clicking noises on my 88 300zx
 

I am a proud new owner of a 88 300zx NA and ive been looking nonstop but dont see anyone with the same problem. Within the 2 weeks i have been noticing this semi-loud (more annoying than loud) clicking noise. I figured it was an exhaust leak, and I thought i narrowed it down to the pipe that goes into the stock cat. It would make a "putting" noise when the car was idling, and in first and second gear it would make a noticable clicking noise with more rpms. In third gear and on, I did not notice the noise as much. Well, the other day i took it too the local muffler shop and they made me a custom down-pipe coming straight from the pipe coming from the header (dont know what its called) to a new magnaflow muffler, deleting the cat. It sounds great, no smoke whatsoever, until i hit about 3-3.5 rpm then it makes an annoying raspy metal on metal noise until i get the rpms to about 3.75-4, then it stops. And the car makes an even louder clicking noise in 1st and 2nd. Any ideas what this is? I cant block that noise out when im driving :crybaby: Thank you in advance!

My experience tells me a metallic sound a certain RPM's means something is out of balance. You need to get it on a lift, look at your drive shaft and condition of your u-joints. Also, look at all your mounts and bushings. You have something that definitely needs attention and the car should not be driven hard until it is resolved. Keep us posted as to what you find.

Well.... other weekend I let my buddy drive the 300 and he ended up nailing a curb and doing alot more damage than i started with. Tire of course, scraped up the rims a little bit. Surprised the rim isn't bent actually. Put a new tire on it and find out he ALSO bent the control arm up pretty good. Haven't drove it in two weeks about! I miss it! In the process of finding a reasonably priced lower control arm seeing as he got slapped with a reckless driving ticket also. Drove it today actually to a local body shop and that clicking noise was 5 times louder. I think its some bearings in the clutch that have come loose. Got the car to fix it up, now its looking like a money pit! Wish me luck!

Oh and heres a link to a used lower control arm off of ebay. Only reasonable, and actually, only used control arms I could find from my search. The rest are running from 200+... Let me know if its a good buy or what

98k miles on this one
88 89 Nissan 300zx L Lower Control Arm Fr 294185 | eBay

Friends
 

So is your buddy going to cover the repairs to the damage he did ? The Moral of this story is, never let some idiot who doesn't know how to drive behind the wheel.