NismoMax80

iTrader: (6)

Welcome,
that's awesome. what colors/trims did you get? Well I was 23 and Nissan targeted me perfectly.
Now what will happen if you catch the mod-bug from here... how will the wife respond if her Max is left stock?
Maybe she should join too.

-AoW-JP

I don't get that at all. Only when hitting the gas does the car want's to go it's own way. BTW I think the 6 speed has a limited slip, like a posi trac. The auto don't. Correct me if I'm wrong. I took my car on my first trip Wednesday. I went to AC and the car was great at highway speeds. I found the car responds better to high speeds. I seemed to squat down and grip the road. Everyone was doing 80+ on the GSP and after traveling with them for a while I found myself at triple digits. The steering problem disappears after 60. I saw you guys write the G is AWD. That means the MAx is next. I love my 05 SL but as soon as the AWD this model I'm in. I do more street driving than highway so the torque steer thing really bothers me. As for you guys that don't feel it with the automatics. Hit the gas a little harder and you to will experience ramdom turns unless you grip it like rifle in combat. I think the limited slip might have corrected this. Oh well just another way for them to cut corners. On a 1 to 10 this car gets an 8. Ponts taken off for the steering and some skimping on the quality of the interior parts. I paid for leather not suade. Visor arm cracked very easy.

04BlackMaxx

If you grip the wheel the way you should when you punch the throttle you shouldnt have any problems with torque steer. If you want a similar car and need RWD get a G35....but most of them cost $5000 more and are hideous IMO. AWD you're going to lose performance because of the weight...and tack on another 5 grand, now you're at 40. Im not bothered by the torque steer, and I think the stickier rubber I have helps also.

jinsatx

Nismomax80,

Thanks for the welcome. My wife's Max is an 05 SE, Coral Sand with Cafe Latte leather interior, DPP package and Sunroof, splash guards and mats. Mine is an 05 SE, Liquid Silver with Frost leather interior, DPP package, sunroof, splash guards, mats and the VDC package. Got two great deals, the wifes was 26,999 +ttl and mine was 27,500 +ttl (both prices included the 1250 rebate). I was only going to buy her a car last Saturday, she wanted another Honda EXL V6, but we stopped at the Nissan dealer and drove the 4 banger Altima SL and was not impressed. We were going to drive the V6 SEL, but then she saw the Max and it was love at first sight. Glad she loved the Max, because I can't stand the looks of the new Accord and for 2k more, the Max is just so much more automobile. As for me, drove her new Max all weekend and on Monday I was begging for her keys. The begging lasted till Tuesday morning when I called the dealer and he found me the silver one with the VDC, which I wanted. He priced mine just like the wife's adding 500 for the VDC (msrp 600) and gave me an extra 500 on my trade to get the deal done. Damn, I just love these cars. Owned an 86 SE 5sp many, many years ago and always wanted to get another one. Now I have two and couldn't be happier.

lightonthehill

MastMax - Yours is the first report here (at least in the last two years) of any torque in steering during coasting. After reading your post, I made it a point to take my foot off the gas and my hands off the wheel at various speeds today. My '04 SL with 5 speed auto, traction control and VDC continued as straight as an arrow.

As to the torque steer complaints here, I was puzzled by the fact I have never noticed any on my car. Today, I tried a few didos and sharp turns while acellerating vigorously, and the only way I felt any real tug was if I almost released my grip on the wheel (which I would normally never do when driving vigorously).

My son test-drove an '04 SE two years ago, and said he clearly noticed torque steer. But when he drives my '04 SL, he says the torque steer is not noticable. I don't understand why the torque steer would vary between these two '04 Maximas, but it does.

jinsatx

Lighton,

I drove both the SL and SE before I bought the two SE's. There is a little more torque steer in the SE's which I attribute to the taller and wider tires on the SE versus the SL. Then again, it's nothing that bothers me as the whole package is just beautiful.

NismoMax80

iTrader: (6)

Light, don't you contribute that to your VDC? you should have tried this with it turned off.
jinsatx- yes SE has wider, but lower tires. wheels are larger, but overall diameter is the same.
I have experienced the torque only in 1st and 2nd at the highest RPM during full acceleration

lightonthehill

NismoMax80 - After posting, I wondered if TC or VDC might enter in to this. I decided TC would not, but couldn't decide about VDC.

After your post, I thought some more. I understand VDC comes into play when the car is either driven with vigorous lateral movement, or is detected to be travelling in a direction other than where the wheels are aimed/body is pointed.

The situations where I let off the gas and detected no steering pull should not have been influenced by VDC, but the situations I put the car in to test for torque steer under accelleration might well have met those criteria.

I will try again without VDC and see if I can detect a difference.

