As planned, I replaced my front control arms today. Front end is now quiet, no clunking. There is no visible damage on the old control arms. But when I pulled the arms out, I ended up with a lot of rubber bits and dust on the driveway. Seems like the rubber bushings deteriorated. At any rate, its fixed now.
Bill > Since my first posting on this subject, I have pulled the struts out,
disassembled and inspected them. The top bearings seemed to have a little play,
> but everything else looked okay. I put in new bearings (they only cost $6 each)
> and reinstalled the struts. Suspension still clunking.
>
> I ran an autocross Sunday, and now there is even more clunking. Only now it is
> more frequent, and like creaking instead of clunking, on braking and
> acceleration. One of the Sentra guys at the autocross suggested replacing the
> lower control arms -- his old Sentra SER made a lot of noise until he replaced
> them. I checked and Mossy Nissan has them in stock for $142 each. These include
> the rubber bushings and a new ball joint. Lacking any other ideas, I think that
> I will replace the control arms this weekend and see if that helps. >
> Bill in San Diego
> 98 Sentra SE 2.0
>
>
>>I've got this annoying clunking sound from the front suspension of my 98 > > Sentra
>
>>SE 2.0. At first, it occured primarily while accelerating from a stop and
>>turning (at the same time). It has become increasingly frequent, and now > > occurs
>
>>also on straight acceleration, and when applying the brakes, or sometimes > > when
>
>>going over bumps. I replaced both axles. There was a temporary improvement, > > but
>
>>over the course of a couple days, the clunking came back. I pulled the > > struts,
>
>>inspected the ball joints and everything else I could think of. There was > > again
>
>>a temporary improvement. I pulled the right axle back out to replace the seal
>>(I had dislodged it while installing the axle), reinstalled, and again there > > is
>
>>a temporary improvement -- on both sides. (The clunking comes from either > > side,
>
>>not at them same time though.) It seems that jacking up the front end
>>temporarily reduces the frequency and amplitude of the clunking. >>
>>I'm thinking the only other possiblities are the brake calipers and springs.
>>Could the calipers shifting around make a clunking noise? I have KYB AGX > > struts
>
>>with stock springs. Maybe the springs shift around on the perches and cause
>>this noise? I guess I'll be pulling the struts back out and inspecting
>>everything in detail, but I'm otherwise not sure what to do.