Followed Nissan's tire rotation guide and torqued the wheels to the exact ft-lb, then took the max for a test drive. Sure enough at 45-48 mph my steering wheel starts to shake. It shook enough that my passanger noticed it.

I recheck the lugnuts they're on there fine. I noticed I had 33lbs in the front, so I lowered them one lb. Believe or not the shimmey went away. I cant believe that an extra lb in both front tires would cause a shimmey.

 

I can't believe it either...

 

This shimmy is fascinating. Two other posters got rid of their shimmy by increasing the front tire pressure from 33 to 35 psi. Strange.

You make about the fifth poster I have seen post here that introduced a shimmy by rotating their tires. This '04 Maxima requires the most careful front tire/wheel balancing of any car I know of. For my money, that is the one problem that might keep this car from being the best Maxima ever.

Want to hear an even stranger situation? My wife and I drove off the dealer's lot after closing the deal on our SL, drove to a nearby empty road, and the first time we brought it up to speed, there was a violent shimmy between 54 and 59MPH. We went straight back to the dealer, brought our saleswoman along to demonstrate the problem, and were unable to recreate it. Other than an occasional very slight vibration between 55 and 58, the problem never reocurred in months of driving. Weird.

 

Light, for yours, I'd blame flatspotting ... brand new car just off the lot. Then after driving it back to the dealer, the tires had warmed up and normalized.

As for the shimmy after rotation, I've seen that before on other cars and it's one reason I'm not big on rotating tires. But one pound difference in pressure fixing it? Hmmmmm.

In any case, I'm still happily running my tires lower than recommended pressure. In fact, I just recently decided to go to 28psi (cold) in all four, and after several hundred miles, I see no adverse handling effects and the ride is excellent. Now, if I were going on a road trip, I'd up the pressure to maybe 30psi, but for around town I'm lovin' 28.

One of the major car mags just had a piece on tire pressure, and they basically said it's such a personal thing you just need to find the setting that gives you the best compromise of handling, ride, safety and wear and go with it. Subject, of course, to not using pressures so low or so high as to be unsafe.

Mike

 

The first time I rotated my tires I got RID of the shimmy. In my case I would suspect it is a matter of balancing that is the cause of the shimmy.

I'm taking my tires to an expert with one of those sweet road force variance (or whatever its called...) balancing machines. The damn thing is the bomb for tracking down problems like this. It will measure the high spot in the rim, and the low spot on the tire, and have the tech line them up to make the outer circumference of the tire as round as possible. In addition the owner of the shop says he calibrates his machine every week. His tech's torque each lug by hand to torque spec. I don't mind paying a bit extra for this level of professional work.

Its a much much different story than the high school aged tire buster at a high volume shop. Who are you going to trust your wheels to?

CM.

 

THIS IS THE CURE http://209.176.154.132/
Check out the site to see who has this fascinating hunter tire balancer, it is hughley receommned for our crappy cars.

 

Chris, Chris! If it's a matter of tire balance, it's not that these are crappy cars. Maybe it's crappy tires, but you can't blame the car for that, even if the car is "sensitive" to out-of-balance tires!

Mike

 

i just had the tires rotated and notice a bit of vibrtaion in the wheel on certain roads now. I wish the would solve this problem because its starting to get eally bad. Is stinks if you do what they say in the guide and it messes the car up for you.

 

Thanks for the link, Chris. I was uncertain if there would be a GSP9700 near me, so used the linked site to search within 25 miles of my home. There were 96 GSP9700 shops within that range! I shortened the search to ten miles, and still found 23 GSP9700 shops!.

Should my tire rotation ever bring shimmy, I have help at hand.

If only there were some way to know which shops have operators who really know how to use the equipment . . .

Chris - I am well aware you have had many disappointments with your '04 Maxima, and I am truly sorry. From your posts over the past several months, I would feel you may have a 'lemon law' special. I feel almost guilty that I have had no real problems, and love my '04 Maxima very much.