akaxmrxhammer

i dropped off my max to the dealer last friday for steering wheel shimmy, brake shimmy, glove compartment misaligned, transmission shift shock when cold, broken center dash kit lid, rear parcel shelf rattling, nav screen foggy and dusty inside. they balanced the tires for the steering wheel shimmy and so far, no shimmy. brake shimmy, turned my front rotors and changed the brake pads. my glove compartments aligned now. replaced the center dash kit. cleaned the navi screen but scratched the sh*t out of it and ordered a new one. the rattling from the parcel shelf is gone along with the transmission shifting hard. service tech told me that they regrammed the computer or something... i just hope the shimmy doesn't come back....

Tvetti

watchout for the tire pressure, try to maintain the same tire pressure as when it was balanced. Even a plus or minus of 1 psi will bring the shimmy back.

I had the same problem and shimmy was back in two weeks. Then I experimented with higher and lower the tire pressure and at about 34PSI, i have minimum occasional shimmy. I never used to do it in my previous cars and now it has become my activity for every gas Fill.

akaxmrxhammer

that's pain in the a$$ if you ask me.... did your get the steering wheel rack adjusted?

mm7759

I've been considering a 6th gen, so I've been reading these posts. I just test drove an 04 Se with all the options I want (except navi), and on the test drive I noticed that shimmy at around 60 on the freeway. Later that day went to another dealer and drove an 05, and no shimmy at all. Everything seemed good on the 05. I guess (hope) they may have corrected the problem. Now I'm a little unsure if I want to switch from a 5th to 6th gen just yet. Maybe I'll wait and see what sorts of reports I hear on the 05s??

NissanMax2004

All you have to do is go to the dealer and they have to cut your rotors inorder to stop the shaking when you brake. It is covered under the warranty.

phathawaiian

http://www.infinitihelp.com/Ownershi.../NTB04-084.htm

MaxFan

I totally agree with this. Check the tire presure until you get rid of the shimmy. For me, less than 33psi will show the shimmy when the tires are cold. More than 35psi and the traction is so little and I got major torque steer and the ride is rough. I got 33.5psi front and 32.5psi back and the ride is smooth. I'm talking measurements when cold. The problem for me is the weather changes quite often making me adjusting the tire pressure about once a week.

tony g

hey i got a 2005 maxima and i had a shimmy problem but i got my tires balanced and now it all good

04BlackMaxx

This is indeed a puzzling situation. I currently have NO shimmy at any speed. However, I started getting shimmy when I replaced my RSA's with very expensive F1's. I thought it was from the car getting flat spots when sitting and lived with it. The balance is all dead on and so is alignment. As I drove the car, 12,000 on these tires now with an alignment at 7k...the shimmy got lesser, and lesser, and gone. What do I do now and suggest to everyone? If it is not a bad shimmy, and you dont have many miles on your tires, just drive it for a few thousand miles and see what happens. Im seriously baffled at how the shimmy is gone, and has been gone for months now, Ive totally forgotten about it! I just think this car steering is so sensitive, the tires need to be completely broken in and rounded out. I wont do anything other than rotations from now on, and definately not in a hurry to get new tires.

It couldnt have been related to balance in my case because the wheels were not balanced while the improvement occured.
When the tires were replaced and the shimmy was bad at first, it was partially due to balance (they told me one wheel was out of balance) and part due to Psi, they had them 10Lbs under! Check pressure.

ramberg

iTrader: (29)

I hope you changed the F1's ones for the winter.

Defib

I just took my 20's off for the winter and put the RSA back on. With either ones on there's just a slight shimmy coming through the steering wheel around 60mph. Since my wife drives it 90% of the time and it's an 04 SE with 13K on it, I think I'm going to live with it unless someone comes up with a "for sure" fix........

chernmax

iTrader: (15)

I didn't purchase the shimmy or shake option, my ride is solid!

