m56 makes loud “pop” when car is put into Reverse.

[MpamP]

For a little while now my 2011 M56 has made a sharp POP
when I am backing into my parking spot. Now I’ve noticed this happens more frequently after shifting from D to R and vice versa. Also I can hear the pop sometimes If I’m in a low gear then punch the accelerator after sitting at a stand still. To me it sounds like metal hitting metal. When I first noticed it the pop was one distinct high-pitched “POP” now as you can make out in the video, 2 pops can be heard after the car is shifted into either drive or reverse then pressing the accelerator. Anyone have any clues what this could be?


As a sidebar. About 1 month ago I’ve noticed a distinct wine which comes from the rear of the vehicle at highway speed. roughly loudest at about 65 to 67 miles an hour. I can post a video Where I set the phone down on the console to record the Noise as it is pitch changed roughly equal to the speed of the car. Didn’t know if it was possible that the 2 noises are related to each other.

[macgiver]

mac, lookup if your driveline HAS zerk fittings to lube.Not a good idea going to ANY shop looking like you don't know the aspect of your car that you're there for. Now go and get'm lubed AND hint at an assessment from the mechanic .
1) Could be an improvement 2) Lubeboy will say whether he thinks too much play/backlash in driveline .It's a start.

[EdBwoy]

The video is unavailable. Is it perhaps private?

There is a service bulletin for axles clicking when you go into gear changing direction, like N-D or N-R. The info was immersed within a different thread so a little searching should pop it up. It was shared by Walt, IIRC and entails loctite on the splines.

For now, this is what my Google pops up:
https://www.google.com/search?q=g37+axl ... e&ie=UTF-8

[walt1227]

Sounds like you have the same issues I was having with my M56s. It would make this click noise every time I would go from R to D or D to R. It is called Axle click which is very common on the Z and some G's. Basically you take your car to the dealer and have them grease the axles really good and they put everything back together. I had it done during the summer last year and cost me $130 which I thought would be covered under warranty but dealership said it was not. It fixed the problem but every now and then I hear the click noise but it is very rare. Just something you will have to deal with until you get rid of the car I guess. Look at this video that shows it being done. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ipx1OWx3kk

[Ilya]

Yep, my car clicks every time it moves from a light or stops at a light or goes in to P or out of P. 11 M56x.

[walt1227]

Yep, my car clicks every time it moves from a light or stops at a light or goes in to P or out of P. 11 M56x.

Get your axles greased. I noticed a improvement in pulling power after it was done.

[Ilya]

Yep, my car clicks every time it moves from a light or stops at a light or goes in to P or out of P. 11 M56x.

Get your axles greased. I noticed a improvement in pulling power after it was done.

I'll be having my local Nissan dealer change my fluids, etc. in a month or two so maybe I'll add it on to the list. It'll probably be slightly cheaper than the Infiniti dealer...their Infiniti lead tech is now the tech manager at this Nissan dealer I use so he should know how to do it.

[macgiver]

"thank you mac " ba,ba, blah,blah - a reminder

[amc49]

Whatever the rear trans mount method is there that restricts engine/trans windup; you look at that first before looking at any axles there. Commonly the mount will be dead, then it allows more windup and the extra force impacts at the axles or the mount structure itself. BTDT on more than one car type.

Loctite on splines? You gotta be kidding me. If spline wear that bad has happened there you buy new axles.

[EdBwoy]

Why not? I don't think you have to use Nissan's $100 product. There are a lot of success stories of people using various types of grease or antiseize. For this common issue, I saw some product from Loctite that was being mentioned a lot.

... IF that is the problem in this case. Troubleshoot before forking money for repairs. I still can't watch the video, so it's speculation on my part.


EDIT:
At first I typed my response thinking, "where was Loctite even mentioned?"
Now I see it. I'm the one that brought it up in my first post. Sometimes I talk-to-text my stuff into a text message then copy-paste it into the forum to avoid the twitchy nature of this website sometimes.
In the current instance I more than likely had both Loctite and Molykote (Nissan's product) on my mind and the former rolled off my tongue easier. Not sure how or why, but now I see the error. I definitely meant to say Molykote way up there, although Loctite and even Permatex have good substitutes.

