Whiggy

When I turn the steering wheel left-right quickly while the car is not moving I can feel (and hear) it has more play than it should. Also, when I go over bumps I can feel the same "looseness" in the steering wheel but not all the time. It's almost as if the steering wheel is not bolted on tight enough. I crawled under the car and tried to check to see if anything is loose but couldn't find anything out. I don't hear a clunk or anything like that while going over the bumps, I can only feel it in the steering wheel. The car does not pull or drift to either side and I did not notice any problems with steering.
Does anyone have any idea what I can do to diagnose this?
Thanks.

BLUEMAX01SE

My max has done that for the longest! only thing I can think of is that the steering wheel gets more tight (like a toyger) as you pick up speed in the max! Good luck, but I have checked every nut and bolt in the front end and are all very tight!

kobalt

iTrader: (3)

Check the tie rod ends

JohnWEngle

Could be a check valve in the rack....

Whiggy

How do I check these two things?

03MAXTNR

I notice the same problem with my maxima. If you hit a lil bump in the road the steering want to go the opposite way your turning. Hopefully theres a solution to his problem.

JohnWEngle

Steering rack diagnosis:
http://www.aa1car.com/library/2003/bf20340.htm

To check tie rod ends:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=490711

Whiggy

Great info! Thanks!!

MaximaGT-R

iTrader: (7)

Could be your ball joint. I have the same problem right now but nissan has it set up that you have to change the whole lower control arm, but there is another way around that. Good luck with that.

silversurfersg

def check tie rods

Whiggy

Please pardon my ignorance but could this be a result of a shop doing a poor job on alignment, i.e., could they have forgotten to "tighten" something when they were doing alignment?
I guess what I am getting at is - could this possibly be remedied by having an alignment done?
Also, how (un)safe is it to drive like this?

Whiggy

Anyone?
(I am about to take a 200 mi. trip in about 1 hr so I don't know whether to take my Maxi or my wife's Acura.)

03MAXTNR

is there a possibility its because of all the wheel torque