Majestic Ken

iTrader: (5)

I've ran around all day and wasted money trying to figure out why the car is vibrating. i feel it in the steering wheel and in the right front wheel. i've changed a tire, balanced, and had it checked out. we tested one wheel at a time and the left was fine/the right shook as i accelerated. anybody ever experience this issue? also the mechanics said that the axle was fine so thats not it.

jeff5347

Well you did all the things i was gonna say. Balance all tires. Just cause you think it may be in one its always the one you dont expect. I had the problem of a shimmy at 70. Balanced all tires today and is smooth at all speeds. Could also be a rotor. May be warped.

Ammi

iTrader: (26)

when is the last time you got an alignment?

NisTech

it's not an alignment issue. You would see tire wear.. Ballance all tires first, then if it still does you can rotate tires to see if it has a shifted belt but that usually vibrates at 20 k only then you can look into cv shafts and lastly play in tranny end bearing could cause a vibration through drivetrain. SO i've had it all but 99% of times it's wheel ballance

Ammi

iTrader: (26)

wanna bet on that? There are alot more reasons why cars vibrate at certain speeds. I heard people complain about vibration problem anywhere from not using hub rings to defective wheel so it's not always a wheel balance problem. Plus, kencapel already said that he got his wheels/tires balanced

irish44j

iTrader: (38)

sounds like a bad tie rod end...they are wear items and need to be replaced every so often. If you're over 100k miles, that's probably the culprit.

S.S.Engine

Does this only happen only after 50+mph? Any slight vibration at lower speeds? If its not the tie rod could be other things mentioned above. Is the car making any squealing or squeaking noise?

AceofSpds

iTrader: (4)

+1

Not trying to threadjack but if a outer tie rod is bad, you can tell by moving the steering wheel about 2in" left to right quickly then stop and you will feel a vibration in the steering wheel right?

Dan5.5

Have you tried swapping the wheel to a different side. this will show you if the problem is in the wheel or for that side.
maybe a bent wheel

NisTech

Deffective wheel?
When you do a dynamic ballance you add weights opposite to where the wheel/tire combo has it's heaviest spot to compensate for dynamic wobble. Now if you wanna get technical with me sometimes dynamic balancer won't do the trick. We seem to have problems with 04+ Maximas where a dynamic balancer(most common one) will not fix it. That is due to the fact that the tire and rim has "high spots" So you put a load on the tire and spin it and the machine will tell you to rip the tire off the bead and spin it so many degrees to match high spot of rim with low spot of tire.
Now i am assuming they did check his front end when he complained about shimmy if it was a competent tech.
Hub rings? That's if he's got aftermarket wheels. And even then our nuts are self centering (conical) meaning they will hold the rim evenly pressed against the hub. Those are more so that the rim doesn't fall off due to axial load causing nuts to back off.

maximalxl

iTrader: (1)

i have the same problem....wen i took it to dealership the dude said that was normal....coz the SE suspension bites into the roads...and i kind of realized wen i drive over 50mph it vibs but wen i go over 80 its smooth lol....i duno i guess im lookin to see wut people say in here..........

so far i did:
wheel balance
rotate tires
put new tires
checkd the rims (no bent)
alignment
oo by the way the car has only has 45K

cpuguy06

iTrader: (3)

That's exactly how my GLE is...maybe just maximas in general? Mine is smooth RIGHT after I get an alignment and rotate and balance...but then after a few days its back to that ^

Trurida18

iTrader: (4)

hmm, intresting....So Irish what would u suggest for a replacement part? OEM or AM?

maximalxl

iTrader: (1)

Yup same with me after alignment & tire rotation it goes smooth after a while it back to the normal way..

it sucks that nissan is loosing it quality on car....

my 96 GLE was riding much better than my 02 max

anyhow im going to try to change the struts to illumnz & lower it...i have a feeling it might be the strut thts causing all this?? again i could be wrong...im not the expert here ...irish is LoL

max2moon17

from my experience, i had the same problem, and i went to two mechanics and only one of them found the problem, and the problem was a warped rotor.

rcjunkie

[I thought I'd add to this thread since it is a related question]

I have a 2002 Maxima SE. All stock with 163,000 miles on it. No past damage to the car and I have been using it since 2002.

Last year I got new Falken ZE-912 tires and had no noise issues with them.

After some time I started to notice that I had a front end noisy vibration sound at speeds starting from 30-80mph. It sounds like I am driving over the purposely grooved part of the highway when you start to wander onto oncoming traffic or the shoulder.

So far I have replaced all rotors since they were worn. I have also rotated the wheels and the sound is still the same, no change in pitch or severity.

I have not had an alignment yet and that is what a friend suggested. Someone else suggested it's not the wheels or tire but an axle, diff part or other rotating mass.

What could be causing this? What else should I check for? I can provide more information if needed.

Thanks in advance.

kmiller

I had this problem a few months back, it ended up being the right front wheel bearing. I ended up changing the whole spindle assembly and all was well.....until a few weeks ago; got to do it again. I was coming home from a extremely tiring shift and i attempted to take out the sidewalk parking. My mechanic said he's seen this problem quite often on these maximas. Maybe look into seeing if that could be the problem. When my mechanic put the car on the lift, he was able to rock the tire back and forth.

tbergma1

I have seen a bulge in the tire cause it, a bent wheel, bad bearing, outer tie rod, to rule out rims and tires, switch wheels from front to back. If it goes away you now have narrowed it down, best of all it didnt cost you anything. It's a pain but you have to do the whole process of elimination thing. Have fun.