Originally Posted by AuAltima3.5

will the linked ball joints above work on 05-07 cars?

Originally Posted by Blue Dream

I put the Megan rca's on my 05 sedan a couple of weeks ago. Car has 118K miles and both boots were torn on the oem's. Had a bad pop when turning and going up inclines before the install and it's completely gone now. I also had to get a new alignment and had had one less than a month prior. So I believe they worked like they should in changing the geometry of the suspension and voila, the popping is gone. The popping can be a hard noise to pinpoint, when my front endlinks went bad the made the same sound.

Originally Posted by yosip1115

thanks for chiming in. I'm not sure if this guy is completely correct:
http://forums.nicoclub.com/megan-rol...r-t485861.html
(saying they are junk)

I'm contemplating buying the cheapo's vs the megans...
I know they lower the height of the lower control arms, but supposedly they do not lower the pivot point therefore I'm not sure what to get!!

Originally Posted by Blue Dream

3 Years and 20K miles later and the Megans are still working great.

Originally Posted by obender66

There're a lot of threads and complaints about front end clunks, pops, squeaks an so on. I hope to summarize possible culprits ans steps to exterminate them. Steps are somewhat arranged in order you should attempt to fix the issue.
I have 141 K km on my car which is 90% city use on quite rough roads as well as 6 summers of autocrossing and track days. As of 2 hours ago it is 100% clunk free.

1) Worn out sway bar end link. Replacement cost $30-$40, usually DYI, unless it is seized and it must be cut off. How to troubleshoot:
-lift BOTH sides of the car and place it on jack stands. Or, if you have drive on ramps, drive on top of them
-remove end-link to control arm nut and push end link out. Do one at a time to pinpoint the bad one
-tape it to the sway bar
-go for a drive. It is perfectly safe.
-if clunk is gone, then there's bad end link. If not, then there's something else.

2) Compression rod bushings-this problems starts as early as 50K km.
- Option 1-get replacement compression rods. Cost-about $150-$180 each + 1.5 hours of shop labour. Problem WILL come back again.
- Option 2-get Energy Suspension compression rod bushings. Entire front end kit is $90-$100, you may want to get full kit-read on. Installation is within 1 hr of shop time

3) Worn out lower ball joints. They do knock more when wheels are turned and they knock during weight shift, like coming to full stop. There's no way to identify failed ball joint unless you have special tools. They gonna feel tight no matter what. Leaking boot is some indicator. Parts-$60 per pair, labour-2-2.5 hours. Not DYI job, although I've seen DYI how-to.

4) Worn, or rather completely destroyed inner bushings in front control arm. They come in kit mentioned in #2. Labour-1hr. Why not do outer bushings(shock mount) as well-included in kit too? That's another 30 minutes.

5) Worn out ball joint in front upper control arm(fork or "A"-shaped arm). Here's video how to check for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpi7gVhyZGg
Replacement if fairly easy, just be ready to remove shock and have grinder on hand-old ball joint will have to be cut off. There's conical seat which will be PIA to remove(it must be transferred to new arm)-do not event try to pry it out- cut it off the old arm, place cone on top of vise(do not tighten-just set on top with narrow side up) and punch remains of old bolt out. If you have coilovers, there's no need to remove shock-lower the spring perch all the way down to get spring out of the way.
Cost-$80 each aftermarket(cast aluminum) or $130 Nissan OEM replacement. There's a wide range of aftermarket adjustable arms as well. I went with $80 ones-car is likely to fall apart in 3-4 years(or rather-I will kill it!) and they should last this time.
Replacing at the shop-1.5 hours for both.

6) Worn out shock mount. I never dealt with this issue, because I went with coilovers which have pillow ball upper mount. However, clunks didn't go away.
It helped some members, so I do not rule it out. I do not know the cost of the part, but labour time is about 1hr. It is DYI job, but you need to rent coil spring compressor.


I also noticed that replacing one of the components with stronger part makes something on the brink of failure to fail quicker.After I replaced compression rod bushings I enjoyed clunk free ride for few weeks. After 3 autocrosses ball joint started to knock like crazy. Right now it is quiet again.
Since I have replaced everything, but tie rod ends I expect them to start making noise in near future. I'll put some Tein's in

Originally Posted by cleric670

Are you sure it's not just a worn out strut that's making the clunking sound?

You didn't mention anything about wheel bearings being replaced.

EXACTLY what conditions does it make the noise, be very detailed in your description.