there is still no tru fix for shimmy that you 6gen peps are dealing with. nissan engineers have told me to install alitma se-r rear subframe and slap on new tires & wheels and still having the same probelm. a master tech and i team up to solve this problem for the maxima i was working on. we raise the front of the maxima on alignment rack. we 1st remove the tires and drove it up to 60-80 mph and there was no shimmy, so we've eliminated to be a drivetrain problem. next, we mount the tires back on and torque it the wheels and the shimmy continue. so we then figure it has to be the hub or they way the wheel is mounted. remove the right wheel and the shimmy is gone. isntall right wheel and remove left wheel shimmy continue. now have isloated to be bent hub or rotor. got the dial indicator out and both hubs werent out of round. swap the rotors and then put right tire on the right side has a shimmy.
FOUND ROTOR TO BE OUT OF BALANCE

 

when had the left wheel on and right wheel off, as i watch the left wheel spinng up to 60-80mph u can see the wheel wobble harshly.

 

So you're saying what? Bad wheels? Bad tires? Bad hub assembly? Bad axle?

Mike

 

so its the possibly bad wheel hub or off center bores on the brake rotors??

 

I know you can balance drums, as they have wights on them, but is it possible to balance rotors?

 

Only way I know to balance rotors is by shaving them or drilling them. I suppose you could place small weights close to the inside circumference, but I haven't seen that done. Someone correct me if I'm wrong ...

Mike

 

they balance rotors by channeling out the middle of a vented rotor

 

Makes sense, I had a bit of a hunch it might be the rotors.

But I thought a few Nissan cars had the same rotors (Altima SE-R for one), do they have the problem too?

 

Nissan uses these rotors on many cars.

I've found several common issues with these cars on the brakes and shimmy.
1. wheel bearings are junk. Many were not torqued properly from the factory, and the axle hub nut works loose quite often, causing the bearing to go bad and wobble in the system.
2. rotor mounting faces not clean. especially with the warpage issues Nissan has, the front rotors are removed quite often and it's possible they got a flake of rust or something between the wheel hub and rotor mounting face. that will cause it to sit on the hub crooked and by the time you go from 2" off the hub centerline to 13" off the hub centerline (at the edge of the tire), that small space is magnified about 6.5x so a tiny grain of sand can wind up to be 1/4" of runout in the system.

one of the main reasons it's imperative to make sure your brake parts are clean and dust-free when reassembling that stuff.

 

Ok then, now we need some feedback from the guys that have upgraded their rotors, to cross drilled or slotted, see if they still have a shimmy

 

Just because they are cross-drilled and slotted does not mean they are balanced. I say find another car with shimmy and determine if it is caused by a bad hub or rotor.

 

i say we need people who have changed rotors to chime in anyways.especially if they had the shimmy before the swap.

 

I've had a very minor shimmy issue. My rotors were changed and the issue still exists. But only when the rims are in a certain position. When I rotated the fronts to the rear it went away completely. Now that I've moved the fronts back up its back. So in my case, FWIW, its all a balance issue with the rims. Having nothing to do with the rotors.

CM

 

At least we are getting somewhere with this issue. Unlike Nissan! It is like they don't even want to take the time to address this issue.

 

I noticed since I changed my calipers to 300zx calipers, I have no shimmy . . . . hmmmmmm . . . . .

 

Confirm the rotors cause Shimmy.

A close friend of mine had a Shimmy with his 2003 Maxima. He tried several tires to no avail and lived with it. He has gone with an imported rotor and no more shimmy.

I have yet to experience the Shimmy, but as I pass 22k my rotors may be starting to warp lightly and cause slight braking vibration. I tried to always brake as eay as poosible to get my miles out of them. Just had inspectio a week ago and was told I have 6-8 months of life left. That would be 2.5 years.

 

When i changed the rims on my 2005 max, the shimmy problem was almost gone. I think nissan was trying to save money and put cheap stuff on the maxima. just to save like 5cents per car. lol

 

We are talking about shimmy not under braking....being caused by a warped rotor....I got a shimmy at 30k and the rotors were less used as they are now..yet I have no shimmy at this point.

 

Priceless info on shimmy. I had none but would have probably replaced the OEM RSA's. I had vibrations at 10k during braking only. Put new drilled/slotted rotors. No vibrations or shimmy up to redline on 4th (on the dyno, of course).

 

yes, but if the rotors and/or hubs are unbalanced, they will cause shimmy and/or brake shaking.

 

All the proposed solutions still sound like a band-aid. I still think the steering rack is too sensitive...fortunately Im not having a problem right now, we'll see what happens when I get tires this fall.

 

So where can the "non-mechanic" type go to have this checked? I have the shimmy and it's driving me crazy. I hate having someone in my car because they always comment on the shaking sterring wheel.....it's embarrassing.

 

Is it possible that it is the rotor or hub? I was looking at tirerack.com and 1010tires. And they indicate that if the wheels attached to the centerbore, not exactly snug, this causes vibration. But I guess what you guys are saying is that the centerbore could possibly be out of round.
Does anybody know if there is some truth to this, and whether it's possible it relates?

 

I have hub centric rings on and my steering wheel still has the heeby jeebies.

