Over the past few month my 2007 G35S sedan has developed a noise. The noise only seems to happen when going slow and turning, backing in/out of a parking spot, taking a slow turn or hitting a bump in the road at a slower speed. It sounds like a click and only happens once until the direction of the car changes either by going forward/reverse or turning, they you might hear it a second time once going in the new direction.

The car has low mileage 40,000 and I have narrowed it down to the front sway bar. When the sway bar is disconnected the sound goes away. I installed new oem sway bar end links and sway bar bushings. The front end parts are tight, I took it into the local Nissan shop and all the ball joints, tie rod ends, bushings, etc are tight in the front end.

I re-torqued every bolt I could get to under the engine, there must have been 30 of them according to the Infiniti Service Manual. It seems to have to do with the sway bar or the pressure that they sway bar puts onto its mounts?

Ideas???

 

sounds like a worn wheel bearing.

if it happens when you reverse direction, search for front axle click diy

 

Thanks for the reply, just checked that DIY but my car is rwd so no front axles.

Front wheel bearings also appeared to be tight when shop checked out the front end yesterday. They basically had no solution for me told me to go back to Infiniti dealer but warranty is out so tryign to diagnose myself without makign the 2 hour drive to them...

Other thoughts?

 

Given your description and the steps already taken, two things come to mind:

First, since it always happens at slow speed and with tight manuvering, I'd check out any contribution the brake calipers could be making, since you are most likely on (or just were on) the brakes. Look for glide pins needing relubed, and/or the actual brake pads and their mountings. At 40K, your pads are probably a bit worn and it's most likely been since new that everthing was lubed.

Next, I'd check out the splash guards around the rotors for possible intermittent contact.

If the noise was in the rear, there was an ITB for a click coming from the rear axle, but that doesn't sound like it fits your scenario. Anyway. good luck to you and please respond back with whatever the 'fix' turns out ot be.

.02

 

I also just replaced the front pads with oem about a week ago, noise was there before also, did a good job cleaning pins with new lube and also installed new oem hardware kit. I will check the rotor shields thanks for that suggestion.

You are right that sometimes the brakes are applied before the sound, I will try doign some manuvers with and without the brakes to see if there is a difference.

I keep thinking it has something to do with the sway bar and maybe where it connects through the bottom strut mount or maybe the top strut mount too, I am going to try to remove the drivers strut toghight and take a look at it and re-install. The noise sounds like it is comign from drivers side but hard to tell as you need to be moving to hear it... It is odd that with the sway bar removed no sound is made.

I'll report back if you haev any otehr idea please share.

 

If it were mine I'd do this:

Find a big open parking lot and try to nail down what provokes the click a little better. Maybe try turning near full steering lock and move forward to see if it clicks. If it doesn't, try lightly applying the brakes while moving and see if it does anything, If that doesn't, then try lightly tapping the accelerator on and off to see if a somewhat jerking motion will do it.

Now, try all that in the opposite steering direction as well, and then do it all over again in reverse. Additionally, you can increase the radius of the circle and/or speed and observe thats effect as well. If it is weight shift or a torsional flex issue, it should present itself. When you remove the sway bar, you minimize the forces these exercises will present to the chassis; the body will just roll instead of having to resist twisting and compressing the suspension. If you can isolate exactly how to provoke the click, you're much closer to identifying it.

.02 more

 

I notice the click 100% of the time when entering/backing out of my garage, the ramp to it is slightly uphill from the main road, so its like going from a level surface to an incline and back to a level surface once in the garage. This noise seems to happen more often when the car going over an unlevel surface. I had my wife go up and down the ramp to the garage so I could see what I could hear, eventually I could hear the sound but it almost seems to be easier to hear when I am in the drivers seat, not sure if that makes sense but it has me scratching my head...

 

I still think it sounds like the wheel bearing.
FYI, just because they did the loose wheel bearing test (im assuming jacked the car and pull/pushed on opposite sides of the tire), it doesnt mean that the bearing is still good.

 

I agree with him ^ I'm going to have to say wheel bearing

 

How would I check to verify it is the wheel bearing?

 

Jack the car up so you can free spin the wheel the rotate it and see if it clicks, also try and wiggle the wheel up and down and side to side if it feels loose then bad bearing

 

The way dealers do it is have someone sit in the car while the car is lifted and accelerate the wheels to a much higher speed than you can free spin it. Then the tech will use a stethoscope to listen to each wheel bearing and hear if there is any noise while each wheel is spinning at around 40mph.

That, IMO, is the best way to do it. Wiggling it and free spinning can only detect if the wheel bearing is really bad and on its way out. If the wheel bearing is just slightly bad, then the above method will do the trick. I've also heard that the wheel sometimes won't even jiggle even when the wheel bearing is bad.

 

+1 for the wheel bearing.

 

Ok say it is the wheel bearing then why the noise only when the sway bar is installed and no noise when it is removed? The sway bar connects to bottom control arm which makes me suspect it would not put any different pressure on the wheel bearing when installed vs uninstalled. Using this theory the only suspension components that would feel a different force with the sway bar installed would be connection points of the lower control arm to frame, the upper control arm and strut.

Am I off on this theory or ?

 

I'd also check the sway bar end links..... they also make a clicking noise when they are worn, by the year and kms in your car that it is more probable than the wheel bearing. Also its easy to check.....
Keep us posted.