[paranoidjack]

Yep, my car clicks every time it moves from a light or stops at a light or goes in to P or out of P. 11 M56x.

Get your axles greased. I noticed a improvement in pulling power after it was done.

?!?! That sounds crazy, there's only so many splines, they're stripping, or they're not! I can see how the lube would affect the click, but not any kind of perceived increase in butt dyno...

[walt1227]

Get your axles greased. I noticed a improvement in pulling power after it was done.

?!?! That sounds crazy, there's only so many splines, they're stripping, or they're not! I can see how the lube would affect the click, but not any kind of perceived increase in butt dyno...

What I mean is the pulls seem tighter than they did before getting the axle greased. If something is not lubricated properly it can have effects on how the product operates. Same thing when I had the timing chains replaced. I had just bought my car and it would not burn the tires with traction off and WOT from a stop. Once the timing chains were done I noticed a huge difference in low end torque and it burns the tires now from WOT at a stop.

[MpamP]

Thank you all for the great info. I’ll be armed and ready when I go the the dealer and have the car serviced soon. Ai don’t know why the YouTube video is not showing up, when I pull up the thread it is working for me. I probably did something incorrectly when I tried to upload it. I can email if anyone wants to DM me and send me their address.
But otherwise many thanks for the information!

[MpamP]

Here is a link to the video I just made it public Https://youtu.be/tWZVNFtsyGI

[macgiver]

mac, MpamP WOW that isn't a sound I thought we'd be hearing , Hmmmm, interesting , almost like polyurethane bushings/mnts. squeeking - but I'm sure that's not it ? ?One thing I noticed is your slotted ROTOR DIRECTION ?? Most like 90% of "survey SAYS" - say yours are reversed (should "sling out as it turns) , yours kinda "sling -in"?? I've heard around 1 outta ten or LESS talk or on web insist on how yours is , do you have a TAKE on that? - I'd be interested in the logic , I'm guessing I know but more interested to hear from you -thanks.

[amc49]

I can easily get any one of 4 cars of mine to make that noise by trying intentionally to emphasize it. Other than that the cars have driven and will drive forever.

You have a massive stackup of NORMAL clearances there, the diff ring gear, the spiders lock against each other (4 gears right there) and then the side gears lock against the inner axle spines, then each spline set has to load up as well as any tripod or rzeppa ball setup there. All of those clearances pull slack out at the same time to load solid and why you can take a brand new car off the showroom floor to jack it in the air and instantly find a good half inch of slack play simply twisting the axle all the way one way. It will make loud noise by hand and people think it's broke but it's normal. Anybody trying can make noise jacking with the throttle on that.

[macgiver]

mac,yeah there's gotta be half-dozen+ "multiple points of backlash" in those cars driveline- output shaft to wheel

[Ilya]

I can easily get any one of 4 cars of mine to make that noise by trying intentionally to emphasize it. Other than that the cars have driven and will drive forever.

You have a massive stackup of NORMAL clearances there, the diff ring gear, the spiders lock against each other (4 gears right there) and then the side gears lock against the inner axle spines, then each spline set has to load up as well as any tripod or rzeppa ball setup there. All of those clearances pull slack out at the same time to load solid and why you can take a brand new car off the showroom floor to jack it in the air and instantly find a good half inch of slack play simply twisting the axle all the way one way. It will make loud noise by hand and people think it's broke but it's normal. Anybody trying can make noise jacking with the throttle on that.

So is the axle click normal as well to an extent? I've been driving with it for a year lol.

[Malbec 56 Beast]

When was the last time you changed your fluids, so your transmission, trans case, front and rear diffs. I use Amsoil and love that stuff. I go to the Nissan dealer cuz their pricing is much cheaper and I only have their lead tech touch any of my cars. Then address the axles and see what you need to do in that.

I just did all the fluids, all the brakes and pads and ebrake shoes.

Still need to do the plugs but it runs like a champ so I'm not on the urgent list.

