gjabo178

2months ago my steering felt loose and had some play(highway speeds-70mph). The steering wheel and throttle pedal would shake.
Then I had new front brakes, springs and shocks installed, with the same tires(not being balanced, no alignment). The steering was tighter and the shakes were gone. 3/4 weeks later the shaking started to return, but it wasn't as bad. Yesterday I put on 4 new tires with a front/rear alignment. Driving on the highway today I was alarmed to find that after 70mph the shakes and loose steering is back. WTF.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

What kind/size wheels and tires are you running?
If aftermarket rims are on, are you using centering rings?
Have the wheels and tires balanced again, use a different shop this time. Make sure they verify your wheels are not out of round while there on the balancing machine!!!
Check for lose suspension components, ie tire rod ends, sway bar end link bushings, lower control arm bushings and ball joints.
Bent hubs
Defective CV joints
Defective tires - tread squirm, side wall imperfections, broken belts.

Alignment issues normally don't cause vibrations, I'm sure there are a few rare cases around but usually that only effects tire ware and drivability issues such as pulling to one side and road wondering (straight line tracking).

gjabo178

Using 225/50/16 kumho supra 712 with stock rims.
Since I had the same issue with the old tires I
would assume the problem lies somewhere in the
suspension/steering components.
BTW what are the symptoms of 'road wondering'?
It sounds like what I have.

maxnewbie

I have had similar problems with my car. I too just recently purchased brand new tires and experienced problems with "shaking steering" at high speeds and wandering. I took it to Nissan and they stated that the tires (front) were off balance. My car was wandering (or slight pull) to the right as well. They swapped the front tires and stated that they corrected the problem. Well, now it started to pull to the left instead. Some fix that was! Anyway, they had noticed that my rotors were warped and suggested I had them turned. Their price to do it was too much, so I took it to my mechanic. He told me my rotors had worn too thin and that he couldn't legally turn them. So he ordered new ones and installed them. Guess what, not only are the brakes great now, but the car no longer pulls to the right or the left. It rides much better with less vibration too. The vibration at high speeds is not completely gone but it did improve. Worn, thin, warped rotors can degrade the ride considerably. New, thick rotors has improved the ride tremendously.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

When your car simply will not track a straight line. Wonders all over the road, sort of like a drunk walking down the street.

gjabo178

Yup, definitly have that.

Just had the brakes done, new rotors and pads, do you think they would warp that fast. I'll drive fairly hard, but it's only
been 4 weeks since install. The rattling was starting to come back
with the old tires. maybe one of the rotors is bad.

rmb

"WANDERING", would not or could not be caused by any sort of rotor problem short of a seized caliper grabbing the disc, which you'd know about real quickly...

It's definitely a suspension problem....

1) Misalignment - Check to make sure that just not the toe spec is OK. Often that's all they do. "Set the toe and let it go". BS. Make sure caster and camber are within spec, or at least fairly EQUAL from side to side. If you have -1.0 degrees camber on the right make sure the left is within half a degree (-.5 to -1.5). Caster should be right on and equal.

In a perfect world camber should be somewhat negative(say within -.5 and -1). Positive camber even within spec would handle strangely on the maxima.

2) Broken, loose, crushed, rotten, or missing suspension pieces. Jack it up, pull the wheels and check all the bushings, any rubber components, etc... Pull and tug on everything to check for looseness, play.

Don't let em sell you another set of rotors.

If your rotors are warped you'll have slight/severe a pulsation in the brake predal when stopping. That's it.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Rattling???

You just had an alignment and it wonders?

Sounds like you have something lose in the suspension department. Check the tie rod ends for play, both inner and outter joints. I don't think brakes are causing your vibrations, but a lose tie rod end will cause both vibrations and wondering. Have a good front end shop inspect your car.

Who did your alignment? Firestone? Pep boys? K-mart?

gjabo178

Town fair tire did the alignment.
Going back today. I'll ask them
to do the alignment again as well
as the wheel balancing. I got the
feeling that isn't the problem, but
I would like to make sure.
When I had the suspension stuff put on
the wandering was little to non-existent.
What would loosen up?

gjabo178

I went back yesterday. The managment was friendly, but the alignment tech was a real a$$. Anyway, they switched the front tires because they thought one might be a 'dominant' tire. Theory being if the car pulls the other direction, the alignment is bad, if the car drives straight, one of the tires is dominant and needs to be replaced.

So I take it for a drive on the highway, and guess what, no shakes, no pull, no wandering. Nice, but there is a catch.

When they took the car off the lift they dragged the under carrage on the lift pretty much f*cking up something with my exhaust!
OMG was i ****ed. There is a loss of power and bad noises during low rpm driving. I couldn't see any damage looking under the car, but it doesn't sound good.
So i'm driving around with the front tires on the wrong sides and my car making a funky noise.

