My 2000 maxima is experiencing what I consider is light steering. when you hit a grove in the road the car wants to follw the grove and it takes some effort to keep in going in the direction you want. apart from this a great car to drive..

Brad.

 

That is normal. It's called power steering. It's really sensitive on the 5th gen Maximas.

 

if you think that's bad, try an early 4th gen. 95-97 or something. those are flimsy.. nissan did something to the later models and supposedly something else to the 5th generation.

still a long way to go from perfect but what can you do.. they can shove in electric mounts but can't get a steering right.

 

yeah that annoyed the hell out of me. once i lowered the car, added FSTB, and RSB it made a vast improvement.

 

Get it aligned...five will get u ten that the tech will find that toe-in needs adjusting

 

I think it's called bump steer.

 

No....it's not bump steer...it's called tracking, which is what happens when a tire follows longitudinal grooves or any other imperfections parallel to the direction of travel.

Bump steer is when a bump on the road causes a rather strong deflection/feedback in the steering wheel as a result of the suspension geometry imparting this force back into the steering mechanism.

If you ever drive an older (pre-1974) Porsche 911 you'll get to know what bump steer is very intimately...our cars have very little if any bump steer.

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...tramlining.jsp

 

I find that if my alignment is off, the steering feels almost too "light"... after the alignment the steering wheel tends to resist movement or spring-back to center with more force, giving me a better impression that the front wheels are tracking properly.

 

This feeling of added 'returning' force -technically called self-centering- can be impacted by two suspension geometry adjustments: increased caster (which on our cars is not adjustable) or increased toe-in which is adjustable

 

Not sure about 00-01, but on 02-03's we have speed sensitive power steering. It's supposed to get stiffer as your speeds increase, but if it's working, it's still way too light imo...very unstable at high speeds...

 

could someone tell me what the correct wheel alignment settings are for my maxima. I can then check it with the mob who did the alignment.

Thanks Again