Today did not start out too good. On my way to work this morning, I noticed a vibration in the Max front right wheel & the car kept leaning to the right. At first I was thinking, "This car better not be out of alignment!" After pulling over I quickly realized my tire was totally flat. Dont worry, thats not the end of the story. It turns out, my tire was just fine, but the repair shop said my rim was bent. The only time I can remember ever hitting anything remotely hard was like 3 weeks ago I hit a really nasty pot hole going about 40 mph. The guy that repaired said a small portion of the rim on one side was bent flat & he was able to bend it back as much as possible, but it wasn't perfect. Anyone else had this unfortunate ocurrance? Anyone know what it would cost to replace an OEM 18" rim?

 

A new oem rim on 02 max is 560.00 I'm figuring that on a 18" would be at least 700.00 look on line there are places where you can get it fixed between 100 to 150 dollars,depending how bad it is.

 

You can try going on E-Bay for rims. They are alot less expensive. Type in 2004 Maxima in the search, two pages of stuff comes up for the Max.

 

I had the same problem with my 03 max. I went to google and typed in "car rims" and found replacements for 200.00. The 04 should be between 250 and 350.

 

'04 SE drivers should keep in mind they are driving a slalom racer,not a passenger automobile. 45 profile tires cannot be driven thru potholes; there is no tire height to cushion the blow to the rim.

clayman - the tire involved may look OK, but I would definitely keep a close eye on it. Sometimes internal damage is not evident visually either inside or outside the tire. Watch especially for sidewall bulging or belt separation.

As my son used to say a long time ago: bummer, dude.

 

how'd they bend it back?

 

SamMan - glad you asked this. If I were clayman, I would be very careful about 'straightening' a bent rim. If a fraction of an ounce off in balance can make an '04 vibrate at speed, I can only imagine what a fraction of a centimeter off in a wheel's 'roundness' could do.

 

about amonth back i went to the dealer for a knocking noise and they replaced my struts...however they also told me i had a bent rim but it was nothing to worry about...they said it was a small bend and i left it and i havent had a problem since

 

I'm not exactly sure how they bent it back. It must have been a very slight bend because I drove the car for several weeks after the pot hole incident without shimmy or vibration of any kind. After they "bent" the rim back into place, I haven't noticed any vibrations either. Fortunately, they must have done a really good job. Lightonhill, you're absolutely right about those tires, by the way. I'm gonna watch that wheel closely for a while & see how it does.

 

currently at $426 on ebay...3 more hours to go...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=43958