tom_98se

iTrader: (2)

Background: '98 SE 5-speed, just shy of 38k, stock tires & rims, stock suspension, no accidents, did the strut test w/ no extra bouncing.

At speeds of 80mph or higher, it feels like my steering is very 'light.' The car doesn't seem 100% stable to me, like I'm driving through a slight crosswind. Occasionally, I feel almost-imperceptible feedback through the steering wheel, like the wheel is moving slightly on its own.

Maybe this is just me being super-sensitive since my last car had stiffer suspension and steering. However, I'm still worried about potentially worn suspension bushings etc. that might affect emergency handling.

I hate going to the dealer blind; it seems they can smell insecurity and automatically tack on 'diagnostic' and 'inspection' charges.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Regards,
TOM

camaro1698

i have the same problem with my 98 SE auto, it gets real loose between 70-80. Mine shakes too, try getting the car aligned at a good alignment shop and sheck the control arm bushings, they shouldn't be worn at 38k however, i changed mine at 60k and they were still in good shape, dont bring it to the dealer to get aligned, they are horrible, find a good alignment shop that will take the time to do it right, i've found that good body shops take the right time to correct the alignment problem, hope this helps!!

Craig Mack

I just started feeling this exact same notion on my daily highway commute. I came on the org today to post a thread about this, but you and another already have. Pretty cool!

Anyways I just got a tire replaced and another one is on it's way (I skidded and have a bald tire in the back) so maybe that's my problem. Go get your car perfectly aligned, and that should help.

Also that damn steering wheel vibration is a killer !

JUDE

iTrader: (7)

I have the same problem in my 99. she vibrates a lot over 60 and feels really loose around 80-90. I'm going to get two new tires, get all four balanced and get an allignment. I think that should fix the problem. I'm thinking that when I get the FTSB it should help.

mAdD MAX

I have a similar problem with my '99 with 40k kms.

I was recently doing 160km/h on the highway and braked, the front end of the car started shaking! I had never experienced this before!! The whole front end started swaying from side to side..if I had slammed on the brakes the car would have spun or something. I moderatly applied pressure to the brakes so the car stayed in its own lane and safely decreased speed.

I was wondering if a strut tower would fix this??

Also I recently had the brake pads changed.

Craig Mack

And to no avail does it work. I am overall not very impressed with my matrix FSTB.

I30TinME

iTrader: (8)

OK guys, here goes a long post that I have been thinking about writing for a while. I have a 1998 I30T with 72,000. I bought the car used two years ago with around 52,000 on it. One of the first things I noticed was the same symptoms you are describing, a lightness in the steering wheel. I described it as if I had overloaded the car with weight in the trunk, giving the steering a light feel. It also has a tendency to track with ruts in the road. Now I brought it to the Infiniti dealer a couple of times, they road tested it, had it up on the lift, rotated and balanced the tires and did an alignment. Still the same feeling. Knowing there was nothing mechanically wrong, I just drove it and lived with this oddity.

Fast forward about a year. I am now getting tired of living with this ‘oddity’ and started to research the problem when I located this TSB: 98-042 OCT 98 Steering Rack - Pull/Drift Diagnosis & Repair. With this information in hand, I went back to the Infiniti dealer to ask them to research this TSB. It seems (and Daniel B. Martin please forgive me if I misspeak) the steering rack has a acceptable range of a factor called ‘preload’. That is the effort it take to move the rack, hence the tie rod ends, hence the tires. Now it appears this preload is adjustable. When they checked my car and to do this there is a very specific procedure:
a) disconnecting the rack from the steering mechanism by disconnecting the tie road end
b) measuring the effort, in pounds, required to move the rack .

After they did the test they found my car was below the acceptable range. Now here is where memory fades (getting old is a *****), I think they said the test showed my car had a factor of about 30 pounds while the acceptable range was like 40-50. This would give the car a light feel as the tires would have a tendency to move more easily at the 30 pounds versus the acceptable range of 40-50. Again, I may be off on the figures but the theory is correct. Again, with all of this said, they advised me it would be a $250 charge to adjust the rack into the correct range. I was stunned and asked why. They said it is an involved process that as mentioned above consists of isolating the rack, putting some sort of one foot long arm on the rack to do the measurement, break loose the rack to get to the adjustment point, do the adjusting and then put everything back together. I said, no thank you and off I went.