SilverMax_04

My 6-speed does NOT have limited slip. I suspect that lightonthehill's "limited slip" may have eliminated the torque steer in his SL.

-AoW-JP

This sounds like a minor complaint to you guys but I'm in stop and go city traffic all day and it just pisses me off.

NismoMax80

iTrader: (6)

then you must really push it. I don't experience it at all at 3k RPM or below. maybe even higher. today I left everyone behind at a hwy stop light, but not reeeally pushing it with no torque.

04BlackMaxx

these guys drive it like they stole it haha

Brudaddy

iTrader: (2)

Front Wheel Drive=Torque Steer

-AoW-JP

Thats it I'm shootin video this week.

04BlackMaxx

This is a whiny thread, do torque steer sufferers have RS-A's? Id guess that 20" rims make it even less noticeable.. The car only steers itself from a standstill anyway, when it gets going the power is pretty linear to me.

MaxMus

impossible to have torque steer in these conditions unless you floor it and your tach hits close or over 4K RPM's where max torque is achieved.

Light, I noticed one thing about VDC is that when I hit a pothole and the backend of my car moves out of the intended steering direction, I can feel VDC kicking in and correcting my course. I have a feeling that VDC kicks in under torque steer as well.

Note: I will never buy another car without Stability Control and Navi ever again if I can help it.

MastMax

Don't get me wrong... I love the looks & styling of my Max..... but, compared to my Regal GS w/ the supercharged 3800 (read 280 lbs torque at 3600rpm), the torque steer is much more pronounced on the Max. I know you guys will never admit it, but in my humble opinion GM's front wheel drivers handle it better. There seems to be more resistance in the GM steering, which might reduce the pull or tugging that occurs alot in the Max.

As for the coasting, it seems to always tug left in the Max - i.e. on a hilly highway with the cruise set, when you go down a hill and the cruise lets up completely on the throttle, the engine brakes (apparently on the left wheel) and then the steering wheel tugs left.

Its not that I can't hold on to the steering wheel... its just the question of why doesn't the Max coast w/o engine braking at speeds over over 40mph?

Also, I'm not trying to whine about it.... just hoping someone will be able to explain why it occurs....

NashMax

How would our issues with the steering rack affect the torque steer? I had the steering rack/shimmy TSB work done today and my car kinda feels like the steering wheel doesn't want to come back centered when coming out of a turn at any speed. I have to turn the wheel out of the turn. I would bet that some of the same conclusions that we have come to in the shimmy threads would apply here. I think the "under-engineering" in the steering rack may be a contributing factor.

04BlackMaxx

This shimmy thing is weird...i mean it happens sometimes and sometimes it doesent, i also have to chalk some of it up to cold rubber/road surface. The thing is sensitive, i dont think id wanna give much of that up, its what makes the car feel sporty and responsive.

lightonthehill

MashMax - You may have gotten some poor work done as they 'did' the steering rack TSB on your Maxima.

The steering in cars built since the 1930s has a (gentle, not strong) tendency to 'recenter' when one lets go of the wheel in a turn. That is by design, and makes driving a car vastly easier than having to manually reverse-rotate the wheel when leaving every curve/turn.

If your Maxima no longer has this 'soft-centering' tendency when leaving curves/turns, and you have made no mods to your steering/suspension, something was done incorrectly by your service department.

tubs

i like the feel of the torque steer...very sporty with all that power

MObruin

It just occured to me this morning that the issue is torque, not HP.

Is it possible to leave the Torque roughly where it is and just keep boosting the HP??? Or do those two variables have to remain about linear with eachother??

-MO-

04BlackMaxx

Don't flame me if im wrong, but Horsepower is merely a function of Torque, Thus, you cant boost Hp without raising torque.

jinsatx

Call me crazy if you will, but I think the TCS and VDC actually contribute to some of the torque steer. I say this with a straight face as I have two Max's both early production 2005's that did not come with TCS as standard equipment. My wife's has no TCS/VDC and mine has the TCS/VDC option package on it. Just drove hers this weekend as a comparison to mine and find the torque steer in her car much less than mine when the VDC/TCS is on. Just to see if I was in my right mind, I turned off my VDC/TCS for most of my driving for the past couple of days and find that the torque steer in mine is less with the VDC/TCS turned off. Strange. Knowing what I know now, I'll probably drive with the VDC/TCS turned off for most of my driving and turn it on when it rains. To bad that it comes on every time you start the car and have to turn it off each time. Anybody else feel the way I do about this VDC\TCS option, or, am I crazy? Just seem to feel the car actually handles the torque better with VDC off and find it only useful for slippery rainy or snowy conditions. (don't need for snow, only snow's a couple of inches every 20 years of so in south Texas)