FreeRyder

May sound dumb but I like it. Makes me feel like the car has so much power it is ripping out of my hands.

Taylor

chernmax

iTrader: (15)

Maybe us Navy guy's are stronger, but I have never felt my car steering wheel ripping out of my hands and I do run my car hard both on and off the track...

tb2211

the price we pay for owning a fwd car

tubells

pls. keep these polls for the "gasbuddies.com" sites!!

lightonthehill

I'm not eligible to vote in this poll.

I can pour the coals to my '04 SL to the point of spinning the front wheels, yet have the car move STRAIGHT forward WITHOUT MY HANDS ON THE STEERING WHEEL.

I don't know whether to be envious or glad.

At any rate, that particular trait of my Maxima sadly disqualifies me from eligibility in this poll.

joemax1

Im with Light and Chernmax. But the first 6th Gen I test drove had the torque steer...and I kinda liked it! but the one I got (sadly...) doesnt have it. Maybe I dont punch it too hard or Im just strong (like Chernmax...)

LA02MAX

iTrader: (3)

i know i'm not a 6th gen, but i've got the same engine/tranny anyways, my car only has torque steer on some occasions...i haven't really pin-pointed exactly what conditions the car usually has it in (ie: road conditions/weather/slopes in the road, etc.) but sometimes, i can sort of feel my car tugging to the right, and if i start to turn the other way, it tugs strong that way...I think it feels really cool, especially when i'm in a driving mood...it kinda makes me feel like i need to 'hold on for the ride!'

logik05se

honestly I think its alright, makes the car feel like a beast, and no matter how you look at it, if you have RWD car with ballz your *** is going to be everywhere especially if you dont know how to drive.

kingofsorrow

since i switched to the G35 rims i noticed the oversteer isn't as bad as it was with the stock tires. the other day though i was running next to a g35 and we took a really tight turn, when we came out off the turn i hit the gas little and the frickin wheel almost pulled my arm off. almost spilled my mocha.

NismoMax80

iTrader: (6)

What torque steer

invalid poll.


and did I read someone also has oversteer????

NVRSATISFYD

I agree with logik...having a ride with enough power to pull at the wheel when mashed out makes u feel like yer out of control!!! TORQUE RULES! RIDE THE BULL!

JohnnyBlaze

I have an 04 built in May 04. My wheels have 0.00 deg thrust angle angle all around and 2.6 caster in front. Torque steer only REALLY occurs when I floor the gas on smooth black asphalt. Tires spin, rubber burns and smoke flies. At the same time i feel a slight pull to the which ever side of the road is on a slope. Also, I have a Tornado charger in my engine. So this is possibly 5-7 hp over stock. But anyone that says there is no torque steer on Maximas w/o traction control - you are lying or didn't know what "this accion" is called.

AscendantMax

iTrader: (7)

that tornado thingy is more restrictive than anything...but that's for another thread.

anyhow, i don't mind the torque steer. though if you're not careful, the car can veer to the right decently hard when WOT.

mwh

It doesn't rip the wheel out of my hands but it does tend to pull to the right under heavy accelleration. My previous car was an Altima SE, I drove for 3 years, so I guess I am used to it and countersteer when necessary.

MDS

I have an 05, 6 speed, 11,000 miles, and sometimes it is so bad it is embarrassing. For me, it is inconsistent. Smooth roads are okay. But put the car on a twisty country road with uneven pavement, get the engine over 3500 rpms with heavy throttle, and the car is almost unsafe. The second the front suspension compresses or expands, the car becomes spastic. Second gear is worst. It is also bad when I have passengers in the car. I don’t know anything about engineering, but my guess is that when the back end sags, it changes the geometry of the front end. When I drive with passengers and want to impress them with a little power, I wind up embarrassing myself because it looks like I can’t drive my car in a straight line.

95bluse

iTrader: (1)

I don't have a 6th Gen (as yet ), but I've read tests on it that suggests the best way to drive the car. Since the car has such a prodigious amount of low-end torque, it's better to hustle it through corners in the higher gears and use the throttle judiciously. This means, for example instead of using 2nd gear @4000rmp, try 3rd@3000rpm and apply the throttle accordingly. takes practice I guess. On the contrary, the TL can be kept in a higher gear & higher rpm because of it's torque characteristics. The bottom line is the Max needs a gentler foot & more finesse, you should then be rewarded

logik05se

yesterday i made sure no cars were around late at night, came from a stop sign onto a wide open road that has a curve when you enter it with the gas floored....and the front was ready to come out on me if I didnt let off the gas and allow traction...pretty damn cool lol.

nick wolff

iTrader: (1)

i'm gonna be honest. i loved the brute power it used to have

with so many miles, and so little transmission left it's hard to go back to what it used to be.

man i miss the power...

Tek-Niq

iTrader: (3)

I like feeling the ***** it has, why not...

NismoMax80

iTrader: (6)

but you weren't driving in the straight line

I take turns fast, but not unsafely fast. Sounds to me like an operator malfunction.

