My wife's been complaining of an occasional squeak or clunk from the front passenger's side. I jacked it up tonight, pulled the tire off, and poking around - discovered the rear lower control arm bolt loose. Attempted to tighten it but it just spins. I assume the nut in the subframe is supposed to be welded or somehow held captive but is not. How do I correctly got about remedying this situation? I'm considering cutting a hold through the side of this subframe "rail" to gain access to the nut, tightening it, and getting someone to weld it up again for me. Appreciate any knowledge or wisdom on the subject.

Hi and welcome to NICO Club! I think your transmission is in that area. Do you have a CVT? That or driveshaft could 'clunk'. Have you had any servicing on the vehicle that lead to this 'clunk' occurring? When and how does the 'clunk' occur? I mean, what driving conditions lead up to it.

As far as suspension and control arms and such, there is no cutting and welding. If the nut spins with the bolt, then you need to get a wrench onto the other end of the bolt.

Here is a link to the front suspension chapter of the FSM. On page FSU-4 are some basic trouble shooting techniques for similar stuff (although 'clunk' ins't the word used).
http://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual? ... /Sedan/FSU

The rest of the FSM chapters can be found here:
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Versa/2012/Sedan/

The rear bolt on each side goes through the control arm and into an enclosed channel. See . The nut is inaccessible.

Sorry, I see no image upload option so attempted to embed a link to my PicasaWeb photo. Doesn't look like that worked. How can I post or link to the pic?

Thanks.

Hi Scott, I can see the picture by looking at the link in the message, but I can't seem to fix it so it embeds. I think I'd have to log into Google to get the embed link. It's missing a part, possibly at the end with a .jpg or .img or something.

I looked at the image, the FSM and a few video tutorials of the lower control arm. There seems to be nothing on the other side of the bolt. I mean it looks like it's bolting into a threaded hole in the chassis. In watching the videos and looking at the parts, it's quite possible that the bushing in there is worn out and that's your clunk. There or in the ball joint.

So, as far as tightening or loosening that rear bolt, I'm not sure what the issue is. Hopefully the hole and bolt haven't become stripped. Perhaps it's unscrewed all the way and not in line with the hole so it needs to be wiggled into position. I understand your just trying to tighten it, but can you loosen it and remove the entire bolt? If so, maybe look up into the hole and get a visual on the threads inside the hole?

If I get home tonight and there's still some sun out, I'll take a look at my wife's Versa and see if I can tell what's going on in there.

BTW - I looked into embed google album photos and read that there is not a way to embed them currently. Only to share a link, which you kind of did. People use their google drive for embedment. I use an accountless image hosting site.