I've noticed frequent steering wheel shuddering upon hard braking from fast speeds. I also notice it during braking from slower speeds and occasionally when going over bumps as well although it is not as bad then. I have a 2003 SE 6speed with only 200 miles on it. Is this in any way related to the brakes being new or the fact that they are anti-lock? Also, can the SE's firmer suspension cause this as well?

 

i doubt the suspension has anything to do with it. typically braking from high speeds and the steering wheels shuddering means that the brake rotors are in some way warped. with only 200 miles, i cant imagine it happening that quickly. the 00-01 had a problem with warping rotors. mine were cut and new pads at 10k miles. i have not had a problem since. your car is obviously under warranty so i would take it back and have them look at it. just dont let them tell you that you should pay for anything espically with 200 miles.

 

Rotors are warped. My 2k3 SE had warped rotors right off the lot, with 46 miles on it.

Here's what happened. THe car sat a long time on the lot and rotors rusted up to high heaven. Check your build date, I bet it was from may or june of last year (at least mine was).

Any SEs being bought now are prolly all gonna have this issue because they stopped building them a while ago, so anything on the lots are old.

 

how did ur car have 46 miles if it was well around "right off the lot"

 

Actually the last SE's were built in Jan.

 

I looked through my paperwork and I can't find anything with the build date on it. Is this something that I can get through my VIN#?

 

One of the more common causes for warped rotors is a lazy tech using an air ratchet to tighten the lug nuts. Over-tightening them can warp rotors.

 

Open ur driver side door and look there. There should be a little sticker on there with some info on it. A date example: 05/02 or something of that sort should be there. Btw ive also had this happen, the brakes were warped but they were they rear braked. It sounded like it was farting every time I hit the brakes.

 

my car had that but my dad said the brakes were being worn in and it would go away. and it has.

 

My 2K2 maxima had this phenomenon after I got it used. I took the brake judder TSB to the dealer and he turned the rotors under warranty. No problem at high speed braking anymore.

 

It was picked up from a different dealer, it was driven there, it happened to be 40 miles away. At that point, I then drove it "right off the lot" duh

psychlone, just take it back and have the rotors cut. For sterring wheel shudder under braking, they are going to cut 'em no matter what you argue, it's a very standard remediation step for that condition.

I tried to fight for new rotors but they wouldn't budge. The service manager told me it's something that happens a lot to cars that sit for a long time and the rotors rust up. The area under the pad doesn't rust like the exposed area, so the rotor surface gets wavy. The rust is taken off as someone drives the car, but a long period of rust over will FUBAR a rotor. Check out the rotors, perhaps they have a blackened tinge to them (on the braking surface)? That's a rotor that rusted up bad. They should be shiny silver (don't use that as a diagnostic, it's something I noticed on mine though) As you drive the car, the shudder will continue to get worse. Sucks to get that on a brand new car, but it happens.

 

Glad this thread was started because my steering wheel is wobblng quite a bit under braking. I just had a front end alignment on my 02 and I still am experiencing the steering wheel wobbling. My front end was shimmying a bit and I figured that the front needed aligning and it was out quite a bit but they did not balance the front tires yet. Is the warping a common problem? My car does not sit for any length of time.

Sam

 

Rotor warping is common to all cars. They don't have to rust for them to warp, it's just one of the things that can cause it. Warped rotors need to be machined or replaced.

 

I have the same symptoms, car has 11100 miles, will warranty cover the new rotors since its brakes and they are supposed to wear?

 

I'm dropping my car off tomorrow, I'll let you know what the problem was. Guzo, I'm not positive on this but I don't believe brakes are normally covered under warranty as they are generally considered wear and tear items. In my case though I've only had the car for a little over a week so I don't think there can be any dispute that there was a problem with the brakes from the onset. I would think with 11,100 miles it would be hard to claim a defect from the factory unless you had brought it in for service before for the problem. Even so, there's nothing that says you can't give it a try especially if you have a good relationship with your dealer's service department.

 

Its the new brakes, you got to break them in. Mine did the same thing. The only time mine do it now (18000+miles) (yes, i said 18000+ on a 2k3 SE) is when i make a really hard stop from really high speeds w/o braking lightly first to warm up the pads/rotors.

 

nissan knows they crappy rotors. ive seen people on here get them replaced right before the 36k miles warranty was up. brakes are a wear and tear item but they cover it til 36k, at least that is what is supposed to happen.

 

I noticed the same wobble on my wifes car(2003 SE) when it had less
than 200 miles. She now has 1500 and still the same problem. Does
any one have the print out of the TSB for shudder. I want
to take her car in for this and the latest TSB on throttle
hesitation.

Thanks,

boo

 

I have had this same issue and the rotors (all 4)were ultimately replaced. However, the issue has returned which leads me to believe that it is the pads. If you guys have the rotors replaced, replace the stock pads with a different set of pads.

I am going to get Axxis MetalMasters on my '02.

 

If I'm not mistaken the TSB for brake judder applies only to the 2000-2001 model. However, if you're having the problem on a 2003 take it in, based on the previous replies there's a good chance something is wrong with your brakes and Nissan should be fixing that since you have such low miles IMO

 

Thanx, hope everything goes good with your case and let me know what happened.