KillaKam

Went to the dealership to have my vibration checked out and I guess that they determine that my back passenger side rim is bent slightly. They said that it could have been from a pot hole. They quoted me 300$ something for a new rim. Are there places that can bend the rim back into shape and make it like new?

celliott82

I have the same car and I love I mean reall love the color. I call it dark with an attitude.

g_jammer

Although this is a older thread, I thought I would post info that my be helpful to others in the future.

My 09 Maxima with SportTech experienced a thumping, almost a grinding noise from the front driver side wheel, a vibration could be felt in the gas pedal.

The noise was present with the stock 19" Good Year RSA tires, I upgraded to 19" Micheline Pilot Sport A/s Plus tires (Good Year's were worn out anyway), the disturbance remained. The disturbance got worse the longer I drove continuously.

When I took it to the dealer the first time, they could not reproduce the noise, which other owners may have had this same experience. I found that the heat from driving on the expressway at high speeds (65+) for 10-30 minutes made the noise much more audible and the vibration more intense.

So the day of my next appointment with Nissan Service for this issue, I drove around the expressway a while until the disturbance was clearly present, then I called the dealer on my cell while still driving and arranged to have a technician meet me outside the dealership as I pulled in. I took the technician for a ride and he was able to witness the disturbance.

The technician pulled all 4 wheels & tires from another Maxima (also 19") and placed them on mine in an attempt to eliminate defective tire or distorted wheel as the cause, the noise remained.

I will be returning in a couple days when they will replace the wheel hub ball bearings, I will let you know if that resolves this issue.

I hope the above information will be useful.

lightonthehill

jammer - I think they are on the right track. The situation you described does not seem to be something a tire or wheel could cause, but could very possibly be a hub or bearing problem. Sorry you have suffered this annoyance with your new baby. Please be sure and keep us informed on this.

g_jammer

Today was the day my Maxima went into the Dealer for the warranty replacement of he front drivers side Wheel Hub Ball Bearing , to see if that would eliminate the thumping / grinding noise, accompanied with the vibration in the gas pedal. (See my prior post above for more detailed symptoms)

It worked! The thumping is gone, the grinding is gone, the vibration is gone...good as new.

Hopefully this experience will help others in the future.


Thanks for reading

CORRUPT27

Had the same issue where it would vibrate at 80 mph. It ended up being a rim. I know there is a place in PA that fixes bent rims.

s-one

I think the vibration is coming from my tires as well. it seems to vibrate a lower speeds at maybe like 40 mph approx. I can't wait to change them when they run low. its not unbearable so i will just deal with it for now.

maxout!

sounds like the tires may still be breaking in. see if it goes away after more miles.

or ask your passenger to stop humming dixie while you drive

smarty666

had the same issues with vibrations/shimmy in the steering wheel/pedals and seats when I first got my 2010 Maxima; brought it back in for a front-end alignment and balancing at my Nissan dealer; found out three of the four tires were severely out of balance from the factory and the front-end wasn't completely aligned properly at the factory either

all vibrations/shimmy went away after the balancing and front-end alignment; glad I caught it at 500 miles and not have driven 7500 miles till the first rotation with a misalignment and out of balance tires, which I would have!! probably would have had bad uneven tire wear, etc had I not had this done

shame on Nissan for delivering a 38k dollar car with a misalignment and out of balance tires; when a car comes into a dealership from the factory, before it is sold and given to the customer a front-end alignment and balancing should be checked automatically so that we customers don't run into problems later on with our tires and other possible complications from misalignment and unbalanced tires because of course Nissan would blame us later on when the tires wore unevenly or had poor fuel economy, etc

I urge anyone having shimmy/vibrations in the wheel, pedals, seats, etc to take your 09 or 10 Maxima in for an alignment and balancing before you get too many miles on it and Nissan blames you for the problems, I was just lucky had only 500 miles on the car so Nissan couldn't charge or blame me for the problems!

KillaKam

I had the same problem.. I have the 19" and there are a lot of potholes here in CT and they are hard as hell do see at night so of course I have two bent rims and one of them is one that is rebent only 2 days after I paid 100$ to get it fixed.

