klanking sound/play in 240sx front suspension

[Project S13]

Hey guys, was looking for some help identifying a problem.

The car: 1991 nissan 240sx SE, 160K+ milesThe relevant replaced parts: tein he suspensionEverything else is stock, including wheels

Old Symptoms: occasionally when travelling over bumps in the pavement the car made a klank sound along with the usual sound a stiff car makes when hitting a bump. Aso only occasionally when turning the car would make a klank sound coming from the front, just once. Turning left then right then left etc. didn't really make the klank sound repeat. Both sounded pretty similiar but the bump klank was more noticeable.

What I did: This is not my Daily driver so I stopped driving it and tonight after work I had a chance to jack it up and check some things. I thought the sound could be from the height-adjustable TEINs, that they had become loose at the bottom where the strut casing is threaded to adjust ride height. One lock was fairly loose here but the other one was solid. I lowered the car about 1/2 an inch up front (it's still fairly close to stock ride height) and tightened everything back down. t/c rods looked fine as far as I can tell. I forgot to check the tie rods/ends X_X...it got too dark out anyway.

Symptoms tonight: Didn't really drive over any bumps tonight so I can't say about the first one, I started doing slaloem type motions down my street at 5-10 mph and only a few turns into it the klank was more noticeable: when turning the wheel to the right, at almost 1 full turn an easy to hear squeak came from the front left wheel area (the same one whose strut lock was a bit loose) and was accompanied by a noticeable shake or vibration through the steering wheel. It felt like something was loose or had enough play to squeak and jump from the left to the right as I turned the wheel from left or from straight to turn right. It didn't seem noticeable when turning from right back to left, but was obvious from left to right.

Does anyone know what could be behind this suspension problem? I'm guessing something up front has developed enough play to need replacement.
Modified by Project S13 at 3:05 PM 6/14/2005

[navysnail]

check the tc bushings, see if they have leaked and ruptured, they can cause that.

edit: sorry, i typed that before i read everything, let me think on that for a day, i cant quite visualize what would do that...

[Project S13]

the tc bushings, while old, looked fine/no ruptures or leaking...though yes as you read that's not really the concern. The klank/looseness can be felt through the car in general but also through the steering wheel.

Also the tein suspension is not newly installed. It's been on there and working fine since at least 8 months ago, I bought it back in 2004. Due to this I doubt it has to do with misinstalling the suspension. I put that in because the strut body being threaded might have had something to do with the klank since it can get loose over time.

[NISTECH]

I was leaning toward the TC as well. Check your sway bar links and bushings, make sure they are all in good order. Also take a look at your power steering rack mount bushing , make sure they arent deteriorated.

[Project S13]

I thought t/c rods were felt more through braking than turning, but they looked fine and I tried to shake them back and forth yesterday and they didn't budge. Will check on the sway bar adjustment tonight, I have adjusted the ride height recently so maybe something is out of whack that I forgot about. I don't know how difficult it is to get to the rack bushing to check it but I'll look into it.

My guess (while not very educated) was either a loose tie rod or something with the adjustable strut. Is a loose tie rod/end a likely possibility??

[NISTECH]

yea but it would be more of a knock type noise. not a metallic clank. The rack bushings can easily be seen by either lifting the car and looking at them from under neath , or turni8ng the wheels full lock and looking at them from the side, no need to remove anything to do any of the recommended inspections.

[Project S13]

whew this weekend was busy and I didn't have a chance to check the car out. I'll get to it this week and let you guys know if i find anything out of spec from the manual. Thanks for the assistance offered as always

[zero_gripS13]

check your sway bar endlinks that was my probelm..entering on ramps klunk.. nice size bumps..klunk.. weight shift to the front ..klunk..what hapopend was the bushing got forced over the welded nut thats holds it there so the sway bar was moving up and down ont thew link and hittin the welded nut making a klunk.. i hope ur problem is the same as mine was its an easy fix..

