I pulled off my passenger front tire today to investigate a scratching sound and determined that it is being caused by the center nut being loose and allowing the wheel assembly to wiggle.
Anyone know what size the nut is and how many lb/ft of torque to use to tighten it?

Also, any opinions on whether or not the wheel bearings could be damaged by it being loose?

The nut I am talking about holds the wheel assembly to the driveshaft. It is >1 in, looks like it is brass, and is in the very center of the wheel.

Thanks for any help!

 

There's a very good chance you bearing could be damaged. I can't remember the size Of the nut But is a one use only type of nut. If you were to take it all the way off and try to replace it it would stripp the threads. Once you tighten that nut lift try to jiggle the wheel side to side and up and down. If there is any play your bearing is most likely gone.

 

thanks for the help.
I'm just going to try to tighten it as much I can with a hand wrench and see if it wiggles.

 

Hand wrench will not be able to tighten that up properly. If i remember correctly, the torque required is 160 ft/lbs and the nut size is 36mm.

 

There's supposed to be a cotter pin that goes in there to prevent that nut from backing off. Line up the tabs with the hole and put a pin in so it doesn't happen again.

 

thanks again for the responses.
I managed to tighten the nut. The cotter pin is there and undamaged, just the nut was loose.
Now that I've tightened it I am get a nasty grinding and squeaking sound when going between 0 and 35 mph. It is especially noticeable when turning the wheel to the left. I'm guessing this means my bearing needs to be replaced. This seems to be a fairly common Maxima issue. I've got 70k miles so I guess it was time for this to happen.

Do I have to get both front bearings replaced or just the one side?

Good thing I save money for car repairs.

 

I took the car to a local shop that I have trusted for years. They tightened the nut (supposed to be set to 250 ft/lbs) and all of the noise magically went away. They don't think the bearing is damaged since I didn't drive it that much with it loose.

The dealership wanted $454 to replace the bearing and do an alignment. My cost for the work done today was $0.

 

You might want to check that bolt again pretty soon. Same thing happened to my bro's '01. He tighten the bolt and a couple of days later it was loose again. Turns out it is a bad wheel bearing.

 

bah, the noise started again yesterday.
I dropped it off at the shop today and they replaced the bearing and hub assembly.
Final cost was $376.10. Over $75 cheaper than the dealer.

At least I now have 5 studs in case I strip one.

 

bearing is 40 bux, and hub is 90 dollars, plus labor. It takes bout 30 min to change the bearing. I did my bearing about 4 months ago on the pass front side at work. Fairly ez affair. Hub is not always neccessary thou.

 

unfortunately the bearing had worn a groove in the hub which allowed lateral movement. I got the bad parts back and checked them out. I'm not sure what caused the bearing to go bad. It still turned but had pits/cracks around the outer edge which I thought was weird. I'm not sure what would cause that. Maybe whent the axle hub nut was loose for several days.
The parts from the local Nissan dealership were ~70 for the bearing and $150 for the hub.

 

the bad bearing actually could have CAUSED the nut to loosen also....if it was rotating unevenly.

As to bearings...well, many of us have been there....not an uncommon problem with the maxima. FWD+high power=bearing issues....

 

Nah its not the high power- its cheap parts. We have wheel bearing issues on Acuras and Lexuses now too, but take anything pre 98 and its solid enough to run all its life on original bearings.