 

do you have aftermarket rotors?

 

No...stock rotors with Foose Spank 5 rims...20's.

 

There, im almost 100% sure its the rotors, and it has nothing to do with the hub

 

Although the hub centric rings did REDUCE the shimmy a little it's still a major problem.

 

I had the shimmys, they gave me new rotors, struts and Road Force balanced the tires-twice and 2 new tires (one flat on the highway and the other had a terrible RF reading.) Still had the shimmy. They took an 05 SL out for a drive and it didn't have the shimmys. They took the wheels off of the 05 and put them on my 04 and BINGO, no more shimmy. This was done around 10,000 miles ago. I've had the tires rotated since the change and the shimmy is still gone.

 

So your saying it was your rims that actually caused it?

 

It could have been the rims were not perfectly round or they were bent or the tires could have been bad. Either way, they could be balanced but they still shimmyed like a ****. Someone once said here on the org that with enough weight you could balance a brick but that still doesn't make it round!!! I truly believe that now.

 

How can you find out if a rim is bent?

 

You would have to take the tire off of the rim. And then watch it as the turn it.

 

Time we start a class-action suit against Nissan for all our collective pain and suffering with the shimmy.

My '04 cost me $46K CDN, all in. I have not enjoyed 1 day of of shimmy-free driving in 2 years of ownership. My dealer has tried everything in good faith and has now literally given up.

I now want Nissan to feel the $pain....

 

Hi Guys,

I too have shimmy problems with my 04 maxima. I have now 40K miles on it, but my shimmy problems started way earlier than that. I bugs the hell out of me, but I have other things going on in my life, hence it never was my first priority.

Nevertheless, I want this problem fixed as badly as you guys, and I would like to join the discussion as I am currently undergoing my own personal "campaign" to eradicate this annoyance.

I went back many times to the Nissan dealership for balancing and alignment, and although it definitely helped, the shimmy never went away, and always sneaks up on me over time only to get worse.

During my last visit to the Nissan “stealership” (a different one than my usual) I addressed again the shimmy issue, and the diagnosis was 3 bent rims, and un-even wear and tear of the tires. Gosh 3 wheels ruined; the roads have a lot to wish for over here (Washington DC area), but I have been driving my car pretty carefully and I don’t recall hitting potholes which would really worry me. Maybe the stock rims are way to soft?

Anyhow, I was due for new tires anyways, so last week I replaced my Goodyear Eagle RS.A‘s at the local Goodyear shop near where I work with the same kind (lack of inspiration and time was the reason for my choice, also I got a pretty good deal on them). I was hoping this would at least alleviate some of the vibrations, but really, it didn’t.

I returned the car to the Goodyear shop, and complained about vibrations (not mentioning my everlasting ordeal with this issue), and they re-balanced it, using a method which they refer to as “exact balance”. But the shimmy is still there. However, they told me that one of my wheels was bent; however they placed it on the rear-right and to my knowledge should not contribute to the shimmy in my wheel which makes my knuckles blur.

One bent wheel versus three?

I am very apprehensive about buying new rims; I don’t mind buying them if that really get rid of the problem (great excuse to get me some bling bling on my car), but what if I still have shimmy after spending that much?

I am going to get a third opinion with another service center; have them check if my rims are bent .

From reading this forum and asking questions to experts, the following issues to my rather limited knowledge on cars can be contributed to shimmy on the 04 Maxima:

[1] Out of balance wheels
[2] Out of balance rotors
[3] Bent rims
[4] Bad bearings
[5] Bad steering system/mechanism
[6] Bad drive train
[7] Bad Calipers
[8] Other?



Maybe my list is to simplistic or too detailed, please feel free to add/eliminate/modify.

I was hoping that by working together, we could determine a reasonable list of possible reasons for the shimmy, and then eliminate some of them through reason, and order the remaining items by likelihood of occurrence.

Let’s nail the shimmy issue, since my dealership seem to have given up on it (but they are all to happy selling new Maxima’s )

Cheers

G.

 

How would we go about filing the class action lawsuit?

 

Gosh a class action suit...

it seems quite a few Maxima's are affected by a shimmy (just Google for "Maxima 04 shimmy"), but do we know exactly what number. Maybe a poll and some sound statistics can undeniably prove we have a problem and we can slam Nissan with that.

But I would also like to focus on finding the root(s) of the shimmy problem in a rational approach and in a manner which won't instigate a wild goose chase mixed with emotions.

 

I was thinking the EXACT same thing.. class action lawsuit! It's sad to say, but this may be the ONLY way to get this resolved is to get the issues with the Shimmy more in the public eye and more in Nissans face, per say, on a grander scale.

 

I was, along with many others, contributing to this thread on the Org

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=348639

There is a poll there and MANY others who have the shimmy problem, me included. I've also been to the dealer PLENTY of times in just the 8 months I've owned my Maxima.

 

Majestic, could you please explain in a nutshell what the conclusions of that thread was - if any?

Last entry of that thread from you was that you had your steering rack adjusted and you seemed to have been pleased with the results (1-15-2006) - from the sounds of your last message just now, I can only assume you are also still dealing with the shimmy issue. What happened?


G