[Project S13]

thanks, will check on that and let everyone know. It's more of a higher pitched squeak than a klank noise now but it could be. There's a bunch of house projects I'm trying to avoid getting involved in but by wednesday at the latest I'll be looking for the cause. Yay for owning a daily driver also haha

[zero_gripS13]

good luck

[Project S13]

*sigh* well guys I managed to take a look at everything on the *front left* that you mentioned except for the power steering rack mount bushing. Didn't really have much time cause it started raining on me and I don't have the garage to myself so it wasn't an option :/

Anyway, I didn't notice anything wierd yet.

The strut was inplace securely and the lock ring for it was on fine. Tried shaking it back and forth but nothing seemed unstable.

The left tc rod looked fine, the bushing itself wasn't ruptured or anything from what I could see. Shaking it back and forth didn't reveal any looseness.

The left sway bar end links looked alright as well from what I could see. Again nothing happenned when I shook it around a bit.

The left tie rod/end link had a little play which made a tick noise when I'd push and pull on it, but that may be from being able to move the steering rack back and forth a little before hitting the wheel lock thing.

I looked through my manual (not an FSM tho) and the only inspection thing it really had was for the lower ball joints. I checked on the left one it didn't have any play with what force I could apply with a prybar. In all cases but the tie rod the car would shake on the jack/jackstand before the individual part would show any free movement.

Maybe I'm not inspecting this the right way...if so what should I look for? Right now I'm just looking for ruptured or rough looking bushings and looseness in the parts/links. I thought my manual would have something more...but sadly it didn't help much.

Feels like it's in the steering and it's a squeak sound more than a clank, may not have made that as clear from my original post where I had lowered the front a bit. Will check the right maybe tomorrow and get both sides up for a better inspection of the middle under-car area.

[Project S13]

Update!

After looking at the front left yesterday and not seeing anything that looked out of place to my rather untrained eye I drove the car a little today to again feel for the problem.

This time after reaching about 10 mph I felt a clunk in the front right sinde. This was a VERY obvious klunk but it didn't have a great deal of vibration.It was proportional to the car's speed. I'm sure it was coming from the front right, so there's definitely something alot more obvious wrong down there now.

I'm going to jack the car up and take a look at the front right now.What's this new symptom tell you guys?

[Project S13]

Problem found! I had tiome yesterday to really set both sides of the car up on jackstands and check it out. It's the front left tie rod. While both tie rod ends look like crap anyway, the front left tie rod had visible play on the engine side (as opposed to the wheel side). The ball shaped joint it seems to have looked dirty, possibly rusted. It had visible play, and power steering fluid leaked out of the boot around it. The right side on the other hand, was nice and shiny, had no power steering fluid in the boot, and no play in it.

So on the way are new tie rods and ends. I'm thinking of also ordering aftermarket tc rods as they were in my summer build plan anyway.

Does anyone know if the power steering fluid that had leaked over time into the boot on the left rod is a sign that I need to rebuild my power steering unit, or is that something taht can come through because of the play in the tie rod? I don't know the flow of fluids inside the PS pump so that'd be helpful to know along with any other recommendations. Thanks

[NISTECH]

The leak is due to a bad seal in the end of the rack, the tie rod wont fix it. We dont usually rebuild them any more we just replace the whole rack, I dont even know if the seals are readily available anymore.

[Project S13]

alright. Thanks for that. Maybe some liquid seal could be used but I don't have it apart to know what it's like. AFAIK it's not a very big leak, just has accumulated over the car sitting undriven while I was at work the last 2 or 3 weeks.

I have heard that the s13 240 has 2 different steering ratios and I have the hicas car with the handling package so I imagine it's the more desireable one for performance driving. I'll need to specify that if I get a new ps rack won't I?

[NISTECH]

If they ask, there may be only one replacement available. If the leak is getting on the ground and the system isnt making noise you could let it go for awhile as it may just be seaping past the seal. Also note the rack usually comes with the inner tie rods that you bought.