Sam999

New Maxima 2009 (SV) owner with this same problem (vibration as if lugging when at low RPM - below 1500). Anyone find a solution to this problem? Or is it really "normal" for Nissan CVT cars? At this point I wish I did not get this car (especially since I usually keep my cars a long time). My dealer service departmnet says they test drove it and could not find anything not normal!

My next car, whenever I can afford to replcae this one, is definitely not a Nissan. Never felt this way about a new car so soon after purchasing it.

garybizzle

do you know a good brand for a wheel bearing replacement? or just one thats atleast OEM? i've been looking around and cant really find any that say OEM. and when it comes to the brands, i dont know any of them..dealership wants to charge me $370 to replace just one side.

lightonthehill

Are you already outside the warranty (over 36,000 miles) on a car that only became available to the public 17 months ago?

KEMERI2002

Beggining to wonder if this is common. I bought my 09 with 40 miles on it 3 months ago. Have always had a slight vibration starting at 70mph to 75mph accompanied with the passenger seat shaking. Took my car to the dealer had the original wheels (18")road force balanced. They replaced 1 tire and said I was good to go. Drove the car back home (40 min highway) and sure enough no change. Put after market 19" rims with the new Goodyear Eagle GT tires on. Looks sweet but still did not change the vibration. Sent all the rims back and had them replaced. Had the wheels road force balanced again and u guessed it still the same. Lastly today I rotated the rear to the front to eliminate any tire or wheels from the equaton and still the same vibration coming from the rear. Very frustrating next step is to take it to the dealership.

cmstew

On smooth stretches of highway around 71mph my 2010 Maxima SV has a very noticeable vibration felt through the floor and gas pedal, along with the front pasenger seat shaking. The seat shaking is very noticeable in the headrest. I took it to the dealer @2000 miles and they balanced the front tires, this had no effect.

lightonthehill

I would take the car right back to the dealer, although many dealers are not very good at this sort of thing. If you are feeling it through the gas pedal, it would seem to be a front wheel/tire problem. Has the car done this from day one? If either the wheel or tire is not perfectly round, no amount of balancing will fix the problem.

71 MPH is a frequently used speed on freeways, so this vibration must be fixed somehow. Once it is fixed, the vibration in the front passenger seat should either stop, or virtually stop.

CMax03

iTrader: (3)

thin sheetmetal in the firewall and floorboards? Lacking some sort of strenghtener!

Maximus_Prime

I am experiencing the same thing. The dealership did the same thing with my Max (replaced one tire), however the problem still remains. I live in Toronto, so I have winter rims and tires on the car, yet I still have the same vibration at highway speeds. Earlier in the thread someone said it could be the wheel hub bearings... what did your dealership tell you?

smarty666

Hey guys I'm in a little bit of a pickle. If you look up a few posts back, I posted some information about a mis-balancing and mis-alignment on my Max FROM THE FACTORY that I had hunter road force balanced and a front-end alignment done by my Nissan dealer very shortly after getting the car.

Suffice it to say, that was almost 7 months ago. I have roughly 5700 miles on the car now, haven't even gotten to the first 7500 mile rotation, and have found that my passenger side tires are wearing unevenly! I am so pissed because I keep on the tire pressure all year long, keeping it at 34 PSI cold for all four tires. I'm not surprise there is uneven wear because I've begun noticing a high vibrations/shaking coming through the wheel/pedals/seats, etc doing anything over 60 mph and it gets worse the faster you go.

I took out my tread gauge today and here is what it shows. Both the driver front and rear RS-As have 9/32nds all the way across each tire. Both the passenger front and rear RS-As have 9/32nds in the middle with 7/32nds on each shoulder/edge of the tire.

What are r your guys thoughts and suggestions? I'm quite annoyed because there is absolutely no reason why this should be happening. I had them hunter road force balanced and the alignment done before there was even 100 miles on the tires. The funny thing is, the car is not pulling to the left or right when you let the wheel go yet the wear on the passenger side suggests an alignment issue. I don't want to put another $80 dollars out for a alignment when I just had one done only 7 months ago. I mean this is ridiculous!