OK, now here is where I (and all of the other who suffer with this problem) need the assistance of the pro’s like Daniel B. Martin and others. Can anyone define what TSB: 98-042 OCT 98 Steering Rack - Pull/Drift Diagnosis & Repair is all about. Does the FSM contain a description of how to perform this steering rack adjustment. Is there any factory updates that would contain this procedure. I would be happy to attempt to do the adjustment on my car and report back to the group, if we can just figure out what the procedure is. Again the dealership was very hesitant about giving away too much information, just enough to let me know I had a problem.

Again, I apologize for the length of this post, but I do feel a lot of us put up with this same problem.

Craig Mack

Almost perfect description. I appriciate you posting this, as I will be copying it, and showing it to my body shop guy to see if that foo can fix my problem !

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Keep in mind that the Maxima was build as a family sedan. Some of us however, like the fact that it has tons of power. So we need to plant that power down on the road and keep it stable at high speeds. A set of 17" wheels with performance tires makes a HUGH difference. Put a rear stabalizer bar on and you get an awsome ride. The next level of course is upgrading the struts and springs. Put all of the things I mentioned on the car, which is what I have, and you get one VERY STABLE AND FUN TO DRIVE 4 DOOR SPORTS CAR.

I30TinME

iTrader: (8)

Craig Mack, what I noticed from the first posts was most of the cars were '98. I am curious if this is more typical of this year. I have replaced a few steering racks over the years but have never been introduced to an 'adjustable' rack. Now when I had the car in the shop when they diagnosed the problem, I asked why they wouldn't adjust it as it must have been that way from the factory. Their response was, you bought it used and we don't know what work was done on the steering rack by the prior owner. It was obvious the bolts had never been touched, but you can only get so far with the dealerships.

Anyway, I am anxiously waiting to see if we can get a good description of the process to adjust.

Jason96GLE

My 96 GLE has the same traits. On high speeds the steering wheel get real loose. I thought this was normal due to the Maxima's overboosted steering. Our cars are supposed to be equiped with speed sensitve steering but I find it works in the opposite direction. I will look into that TSB but I probably will end up just dealing with it.

Synki

Well.. i know on teh 99's they have teh speed sensitive steering adjustment. The faster you go, the tighter the steering gets...just like Lexus.

BTW-usually when the "floaty" feelin occurs means your goin too fast & the car's stock suspension can't quite handle it. This is where getting a FSTB, RSB, low profile tires, wider rims, lowering springs & new struts/shocks come into play. This lowers center of gravity, more contact patch & stiffens up the suspension.

Craig Mack

Dude, I have a '95 with 17x8 rims, SE suspension, and A matrix FSTB...I think it actually got worse, now everything is extremely sensitive. My tires follow little creases in the roads, and everything. And occasionally my wheels wanna jerk to one side for no reason. (like they are loose)

I am disappointed in my strut bar. I really didn't feel much if any of a difference.

camaro1698

I tried puting a fstb, rstb, rsb, new tires, alignment, balancing and still the same problem. I had the problem since i bought the car in 98. By the way it is a 98 SE. It seems that this problem is apparent in most 98 SE maximas. I'm going to look at the fsm tomorrow to find out about how to adjust the rack. I'm pretty sure there is a section on the rack and pinion adjustment. I'll let you know. This info would make sense because I had numerous people look at the car, balance the tires and align it, but know ones been able to fix it. OH WELL. I hope this solves the problem!!

hokiemax

iTrader: (2)

Your tires are too fat. Take some air out.

camaro1698

I just looked at the tsb online and it says that there is a wheel balancer adapter kit for this problem. I wonder what kind of kit it is. Does anyone know how to find out from Nissan what this balancer wheel kit is??

Solo950

I just noticed the light steering phenomenon today in my 96 GXE auto (funny that a couple of us did today). I also had the steering wheel vibration at times.

Today was the first time in almost 2 months that I have driven my car for a significant amount of time at 70mph+. I last drove it at highway speeds on my way out to college (1800 miles), and I don't think that I noticed this during that trip, or if I did it was far less pronounced.

A couple things I noticed today as I was experimenting with it. First, it seems to vary with the road condition. I was on two different interstates at 75mph and it was only really noticible on one of them. Second, it does not become noticible until 70mph or so (I spent about 30 mins at 60mph and did not notice it).

Here are my thoughts. The roads that I have been driving on since I got out to school are hilly, very bumpy, and some have large potholes. So, the car may have gotten out of alignment. I also installed the RSB this past weekend, which may have an effect on this (not sure).

I don't know what to make of it, I had assumed that it was the road I was driving on, but now that I see a lot of you guys are encountering this, maybe it's not .

