1997 Nissan Sentra Knocking and Squeeling

THEFUTURE411

MEMBER
1997 NISSAN SENTRA
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
150,000 MILES

Hi. My car has been making a weird knocking noise mainly when I turn the wheel. I've noticed that in warm weather when the car has been on for a while and the engine temperature hand gets to the middle on the dashboard is when it starts knocking. In cooler weather it'll squeal or screach when I turn the wheel and the wheel will actuall feel like its stuck. If I let the car warm up for about 5 minutes then it won't squeal. Can you please diagnose this for me?

Saturday, October 30th, 2010 AT 12:00 PM

1 Reply

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,814 POSTS

Hi thefuture411,

The squealing and heavy powersteering indicates a loose drive belt. Check the tension and condition of the drive belt and adjust/replace as necessary. If drive belts tensions are good, check the harmonic damper, ie the crank pulley.

As to the knocking noise, it is not easy to diagnose the fault as the source of the noise is not clear. However if it is related to the squealing noise, then most probably the harmonic damper is bad.

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Saturday, October 30th, 2010 AT 2:48 PM