I just bought a Nissan Altima 2016 SV (Automatic). It has a reading of 240k km on odometer. The car runs fine except for one issue. When the RPM is close to 1500, it starts vibrating. The vibration is not too much but also not too less. Once I am above or below this RPM, it runs fine. Also, I notices a humming sound around 110kph which goes away if I move to 120 or 130. I can feel the vibration in steering and gas pedal but not too much in the seat. The sound seems to come from the left side of the car (driver side).
So far, we have checked ball bearings and changed one on left side. Changed the lever arm on left side. Checked all the engine mounts and changed one. Did the wheel balancing. Checked axle and basically everything that we can think of but the vibration is still there. The changing of engine mount maybe have moved it to more like in the range of 1300rpm.
One mechanic told me that the shocks on the front left side are softer than the one on the front right side but the other one disagreed. I will change the transmission fluid today.
Now I am out of ideas, please advise if anyone have faced the same issue or have some leads to fix the issue as its making me miserable to not able to find the problem.
Yes lower control arm. We did check by replacing all the mounts with mounts from another vehicle and it did not make any difference so decided to save some bucks.
RPM based vibration but I am noticing something else between 100 to 110 kph that is a humming sound which gives away below or above this speed. Dont know if these two are interconnected.
There was a noise coming from under the car when in drive mode like periodical grinding sound which he told me is coming from the gearbox. Mechanic told me that there is play in axle also. He will first replace the axle by using a working one from another vehicle. He said it’s the last resort and if it does not work then issue is certainly in the gearbox.
Am I to understand you installed used motor mounts from another vehicle?
I understand and respect the idea of saving some money, but how do you know the mounts from the other vehicle weren’t hardened?
It’s been my experience that just because a rubber mount and/or bushing isn’t torn and/or collapsed doesn’t actually mean it’s not hardened and unable to properly do its job
Do you live somewhere with annual safety inspections and will this issue cause a failure?
I just don’t want to see you spend a lot of time and money for something which may not drastically impact your life
And I agree you need to find a shop that will diagnose, repair and VERIFY the repair in a way that doesn’t involve installing all these used rubber parts from other vehicles
Well, let’s hope op’s car only needs the fix mentioned in the first document
If he needs the fix mentioned in the second document
That second document brings up bad memories of warranty transmission repairs performed at the dealership. What would typically happen is some young eager beaver type would be encouraged to guzzle lots of energy drinks and then perform the repair, . . . with the transmission already removed and on a stand and/or bench . . . while being monitored and timed by corporate officials. Needless to say, the factory warranty times were then drastically lowered, to the point that the young eager beaver now had LOTS of enemies at that particular dealership, plus others who heard through the grapevine who the dope was
One time, we were instructed to watch a video which explained how to perform a particular powertrain repair . . . I forget if it was an engine or transmssion.
Anyways, in the video, the guy was actually laughing and saying that mechanics at the dealership would in all likelihood have ZERO chance of meeting the new lower times, because having the component already removed and on a bench or stand for the video isn’t a real world scenario
When we complained to the shop foreman about the video, we were told in no uncertain terms to disregard the part where the guy in the video was laughing and feeling sorry for us