LtLeary

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you don't make excessive left hand high speed turns, but you mention that you are showing 7/32s on both the inside and outside of the tire? That really does sound more like tire pressure than alignment to me. I would start first with validating my tire pressure guage against another. Next I would have my alignment rechecked (although if pressure is good I would think either loose wheel lugs or hubs may be suspect) as something is causing your "non straight line" alignment issue. Do you have any low speed vibrations as well (particularly when cornering?) If so, that too, would point more towards the loose/defective wheels/hubs.

smarty666

Thanks for the advice Leary. The air pressure gauge I got from pep boys in not even a year old but I might get another one to compare with as you mentioned. Also, I'm going to get a new tread depth gauge because the one I have is a bit old. AT 7500 with the first rotation, I'm going to make sure the tires are GSP9700 balanced with LFM so that they get balanced properly. If this doesn't help, I'll have a all wheel alignment done again.

Unfortunately, my local Nissan dealership is a piece of **** and when I took the car in at 100 miles, due to the vibrations, and had the balancing and alignment done at Nissan's expense, my service advisor said that they were merely doing this as a courtesy/favor because of the low miles but if I brought it in again, they charge me full price. But, my local Nissan dealer doesn't have the LFM tech for the Hunter so I'm going to take it to my local shop in town that does so that they get properly balanced!

LtLeary

Just to make sure my mind is at ease, please check your lug nuts/hubs by grasping the tires at the top and then sides and giving some good shakes (assuming you don't have a good torque wrench at hand) Many times, even some of the better shops, get distracted and forget to tighten/torque the lugs properly... (and we all know we are supposed to retorque after 25 miles just to be sure) and with both tires on the same side exhibiting the "weird" tire wear, I am concerned you may have a couple of loose wheels.

smarty666

will do!!

DraKhen99

Just thought I'd add in some of my experiences, after almost 1,000 miles.

I have no extraneous vibrations at highway speeds, and I've had my Max at a bunch of different speeds. I noticed the first-thing-in-the-morning clunking coming from the CV area ... and I think it's normal for FWD cars. As for tires out of balance, my 18" (Premium/Tech packaged SV) wheels/tires are fine, no out of round or out of balance, just lots of road noise.

As for the lugging, I've noticed that as well ... having driven plenty of manual transmission cars, that's definitely the engine lugging. If you dip your toes into the gas pedal a bit, the RPMs kick up around 2k, and it goes away. I plan to drive in Sport or Manual mode once the 1,200 mile break-in has been completed, gas mileage be damned.

smarty666

well that noise is due to the Goodyear RS-A's

RS-A's = lots of road noise

DraKhen99

Yep... true story. If I keep this car long enough to need new tires, she'll get a set of Michelin Primacy MXV4s ... I had those as OEM on my 09 Lincoln MKS and those tires were SILENT on the highway!

IH8SPM

We can now add another 3 Maximas with the same vibration problems. One vibrates at around 45-55, the other 65-72 and the third at 68-85. All have less than 1500 miles and since new have felt this way. Two are from the same dealer. I don't know what it could be since I had this same problem with the 08 Hondah accord. Given the similarities with the issue here are my questions to all.

1. Was your car a demo?
2. Was your car purchase off the lot?
3.Did your car have more than 5-10 miles?
4.Did you order your car and have it delivered from the factory or another dealer.

The reason for this is that in question one we can all imagine its due to wear or bent rims, parts etc. Question two brings up the how long was it sitting in the same position without being moved. Question three would indicate that your car was delivered from a storage lot and possibly driven by someone we all wish we were when were in our teens. And just round out the forth question, your car would have been sent directly to your dealer after being built so it would not have to sit somewhere for a long time.

My Hondah was from another dealership and it was driven 45 miles and then it sat on gravel stones until we purchased it. They gave me everything I asked for down to 100k bumper to bumper extension warranty but nothing ever fixed the problem.

Wow what a rant!

smarty666

1) no
2) yes, but it only sat on the lot for about 2 weeks because I was watching what came in consistently
3) no
4) no

Personally, I don't think it has anything to do with the wheels, rims, or other parts of the car itself. My vibrations went away once I had all the tire Roadforce balanced by my Nissan dealer and a alignment done with them at 100 miles. Now I am approaching 6,000 miles and the vibrations are beginning to return.

