I bought a used 07 G35X about 9 months ago. Love the car. It had some sort of generic Goodyear OEM tires on it. They still had some treadlife but not much and over the last 4-5 months we've been getting a wump wump noise from the front right at the same RPM as the tire/wheel. Nothing stuck in tire. Took it to a dealership just before warranty expired. They told my wife it was tire noise but wrote that they couldn't hear anything on the work order (it isn't real loud but it is clearly audible). Nothing was inspected. Nothing repaired.

Anyway, one of the Goodyears had a slow leak so I replaced all four with new tires. Wump, wump, wump is still there. Warranty has expired.

Any ideas what this might be? It does not get worse with braking. Maybe a little worse when turning but not much. There is no pulse in the brake pedal. Car tracks normally and there is no vibration. The sound is more of a faint thump and does not sound metalic. No screeching or squealing.

CV joint? Warped brake rotor? Wheel bearing?

 

Could be a bad wheel bearing. Bad CV joint, from my experience, also results in shaking of steering wheel at certain highway speeds but can't rule it out either. Warped rotors are usually result in brake judder but should not be causing this kind of noise when not braking. If your car pulls to one side slightly when braking you may have a sticking caliper.

 

Took the X to an import repair shop. The mechanic drove the car and feels certain it is a wheel bearing. He's looking into a repair estimate.

It really ticks me off that when my wife took the car to the dealership they told her it was tire noise and then marked on the service sheet that they did not hear anything. The car was under warranty then. It is not now. That's just creepy for them to do that. They will not get good recommendations from me.

Anyway, I'm pretty shocked that a car with only 60k miles on it has a bad wheel bearing. I've never had a car or truck wear out a wheel bearing and I've driven some real junk in my time...I think everything on my 76 Cherokee fell apart except the wheel bearings. And I've beat the dickens out of a bunch of 4x4 trucks and never had a bad wheelbearing.

I just hope this costs less than $500. Just got through spending $1000 to have the front bumper replaced after my daughter hit a cat at about 60 mph.

 

Tehehehheeh WUMP WUMP WUMP!!!

 

Oh wow hit a cat that sucks I just ran over a dead cat on the freeway and I was lucky that it didn't damage anything

 

Ya wheel bearings are a common issue on the FX AWD from what i have read online but the DIY is pretty simple but time consuming. If you find a reasonable mechanic then it should be taken care off under $500 for both front bearings

 

Thanks for the info. I had not heard of this being a problem before....but that makes it even worse that the dealership blew it off.

I'm going to see if the mechanic will give me the old bearings....I'd like to see who actually made them and what the defect is.

 

ya that should be interesting, because the cause on FX was ppl taking semi-hard corners on such a heavy vehicle or ppl hitting curbs hard... keep us posted on how much it costs.

 

We should all expect this by now. Dealerships always have and always will cut corners to save costs.

 

Yep. Fool me once...I will be wiser next time....1) not send my wife and 2) pin the guy down and check the service order before I leave.

Anyway, I bought the car with 50k on it so who knows what the previous owner did to it. But, the car literally look brand new when I bought it.

Nissan quoted $385. Still waiting to hear back from import shop.

 

^$385 just for one side or both, and are they quoting to replace just the bearings or the entire wheel bearing hub assembly? If they quoted you just for the bearing on one side then that is an outrageous price and if charging for entire bearing hub assem. on just one side then youre paying about $200 for labor so its your call.

Cause just bearings are really cheap but require a bit more labor, and replacing the hub assembly is easier and recommended, one side hub should cost you no more than $180. Its a reasonable DIY if you like working on your car and want save a couple hundred bucks, im sure you can find a DIY on it somewhere online, or if you want to do this and cant find it lemme know and ill look for it.

Its better to replace both front at same time to avoid headaches of the other one going out soon after but its your call.

Hope this helps

g/l and keep us posted

 

Just for one side. This Nissan dealership is always high. Can usually get work done elsewhere for a lot less but for some reason the import shop is having a hard time getting an estimate for me. They called back and wanted the VIN???? I have no idea why. It could be because my wife told them it was a G35i. Women!?! But, he did drive it and she called him back and told him it was an 'X' so I can't figure the VIN thing

My wife is handling all this so I haven't talked with anyone myself...I just don't have a whole lot of time. So, I don't know if that's just for the bearing or the whole hub assembly. Now that i know which questions to ask I'll pin them both down.

I still expect the import shop will come in well below the Nissan place.

I'm a fairly handy back yard mechanic but I've moved into a very old home without a garage and it is currently being renovated so even if I wanted to tackle this I couldn't.

Thanks for the help and I will keep you posted.

 

This is why I bought the extended warranty... stuff like this. Unfortunately, dealerships are notorious for pooh-pooing a real problem as a non-issue which later results in $$$

 

of course, if they cant "replicate" it they aint gotta spend money. All they gotta do is not replicate it until the car is out of warrenty...or fix it...which is easier?

 

Well it all depends on what the issue is and how you deal with them imo, for example in this case, its very easy to "replicate" the sound cause the car is going to make it all the time when driven and you can even point them into the right direction.

However they might misdiagnose it a few times on purpose to try and avert major repairs and reduce costs and/or to buy some time but sooner or later they will have to fix it IF you are persistent and the issue remains. The extended warranty is a lengthy one and by the time it expires i really doubt that anyone would be so meticulous about their car.