i had a similar issue in the front passenger side. at first i thought i might have a warped rotor, but it turned out to be the nut holding the swaybar to the end link came off. new nut in place, rattling is gone.

Yea, I don't think my situation is as simple as that.

Should I spend $200 on a new compression rod?

i had the same noise after i bought my car, i though it was the front suspension too but it turned out to be a lose bolt in the front brake caliper. if i hit the wheel hard enough with my hand i could hear the noise too.

This isn't a loose bolt. LOL

I feel like an idiot, the top left strut mount nut was loose. Tightened it up last night and wasn't annoyed on the work commute!

Thanks everyone, I hope it doesn't come back.

HA (loose bolt comment)! Glad to hear it was an easy fix.

i finally found my noise problem. wound up being the sway bar endlink ball joint bushing, or something like that.

i couldnt beleive that one little bushing that had just a little bit of play was causing my front end noise. $27 for a new one and problem finally fix.

After the H-Tech install.. got a rattling sound in the driver side front at low speeds.. lone behold it was as simple as a few shots with the impact wrench to the top nut on the strut and re-torquing the strut mount bolts in the engine bay. After that the rattle was gone.

In the servce manual it says to torque the top strut nut to 44ft-lbs... How would you do that if it will spin the complete strut when done by hand??

Gonna look into this. Thanks guys

Thanks to this thread, I was able to go see the shop near my house and against the service manager's opinion, have the technician tighten up the nut on my driver strut and voila...PROBLEM GONE.

Now my car rides MUCH better and all the noises are GONE. I'll post a review for my new setup shortly

Reviving death itself, here. Just replace passenger front strut on 06 G35x with 180,000 miles for the first time, and going to get around to the driver very soon, too.

Rattling was WAY worse after first replacing the strut, mount plate, dust boot, and spring insulator today. Turns out, I just needed to impact the hell out of the upper strut mount nut. I went ahead and tightened the old nut on the original strut on the driver side, too, and was able to get another 1-1/2 to 2 threads down on it as the mounting insulators are completely compressed (they seem to get really soft as they get older, bending easily in my hand, compared to the new ones).

Anyway, this tightened up the handling and eliminated more noise than end links and compression rods combined.

Another thing I noticed was how good the condition of the factory original strut was after 9 years. I really don't think I needed to change it, although it did rebound from compression a hair faster than the new one I put on, as tested by my hands/body weight.

Anyway, check your center strut mount nuts!

All, I've been chasing this same problem for months.
03 G35 Sedan sport package. aftermarket 19's w/ stock suspension. 143,xxx miles.
Clunk is on both sides and happens when going in and out of driveways over the curb or in and out of strip mall entrances when the wheels are turned or over bumpy roads. It is really subdued and sounds like something is loose..
I have checked everything and yesterday I replaced the compression rods and lower control arms.. Still there... It is getting really irritating.

The clunk is your anti-sway bar endlinks. Good news, it's only gonna cost you RWDers $30 to do both sides!

To verify it's the culprit, simply unbolt the sway bar from the existing end links and zip tie the bar up to the chassis, give it a test spin, and if no clunk, voila.

check both bushings on the LCA's, I had the same problem and that was the culprit

Tie bar ends are the culprit more than they should be...