I personally think, that the problem lies in the tires themselves. The RS-A's are a very poorly rated tire and I think they are a poor match for the 7th Gen Maxima. You have to remember they are a high performance tire and unless you have the sports package, you don't really need that kind of tire. The Maxima drives and has more the driving dynamics of a luxury sedan then it does a sports sedan so I think a Grand Touring tire would be better suited to deliver a much quieter and smoother ride which the Maxima wants to do, but is unable to do completely because of these tires.

Since the vibrations are returning now at around 6k miles I have a good feeling the tires are going out of balance, when I do the first rotation at 7500 I'm going to have them Roadforce balanced again but with LFM tech. Cars like the Maxima need to have special balancing done and if it is not done on the right kind of balancer you can still run into problems. I have found this out with my TL. The last time I had that alignment done the guy at the tire store told me the top four cars they see most frequently in the shop for alignments is the 3-Series, TL, Maxima, and A4! Here is a great link to finding a shop near you that uses the GSP9700 Hunter Roadforce balancer and LFM technology. This is the best balancer currently on the market right now. There is also a link below giving information on this Hunter balancing technology.

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/findgsp9700.cfm

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/technical/4869T.pdf

The thing that bothers me the most about Nissan is this. They put lousy and poorly rated Goodyear RS-A tires on their top of the line upscale sedan yet the put top of the line Michelin Primacy MXV4 on their cheaper sedan Altima 2.5SL vehicles. All Altima's with the SL packages come with the Primacy's which tells me that Nissan has a deal with Michelin and buys them in bulk already, most likely at a discount, and puts them on all their SL Altima's produced. Why the heck can't they pay a little bit more and order more tires and put the Primacy's on all the Maxima models? Aren't we paying a lot more money to Nissan for our Maxima's then a 2.5SL Altima owner is? Shouldn't we have the best tire available like they do? That would make sense to me.

Infiniti finally put the Primacy's on the M37 instead of the RS-A's. Hopefully, Nissan will follow suit with the Maxima in the next model year or two.

IH8SPM

There are 3 pages of issues related to vibrations yet Nissan had there best month in March. I really don't see them replacing any of the current tires on the market with new ones and to change the to another manufacture mid stream would cost money in research to make sure the vehicle can perform to its design capacity. What this means to us is either a quick fix like re-balancing and alignments regularly or replacing the tires as needed. Unless we have a issue like Firestone had in the past I think we are stuck with the cheap fix. I am going to have them perform this fix at the next visit.

smarty666

I definitely agree with you and that Nissan would definitely be too lazy to change it and that with sales the way they are they have no incentive too. I just got a phone call from Nissan Consumer Affairs yesterday about problems I'm still having with my passenger seat vibrating/shaking when no one sits in it. Basically, the SOB I spoke with said that there is nothing they can do, and that the recommendation I made in my letter can not be forwarded to their design department because by law they can not accept or listen to customer suggestions. Can you believe that BS. That's probably why after 6 years, the Altima still doesn't have a power passenger seat after I have asked since 2005 for them to put one in their top level models. So if they won't listen to their customers, they definitely won't put a better OEM tire on the car. But as I said, it should be easy to do, they already buy in bulk from Michelin on the Primacy's to put on their Altimas. They already do this so it shouldn't cost that much more to just buy more bulk to put on the Maxima. Usually the tire manufacturers will give a big discount to auto makers who buy from them in bulk, which Nissan already does with Michelin since the Primacy's go on all the 2.5 SL Altimas!

But you are right they won't change it. Nissan likes to cut corners, which is a shame since they spent so much money and time really making a great 7th Gen Maxima inside and outside, you'd think they would put a better tire on to complement that. Oh well. I guess its just wishful thinking on my part.

Hopefully, with them Roadforced balanced and LFM at 7500 that will do the trick, hopefully for another year!

Moosct

Hi to all,

I ahve the same problem like most of you, and I hope there will be a solution soon.
At about 65-70 MPH( 120 km/h) the care statrs to tremble, as in the acceleration peddal and the seat. I have only 4000 KM on it (2500Mile) and it get's on my nerves. I had an XTerra before with no vibration at all at any speed.
After the first 200 miles or so my sterring wheel started to shake and I was advised by the fast service persons to wait untill the 1000 miles service. When that came, I had the all 4 wheels ballanced and all was perfect.
As I was not driving over 2000 rpm I would not feel any other vibrations and I was happy. But it happened that slightly after 3000 miles that I was little over 70 mph and the shaking starts. Not in the steering wheel but in all the car.

