Couple of months ago I bumped a curb head on. Both front rims were bent. I had them replaced at Nissan garage. They also replaced several other parts (member asm, pin-link B, link compl., oil gasket and a few other smaller items plus only one tire). I felt vibrations mainly in the steering wheel and gas paddle and occasionally in the whole car's body as soon as I sped up to cruising speeds on highway. They denied being anything wrong with it saying that's impossible to balance tires for such a high speeds (meaning 65-80mph). I wound up changing the second front tire and rotating them to the back. That didn't help-obviously it's not tires nor the rims. The shake is rather subtle but very annoying. It comes and goes-I noticed dependence on temperature and highway surface quality. Any idea of what it might be? The shake was not there before the accident and my two year old Maxima has less than 30k miles on it.
Thanks for any advice. Ales

 

Alignment?

 

wheel balance?

 

Sounds like wheel alignment. Get a 2 wheel alignment (rears are nonadjustable, so just do the front). If that doesn't fix it, take the car to a good frame shop and have them measure the car.

 

The rear wheels are nonadjustable? Were they adjustable on the 2nd gen max's? On my '85 max they said they did a 4 wheel alignment - did I just get hosed?

K

 

hmmm.... tires cannot be balanced to that speed? try a different shop.

also, if the rotations and such don't help, it's probably another part. possibly a worn tie rod end, joint, or bushing, allowing excessive clearance. Maybe the wheel bearings are worn?

-V

 

I agree with you there. Too often we blame the wheel or tire for a shimmy problem, and overlook other steering components.

 

You have received useful information from several other posters. I do not disagree with them. However, I will take this thought process a step further.

The key words in your detailed post are The shake was not there before the accident and my two year old Maxima has less than 30k miles on it. This tells us the problem is related to the crash and subsequent repair, not normal wear and tear. I suspect that the Nissan dealer failed to identify all of the damaged items and therefore your car received an incomplete repair. They should carefully examine all rubber parts in the front suspension to see if some should have been replaced. They should verify that the large bolts which secure the suspension to the car body have been properly tightened.