2009 G37XS with 142k miles.
I get a noticeable creaking when turning the wheels or when pushing down on the suspension. I'm about 90% sure it's the lower ball joint but would appreciate some additional opinions. The ball joints and the struts are original. When on jack stands there is no noise so the noise is impacted by the weight of the car. In the video notice how the creak is loud without the wheel even moving. There is no noticeable play, have a good alignment, no irregular tire wear..... but the car is getting up there in age and potholes are a big problem here in the Chicago area.
Used a mechanic stethoscope and it was not 100% clear where the noise is coming from but it was loudest near the lower ball joint.

Are upper ball joints usually a problem? Since the ball joints are not serviceable I have to replace the A arm and don't want to do the upper unless I have to. Note the tie rod end is relatively new.

Attached a video with sound.


Not sure if the attached video works. Here's a link to an mp4 version of the video
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1M1...vn7aiSE1SU0M20

 

Changed lower control arms (transverse links) over this past weekend and the noise is gone. Car feels quite different and more "solid". Did it without removing the axles (AWD) which made it harder. Was hard to get the ball joint nuts off because the ball joint stud just kept rotating. Had to place a jack on the stud as tension and even that didn't work very well.

Brian

 

tks for posting them, I am having the same issue and driving in the winter the noise was so bad lol but now the weather is better you can barely hear it. so I will change the whole arm for my AWD this week.

 

Hi there! What lower control arm did you buy? OEM or....?
Thanks

 

No OEM. Just ordered from Rock Auto. OEM was insanely expensive.

MEVOTECH CMS301033 {Click Info Button for Alternate/OEM Part Numbers} (Daily Driver) Supreme; Complete Arm w/ Ball Joint Info
Front Right Lower; AWD; Sedan
$158


MEVOTECH CMS301032 {Click Info Button for Alternate/OEM Part Numbers} (Daily Driver) Supreme; Complete Arm w/ Ball Joint Info
Front Left Lower; AWD; Sedan
$170.79


They were great. Car now has 149,500 miles. No issues with the control arms. The job was not bad. Took me about 10 hours total to do both sides by myself. First time ever doing control arms. Replaced struts while I was in there. Only specialized tool was a tie rod end/pitman arm puller which rented from AUtozone for free. Only issue I encountered was getting one of the ball joints out and getting the forks off the bottom of the struts. I live near Chicago which means a rusty undercarriage. After 11 years and many miles a bunch of my stuff was pretty rusty. Good luck!
Brian

 

Thanks for the quick reply!
I know it's a little hijack on the thread, but I'm trying to change the LCA on an AWD EX35 and from what I can tell, it should be the same as the G37/G35... have you ever heard anything like this before?
And yeah, I'm going with the RockAudio ones as well!
Thanks!

 

No idea if they are the same but wouldn't be surprised if they used the same overall suspension design. Also, some of the bolts were hard to get with the impact wrench and I remember "improvising" --- which means using some unprofessional techniques because I didn't have access to a full tool set that a mechanic might use but I ended up stripping zero bolts. I do believe there were a few I couldn't get a torque wrench onto while tightening due to clearance issues so I did my best to estimate. A mechanic would have uses a crows foot and done the proper calcs to torque the bolts.