Thread: 96 200sx se-r axle question?

hi all,

i have a weird knocking clicking or tapping noise happening at under 25-30 mph. it gets faster with the cars speed, sounds like its from the front passanger side i believe. i thought it was my drivers axle, hard to pinpoint sound, because it had a tear. changed it and the noise persists. the axles on it are crap (cheap) and about 4 years old. the car will make no noise if it is in gear and going with light throttle, super light like rolling light. if i give gas it makes clinking/thump until about 25-30 mph and will stay quiet till redline. when i changed the driver side the tranny fluid looked like new, no metal. i have ruled put wheel bearings i think. the wheels have no play and its not a howl more of a click. well looking for help.

from what i gather its the inboard cv joint since it happens going straight(or turning). thanks for the help this crap is frustrating the hell outta me. just wanted people with more experience to let me know what they think.

A bad axle will likely make the noise all the time, in or out of gear. Does it shake or vibrate at all? Also, a REALLY bad wheel bearing won't always have a lot of play, but can make some weird noises (ie. clicking, humming, etc). Easiest way to tell a bad axle is it will usually shake the steering wheel a bit. Not always, of course.

no shaking at all. heres a update i took it to two tires shops. both lifted the front end and with the wheels off the ground in gear and gassed it doesnt make the noise. also when you push the clutch in while it is doing it it will stop making the noise. a third shop, who was too busy to drive it, said it might be the throw out bearing. shop 1 and 2 said "we have no idea". and at that help i have no idea.

edit: it also makes no noise at idle.

ok i was under there looking and found that the control arm bushing on the drivers side is pretty mangled. could this be the source of my problem?

make sure nothing is rubbiing or could rub under a load as the engine will shift and could push the axle into something. my buddy had an s14 that made a loud clicking sound after we installed a one-piece driveline, the harder you pushed the gas the worse it got. looked like nothing was hitting but found out the diff would push the driveline up into the e-brake cable brackets under a load

i thought the same and looked around under there. no signs of rubbing and the two shops both jacked up the front end and put it in gear to 25 mph, no noise. i think i am gonna go kick the tire see how far back it goes, then pull the lca adn do bushings. es is overkill but why not. will update if i find anything with lca.

we did that too but when the ground isnt there to resist the tires from spinning nothing will move nearly like it will while its driving. but if you dont see anything its probably something else. does it sound strictly rotational or does it get louder/worse while cornering, harder acceleration, or simply turning the wheels?

gets faster with the car and stops around 30 mphish or 3rd gear. if i give more gas it is louder and i can get it rolling in first with little gas and no noise. but if apply throttle, it is there. i was under the car and noticed that the lower control arm bushing was pretty chewed up and dangling towards the rear of the car. so what im hoping is that its shot and letting something shift and rub/knock. i checked all 4 motor mounts and they are good and tight.

only things not changed are ball joints and lca bushings. i did the tie rods 5 years ago when i did axles and they "look" ok. all boots down there aside from axle i just did look good. bolts seem tight, and no signs of anything contacting aside from the thrashed lca bushing.

yeah that bushing needs to be replaced anyway so i would start there

Just ordered a set of es lca bushings outta jersey. Should be here late next week and hopefully it will kill my noise. Well now I got a week to get the oem pressed out.