Good luck

Andy

[amc49]

TSB #NTB12-055A deals with front axle clicking on takoff, they bust the hub/axle down slightly to moly lube the face of the bearing (NOT the splines!!) and an axle re-torque down there. It's pretty apparent at least to me that the axle nut torque backs off with bearing wear to let the axle click the splines or the bearing face slip movement causing the snap noise there.

[MpamP]

Mac.
My rear Rotors are “backward” compared to the front indeed. When I had the new powered calipers and new pads/ rotors installed noticed the rears seemed backward to me. The shop said it was how the rr and lr rotors slots were machined and that they could swap sides. They did say it wouldn’t cause any issue with the car stopping performance, and I have not felt a lack of stopping power, over the stock set up at least.
It’s been so long I just can’t remember whether I discovered that the rotors had been installed on the incorrect l and r side or that they indeed were put on correctly and just happened to be cut in that backwards direction. If memory serves they were stop tech rotors in the rear and I installed DBA rotor rings with concept z rotor hubs in the front and the slots are facing the traditional way.. maybe looking deeper into the rear brakes would turn up the cause of the noise.
Dealer said it’s the play in the rear gears making the Slap or pop sound.

As always the Information provided here is always appreciated. Updated information will follow if the issue is remedied.

[macgiver]

mac, hey MpamP righton - I check that sH&%$TT out too and the only REAL REASON, the important one I guess is that when the drilled holes or the slots point "up & back" from dir. of rotation it THROWS OUTSIDE the brake dust & crap into wheel well - centrifical force you know. And when it's the reverse way all that dust stuff sort of would JAM-UP on the pad grooves or the slots and NOT SLING outwards?It would SLING into your wheels and hub ! Yeah you don't want that Pointing forwards catches & grabs instead of "dispersing" , that's it.

[EdBwoy]

...
Dealer said it’s the play in the rear gears making the Slap or pop sound.

As always the Information provided here is always appreciated. Updated information will follow if the issue is remedied.

MpamP, thanks for following up with your findings. I figured a visit to the dealer would tell you whether the TSB applied to you or not. So did they propose a solution, or was their suggestion to live with it? Or a new differential unit?

On the rotor mounting, actually it is most times counter-intutive. It depends on the vanes sandwiched between the 2 plates, not the visible slots on the outside surface.
I am one of those people that reads technical papers for fun, and I know I've come across a white paper from Stoptech. I'll post it here when I retrieve it.


Edit: found a link
https://www.zeckhausen.com/catalog/inde ... =6446_6515

And here's a picture for quick reference

[macgiver]

mac, absolutely EdBwoy,those canted vanes are "something"- I checked out if the new PowerStops I just bought for the J had that , they don't . That of course takes precedent OVER whatever the external design "looks -like" And my SP (higher dollar) rotors are STILL a straight "radial" - no curvature either. Seems like very , very EXPENSIVE , like BREMBO , BAER? - I don't know who the few do this -Just learned STOPTECH - and they were jeeeest out of my price range. but it's definately a SUPERIOR way of cooling air through the discs , for sure better in AZ! Seeing design pictured , definitely looks like the slots,IF run the same canted position/direction ,more "parallell" to vanes probably weakens them ,yeah.

[MpamP]

Ok thanks Ed. for the research and the confirmation about the stoptech rotors. it is all coming back to me. Back when I got the upgraded brake components there were basically no infinity part numbers for the m56 and I had to cross reference part numbers and triple check clearances as I hunted for the proper components. I used 3 different suppliers to get steel fluid lines, front 2 piece rotors and powder coated calipers, and the hawk pads and stoptech rear rotors. It took like 6 months to get it all sourced and shipped in. I di remember the folks at zekhasusen really informative regarding fitment and brake system design, proper break in method just everything in general. I also seem to recall that unless I track that big a** beast I probably won't ever max out the Akibonos and upgraded parts. Also I an vouch for the addition of braided steel brake lines, instantly made stopping more responsive, but man I'm off the subject of this original post lol.

As soon as I get to the dealer I'll report the findings. I am working out of the house now and I almost never need to use the car now so it may be a few weeks...