What car would be safe on "a twisty country road with uneven pavement, get the engine over 3500 rpms with heavy throttle"

I as well as others have driven on the track redlining 1st through 3rd w/o any problem.

Also the RSAs are not Ultra High Performance tires. Besides that factor, why would anyone floor it on turns, esp. FWD??

tototee999

i love the power... and my friends love it too.. sometimes when coming out of a turn i give some gas and the torque takes over.. my friends are amazed when they see how well the car handles..

Majestic_MAx05

iTrader: (2)

I like feeling the power!!! Dont have a problem with it

04BlackMaxx

It has to do with road conditions for sure...if I am at a light where the traffic is heavy so the pavement is bumpy the torque steer can get bad and I have to grab the wheel when I lose it...because most times the car dosent do it too bad. If you spin the tires off the line this seems to lessen it too..its when you roll and then punch it that the twisting occurs.

04BlackMaxx

You must have beat the car bc im at 50k with no noticeable decreases in power at any speed.

lightonthehill

JohnnyBlaze - You brought something to my attention: Traction Control.

Having now owned nothing but Maximas for over 21 years, I know VERY well what torque steer feels like. In fact, one of the two '04 SEs I test drove in March of 2003 had it. The other one showed no signs of it. One of the two '04 SEs my son test drove in summer of 2003 had bad torque steer, but he didn't notice it on the other one.

My 2000 SE has some torque steer when accellerating at slower speeds in a sloped turn, but I don't really notice it unless I am thinking about it.

But my 'torque steer-less' '04 SL does, in fact, have both Traction Control and Vehicle Dynamic Control, so that may enter into the equation in my case.

At any rate, I am still ineligible for this poll.

MDS

NismoMax80, I understand your point, but this is not the case. I do not take turns unsafely fast. There is no operator malfunction or poor judgment as you imply.

Have you ever passed someone in your car while driving on a two lane road? I do a lot of driving on older rural roads with uneven crowns. They have 50-55 mph speed limits, and some people like to drive 40 to 45 mph. When I pass them, I need to be very conscious about torque steer. I typically start my pass at 40 mph in second gear (4,300 rpms) and use only 2/3 throttle. I shift out of second gear at 50 mph (5,500 rpms), into third gear and then glide into 6th gear. That is a very prudent and judicial use of the Maxima’s power. I do not race or drive dangerously.

But as I tried to explain, on the older rural roads, that application of torque, just 2/3 throttle at 45 mph, is all my car needs for minor road irregularities to cause my front end to wander left or right, as if the car is following invisible ruts in the road. NismoMax80, you wrote that I wasn’t driving in a straight line. Well in order to pass, I had to turn the wheel. Maybe that aggravates the torque steer. But at 45 mph, it should not happen this much. And as I mentioned earlier, with weight in the back of my car, I also experience severe torque steer with 2/3 throttle. The front end feels light and it wiggles. I don’t know why, but it is very real.

NismoMax80, you wrote “I as well as others have driven on the track redlining 1st through 3rd w/o any problem.” As I mentioned, on smooth roads, like a track, the torque steer is not a major problem. But here is a thought that may help us all. Is your car an automatic or manual? My car is a stick. Do you think it is possible that manuals have more torque steer more than automatics? I’ve driven both, and there is no question that the stick shift has more punch, especially at highway speeds. Without a torque converter to smooth things out and consume some of the engine’s torque, my car may in fact have more torque steer than your car.

I assure you that my torque steer is real and that it happens under normal driving conditions, not at reckless speeds on unsafe roads.

NismoMax80

iTrader: (6)

MDS

I understand ya. And I do remember experiencing it more when it was newer. I remember when some of us thought we just got used to it. But after not driving the Max for a while, it still seemed to be gone.

While turning and accelerating, I do feel the pull. Perhaps while passing I've come to expect it and do not realize it.

I do drive an Auto, but when my style would cause TS, I have it in Manual (i know it's not the same, but very close). You may have a very good point about the Tranny; perhaps it's because while shifting you only have one hand on the wheel, where I can keep both on immediately after downshifting to 2nd and allow it to "auto-shift" at the redlines.

And the road conditions probably do play a factor aswell. Like Light stated about TCS and VDC may help.

Or possibly (but doubtful) some actually have more T S than others??

Maybe I tend to take this subject a bit too personal since it's about the only negative Auto reviewers would say about our Maxima. I just love it so much, hoping to get it back Tuesday. (3 weeks w/o is starting to get to me.)

I must say I appreciate your reply. Some may have resorted to name calling... You do make some probable points that would be nice to prove/disprove. Also I enjoy playing devil's advocate sometimes to get as many points of view as possible.

logik05se

Any fwd car with ample torque will have torque steer. Theres absolutly no such thing as one maxima having it and one not. Maybe you traveled the same exact road on those test drives, but 1 of the times hit a dip or a imperfection in the road which caused it one time and not the other.

install30

We all know why you Navy guys are strong handed......all those months out at sea.....nothing to do......magazines.....just kiddin'.....I was in Subs, SSN-709 "Hyman G. Rickover"..............

