2003 QX4: Rubber sounding Squeak after front suspension refresh

[AlanAZ]

I refreshed the front suspension, everything but the springs, all OEM except for retail KYB Excel-G struts and ProForged sway bar links, at 150K miles. Six months and 2K miles later, the left side only started squeaking, a rubber sounding squeak from the top of the suspension, when maneuvering in the garage / driveway and over bumpy roads.

I checked the torque on strut top nut and mount. It's been a year since then, it's gotten worse, particularly when it rains, and I think it is feeling somewhat looser on this side. Vehicle used on mostly good roads, no salt, no towing, NO off-road, we do take it easy over bigger bumps, although we did loan it to our somewhat cavalier son before it started. No squeaks at all before the much needed refresh. Both mounts completely torn. (Monroe struts done at 85K were still OK -- nothing else was replaced, and all of that was gone.)

One thing, I lined up the marks at the top before unwinding the spring compressors, but by the time I finished, they were off by 3/8". It did not look like that was enough to be a problem, and the right side was the same and never a squeak from there. Alignment done 1 month after refresh.

I am thinking it is the (Nissan OEM) strut mount?, but any advice / experience would be much appreciated.

[mdmellott]

I am thinking it is the (Nissan OEM) strut mount?, but any advice / experience would be much appreciated.

If you are referring to the lower half of the strut mount, that piece that holds the spring compressed, I doubt that is it. The one thing unique about that all steel part is that it is designed to have the OE bumper/boot plug into it securely. Even on my old '91 PF it was the same as my '02 PF where the bulb end of the boot locked into the pocket of those OE strut mounts. I never had any luck with aftermarket bumper/boots from Monroe or KYB. They always fell away from the mount or just kissed up against it, rubbed on the mount and made noise, and then eventually the boot part would prematurely crack.

The upper and lower spring seats were always noisy issues as well with aftermarket parts I have had. My lower ones are nothing more than a split tube sleeve, only available as OE as far as I know. The uppers come in a variety of cheap aftermarket brands of this rubber part.

The all plastic shell pivot bearings from Monroe and KYB are noisy junk as well. I was a bit disappointed when I finally replaced the junk bearings with OE and found that Nissan/Infiniti had switched to all plastic shells also. At least the OE brand did not make any noise. The actual original bearings had steel shells.

One thing I have learned from experience is that I have found no aftermarket suspension part made of rubber that doesn't prematurely fail or make noise soon after installation. Sway bar bushings. control arm bushings, springs seats, jounce bumpers, boots, and I'll throw in steering rod ends and ball joints as well. Although those last two are not rubber, only OE parts have proved to be reliable replacements as I have also found to be the case with all those plastic and rubber suspension parts.

The one spring not seated, being about 3/8" from where it should be, may be a contributing factor to the noise. It should be corrected.

[AlanAZ]

Thank you for the reply. Apologies for not explaining it better.

The springs are positioned correctly. All components are OEM, except struts are non-Nissan KYB, from my service log:

Replaced front struts (KYB Excel-G 335035/6, Nissan: strut mounts 54320-2W100, bearings 54325-5V000, upper rubber seat 54034-0W000, bumper/boot 54050-0W002)

If I recall correctly, the alignment I wrote about is between the strut mount and the mount to the tower: the strut mount has a triangle stamped in it, and the tower mount has a notch? I checked the FSM, but it has no mention, I may has seen this in a Forum post or Youtube.

[mdmellott]

My bad. I thought the 3/8" offset you were referring to was the end of spring at the bottom not quite positioned right into the lower recess of the strut seat. You got all the best parts. There is one other piece, a strut mount insulator 54329-0W000, but it's not a critical item as long as it's in place. Mine were torn but I reused them with no issues. The alignment cutout just needs to face inward. I don't think 3/8" off from perfect is going to matter. I don't know what to make of the noise in this case.