Likely worn out bushings. Inspect them for tears/cracks.

 

I'm right there with ya.. posted this in FB to G35 driver.

I REALLY Hope someone has a suggestion! anything would be greatly appreciated!!!
I have an: 2003 g35 sedan 167,xxx second owner. Stock suspension, 19" wheels. Driven very conservatively. I'm the second owner. First owner was an older couple who did all maintenance at the stealership.


So here is my issue.

Going slow under 20mph on bumpy/chattery road, i get a clunky rattle knock sound from the front end, it is more pronounced on the driver side. It sounds like something is loose and rattling around... (it's not a loud bang pop clunk, it is more subdued). If you are going slow say under 15 mph and you lightly tap the brake quickly it will make the same knocking sound. If you repeat the Brake tapping it will make the noise coinciding with the pulse of the brake. The noise started about a year ago and has been slowly getting worse.

In the last few months car has new:
Tires, alignment, lower control arms, compression rods, ball joints, sway bar links and full brake package.

The sway bar bushings are not bad and neither are the struts and strut mounting plates. I tore the entire front end out of the car this weekend (brakes included) and went back over EVERYTHING. Even took the struts apart to inspect it all. I reassembled and everything is tight and ok...Noise is still there.. it is driving me INSANE because I cannot figure out what the F it is..

Have any of you had any similar experiences?? Www is zero help. Everyone suggests replacing what I have replaced...

Anybody have an idea

 

i have been listening to it more and more and i've notice that is sounds higher up in the suspension components, my next target would be the upper control arms. it also sounds a bit closer to the firewall, so maybe not the suspension at all... i just dont get why it only clunks at low speed, i get that at hwy speed might not hear anything but if you're above 35-40 mph is should be present but its not.it is almost as though when you go faster the air resistance causes whatever is clunking to stay in place...

 

Same here.. this iwhy it is frustrating.. others are having the issue but nobody has posted a solution or what they found. My upper a arm bushings and ball joint are good. As you said it sounds like somethjng almost not part of the suspension .

 

gotta dig around more, maybe my mechanic will let me use his lift to investigate again. with this many post about this problem im amazed no one has a concrete answer. ill post if i find something

 

a small update, went to my mechanic friday to check it out again. everything is tight including compression rod. mechanic says next suspect is the top drivers side shock mount. my shocks err, struts look quite old but the car drives and handles great... the sound is coming from high up in the suspension and i can imagine the strut bouncing around at low speeds then settling at high speed. im ordering a new mount for it ($30 on rockauto), meanwhile soaking the old nuts in pb blaster to avoid torture later... will let you know if it worked, i am hopeful

 

give us an update if that does the trick.
I Took my struts apart too to
check that. Mounts were fine. My buddies think it may be the strut. But like your car my struts seem to be fine. I'll get after it some more this week.

 

Eagerly awaiting what you guys find out. It's taken me forever to find someone with the same problem. I've done all ball joint sway bar links struts wheel bearings and all new brakes including abs sensors (i felt like lighting more cash on fire) I'm almost at the point of burning it and claiming fire and theft hahaha

 

I am experiencing the exact same problem as BIG6 and Imuz Me. I have a '05G35x with just over 100k miles (175k km). It started on the passenger side and I changed the compression rods and sway bar end links on both sides. The problem seemed to go away for a while but came back. I then changed the lower control arm and the lower ball joint on the passenger side. Still clunking. I thought it might have to do with the sway bar so I replaced the bushings. This when the driver side started to clunk a bit. I thought maybe I didn't line up the sway bar quite right so I remounted it which didn't help. Last week I removed the sway bar completely now both sides are clunking like crazy. I am thinking maybe it's the upper links or something to do with the upper strut mounts. If I get a helper to accelerate quickly and slam on the brakes I can hear a click that seems to line up with the movement of the upper arm. I am going to keep working on it and maybe one of us will get it sorted.

 

So I was able to a pretty good sound clip of it. Turn the Volume up.. New struts are en route. I'll report back after I change those.

https://youtu.be/g_i6iymZ5EA

 

Right on that's the exact same as what I am dealing with. I had my wife drive over a few bumps with me running along side. I put my hand under the hood on top of the strut mount. I couldn't feel any clunking. I then tried where the upper contol arm bolts through nothing there either. When I stuck my arm in above the tire on the upper contol arm on the ball joint there. It seemed like maybe there is slop in there. It's something that is resonating through aluminum for sure could be where the strut mounts to the lower control arm or the upper controller arm. . Either way, I found a good deal ($120CDN for the pair) on replacement upper control arms so I have them on route. I think one of us is going to have the solved soon.

 

made some progress but Friday will have final answer... last Friday brought my car over to my mech with a new strut mount.. i come to pick it up later that day and he said that he didn't install the strut mount because he found the actual clunking. According to him, its the lower control arm with the ball joint, or compression arm i believe. He said that when the suspension is compressed or uncompressed stationary everything is tight, so they had to compress the suspension while looking at it and he found a gap where it clunking... car is going in again on Friday and i hope thats the last of it

 

So I just finished changing the upper control arms. The ball joints were pretty loose on the old ones. The clunking has reduced significantly but it's still there. I have to be going pretty slow now to get it to clunk. I have pretty much changed out the whole front suspension except for the struts in the last 10k miles so unless the clunk is coming from something i already replaced I am at an impasse. I am considering changing out the struts now because it is definitely linked to the suspension. I always thought that failed struts would be bouncy but that's not the case here. Anyhow, back to the drawing board. You guys have any luck?

 

Blown struts will clunk.

 

Thanks Scottwax. New struts it is. I will have a whole new front end following replacing those. Hopefully good for another 100k miles.