I have a 2000 SE w/ manual transmission. My father in-law was wanting to check the tension on the accessory belt as we recently had to take it off when changing the alternator. When he went to turn the wheel (while the car was sitting still) to get the tire out of the way he could barely turn it and it almost acted like it was fighting back. He ended up being able to turn the wheel enough, but it definitely took some muscle and multiple little turns to move it out of the way at all. My wife said that she noticed a similar issue when reversing as well, but I haven't experienced that myself yet. Once the car is moving there's no issue with the steering as it feels great and once it's warm it doesn't have the same issue when sitting still as my father in-law had noticed previously. In doing some reading on this forum and other Nissan forums it seems that it might be the U-Joint at the bottom of the steering column, but wanted to see if anyone had similar experiences and/or other ideas. This is very frustrating as I've replaced 2 coils, the alternator (twice) and 3 new tires in the last couple of months and I just want to enjoy driving my car again w/o issues... Thank you for your help!

 

If it's fine when the car is warm, its the tension on the power steering belt. U-joint would be an issue regardless of temperature.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Is the power steering belt part of the same accessory belt (which we replaced) assembly? I ask b/c the only pulley that we had to adjust the tension on was the idler pulley when we loosened it to replace the belt and alternator. Does it mean the pulley is too tight and is it something that we adjust with the idler pulley adjustment that extends up (where you can reach it from the top) from the pulley itself? Thanks again!

 

Power steering is the only thing on the secondary belt. It has it's own tensioner not accessible from above. Wheel and splash guard needs to be removed to access it. Quick google search will bring up a YouTube video showing where it is.

Everything else is on the main serpentine belt - engine, AC, alt, etc. Tensioner for this is the obvious one you can see from above.

 

Would you suspect that the belt is too loose or too tight so that I can have a point of reference?

 

If too tight you would have fine steering until it snaps. It's too loose.

 

Thank you very much and we'll give it a try!

 

Do we adjust the tension on the power steering belt using E in the attached pic?

 

C/D/E are all part of the procedure.