Dose any of us have had a solution, or a response from the Nissan regarding this issue?
My car runs on 19" on Bridgestone Potenza 245/40/19

hsquare3

Just dropped my car off at the dealership for the 3rd time in 2 days to fix a vibration and wobbling issue. The dealership performed an alignment, balancing on the tires and did not fix the problem. The next time they swapped out the wheels from the model that I test drove which did not have a vibration issue, which solved the wobbling issue but not the vibration issue. The tire pressure gauge light came on later in the evening only to find out the dealership gave me back the car with the front tires at 33psi and the rears at 30psi. I balanced out the air pressure in the rears and the vibration has not gone away nor has the tire pressure warning light turned off. I had 2 friends drive the car and both feel the vibration just to confirm that I am not being over sensitive.

I can tell you I am quite frustrated because I would not expect this on a brand new car. My 5 year old Honda drove smoother than this 2010 Nissan Maxima, this makes no sense.

The dealership is working the problem, but I am starting to think this may be an issue with the Maxima in general and not a mechanical issue. I am waiting for them to call me with a resolution. I will post what they tell me, but if anyone who is on this thread can offer any advice, would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Ant954

I have the same freaking problem. I have a 2010 max with 1500 miles and around 80 i get vibration in the car. If i have a poland spring bottle in the cup holder it vibrates like crazy. Also I can feel every bump the tires hit in the steering wheel. What gives????

smarty666

Again, it all has to do with the RS-A tires. They cause a lot of vibration if not properly balanced. Their high performance tires so its even more important to have them Hunter Roadforce balanced, preferably on the GSP9700 machine. I'd recommend finding a place with the LFM tech to that machine which specifically checks the lateral force adjustments at high rates of speed. That is the kind of balancing these tires need. If that by chance doesn't get rid of the vibrations, have a all wheel alignment done.

Unfortunately, I found out with my TL, that the TL, Maxima, and 3-Series are the most common vehicles that are seen the most by tire shops for alignments. Use the link below to find the shop closest to you for the proper balancing equipment! Best of Luck!!

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/findgsp9700.cfm

And some information in this link about the LFM!

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/technical/4869T.pdf

Also, I hate to point out, but the RS-As are a very poor match for the luxury sedan like ride quality and noise level the Maxima itself is designed to have. These tires are rated very poorly and even if the vibration gets fixed, like it did in my case originally, they still have a lousy ride quality and a very high noise level. You'll have to replace it with something from Michelin, Kumho, or Bridgestone in the Grand Touring category if you want something to give you a much smoother ride and a reduce noise level compared to these lousy Goodyears!

MONTE 01&97 SE

iTrader: (1)

Real quick note, its hard to read that black lettering on the background!

hsquare3

Just dropped my car off at the dealership for the 3rd time in 2 days to fix a vibration and wobbling issue. The dealership performed an alignment, balancing on the tires and did not fix the problem. The next time they swapped out the wheels from the model that I test drove which did not have a vibration issue, which solved the wobbling issue but not the vibration issue. The tire pressure gauge light came on later in the evening only to find out the dealership gave me back the car with the front tires at 33psi and the rears at 30psi. I balanced out the air pressure in the rears and the vibration has not gone away nor has the tire pressure warning light turned off. I had 2 friends drive the car and both feel the vibration just to confirm that I am not being over sensitive.

I can tell you I am quite frustrated because I would not expect this on a brand new car. My 5 year old Honda drove smoother than this 2010 Nissan Maxima, this makes no sense.

The dealership is working the problem, but I am starting to think this may be an issue with the Maxima in general and not a mechanical issue. I am waiting for them to call me with a resolution. I will post what they tell me, but if anyone who is on this thread can offer any advice, would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

smarty666

I'm not sure do you have the sport package or not? That can make a difference since they are 19 inch wheels and Bridgestones. I have a mid-level SV with the RS-As so I'm assuming those are the tires we are talking about.

