My "new" to me 04 was pulling to the left, so I had it aligned.

Its much better now, and the shimmy is gone. But it drifts ever so slightly to the left still.

My mechanic said it is torque steer - if you hit the clutch it will not pull any more. Haven't tested that theory yet, but seems like it should only have torque steer when I'm on the throttle hard, not going down the highway.

Anybody else have this?

 

mech is full of it. torque steer is only during hard accel, not coasting/maintaining speed.

 

Is the car dropped? You may need a camber kit for additional correction.

 

Could be the tires also. My tires brand new felt great. Now I'm starting to hear the shimmy. Soon I'll start feeling it. Don't forget to rotate your tires often.

 

ya man, u if everything on ur car is right
then u only torque steer under hard accel.

ask chernmax about it when he gets his turbo done :P

 

Nope, car is stock.

 

Torque steer and the Maxima are synonymous, I get it now with the headers and everything else I have.

 

Yep all my Maxes have had torque steer, but my new one is still drifting to the left ever so slightly even after the alignment. I'm thinking they just did a bad job, although I don't know anything about how they actually work.

 

Rich - Torque steer can only happen when you are accellerating. When coasting down the highway, there is no such thing as torque steer. Unless you have a stuck caliper, your drift is caused by something not perfect in the alignment, tires and wheels area.

Maximas have long been known for torque steer, and having owned nothing but Maximas for 23 years, I have gradually grown so used to it that, when my '04 SL did not have any, it felt strange. I can get on level pavement, take my hands off the steering wheel, and mash the gas pedal briskly, and the car leaps straight ahead. That was not the case on my previous Maximas. That just goes to show that every Maxima that comes down the assembly line is somewhat different in some way.

 

Even more after the upcoming project...