You guys ever heard of a 'dominant tire' problem?

maxnewbie

I spent a fortune trying to get my car to track straight and for my steering wheel to return to the center. My mechanic worked on it (alignments and wheel balancing). Nissan worked on it (same things). Pep Boys worked on it (same things). To me, it is no longer a mystery. It is obvious. When my rotors were replaced, my car was back to normal. I am no mechanic, therefore, I will not try to explain it. But I do know that I have been dealing with this situation for months and have, in my opinion, thrown away money on lots of alignments and wheel balancing. Sometimes, what may not seem to be the cause of a problem, may very well be the cause of the problem. I will say one thing, Nissan and Pep Boys have said on many occasions that rotors can and will have an effect on how a car drives. Whether it is wheel vibration, pulling, or steering wheel not returning to the center. I had a similar problem with my wife's minivan several years ago. Same situation with the steering wheel cocking to the right, same pulling. Brakes were pulsating (obviously warped rotors). Had the brakes/rotors worked on and the van drive normal again. Go figure.

rmb

Ummmm... well whatever works for you but there is no way on God's green earth that rotors should affect any of that except the pulsating pedal. I just hate to see people throw money away... Maybe if one was warped really, really badly it might pull in that direction under braking.

The steering wheel not returning to the center is a caster problem. Pulling would probably be camber or toe or some combintation of them.

Bad tires/wheels can also be a problem. Could it be that when they replaced your brakes they rotated the front wheels/tires to the back? That might explain it. I've had a few tires (Dunlop 8000's) that went back due to pulling one direction or the other. Some kind of manufacturing problem where the internal belts aren't wrapped correctly (at least that's what they said)

Overtightening lugs can and does warp both rotors and wheels. That's right, the metal wheel itself can warp. This should always be checked too.. If the wheel isn't true then it really doesn't matter what else you may do.

-RMB

Minimalmaxima

Sorry to reply to an old post people, but maxnewbie, what kind of rotors did you get and how much were they?

maxnewbie

I got Raybestos through my personal mechanic and paid $60.00 for the set.

funnylittlman

iTrader: (1)

I got new tires last wednesday at NTB.

I had them "fix" the alignment for the 3rd time, and it still doesn't track right. At first it would drift right. Now after the "dominant" tire, they chalked it up to some type of earth heating the tires differently (b.s. if you ask me lol), it now tracks left.

F$*K it. I am going to take it back one more time. and then drive my car the way it is.

Lime

Alignment issues cause vibrations exactly because of this. People don't notice the steering issue until the wheel vibrates because of the poorly worn tires. It's an end-result.

If the car shakes when braking at high speeds, your rotors are warped.

maxnewbie

Welcome to the world of "shaky" Maximas! If you read other postings on this board regarding the infamous "vibrating front ends" you will find that this is a common problem with Maximas. Even for those who may have found a "temporary" resolution to this problem, you will find that at some point the problem returns. It seems to me that it will, forever, remain a mystery. I think that the only way to get past this problem is either to accept it or trade in the Maxima for something that runs more solidly, ie, Lexus, Acura, Audi, etc.

Minimalmaxima

Are you guys sure that people aren't just giving crappy alignments? I think that I may have paid Nissan 60 smackers for nothing. I took my car and then the car immediately starts to pull to the left. First, I'm thinking that it'll probably be something that will go away because I spent 60 bucks on this crap. Then I think that because I spent 60 bucks that it shouldn't be doing that. I go back and the mechanic rides with me and then he's talking about it's the tires. So he switches the the fronts and it starts going to the right. I'm at this point thinking that the tires could be the culprit(s), since the pull switched. But the tire that was worn a little unevenly was not that bad. Not to cause the drift I was getting. I think they guy just friggin didn't do a good job on the alignment. I thought all this crap was supposed to be automated and computerized. How do they actually align them? Do they eyeball it? Pull out a meter stick and hold up their thumb or something?

maxnewbie

It's not an alignment problem. I have been through all that many times with the Maxima. Tires, possibly. My last set of new tires (front) exhibited the same problem. I had my mechanic switch them and then they started pulling in the opposite direction. I read some were that some tires can come from the factory with a "radial pull". I also read that there is a way around this. Take the tire that is pulling and remove it from the rim and flip it and reinstall and balance back on the rim. This corrected my pulling problem. Car still shakes like hell though, even with all new 4 tires.

funnylittlman

iTrader: (1)

I think they give it a lick and a promise, and go on their merry ways. They don't even road test it after they're done!

( at least in my situation)