For the last several weeks, I've had a strange vibration in my 2004 SL. It ONLY occurred when accelerating. It only occurred between 60 and 80mph. It was not felt in the steering wheel, but rather in the body of the car. It did not matter which gear, and was not related to rpm. It sure had me stumped.

And apparently the dealership. They tried rotating and balancing the tires, even though I told them I had that done last week. Then they decided it must be a bad wheel. I asked how it could be a wheel if the vibration wasn't in the steering wheel, unless by chance as a result of both rotations the bad wheel ended up on the rear at al times???

After changing all 4 wheels with a car on the lot to no success, they decied it must be a bad rotor (of course then it was my fault since I have drilled and slotted rotors from irotor). I told them that was crazy since it didn't affect the braking, only the acceleration.

I asked about the possibility of a cv joint being bad, and they said it couldn't be that.

Any guesses yet????

They finally found a bent/warped "axle" on the right side.

With no damage to the vehicle, wheels, tires, suspension, they said the extended warranty should cover it.

Oh well, at least it's fixed.

As I'm typing this the dealer called and said Nissan would cover it all under the 60,000 mile powertrain warranty. I love Nissan!!!!

 

Sometimes I feel something similar to yours. Around 75-80 I feel a slight vibration coming from the right front tire like it is not 100% balanced but its NOT shimmying thru the steering wheel. But I live with it for now b/c its very slight and I don't drive at those speeds very often. I'll have them take a look see next time I'm in for service. Good find.

 

Very strange.

One would think the fact it occurs only when accelerating would pretty much eliminate the rear wheels and tires. And the fact you don't feel it in the steering wheel would work against it being the front wheels and tires.

The fact it happens only during accceleration should also eliminate any part of the brake assembly.

It would seem it almost has to to be something in the drive train.

But with these modern machines, who knows?

 

Please do a search on this topic or check out the stickies. I don't think we need any new threads about this.

 

to Ramberg, there are ALOT of threads about this..........including my first thread about a vibration

 

having been here about 2 years, and having read all the threads, this problem was distinctly different than all the others..or should we just lump all "vibrations" under one topic?

"daves04smoke" - maybe you should ask your dealer to check the axles. maybe this is a problem no one has identified before.

 

(Better to start his own thread than to hijack someone elses, that's how I feel.)

That's a pretty odd find. Any chance that someone jacked it up wrong or somehow screwed it up on a lift?

 

us0,
without getting into details, I've had just about everything replaced. see previous threads

 

The experts say that you should never buy a car during the 1st year of a redesign. The 04 maxima was actually a guinea pig for the 6th Generation. I have seen that 1st hand with my 04 and my parents 05 so i will never make that mistake again. Still love the car however as the problems are more annoying then major.