MDS

NismoMax80. No problems here. Thanks for your response. Your comment that with one hand on the wheel (and the other on the stick), I may not have the same degree of control as with two hands on the wheel is valid. But I’ve got to tell you, my car seems to have a bad case of torque steer. Just yesterday I was driving around town with my wife in the car. I was going about 35 mph in second gear (3500 rpms or so) and popped the gas pedal to maybe ¾ throttle. The Maxima lurched to the left so hard it scared my wife. She asked me if I did it on purpose as a joke. Sadly, my answer was no.

I wish I knew more about engineering, because I suspect that manuals could have it worse than autos. And the difference may be based on more than a little extra torque reaching the wheels. The different transmissions may have different half-shaft lengths, different half-shaft weights or different half-shaft angles to the wheels. I also have lighter weight rims on my car. For all I know, the reduced rotational inertia may exaggerate torque steer. For the record, I know my front end is properly aligned, because I suspect that could also aggravate torque steer.

But then again, just to prove that I don’t know much about this subject, here is a quote from the July 2005 Car and Driver issue in which they tested the Maxima in a family sedan comparison.

“The throttle is jumpy, unleashing a torrent of torque with only a small dip of your toe, torque that makes your path go ziggy on all but the smoothest roads. This is a car that often feels like a handful when you floor it, which is entertaining if you're amused by that, crude if you're not.”

That comment referred to a Maxima with an automatic transmission. So perhaps that throws my theory out the window. As an aside, don’t you love the line “unleashing a torrent of torque with only a small dip of your toe?” It is so true.

MaxFan

I wonder if you want to play with the tire pressure. I think the Max is so sensitive about this. That's why many don't see such and such, but some experience such and such.
In my case -with VDC- if I run @ 32-33psi (cold) I have lot less torque-steer +more traction+better braking AND the light "shimmy". If I run >33psi, the shimmy is gone+less traction/braking AND lot more torque steer. The Max would jump easily but unfortunately not in a straight line. I do jack-rabbit starts all the time + sudden accelerations (on-ramps, passings...). The Max would pull to one side. The difference is huge and easy to tell. It can be nice with just one hand on the wheel. Or still uneasy with both hands (and knowing which direction it will pull).

MDS

This is interesting Maxfan. I run at 35-36 psi. I may be my own worst enemy. Unfortunately, the northeast just got dumped with snow and I can't test this today. When the roads are dry, I will. Thanks.

Redline

Some days I have torque steer and some days I don't. I find that the torque steer is much worse in the morning, usually goes away mid-day, but almost always comes back in the evening. I have no idea why this is happening.

MaxFan

That's why I suggest to look into the tire pressure. Yours somehow is going in the opposite of mine. In the morning or evening, the pressure is less (cold) and this is when the torque steer is less. People says it's +/- 1psi per 10degrees changes in outside temperature. The Max is so sensitive to just a psi or two. That's why it can drive me nuts as California weather now can change 40s-80s in same day. I need to set 33.5psi in the morning (to avoid the early shimmy). It can be 37psi at noon (before even driving it, it would then even more). The ride will be harsh for my wife (not for me). And the torque steer is LARGE.

Nate Finch

Like others have said, all maximas will have the same amount of torque steer. if there's any imperfection in the road, if you turn the wheel just a little bit... anything can cause that jerk in the wheel. It's physics, my friends.

-Nate

Smooth

I wish mine had oversteer. I will have to make some camber adjustments this summ and hope that the understeer will stop. I have been close to a couple wrecks because i set up with the over steer in mind and instead it never came

gavriel

I'm trading in my (grandfather's) RWD Grand Marquis for a (hopefully '04) Maxima, reason being I love the engine in my mother's '04 Quest. At the beginning, the torque steering was annoying, but it didnt take long for me to get used to it.

With RWD though, I have to be VERY careful when accelerating -- even with Winter tires on dry road, the rear wheels in the GM slip. I'd take the torque steer over the rear wheels slipping anyday.

Needless to say, all the stock Civics that egg me on get creamed by the Quest or the GM... I can't wait for the torque steer in the new Maxima!

MAX2DAMAX

iTrader: (5)

I have a 04 se auto, when i first got the car it had the factory 18s on it, and torque steer got me by surprise,.. you know im driving my new max on the freeway,... i also drive a 2000 altima (my old car now) and i always liked to floor that little thing every time i neede to pass someone, (also i always drove one handed) you know it was fun. WELL long story short, i did the same thing with my max at about 55 mph,(also one handed) before i knew i was crossing onto the other lane.
since then i learned my lesson, GRAB THE WHEEL WITH 2 HANDS BEFORE YOU FLOOR IT.
also now i have 20s x8.5 on it and torque steer is not as exagerated as before,
DONT BLAME THE BEAST FOR NOT BEHAVING IS UP TO THE HANDLER TO CONTROL IT.

Redline

I was being sarcastic. The amount of misinformation in this thread is staggering. There is absolutely, unequivocally, no such thing as torque steer which comes and goes or which is present on one Maxima and not the other.

MAX2DAMAX

iTrader: (5)

Im sorry but having bigger heavier wider wheels will reduce torque steer, not much but it will.