Long time listener, first time poster so I’ll try and keep this brief
09 AWD Rogue w/ approx 34K miles. For a while my wife and I have been hearing what can best be described as a popping noise (just one) and vibration when the following combination happens:
Turning right with…
A Change in elevation…
While accelerating.
The best example would be turning right into a driveway. This also doesn’t happen every time this combination happens, but every time it happens, that is the combination that did it.
You can feel the vibration in the car and both the vibration and the noise seem to be coming from the front left wheel well. I have taken this to the Nissan dealer about 4 times, the first 3 times they told me they couldn’t find an issue, the 4th time they replaced my lower control arms which turns out were broken but we still get the noise. I am worried its the CV joint, and if it is I want to catch it while its still potentially under warranty (which will be up in 36K miles). If its just a noise we have to deal with on occasion, I’m fine with leaving it be, I just dont want my ignorance (or the mechanics) to result in an unsafe driving situation.
My lovely wife thought that this site / show might shed some light on what the issue might be. Any help or opinions would be appreciated!
We finally figured it out and it wasn’t good. It was the viscous coupling - you know, the thing that makes this car an AWD, and the only reason we bought it. The part is about $1000 and honesty the car isn’t worth the cost ot the repair. We are just unhooking it and driving as a 2WD. Maybe we’ll get it fixed down the road. There are honestly so many things I hate about this car, and now this is just another. I shouldn’t even say it out loud, but at least it still drives.
… which points to failure to rotate the tires on a consistent basis, or replacing just two tires at a time rather than all 4 tires, or otherwise operating the car with “mismatched” tires. While this basic maintenance information won’t help you at this point, it could help you to avoid a pricey repair on your next AWD vehicle.
That seems like a perfectly sensible solution. Most cars you see on the road are FWD and they seem to all pretty much get where they are going. Yours will be another one of them is all. The viscous coupling AWD technology doesn’t seem to be as robust as the classic transfer case-4WD version. If you need four wheel drive on your next vehicle, next time suggest to go that route. In the meantime enjoy your FWD Rogue.
