My 96 SE (I'm the 3rd owner, history since 2nd owner) pulls to the left. If I'm doing 30 and in the middle of my lane at the start of a normal city block, I'll be over the center line by halfway down the block.

I got the car from my brother, and he said that it has always done that -- he thinks it got hit on the left front before he bought it. New tires and an alignment haven't changed anything. The car has been hit twice on the left front when he owned it -- no major damage requiring lots of repair.

What could be causing it to pull? Anything I can check myself without taking it to a body shop or taking the suspesion apart before I replace the struts? I'm going to replace the struts, strut bearings, and maybe control arm bushings within the month.

Thanks a lot.
Soren

 

Clarification:

The front left corner of the car will be over the center line, not the whole car.

 

Are your tire pressures correct all the way around?

 

Yes, checked them yesterday.

 

Mine did that, i checked the tire pressure (added air) and it corrected it. Also check out treds on the tire if it's recently happening.

 

Hi Soren. I'm Greg's Dad. He mentioned that you and I now own twin Maximas.
I've just been in contact with a maxima.org member who had severe steering wandering problems. He was kind enough to send a Technical Service Bulletin that discusses the problem of "Pull/Drift." The official definition of unacceptable pull is if the vehicle completes a lane change (all 4 wheels pass into the other lane) in less than 7 seconds with no steering correction when driving at 60 mph on a crown-sloped road with less than 1 percent slope down to the right.

I'll send you a copy of the TSB if you want, but the gist of it is first to eliminate:
- differential tire pressure
- different tire type or tire wear on left versus right
- unusual load in the vehicle
- alignment.

You have probably done all this, but I would suggest two things. Swap the front wheels left to right. You're not supposed to rotate tires in this way, especially unidirectional type treads, but do this just for diagnosis. If the pull is different, you know it's the tires or rims. You should also swap the rear wheels right to left because there can be a rear wheel steering effect.

The second thing is to reconsider alignment. Maximas have alignment adjustment only for toe-in, not for camber or caster. A mediocre alignment shop might have corrected toe-in and ignored problems with camber or caster that were caused by a collision. If the right front caster is higher than the left front, the car will pull to the left. Also, you would need to get a 4-wheel alignment check. Even though the rear wheels are not adjustable, the front alignment must be set along the "thrust angle" that is determined by the set of the rear wheels. If there is a severe problem with caster or camber, possibly a good body shop can pull the unibody into alignment.

The Technical Bulletin finally addresses a problem you don't seem to have, which is where the force necessary to slide the steering rack back and forth is excessively low due to wear. There is an screw to adjust sliding force, but the subframe and Y-pipe have to be removed to reach it.

I assume you have had the ball joints checked. If there is any question about their condition, and since it sounds like you are planning to do control arm bushings and struts, you might want to consider replacing the lower control arms at the same time. The Haynes manual says 4th Gen ball joints are not replaceable separately, that the whole control arm is replaced. Even having new bushings put on the lower control arm requires its removal, so there would be no extra labor.

Another possibility would be a brake caliper failing to retract completely and causing drag on the left side of the car, but you would probably notice the rotor and caliper getting extra hot.

Good luck,

Bob

 

Two notes:
1) I firmly believe the subframe and y-pipe are not necessary to remove to perform the rack adjustment, but accessing the rack nut still isn't easy. Also, I agree that your car probably doesn't need this, since my car drifted in no particular direction, different from a pull.

2) Ball joints could be replaced, I believe, since some aftermarket sellers (suspension.com) sell ball joints clearly marked as 95-99. I have a spare pair of control arms laying around and I will try to pop one out to see for sure. I think Nissan simply didn't want their techs messing around with the joints so they just wrote in the manual to replace the whole thing. This could save significant $$ since the new joints are $30/ea instead of $150/ea for an entire arm.

Dave

 

You say "the force necessary to slide the steering rack back and forth is excessively low." Would this also effect how easy it is to turn the car? People are always complaining about how overboosted the steering is on 95-98's. I wonder if this TSB could be the remedy to this problem?

 

Thanks a lot. I'd appreciate it if you could check the ball joints. Buying a new control arm isn't my first choice.

Also, anyone know a good place to get replacement OEM control arm bushings, other than the stealership?

 

Several weeks back another org member put me on to this TSB in response to my dismay at the lack of feedback and excessive lightness of the 96 Maxima steering. David Geesaman just provided an actual copy of it. While this adjustment is certainly advisable if the sliding force is way below spec, increasing sliding force may not really overcome the design shortcomings of the steering. I see now that the risk of over-adjusting the steering rack force is that the wheel would not return to center after making a turn, which would be dangerous as well as irritating. Another concern is just how difficult and labor intensive this procedure can be. It might increase steering effort in a pleasing way, but I don't know if you would actually have any better road feel.

 

spk: Go to www.suspension.com and get the Energy Suspension bushing set.

Terran:
A call to the parts counter would validate this assumption, but I'm pretty sure the 99's use the same exact rack as the 95-98s.

I think the difference is that rack adjustment - Nissan increased the sliding force specification between the 98 steering TSB and 2000 steering TSB. (from 40-48lb to 49-64lb). It is then a safe assumption that the 99s are set to the higher spec. Anyone with a 99 FSM can check this. (Bueller? Anyone?)

The result is the driver has to put in a little more input to make the rack move, and therefore it feels like there is less power boost.

 

My max pulls left. It's not been in an accident. My front right tire has excess wear on the inside. Not severe, but it is noticeable now that the tire is worn down a good bit. It seems to be fairly smoothly worn, which is why I thought that camber could have done it, but is it possible that I could have a toe-in issue and that is the cause of not only the left, but the slightly excess wear on the inside? I am going to wait until the tires are worn more (soon!), then was planning on an alignment, but I'd hate to think it's anymore than that.

 

Mine pulls left as well....it pulled left when I had my 18's on and now it is pulling left on the new 19's....I have had it alligned about 5 times and nothing has fixed it. I/(or someone else), am guessing I may have bent something when jacking the car up at the wrong spots...just an idea.

 

Is that a good source for the lower ball joints, if they are replaceable? I'm going to have a shop press in the new control arm bushings once I get the control arms out, so I can have them replace the ball joints if need be.

I'll obviously need an alignment once I get everything back together, and I'll make sure everything is checked out thoroughly.

 

ok doode, here's the deal.
i have just gotten an alignment at this shop, really good shop, always working on race cars. and i talked to the guy for a while, reguarding alignment, on how cars sometimes can pull towards either left or right, and here is what it is.
sometimes, after getting an alignment, your car's alignment can be proper, but it also does not mean that it is weighed properly.
like race cars, at a round round circuit, they will align the tires to go straight, but they will put more weight towards whichever direction the circuit goes, so it can pull that way.

 

I don't know - I'd like to know that myself. I should just take the arms to a shop and see if they think they are replaceable. They should be able to test the ball joints before taking anything apart - you simply use a prybar and see if you can show any vertical movement in the joint.

The old control arm bushings must be burned out - read the FAQ on suspension.com or else you may damage the old arms.

Dave