SilverMaxima06

My car: 2006 Nissan Maxima (SE), and around 43,500 miles. I will try to keep this brief, so sorry for the novel in advance.

Whenever I am braking, typically at highway/freeway speeds, my steering wheel vibrates back and forth, and sometimes pretty significantly to the point where you definitely can feel it in the chassis. Yes, I know this is a known problem apparently for these Maxima's but just hear me out before redirecting me to another thread please.

Okay, so today I had my rotors measured by my dealership and I'm not quite sure about a couple of things. First of all, they don't seem to be off by much at all (You will see more about this below). Second of all, how do shops "measure" for warping? Do you have to take the wheels off? They certainly did not take my wheels off to measure because after I left, I realized I didn't give them my locking-wheel-nut for my wheels (each tire has 1 of these "special locking" nuts). So how can they measure my rotor without even taking the two front wheels off?

What they told me they did; They said they did a 6 point check. Here are the numbers and I asked them to give me their measurements.
left rotor: (1) 1.094, (2) 1.093, (3) 1.093, (4) 1.093, (5) 1.093, (6) 1.093
right rotor: (1) 1.093, (2) 1.094, (3) 1.094, (4) 1.094, (5) 1.094, (6) 1.093

So, it's not all that much off, but do you think it could still cause this problem?

I also thought about trying to clean my brakes and my pads (maybe even slightly sand down my pads?)

In regards to the above measurements, according to Wikipedia, it says: "The difference between minimum and maximum value on the dial is called lateral runout. Typical hub/rotor assembly runout specifications for passenger vehicles are around 0.0020" or 50.8 microns." Yes, I realize it's good-old trustful Wikipedia but I also looked around on other sites to confirm these numbers. Another site actually said 0.0015" to 0.0020", so Wikipedia isn't too far off if you're one who tends not to believe everything they read on Wikipedia.

So the "difference" according to my dealers measurements is a little less than what Wikipedia and other sources say. So now I'm not sure if it's really warped rotors. Do you guys think that it just needs some cleaning. Maybe the pads are dragging/slipping on the disc brakes?

Now I think I felt this problem every now and then here and there but ever since my last tire rotation, it seems like it's gotten worse and worse. I normally did all my tire rotations myself, and currently at nearly 44,000 miles, I've only had my tire rotations done at a shop like NTB etc just twice. However, my most recent tire rotation was not done by me. Do you think it is likely that the guys who used the air tools over tightened my wheels nuts to the point where it exacerbated the problem even worse than before??

My dealer said my pads are not unevenly worn, but I'll have to double check and inspect those.

Any help is very much appreciated. Thanks.

SilverMaxima06

Cleaning the rotors and the pads didn't seem to solve the problem either.

Shoey1

max runout spec varies from car to car but 1 or 2 thousandths is not going to do anything. the shake is coming from somewhere else....as for you not giving them the locking lug nut. you did take it to the dealer so they obviously will have spare ones for just such an instance where the customer dosn't have it in the car like you should.

im going to guess at tire balance..but just a guess

aogburn

So, did you say that when you "go to brake" your wheel starts shaking? If this is the case, then your rotors are getting bad. You can have them re-surface them and see will that make a difference for you.

Shoey1

if its a warped rotor you will feel it in the pedal long before you get the wheel to shake. if they are warped then the pedal will pulsate kind of like ABS on some cars. it will almost feel like its trying to massage your foot

SilverMaxima06

I don't feel it in my pedals. I only feel my steering wheel vibration and shake from left to right, sometimes violently at the higher speeds when I use the brakes. It doesn't vibrate or shake when I am not braking.

Could this be a wheel alignment issue? On a flat, straight road, my car doesn't pull left or right. What about wheel balance? I think all the balance weights are still on my rims so I can't see how my wheel balance has changed since buying my car.

NisTech

it could also be a warped hub surface. did u check rotor runout on the car with a lug nut on to secure it on the hub or on the brake lathe machine?
also you can take front wheels off and put the lug nuts on the rotor to secure hab and have someone drive and accel and notice if the caliper moves left to right as it follow the rotor. you will see it. if after resurfacing rotors problem doesnt get solved you may need 2 bearings and hubs pressed in

SilverMaxima06

The measurements for my rotor are in the original post, but I'm not sure about the hub.

I didn't take the measurements, those are measurements from my dealer.