00gxe5sp

iTrader: (1)

Okay...

Some of you may remember my thread on here where I posted that Kauffman tire charged me $40 extra for an alignment b/c of 18 inch wheels and lowered suspension.

Well....the alignment didn't work. The day after I had to drive the car about 300 miles. The pulling and vibration were WORSE than before. I took it back to them. They messed with it, then gave it back to me said they think they solved it. Drove the car...still no resolution. Same problem. Took it back again and they said the tires were cupped, so they turned the tires around backwards (which they said may smooth the cupped edges). Drove around with the tires turned backwards for a week. No change, just got worse. Took it back to them and they said new tires would fix the pulling and the vibration. They gave me a 50% credit for the price of what I paid for my old tires (Kumhos with about 10k miles on them). They put on some toyos and I had to pay about $400 considering the credit (oh yeah...and Kauffman refunded me the total cost of the alignment). Picked up the car Friday afternoon and guess what? No vibration, but car still pulls. Took it back to them this morning and one of the techs rode with me. We noticed it only pulls when the car is in gear (either accelerating OR with your foot off the gas). It does not pull when the car is in neutral.

So...back to my question. Has anyone on here had a problem with their manual transmission that has made the car pull to one side?
thanks...

RY

Luquire

This same same problem happened with me. It was mainly noticeable on the freeway. I would be going about sixty-seventy and when i would try to stay at that speed or accelerate the car would pull to the right pretty hard. I found that the problem was the wheel bearing. Nissan replaced both of them and the car rode magnificintly

† ErV †

I think you are just enjoying the beloved torque steer... More power goes to the left wheel in the first place which would cause a pull. I feel it sometimes but not really bothersome i suppose. Perhaps with the tire/wheel combo it's just more predominant or they failed to do their job right. If you went to the one on hgw20 they are pretty good and doubt they'll jerk you around.

00gxe5sp

iTrader: (1)

No...it's not torque steer. I know what torque steer is and when it happens etc. Torque steer doesnt happen when you let off the gas...etc, etc.

The kauffman on hwy 20 is pretty good. Jeremy, the manager, went to high school with me. He won't screw me or anything like that.

A mechanic I talked to this morning (Sammy Wright or Wright Import Service) said that it could be from the lowered suspension, which could possibly cause the axel to push against the differential.

Luquire

I am telling you that this happened to me twice and i had the exact same symptoms(damn nissans crap service)

Galo

Please dont believe that -and dont go to that import service house for anything because that is absolute horsepucky.....

The car's suspension is designed to apply no undue stress anywhere on any axle to any part of the rest of the car as long as the tire/wheel assembly is kept within the ranges of the standard suspension travel.

When u lowered the car, you merely re-set the static point of the suspension at a different point within the full range of the suspension's travel and that will do nothing to push anything into any place in the axle or transmission. Man, whadda load this guy's pumping out!!

Lowering could have done two things: changed the camber (most definitely), driven the toe-in to now be outside of specs (possibly) and driven the caster to also be outside of spec -possibly, but not likely.

The first two adjustments you can change.....camber with a camber kit and toe-in just because it's completely adjustable...caster you are screwed with as u cannot change it.

Demand to see the settings from the alignment and/or go someplace else where u can see the alignment being performed. Pay particular attention to the caster and camber settings because they may be within spec but because of tolerances, they may be the culprit here. For instance, the right front wheel may have less caster than the left front wheel..it may still be within spec but different enough one to the other that it causes this pull.

Same thing with Camber.....if the right front is more positive (or less negative) than the left front, you will get this pull.

Apart from the bearing -which will drive all settings to hell in a handbasket when even a small load is applied- the other thing to look for is a bad diff. If you have an open diff, (meaning, no VLSD) lift the right front wheel off the ground )with the rest of wheels solidly braced/blocked, put the car in gear, release the brakes and get the wheel to spin, then do the same for the other front wheel -lift it off the ground, etc etc and it too should spin. If one whel does and the other does'nt, you've a broken diff.

My Max actually had less torque steer and was less sensitive to road crowns or anything else that could cause a 'pull' to one side- when I lowered it so....chances are you have something else going on -and I would still bet it's alignment-related

00gxe5sp

iTrader: (1)

thanks for the info. Are you a mechanic?

Sammy at Wright import knows his stuff...and he said the axel thing probably wasn't likely unless the lowering was a chop job with cut springs, etc.

I have it now at another place, and they said (as you did) that more than likely it is alignment. We'll SEE!!

thanks again for the info and if this shop can't figure it out I'll test the diff as you instructed.

