I read in another thread that front wheel shimmy seems to be an issue in 6th-gen Maximas. We just got our 06 back from CARMAX, and they stated they balanced the front wheels, and machined the front rotors. However, the shimmy is as bad as before. I saw wheel balancing was an issue in the other thread--is there another cause for the shimmy? Warped brake rotors? Bad tires? The tires are Goodyear Eagle RS-As--I presume they are the ones that came with the car. Any ideas?

 

My shimmy went away with brand new rotors... but shimmy only happened during braking. otherwise alignment maybe??

 

After doing some SEARCHING, seems that the stock wheels were defective. I would do a few things here. One, find out if carmax has a road force balancer. I doubt it, but you can find out. That balancer will give you the best balance. If they dont, get them road force balanced. Those Goodyear tires arent helping either. Those are crap. Once you do all of that, and the problem persists, then you may look into another set of wheels.

 

My front passenger rim was warped. Had to replace it, shimmy gone.

 

Sounds like a prime candidate for some nice infintiy rims, haha

 

Took the car back to CARMAX this AM, and went for a ride with one of the service managers. He could definitely feel the shimmy. He said if their re-balancing won't solve the problem, they will put new tires on the car. If I want specific tires, I'll just have to pay the difference, which I thought was fair. Got an appointment Monday--I'll keep you apprised on how it goes.

 

Could be the rear subframe, that was the cause of mine

 

We took the Maxima back to CARMAX a third time, after the second balancing failed to fix the shimmy. They finally took it to a local Nissan dealer, who found the road force balance was out--as mentioned by a reply. Now CARMAX is telling us they want us to pay some $400 to get decent tires on the car over the cheapies they would put on the car. I offered $120, which is the Discount Tire difference between the Goodyear RS-as that came on the car, and Michelin MXV4s. I'm a bit frustrated with them, since I brought up the tire issue (thanks to the knowledgable folks on this forum!)the first time I brought it back in. I guess we'll see tomorrow.

 

When I bought my '04 Maxima back in May, I had a shimmy as well. I took it back into the dealer and they ended up replacing the tires, they said that one of them had a flat spot on it. They also installed new brake pads and turned the rotors, as they said that they still felt some vibration when braking. That has totally fixed the problem and two months later, I still am having no issues.

 

Well, we got a call this afternoon saying they are going to replace all four tires at no cost, which is great. I suspect that will cure the shimmy, but I'll report back when I get the car back. Too bad it took threatening to give the car back to get them to do the right thing!

 

It totally fixed my issue, good luck, I hope it fixes yours as well.

 

I got the Maxima back this afternoon with the Michelins on. It's like a totally different car! Rides much nicer, quieter, and no shimmy. Thanks to the folks on the forum that mentioned about the road force balancing!

 

shimmy -- is maxima and altima problems-- alignment is the key

 

Actually it was all in the tires!