for bringing this thread to the top!