If you are still having troubles man, I seriously suggest you use the links I gave above and find a Hunter GSP9700 Machine with LFM technology. Its the best balancer on the market and it might just solve all your problems. Since the dealership did a alingment you shouldn't have to have that done again, but wait to see what the tire shop says that you bring it in for balancing. Some Nissan dealerships don't even have a hunter roadforce balancer so definitely go to a place that does. You don't know how many people had to go to three or four places before the tires were properly balanced to get the vibrations to go away.

If none of this helps, I seriously suggest one of two things:

1) Take you Maxima to a Goodyear Tire Dealership and complain complain complain to them that your having nothing but problems with your RS-As and that you've had alignments and several balancing trys performed but are continuing to have vibration problems. Ask them to do an adjustment and have a quieter/smoother riding Goodyear tire put on the Maxima, maybe like a Goodyear Eagle ResponseEdge. I think that is suppose to be their smoothest and quietiest riding tire.

2) If you don't want to deal with Goodyear or get a different Goodyear put on for dirt cheap adjustment, then you'll have to take your car to a place and get another tire brand put on. The problem with this is though, if you put another tire brand on, most places will not give you an adjustment or if they do, it won't be much since you'll be putting on a different brand.

If you go the latter route and you can afford them, I'd seriously consider putting Michelin Primacy MXV4s on the car. I think they would be the best choice and well suited to giving you the quietiest most comfortable ride that the Maxima will ever be able to give you, but is unable to because of the RS-As. They are aroudn $200 bucks a tire so if you don't want to spend that, I'd recommend the Kumho Escta LX Platinum's.

If you want something that has okay ride quality/noise level but provides better handling and road grip for all year I'd recommend the Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S (high performance all season) or Pirelli PZero Nero A/S or Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus ( both are ultra high performance all season).

Hope everything works out for you. Definitely though, before getting replacement tires, go to a place that has that top of the line balancer with LFM technology. I think if you have the RS-As balanced with that, the vibration problems with go away.

IH8SPM

My wife's car went back for a vibration issue and the dealer said the found one rear wheel out of balance by a very small amount. None the less it is still not fixed. I have contacted a Goodyear tire service center and have explained the problem to them and they said bring it in. I also told them about my Max and they also said bring it in. With the wife's car I may have to pay for balance and alignment but on mine I should be able to get the swap if they find a problem (Please do).. I will update with my results hopefully this upcoming week.

Moosct

I run Bridgestone Potenza on mine, 245/R19/40 and I face the same problem.
The car is in Service with the dealer since yesterday morning. I had an tehnician who had recognised the vibvration in the first 5 seconds after I reach 120km/h but had no comment.
As soon I have the car back I will post the dealership response.
I'm in middle east...Kuwait.

smarty666

I'm assuming you have the sports package since you have the 19inch Bridgestones on

I have had so so results with Bridgestone over the years; I personally think they make some of the best SUV tires around and have had them on several crossover's over the years and gotten quiet/comfortable rides and long treadwear on them. On the other hand though,

I have not had very good luck with Bridgestone on sedan tires; my Acura TL had OEM EL42's on them that were a nightmare; had two all wheel alignments and two hunter roadforce balancing done on them and could not get rid of the pull/vibrations; luckily got an adjustment from Bridgestone and had top of the line Serenity's put on which were great for the first 10k miles and then went down hill from there pretty quickly to the point I have to replace them at 20k; I have heard from other people have balancing and vibration issues with the 19inch Bridgestone's on the Max

What I suggest you do is, using my link in a couple post back above, find a place close to where you live that uses the Hunter GSP9700 Roadforce balancing machine WITH LFM straighttrak. This is the best balancer on the market and is specifically designed for vehilces like a TL, Maxima, G37, etc that have sport like tires and suspension set-up to get the best balancing results. Have that balancing perform and if the vibration has not gone away then you definitely have something going with the tires.

If the vibrations don't go away after peforming that balancing, if you can afford it, I'd get a different tire put on. Since you have the sports package (I'm assuming) I'd suggest getting a Michelin, Pirelli, Yokie, or Kumho put on (in that order) in a high performance or ultra high performance all season tire!

Best of Luck!