RY

AKM2k5

NO **** ITS NOT PULLING WHEN ITS IN NEUTRAL! What kind of idiots are these? Why would it pull in neutral? I have never heard of something like that!

00gxe5sp

iTrader: (1)

Hey numb nuts....before you go post whoring...make sure that you know what you're talking about. If the alignment is off (primarily the toe angle) then it would still pull while in neutral. (and of course we're talking about when the car is going down the road and the car is put into neutral to coast....but you figured that out right?)

geeez.........

Galo

LOL!!! No, not now -but I did pay my way thru college wrenching so I was one....many moons ago,

Brakes & suspensions are my thing...I set up the brakes and suspension on a half-dozen rally cars in my younger days....

00gxe5sp

iTrader: (1)

Hey man....I need some more advice / guidance. On the advice of my trusted mechanic I took the max to another tire shop. They kept it over night and did another "alignment" on it. 54 bucks later I walk outta there and drive down the road. Not a change at all in the pulling. It's still there, and just as bad.

I called the tire shop back and talked to the manager. (No, they won't refund my money.) I asked what it could be and he said I either need to "turn" the right front strut a little OR it needs to be taken to a body shop with a frame rack where they can "knock the right front arm forward about half an inch."

I am really confused / frustrated / tired of wasting money.

ANYONE ON HERE KNOW WHERE I CAN TAKE THIS DANG CAR TO HAVE SOMEONE FIX IT AND FIX IT RIGHT??????

thanks.

Galo

Aw, man....whatta bummer!! I'm feel for you, this definitely sucks....

This 'need to turn the strut a bit or knock the right front arm forward about a half inch' smacks of a caster problem.....can you at least get the guy to give u the print-out of the caster the car had when he put it on the alignment rack??

If the caster is indeed off by a half-inch -which is a HUUUUUGE amount, BTW- it's definitely not something you are going to fix simply or easily.....half an inch is 'bent frame' territory -which may be the culprit. Has this car even been in an accident??

The other thing I noticed from re-reading the whole thread is that you swapped your prior tires side-to-side but you have not done that with the new Toyos. It may be a long shot but....try swapping the Toyos side-to-side. Although very unusual, I've read (never seen it first-hand) a phenomenon called 'radial pull' where for some reason, a tire will pull to one side more than the other.....obviously, if one has a tire like that, either the tire can be replaced or it can be installed on the LEFT side, where its increased 'pull' can be used to counteract the normal effect of road crowning which tends to make a vehicle drift to the right....

Other than that, I am stumped, but by all means, if you want further 'long-distance diagnostics' you gotta get that printout of the 'as is' camber & caster settings....

Good luck!

paralyse

Only suggestion I could offer in addition would be to swap back to stock springs/struts and re-align, see if the pull goes away, if it does, then your "lowered suspension" was not properly installed or is El Baddo.

Post a copy of your alignment printout here, with min/max/tolerance/current/adjusted

AKM2k5

Lesson, never be logged on maxima.org when you have retarded friends who dont know nothing.

SO...that wasnt me post whoring.

† ErV †

Parker's on S lee st in buford. If they can allign a 500sl i am sure they can handle a maxima. They also do some suspension work besides other stuff so it doesn't hurt to give it a try.

I didn't follow the previous thread obviously, so did the problems began when you changed the wheels+tires or suspension, or both at the same time?

However, if an axle was rubbing, you would hear it and see it once you look. If metal rubs enough as to affect the car's handling, particularly an axle it should be a rather easy thing to confirm.

CJ7

I think that the second place that you had it at is full of it. If your Max is half an inch off then something happend to it. Just lowering it won't affect either the frame or the body interms of something moving 1/2" one way or another. when frams get pulled(by a frame machine) they get them within thousands of an inch.

00gxe5sp

iTrader: (1)

No...

car has never been in anything close to a wreck.

I am still trying to get that alignment print out from the last tire shop. I will post on here as soon as I get it and see what you guys think.

AKM2k5

Why not just take the car to Nissan? They probably have the exact tools for your maxima....

Galo

R U ????

Have u been on the 6th gen board to see how many of the new Maxes havd either brakes or suspension/balance iissues and how the dealers have been successful at resolving them??

Things as simple as Hunter 9700's run about 25 to 28 grand....only good, high volume tire shops have these things. Besides, I can almost guarantee that if a Nissan dealer had one, they would not know how to use it!

00gxe5sp

iTrader: (1)

Yeah...exactly like Galo said.

Nissan would call me and say "hey...you need to return this car to all factory specs before we have anything to do with it"