6th Generation Maxima (2004-2008)Discussion of the 6th generation Maxima. Come see what others are saying.
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I went to the dealer for a PM, talked about the shimmy. I have new tires, and same old problem. My max now has 26000 miles on it and I was told that because I have over 12000 miles on the car I will be charged for all of the time they spend "fixing" the shimmy. I am just glad that my lease will be up in 18 months, then I can drive this junk into the dealership. I had a 2000 Ford Taurus with 120k never had a shimmy. Tranny shifted smoothly, struts lasted, rotors did not warp or rust. "Flagship" my A@$. Nissan could care less about the problems with this car.
I've been posting in another thread. I've had shimmy since day 1 on my 04 Max SE. Nissan is wanting to send DTS out and "fix" car. Any of you know of any true FIX that would have came out very recently?
I saw in another thread (Thereall411) was supposed to have this happen a few weeks ago, but haven't seen a posting if it worked or not. They sent him a check for $2000 just to let them come out and attempt a fix.
The TSB out last year will most likely not fix the car. They've done it twice on mine.
I had no shimmy on 8/5/05< but after the yearly inspection done by my dealer I had a little shimmy going on. Now I know they dont torque the lug nuts. So I losen and torqued all lug nuts cold On my max I also checked tire pressure and set tires at 35 lbs. Thats my fix. I have had my max new since 8/24/03 had shimmy bad and this was my fix, I made sure tire pressure was set right always alittle higher then recemended and torquing the lug nuts a must! I have 10,154 miles on the max and she tells me to torque the lug nuts again from back in aug, being that I felt alittle shimmy about 1/32 th of an inch in the steering wheel today while driving her today. Its about the 600 mile mark since I torqued them in aug. Hope this helps. Happy hoilday to you..
I know this is an old thread, but I'm new. I am extremely pumped that the '04 and '05 Maximas are finally in my price range to purchase. I was doing some research, found my way here...I have driven about 5 Maximas so far. Experienced the shimmy at different speeds and also have heard a lot of constant noise from the front end of two of them. What should I be concerned about when looking to purchase an '04 or '05? The '04-'07 Maxima is one of the most beautiful cars on the market, but I don't want to make a mistake. Does anyone have any input...positive or negative? Thanks.
shimmy shimmy shimmy....this has been a problem since the beginning. i have an 05 MAX with over 72000 miles of highway driving. no mods!!! shame on me for that. just chsnged out the RSA's. one was cracked and the belt was shifted on another. replaced with bridgestone potenzas 060 pole positions from tire rack. great tires! had them road force balanced at turnersville nissan. great dealership when it comes to the shimmy issue. had me buddy come up from va. to get his shimmy fixed. no more shimmy for him since he visited them.
i have an 05 MAX with over 72000 miles of highway driving. . . just chsnged out the RSA's. one was cracked and the belt was shifted on another. .
You got almost 72 K miles on the original equipment RSA's ? That's amazing. I only got just over 30 K miles, due to cupping in the tread and cracks in the sidewalls. While I had some tread remaining when I changed, I doubt if the tread would have gone past about 40 K miles before the wear bars would be showing.
I posted on the shimmy poll about this, but ill do it again here, my Maxima has a bit of shimmy between 50 and 65 but it has a strong brake pulsation that is more bothersome. My crummy 06 Mustang had a touch of shimmy at highway speed but solid braking. Im taking my Maxima to the dealer tomorrow about the brake pulse and will post how they deal with it.
When I drive around with and with out the window down I hear a sound like a piece of metal thats being dragged on the ground... is this the "shimmy" sound you guys are talking about? because everythime I hear this I get nervous when i accelerate even though i had my max for about 2 years and it started to make this sound couple a weeks ago.
I took my car in and they replaced the brake pads and turned the rotors. They turned the rotors on the car which does a better job. Stopping great for now, it took all the pulsing away. Still have a touch of shimmy from 50-65 but im pretty sure thats the tires and its not enough to worry about. My Nissan dealer is treating me well, light years ahead of the Ford dealers here at the beach. Die a horrible death Ford so i can spit on your rotted carcass!
I've been to the dealer since day 1 with this issue, 3 sets of tires numerous balances & alignments, had rims & tires checked all to find out this is an ongoing issue with this year maxima they even replaced the strut without checking when i advised of a clunk, thats how well they know their Maxima needless to say just another issue maxima has handed down to the consumer - no its not in your head this is a "shimmy problem they are well aware of if i knew how to use this site better i could post a link to " a "specific" balance ( not your typical dynamic spin balance - it is a "match-mount" and should be performed by nissan as it involves an adjustment in the steering rack sliding force.) check this out: http://nissanhelp.com/ownership/bull.../NTB04-084.htm
I have an 05 max and the stealership said they need to adjust the steering box gear tightened or whatever every 15-18k miles. It did seem better once they adjusted the steering gearbox.
