Mystery Rear Driver Side Clicking Noise (300zx 2+2)

[ajvanek2283]

So I recently trailered my car to H2O in Ocean City and everything seemed fine while I was there, no noises, nothing. However, after I trailered it back home and went to drive home I noticed a loud clicking noise coming from my rear driver side wheel and I have no idea what it is. Any help?

Heres some info to help:

- I adjusted both of my rear coilovers as soon as I got to H2O and heard no clicking the whole trip. I averaged about 2-3 hours of driving per day too.
- I got an alignment the day before I left for H2O, again, no noise during the trip though
- I took both wheels off and looked for debris on each hub and found nothing
- I made sure all of my lugs were tightened fully (sometimes the simple things are easily overlooked)
- I jacked my car up and tried pushing the top/bottom and sides of my wheel around for play and didn't get any
- My car is automatic and the clicking starts slowly when I let my foot off the brake (not upon letting off the brake, but when you don't have your foot on the brake or gas and you kind of idle at 5mph)
- Its a rhythmic clicking and speeds up as I drive faster and slows down as I slow down, etc
- I have 3 piece wheels and made sure all the bolts were tightened on both rear wheels
- The clicking doesn't seem to effect my driving much (I drove 3+ hours with it one day), however, whenever I go over an uneven stretch of road, it feels like the rear end of my car sways back in forth really quickly.
- My wheel isn't rubbing on any area of my car, there are no chunks of tire missing that I could see
- Also looked over my tire for any nails/bolts/debris/rocks, and found nothing.

Possible problems/solutions:

- Bad wheel bearing (There was no play in the wheel when I jacked my car up, but I forgot to rotate my wheel while it was in the air, could that possibly tell me my answer?)
- Cracked/broken Axle (Hopefully not $$$$)
- Bad CV Axle
- Brakes rubbing/something caught between pads (it would explain where the noise is coming from, but the clicking doesn't sound like my brakes are rubbing)
- Coilovers/Camber Arms became loose? Idk if that would explain the clicking though
- Axle Shaft Spindles need greasing (I read on a forum that that was the issue)
- Maybe a cracked stud I didn't notice?

Anyways, sorry for the long post, please let me know if any of you have had this problem or have a solution! I have seen this problem a lot on forums but could never find a solid answer. If you have any questions feel free to ask, Ill try to get a video up tomorrow

[DCaff300ZX]

Welcome, sorry to see this has sat unanswered so long.
I have no solid answer, but a few thoughts...
Have you checked to see if a rock/debris got lodged in a brake rotor shroud? I had a weird noise traced eventually to that, it would not jam/make noise unless weighted and moving, in the air/checking nothing found.
Another odd Z32 issue is that the brakes suffer from runout which manifests in brakes that use shoes irregularly, and can cause a tipped shoe that wears early...I replaced mine recently and of the 8 shoes, one had been angled from 1/4" to nearly zero while all others were worn evenly. Perhaps in the rear of yours and if this scenario, the indicator tab is touching something unevenly due to uneven wear?
Best I can do, hope you've had some movement here...