MAXIMA-GHOST

iTrader: (3)

When i owned my HEMI RAM, or most of the 03+ RAM's had the shimmy, due to the rotors. They still have this problem. Even at higher speeds if the rotors are warped they affect the alignment, which in fact causes a slight shimmy, and your will feel it more when breaking, alot more. This is in fact most common on larger sized wheels, and larger rotors. They become more warped that their smaller cousins, so i have heard.. If you have drilled rotors this will happen alot, slotted ones are the best, but if you have both slotted and drilled they are more commonly to warp or crack under extreme wear.

install30

Only at high speeds (around 70 to 80 mph) and also when braking to get off the interstate......just started to do this after 14000 miles.....warranty should cover all this....

04BlackMaxx

I didnt change the F1's for the winter, I havent had the time and 99% of the time the car is fine. I know how stupid that sounds.

ramberg

iTrader: (29)

I know you get alot of snow in your area. So you are saying the F1's handle good in the snow. If thats the case I don't have to change mine.

egan1979

tried to have mine fixed 2 times an the dealership can never figure it out

Propa Teknique

MY max does shimmy when picking up to speeds of about 65-80... I think its because I didnt get my wheels balanced, but after that I'll report. Hope it does go aways cuz its annoying.... and it seems to make the road noise louder.

SMOKED_OUT

Maybe it's the snow, but ever since it snowed yesterday I have a terrible steering wheel shake between 35 to 80 mph as if the wheels are crooked. I don't know what it is but it's going to the dealership tonight! I have 17K and it and 06 (lots of highway driving)

SilverMax_04

I suspect that you have ice on the tires significantly throwing off your wheel balance. I had a similar problem a few months ago. My wife drove over liquid highway crack sealing compound. The compound got into the tire treads and you could not drive the Max over 40 MPH -- the car was shaking so badly. Once the compound had been removed from the tread, the problem went away.

In your case, I suspect the problem is being caused by ice or snow buildup on the wheel. Once this melts (put it in a warm garage), your Max will be normal again.

SMOKED_OUT

Thanks I'll give that a try and let you know the outcome.

SMOKED_OUT

Silver you were right that was the problem

04BlackMaxx

Talk about terrible shimmy, I had to deal with it all the way to work this morning, these stock SE rims hold a ton of snow! I thought Id need to let it thaw out, but since it was zero degrees F that was unlikely. I was suprised how easy it is to push the snow out by sticking your hands between the spokes..I never tried bc I never imagined it would be so easy.

Xbone

I just got an 06 SE with 7500 miles and have a slight shimmy at different highway speeds around 60, and a strong brake shimmy/pulse when braking from higher speeds. Will see if the dealer will replace the rotors and pads and fix the brake pulsation. Shame Nissan cant make better rotors that wont warp so easy. For all the flaws in my former POS 06 Mustang it had solid brakes.

4MySwee

iTrader: (2)

Xbone,

What part of the upstate are you from? Maxima meet tonight!!!

Sorry, I would have sent him a pm, but it isn't allowed for him yet. Back on topic!
No, I don't have the shimmy issue........yet anyway.

aria

iTrader: (1)

i only have it when i hit inconsistancies in the road but that is just because i have a big fat goater on my tire.

going to get new rims for the car so this should look nicer.

Xbone

I am currently living at the beach but have family near Elgin. I got the car here at the beach, traded a POS mustang Gt i got from Belton Ford on a Maxima here. I had an 04 Mustang Mach1 that was an awesome car until it got rear ended and totalled, thought id replace it with a new GT, big mistake, Fords 3V engines are total junk and the Ford dealers here wont even work on them, they just run you around and BS you till you walk away. My mustang was in the shop 5 times in 2 months for major problems, transmission had to be pulled to stop a leak, car burned up 3 spark plugs and apparently wrecked the valvetrain, clattering and smelling of gas inside the car, and Ford shops here could not or would not make it right. One dealer told me to take it back where i bought it, which is kind of tough when its 4 hours away. I thought Ford dealers serviced Ford vehicles across country, guess i was wrong. Ford and their dealers deserve to go broke. Hopefully my Maxima will be much more reliable, so far so good but these brakes need looked at for sure, the whole steering wheel shakes coming down from higher speeds. I will try to get new rotors and pads considering what i paid for the car they should do that. Anybody here have any feedback on how dealers are handling brake shudder?

eK9aT10pSi

iTrader: (1)

i cant seem to find where i read this, but there was a bushing/mount in the steering column that was too weak in the 04 but they corrected it in the 05+ by putting a bigger bushing/mount to absorb it.

philoforlife

So since I've bought my 2004 SL, I've been privy to the shivy.

