2000 Maxima front end clunking noise on rough road

probably has a bad strut

Check the upper strut mount. Open the hood and position yourself where you can see the bolt at the top of the right front strut. Bounce that corner of the car. If you see any movement by the strut bolt relative to the mount, the upper strut mount is blown out. About $40 for a new one. You have to remove the strut and disassemble the spring from it to get it off.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look at that this weekend. Its too cold and dark this time of the year in Dallas, TX., 35 degree F this morning :-)

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look at that this weekend. Its too cold and dark this time of the year in Dallas, TX., 35 degree F this morning :-)

This may sound odd but I had a similar noise on my 2K Maxima coming from seemingly right front end. I took my car to dealer a few times. They checked suspension out thoroughly. Tried to tweak suspension and nothing helped. Finally they determined the noise was coming from B-pillar on passenger side and because of the way sound bounced inside cabin, it sounded like it was coming from right front end. They stuffed the B pillar with foam and the noise has disappeared since.

============ Khalid Aziz

Sorry for the double post. I don't really know how that happened. The b-pillar solution does seemed odd. Anyone else having the same problem please post your experience. BTW, my onw daily driver is also a Maxima (SE, 2002).

Sorry for the double post. I don't really know how that happened. The b-pillar solution does seemed odd. Anyone else having the same problem please post your experience. BTW, my onw daily driver is also a Maxima (SE, 2002).

Hi, I checked the upper struts mount per E. Meyer's suggestion. It seemed that the upper struts mount is fine. I do not see any movement at all as I move the front right fender up and down. The bolts are tight. I do hear a click each time I push down and release that side of the front end though. So I am at a lost. In the past (American cars) I can check ball joint by raising the suspect front-end under the a-frame and then using a long crow bar try to raise the tire/wheel and check for free movement due to loose ball joint. I did this and cannot detect any looseness. So I think this part is ok too. Anyone else have an idea? What about you Nissan Tech? In your experience, what front-end part of late model Maximas seemed to go bad? Thanks. PS: My 2002 Maxima exhibit no noise as I do the same test (and did not clucnk, yet.)

If the mount is not coming apart, NissTech's first suggestion is where you should be looking - bad strut.

I found a Nissan TSB for this problem on the net (TSB 00-030), and it seemed that the problem was caused by the spring insulator at the bottom end of the coil. The TSB described how to re-position the insulator so the end tip of the coil does not hit the strut plate. I will probably do that as the weather warms up here in Dallas (I have a spring compressor). To Nissan experts, should I go ahead and replace the strut assembly? It seemed to be working fine and I wondered if I have to take this apart again soon if I don't do that (recall the car has 50+K miles). Thanks.

I would not replace it unless you feel it's showing symptoms. You should be able to lift the front of the car, remove the wheel, compress the spring, and work with the insulator. This will avoid a follow-up alignment and be much faster.

Dave

Its been a while, but here's a follow-up. Nisstech is right on the button with his first suggestion about bad struts. I ordered an OEM replacement set and replaced both struts this past weekend. The car runs like new again now. Looking at the old struts, I can see that the right one is totally gone, no damping action whatsoever. The center shaft would just ride to the top real fast when I pushed down on it and quickly release. Hence the clunking noise. The left side is ok, but not as stiff as the new one when activated. Thanks to all who contributed to this resolution.