Hey everyone,

New to the forum, and to Rogues in general, and I've done some searching on here and elsewhere, but cannot find any direct information regarding what I'm dealing with. I noticed a single, medium volume click or clunk sound emanating from the front drivetrain area when the vehicle changes direction (forward/reverse) or momentum (speed or throttle/brake application while traveling in the same direction.) It only happens once in each direction/momentum shift, meaning assuming I'm going a constant speed, were I to brake or apply throttle, it may or may not make a noise, but only once until the momentum or direction shifts again. This is accompanied by a barely perceptable lag as the play between the shafts and the transaxle is taken up in either direction. It is like the noise one hears when parking on a slight incline, putting the car in park, and taking your foot off the brake, that slight roll back and clunk of the parking pawl engaging the gears. It seems to be that if I am in park, and shift to reverse or drive, the noise happens once the tranny shifts into gear and power is being teansmitted to the CV shafts. If this is anywhere near normal for this type of drive setup, I've never heard of it. I haven't taken it to the dealer yet, as I want to do my diligence and document the problem so I can avoid the running back and forth while they say they can't find the problem. Any help or thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Also, having jacked each side of the car up alternately, there is some rotational play between the CV shafts and the transaxle, the entire assembly from the lugs to the inner boot and (bushing?)rotate in either direction when the car is in park. This motion makes a sound suspiciously like the sound I hear mentioned above. Is it normal to have rotational play between the CV shaft assemblies and the transaxle? I've looked around and can't seem to find specific information on this.

Was anything done before this happened? Check the brake pads for too much clearance on the cradle. When checking for clearance be sure that the pad is square. Let me know.

I hear the same clunk sound when going from reverse to forward motion. It's coming from the front braking pads pads. When you go back and stop the pad will slightly move backward, when you move forward and stop the pad will move and hit the end. This is when cold. When hot the peds will expend and there will be no noise.

I disagree with the last post. Pads will never expand that much to take up a noise that was there before, the difference in looseness is too great generally. Besides that most brake pads have anti-rattle clips or other retention devices that push the pads forward to remove looseness and be loaded there as normal, it's done to stop any noise. Brake can make noise at very slow speeds but if both hearing and feeling the clunk at higher speeds simply with the on and off of application of power it's likely not brakes.

Depending on how the engine/trans package is supported, the noise is likely from a mount. Most setups have certain mounts that do most of the actual weight supporting and others then stop the whole thing from rotating under load like letting off power and then getting back on it. That model has a couple of torque rods that could be the problem, they commonly stop powertrain rotation and if getting loose they will most definitely let the engine make noise as it then rocks too much to hit limits it normally does not hit. That makes the clunk.

Pretty much ALL CV axles will have a lot more rotation in them than most people think, it is normal and at the splines or deeper in any inner joint that allows plunging which is needed as the axle goes in and out of trans due to suspension motion changes. The outer short wheel stub that fits in wheel bearing should be pretty tight to the first outboard axle section though, that is the Rzeppa joint with balls in it and needs to be pretty tight. The next joint will be the loose one that seems to have something wrong with it. If talking rocking the axle back and forth in relation to trans case then the play goes up a whopping amount more, you are rotating through a stackup of several internal clearances there, it can be common to rock the tire up to an inch and still be fine.

If you have someone you trust implicitly you can get them to be in driver seat while you watch the powertrain with the hood open. Be out in an empty parking lot with some room and then have person hold the brake on hard and at the same time push the throttle down to load the chassis while trans is in gear both D and R. Don't let them tear car up, just load it good and watch how much the engine rotates in the engine bay. Normal is up to an inch or maybe slightly more, if it moves way more than that then whatever mount stops that is likely bad. You may even be able to grab engine and simply rock it back and forth to find the slack, I've done it on other cars before.

Ok well, thanks for the detailed information, I will check out the brakes first, and then if I don't find anything there, we will start looking for mounts/drivetrain support equipment that could be the source. I really like the suggestion to put load on the drivetrain in park and reverse, and I do have someone who I can trust not to destroy my car . I will get some documentation and look into both of these possibilities and post with what I find. I'm glad to hear that the play I'm getting in the transaxle to wheel assembly is normal, I know that if it wasn't that could be the beginnings of a massive problem, although I'm still under power train warranty so Nissan would end up footing that bill, most likely. Again, thanks amc49, RGOLD and otto888man. Also to reference amc49s post, I'm going to verify this, but I don't think I've ever heard it at a "high" speed, mostly when stopping/starting, and momentum shifts at City driving speeds, but again, I will test and verify this.