I mean, shimmy.

I caught on the day I bought it. I remember thinking, driving home from the dealer "The car is vibrating. They screwed me on alignment."

So the next week I took the car back. Perfect alignment. Perfect balance.

What the hell?

Then I started doing research on the other org. I found all the shimmy threads, all the same problems that I had, between 55 and 70. And I mean there was a strong *** shimmy. Not just a vibration. The car freakin vibrated.

It stopped this morning. Completely.

I'm going to tell you about what fixed it, and the one thing every person has overlooked, because it seems like there is no way it could be what it is.

It's a stupid piece of plastic.

The piece of plastic guard that covers the engine in the front? The part that bolts onto the bottom of the front bumper, with the 2 inch lip guard that sticks down.

I accidentally nailed a bump in a trailer park this morning, my trailer park. I got down and the piece had busted out the back bolts closest to the cockpit. Not having any of the plastic screws that hold it in, I had to take the entire thing off and leave it in my shed.

Then the miracle...on the way home - no shimmy. I tried taking it to 60 and then letting off the gas (when floored it didn't shimmy as much, more so when it was coasting) - nothing. Nothing at any range. That damn piece of plastic vibrating caused the whole thing.

Someone mentioned that Nissan put a bigger bushing in the steering column in the 05s which solved the problem. I'm betting it just masked the problem, and allowed for more vibration to be eliminated on the way to the wheel.

Ultimately, I went to the Altima forums (they too have the shimmy) and read a 14 page thread on the same issue...and go figure, the last page - someone discovered the same thing.

If you don't want to take the entire shield off, you could shave the two inch lip that sticks down - that's actually what is causing the vibration.

Can I say that this will fix every shimmy? No. But is it worth a try? It certainly fixed mine.

Joshua boink

dkblkmax

No shimmy so far, hope it stays that way.

Chernomorez

Had a shimmy on 2006 Maxima. Went to the dealer (Clay Nissan, Dedham, MA) several times, and they did the balancing 3 or 4 times, that never helped. Then I had balancing performed at Quirk Nissan (Quincy, MA), and I never had shimmy again.

crazyjeff100

On my 04 that I turned in, I had the shimmy also. Has anyone really truly figured out where this comes from? In this thread I see "weak bushings" and then some people had it fixed with an alignment, some did not.

I have an 07 now, and we'll see if this shimmy shows up. I hope not.

philoforlife

The shimmy actually comes from the weak (smaller) bushings in the steering column. This allows you to feel anything that on another car you would not feel - small misalignment, small rotor unbalance, the plastic shield vibrating under the car, tire unbalanced, etc. Any of these factors are magnified with the way the car is manufactured.

So:

Cause of shimmy: Any number of things.
Reason for shimmy: Small bushings that do not disburse vibration.

Like I noted above, mine disappeared when I took the plastic off from under the car...

Joshua

NHseGUY

Yeah, mine shimmied under braking for toll boths, the stock rotors had warped, really bad on the right side. replaced with brembo rotors and hawk pads. all is better now.

Pronto

Part of the shimmy I have is do to my tires since my winter ones had much less shimmy. I'm going to look into having the tires balanced on the car with the rotors. A shop in Manchester does that. I have no pulsing with the brakes, just shimmy at various speeds starting at about 40mph.

4MySwee

iTrader: (2)

http://www.6thgenmaxima.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1925

Crispy_Max

There's no Shimmy to mine and I got 20's on it.

JayMAX22

NO MORE SHIMMY FOR ME !!!! Well...I guess I should have said that I replaced the rotors and the tires and had it road forced balanced at a near by Goodyear center. They did tell me that 3 of my 4 rims are slightly bent (I have 20's...255/35/20) but the ride is sooooooo nice without the wobble wobble.

hmr1979

Mine did shake a little, especially during braking. Got the rotors resurfaced; now is smoooooth.

ElementK

95% of my shimmy went away when i took the RS-A's off the car. What junk.