Ok thats it for my horrendously long post. Hopefully we can figure this out.

Dasyce

iTrader: (3)

I've have a '97 GLE, And I have the same problem. I noticed it a while ago, I believe that the car is Picking up to much of a draft. But that may be because it's got a stock suspension. And the fact that it sits way to high on it's tires probally wouldn't help. I think that the Maxima's speed sensitive steering did more harm then help the car. Does anyone with a front Spoiler Kit suffer from this problem?

tom_98se

iTrader: (2)

I30TinME's explanation of what his dealer diagnosed seems the most likely situation for me. It's as if the steering rack has too little resistance in it, allowing for the car to 'track' slightly as I'm driving and deliver a little feedback through the column to the wheel. I hope Daniel B. Martin chimes in since I value his input much more than my local service writer's.

BTW - there seems to be two issues going on for me (and for some of you too, it seems.) The lightness in the steering is one, and the 'tracking' (ie following the grooves of the road) is another. I think tire selection & width has a lot to do with tracking. On the cars with light steering, though, that tracking seems to be much more pronounced because of less resistance in the rack.

I do intend on upgrading suspension & rims/tires eventually, but this seems like a problem that will become more pronounced with bigger heavier rims. I'm sure that 17's will have more inertia and thus ability to deliver additional force through the steering system.

Thanks for all of your input. If it takes $250 worth for this problem to go away, I think I'm willing to pay it. On the other hand, if there's a shade-tree mechanic's method for adjusting the rack, I will definitely pursue it.

Regards,
TOM

Riot^

I used to have wobbly and loose stearing at high highway speeds, and the wheel used to shake.
I bought a Viper FSTB and it helped a lot!
I hear some people don't see the results, well I guess I was lucky, it helped me a lot!!

just my 2cents

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Of course it's more sensitive, performance tires do grab the road better. Any tire shop will tell you that the more agressive and wider the tire, especially "Z" rated tires, the more it's going to follow road creases and cracks. This is especially bad when the road has a high crown in it.
As you bolt on things to stiffen up the car, you are making it more sensitive. ie. Rear sway bar, front strut brace.

I30TinME

iTrader: (8)

Craig MackMy, your description: "the tires follow little creases in the roads, and everything. And occasionally my wheels wanna jerk to one side for no reason. (like they are loose)" is a perfect recap of the problem I went to the dealer with. Oh, btw, they (the dealership) said this was the first time they had anyone experience the problem and the mechanic had to research the TSB and the corrective action.

Anyhow, I am looking forward to Daniel B. Martin or others to give us the 'official' prescription for the cure.

Regards.

camaro1698

I just looked through the fsm and there is a way to adjust the rack. The rack has to come off of the car, though. I'll try to scan the page and post it here later. I involves a lot of steps so I don't feel like typing them all out.

shatelb

iTrader: (5)

Guys,
It happens on my 96 Se too so its not just a 98 thing. The steering is actually lighter while driving than a 2001.

lefty

My 98 SE has the same floaty feel. I just noticed it today and brought it into my mechanic to check it out. I guess he is still working on it, however, thanks for the great posts.

Lefty

ZXdude

your in a front wheel drive car... FWD cars don't handle too great at hight speeds. Off the top of my head, i can't think of one sports car that is FWD. The maxima is sporty, but if your doing over 80 alot, buy a RWD car

tom_98se

iTrader: (2)

I've driven plenty of FWD cars at speeds of 80 or higher. My previous car (Ford Contour) was not fantastically reliable but did handle better out-of-the-box than my '98 SE does now. That car was rock-stable; it's steering was crisp and there was absolutely no float.

I do not believe float is a function of which wheels drive the car. If anything, a FWD car might have heavier steering at speed due to more mass being over the front wheels. Of course, RWD cars are more balanced during cornering, etc. because of better weight distribution and thus most true sports cars are RWD.

My feeling is that I30TinME's TSB is applicable to my situation. As soon as I can get a copy of it, I intend on going to my dealership or local mechanic to see what can be done.

Regards,
TOM

I30TinME

iTrader: (8)

Craig Mack or tom_98se, did anyone ever get the Factory procedure to adjust the rack? I am still curious how they describe it. Again, if I had the procedure, I would be more than willing to give it a go and report back.

Regards.

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

An ITR pulls more G's than a WS6, and the ITR is front drive, as compared to the WS6 which is rear.................So, how do u explain that?

camaro1698

I'll post it tonight!!!okay guys

kmax

iTrader: (1)

Too make a long story short check for underinflated tires.

