[Jrothove]

I have a 2018 Kicks that i love! There is a banging noise in the front end on a rough road, that we cannot figure out. We have had mechanic put up on racks and nothing is loose. Husband found some clips attaching body to frame was missing so he replaced them. Its a sound that's more of a rattle/banging, kinda like it would be the body hitting on the frame. Anyone else have this problem or any ideas? Rt. Front passenger side.

 

[kiko]

I have the 2020 Kicks Exclusive model here in Mexico. Our roads are very rough. My Kicks has been exhibiting the same banging noise as yours for two years. When I am in the US on the smooth interstate the Kicks never makes this noise. What I have learned is that the ABS braking system/Electronic Stability Control is triggered on rough roads to maintain traction of the vehicle. The problem is worse if you do not maintain the correct tire pressure in all four tires. The correct tire pressure is on a sticker on on the door or the door jam. My Kicks correct tire pressure is 32 PSI. If one tire does not have the correct pressure then the other tires may spin faster or slower. This causes the computer module of the Electronic Traction Control to trigger the ABS brakes to correct the speed of a particular wheel(s) so that the traction of the Kicks is maintained. You can take the car to the dealer but he has no way of finding the problem because the Nissan scanner will not show an error for the ESC system.

If you disable ESC with the button on the dash to the bottom left of the steering wheel, then the Kicks will continue to make the banging noise as the ABS brakes are still linked for some reason I do not know. So disabling ESC will not solve your problem. What I do now is tap my brakes when the Kicks does this action and it will disengage the ABS/ESC for a while.

Each wheel has a wheel sensor to record wheel speed and that is why equal tire pressure is important. If you put 50 PSI in one tire and leave the other three tires at 32 PSI the problem will become worse. If you put 50 PSI in all of the tires, then the problem will be worse also because the tires are more apt to spin faster due to the higher tire pressure and this will cause loss of traction. All of the tires must all be set to 32 PSI.

My Kicks does this most often in a curve probably because more weight is being put on one side of the car the the wheels on the other side of the car may spin faster so this will trigger the ESC computer module.

Sorry for the long post and I know that this is clear as mud. I have been to two dealers in the US and one dealer in Mexico and they are all clueless on how to solve the problem. This should be a recall because an accident could occur when the brakes function in this manner.

Best of luck to you.