Same here, i had the same situation when i hit 70-80 mph once i had pulled off the dealership. Next day, i told them the situation and they claim that it was the alignment. The alignment was done after 2x and still had the problem and i noticed that one of the rims had a slight bent and a scratch. I bought a new rim and it was settled
Yes I have exactly that. Very subtle but if yoo let go of the wheel between 35-45ish it gets the hippy hippy shake in the steering wheel. I don't notice it at other speeds and I don't feel it other than in the steering wheel.
i was driving from reno to lake tahoe and i noticed that my steering wheel shakes vigorously when making downhill turns. i drive a 2k4 max se...do all maximas do that or is it just me? i feel like my steering wheel is going to pop off on me one of these days because of it shaking
I bought TWO 2004 Nissan Maxima SL at TUSTIN NISSAN, CA in April 2003 & May 2003. Honestly, overall for the first 30k miles. I live & work in two different locations: IRVINE, CA & LAS VEGAS, NV. I drive a lot & fast too. One day, while going down the mountain @ around 110mph, the Max I was driving suddenly started to shake like crazy. Since the tires were a little worn, so I decided to replace all for TWO cars. Eversince, I constantly have headaches due to shimmies, vibrations.
Any Nissan Dealers had no answer whatsoever to the problems. They blamed on anything they could use that to get away with. I had Just Tires, Big-O, Firestone/BridgeStone, Pepboys, etc. to perform wheel alignment, tire balancing & make sure everything was perfect. I even replaced new rotors, new brake pads, etc. but shimmies still appeared. The tires I put on the cars were PERILLI PZERO NERO for one car & GOODYEAR EAGLE GT on the other. For whatever reasons, at Firestone, they could helped to minimize the shaking for one car but made it worse for the other one.
Wasting too much time & money, I wrote a long letter to NISSAN USA on February 2006 & until now, it has given no responses - non - whatsoever.
All Nissan Dealerships denied there are any shimmy issues in their vehicles. However, one time I really really got hot with a Service Manager at TUSTIN NISSAN in Tustin, CA. He pretended to do some searches...go figure....instantly there was a shimmy issue popped right up & he got to release me an Official Nissan Service Bulletin to resolve the problems. So, Nissan well awared of the problems. This Service Bulletin addresses how to fix the shimmies when a spinning balancing for the tires doesn't help. I scanned and converted to PDF, I can provide you a copy upon request.
Recently I brought one of my Maxima to Costco (just for their warranty, since other tire places don't cover) to replace the front tires only. Not bad at all, shimy is stilll there but neglectable & much much better than before. I had the bulletin for around 2 yrs but never had a chance to follow it. Now, I really believe if other stores & even Nissan Dealers follow the instructions carefully, shaking could be fixed. However, it's still a pain in the butt for every Maxima owner. I've just lifted the car up so I can do some adjustments for the steering rack....hope the combinations of these works will kiss the shimmies goodbye.
Both cars are now at 75K miles.
... No more Nissan for me from now on....I used to have an 87 Nissan 200SX and then upgraded to a new Maxima GXE in 1992...these two were good & I didn't have much problems...in 2003, I bought TWO SL's as stated....and there was a huge mistake this time.
Okay, so I've had my 04 Maxima for about 5 months now and the shimmy in the steering wheel is really getting old. I have on the Goodyear RSA tires and have had the whole car balanced....still shimmy's. I've been reading about the plastic piece underneath the front of the car and was wondering if that could be the cause of the problem. Where exactly is this piece as I looked but perhaps mine is already off. Any other ideas what the shimmy could come from?
I'm new here and trying to solve the steering wheel shake at +55 MPH on my 2006 SE. I have 33K miles on it and have the car maintained to perfection. Tires are OEM and get rotated/balance/alignment every 5K miles. This vibration started about 500 - 1000 miles ago. Have had the tires check, balanced, rebalance, rotors replaced due to slight warpage. Suspect the struts could be bad or defective?
Last edited by pufahl; 10-10-2009 at 10:38 PM.
Reason: UPDATE
Wow, i started this thread, what, 6 years ago? Goes back to the beginning of what I experienced and what my neighbor who was an engineer at the plant discovered- steering rack adjustment. i had put new tires on mine, too and that didn't do it. it is fundamental to the rack adjustment. once he did that AT THE PLANT I might add it was fine. Read this thread from the start...all my information and experience is there.
Good luck. Certainly is disappointing to read about that but my Maxima days and Nissan/Infiniti days are long gone. Completely out of this loop...the one I miss the most is my 3rd Gen Maxima...oh well.
Man I miss her (Sept. 26th, 2005-Nov. 17th, 2007)
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