The long story is that I bought a 97 SE with 60K miles at the end of August. In September I brought it to Sears to have the front end aligned for a pull to the right. They aligned it and it still pulled to the right, but less so. They also scratched my wheels with the machine, but that's something else.

I brought it back this week to have the now slight pull to the right checked and they switched the two front wheels. After that is when I started noticing vibration and looseness at 70 to 80 mph.

I went back to Sears today and asked for my money back. I had enough of them. A mechanic (fortunately with some brains) drove it and said that the slight pull to the right is normal due to engine "torque pull".

He claims that the engine will make the car steer to the right when it is under acceleration. The condition of the engine and trans mounts will effect it also. The worse the mounts the worse the pull.
He "prooved" this by stopping, putting his foot on the brake and pressing the accelerator. This is similar to checking for broken engine mounts. The steering wheel did spin to the right. The other thing he pointed out is that the steering dosen't drift to the right when he took his foot off the accelerater. But he could not explain the steering looseness at 70 to 80 mph.

This afternoon I came here to see if there was a solution and found this thread. Someone mentioned something about tire inflation and then I started thinking that they changed the air pressure when they switched the tires. My tires are not stock. They are Continental and in very good condition. They were on the car when I bought it. The maximum PSI is somewhere around 42 pounds. I normally keep them at 37 PSI but, they had lowered it to 29 PSI. I raised it to 37 mph tonight and went for a ride and the steering was tight again at 70 to 80 mph.

So I know for sure that underinflation may be one cause. I'm not totally sold on the "torque pull" explaination yet. I need more time to drive it. I also do not know if switching the two front tires is a good idea. Maybe someone would like to comment on that. I am going to have my mechanic switch them back and hopefully this will take care of the vibration at this speed.

kmax

tom_98se

iTrader: (2)

I have no experience with floaty steering being caused by underinflated tires, but I do know what you mean about tire pressure relating to steering trouble.

Some cars, apparently ours included, are very sensitive to tire pressure. A couple of PSI difference between the two front tires might mean a strange pull/drift in one direction. My previous car was awful at this; if the front tires were more than 1 or 2 PSI different, I would get strange highway handling.

Another old car of mine had one tire out of four that was slightly different. They were all the same brand, model & size, but one was a little bigger I think. So, depending where I was in the tire rotation schedule, I would sometimes get a funny pull to the left or right. Playing with tire pressure and maybe switching the left- and right-front tires usually fixed the pull.

I guess what I'm saying is that switching the left- and right-front tires to cure a steering problem doesn't surprise me. Even though your Conti's are in great condition, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are all perfectly matched.

It sure would be nice to fix this problem. I drove my old car yesterday for a while ('96 Contour SE) and it reminded me what highway driving should feel like: rock solid, no float or drift. I hope to get my Max feeling the same.

95Max

Has anyone with this float problem checked the swaybar bushing and endlinks? Also the strut assemblies (ie the strut mount and bearings). I changed the swaybar and endlink bushings to urethane and my float has reduced. If you are interested I got mine at suspension.com. Hope this helps

95max

Maximus97SE

37 PSI? WHOA! Your ride must be really bumpy. Do you ever refer to your car's manual? It says to have your front tires inflated to 32PSI and rear tires at 29PSI.

The maximum PSI stamped on the sidewall has nothing to do with the actual tire pressure you should maintain for your car. At 37 PSI, the contact area the tire makes with the road is smaller, thus you will have poorer straightline, cornering, and wet performance.

kmax

iTrader: (1)

Well, I've added a Courtest FSTB and a Addco RSB and my steering still gets jiggly with me at 80 MPH. Has anyone found out anything to fix this annoying problem.

Maximus97se: 37 PSI? WHOA! Your ride must be really bumpy
Answer: No, it seems the same as the other SE's I've driven.

paulbuxe

I also have this floating problem, please post the information in the FSM so we can adjust this problem out otherwise great car

Toolrocks

iTrader: (1)

Check out the thread "someone with a FSM i need help, or something like that. It has a lot of info on this problem and also has a link to another very informative thread. I noticed that changing the sway bar bushings helped my car too. The adjustment of the rack is rather complicated for the averag diy mechanic. Hope this helps.

Toolrocks

iTrader: (1)

Check out the thread "someone with a FSM i need help, or something like that. It has a lot of info on this problem and also has a link to another very informative thread. I noticed that changing the sway bar bushings helped my car too. The adjustment of the rack is rather complicated for the averag diy mechanic. Hope this helps.

kmax

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Toolrocks.