First of all, Merry Christmas everyone!

Now down to business. I was going to take my family to my dad's for Christmas today (about 3 hours away) and saw we were getting a little bit of snow. Only about an inch or so and I am a very good driver in snowy conditions, grew up in and still live in Michigan. So, I figured the Max is front wheel and I just put new Kumho Ecsta 4x tires on it so I felt pretty confident that a small amount of snow would be no big problem for the drive. So, we head out and the conditions aren't that bad, snowing pretty heavily but you can still see mostly road with some snow starting to stick. And I was doing about 70 staying with traffic and I started to feel the car breaking loose a little. So at first I thought, wind. We passed a flagpole and the flag was hanging straight down. No wind. My low pressure tire light was on but it was because of the cold weather, but just to be sure I pulled over to check the tires to make sure I didn't have a flat/low tire. Not it. So I get back on the freeway and I can't even drive 45 miles an hour without CONTINUALLY fish-tailing, and I mean enough to make me nervous. And all other traffic is still doing 65 or 70.

So my question is, does having a lot of weight in the trunk affect rear wheel traction on a FWD vehicle? I had no problem accel or braking, it was strictly the rear end trying to come around. What the heck! I would have thought more weight in back would aid with that problem, not make it worse. So are these tires garbage? Everyone else likes them.

Long story short, we are at home and not at dad's. I wasn't about to drive any further. We came home to get our Xterra, but low and behold, one of my manual hubs fell off in the driveway.....story for another day.

 

I have never had this issue with my maxima on winter tires. I am located in Toronto where we just got abt 15-20cm of snow and was able to drive without issue. Now, I didn't have an excessive weight in the trunk either. Are your tires brand new? Are the mounted correctly on the rims in the right direction? Was your traction control off? Do you have tire pressure sensors in your tires?

 

they are brand new all season tires with great reviews in the snow. rims are mounted correctly in the right direction. traction control on. and like i said, tire pressure sensors are working and i checked them and they were fine. could there be a mechanical problem like a broken sway bar or something that is just showing up worse because of all the weight in the back?

another thought i had, i had to replace the tires when i bought it because one of the rear ones had a bulge on the side. i'm starting to think the previous owner hit a curb or something and the tire might be out of alignment. with the weight in the back, plus the snow, i wonder if that one tire is pulling a little and causing the problem. it's weird too, cause even with crappy tires, on snow, if you keep the wheel straight you generally won't have issues unless you hit ice or something. and i was driving straight and it was just swaying back and forth on the rear end, like i was fishtailing continually or something. it was really strange.

 

65-70mph in snowy conditions?

 

yes, i understand the confusion here, haha. that was the speeds at first while the roads were still just wet. then as the snow started to stick (still mostly wet pavement) i slowed down to like 50 and the problem started. everyone else was still going about 60 or 65 with no problems.

 

I can't offer any help, just commiseration. I have the same tires, bought based on the ratings at Tire Rack and have found the performance in snowy and wet weather marginal at best. The back end feels very unstable and has a tendency to "hop" around.This is more pronounced with passengers in the back. Forward traction isn't great either. Tires break loose very easily. I've also had the issue of the TPMS alerting every time the temperature drops. Happened this morning in fact.

My solution- Listen to the others here and purchase a dedicated set of snows.




.

 

^^^ this is an exact description of my symptoms, "hopping around" is what it is doing. almost feels like the rear end is an old caprice and the front end is tight to the road. i can't afford a dedicated set of snow's, is there a good set i could get for all around driving? i have a friend at discount tire who can get these tires returned so is there another set i should have?

 

All seasons are not winter tyres and shouldn't be used as such. Me you want traction in snow get real snow tyres. Oh and drive MUCH slower.

 

From what you posted it's all driver related in that you have very little experience driving in the snow.

 

I agree with Richard don't blame the tires just slow down . I've driven in snow for 20 years

 

I had the exact same problem when I drove my car in snow a few days ago. I had my wife and 2 (just out the house) sons in the car going to visit family in IA.

I was attempting to drive 55 mph or faster but the rear end felt like it was going to spin out. I'm a very experienced snow driver but I was literally scared of the way the car was handling. This is my 3rd Maxima and I don't ever remember having this problem with the others.

My tires are Goodyear Eagle RS-A, mud and snow that came on the car, and my tread depth is pretty good. I normally drive solo but if this is how the car behaves with 4 passengers in a little snow I'm better off getting back in a Murano or some other suv.

 

I used to put 4 - 40 lb bags of water softener salt ( plastic under it just in case a bag tore open) in the back of my FWD I30T as I believe it improved traction a bit.

 

Same boat, different tires. I am starting to think my sway bar, end links, or bushings are bad. I just bought this car used about 1000 miles ago (it has under 35k on it) and this is the first time i've driven it in snow with a lot of weight in it (well not a lot, but trunk full and baby in back seat, wife in front) but i feel like this is inferior handling to any other less expensive cars i've owned in the snow. hopefully i will find out something is wrong and i will need to be replacing something to fix the problem. i feel like the tires are decent enough for my liking when it's just me driving.....i'll let ya know what i find out.

on an unrelated note, how do i tell if i have a sport/tech/or prem package? i heard that if i have the side markers on the mirrors that it is the "sv" so i have that figured out at least.

 

The Max is a heavy car and the back ends on these cars are heavy as hell too. It's def a combo of the weight, conditions and a mechanical problem that led to the pulling. Indeed quite scary driving that way!

 

Thisistruth, earlier you said they are "brand new all seasons." How new is brand new? Could it be that you haven't spent much time driving on these tires and you're just feeling a different tire underneath the car? Perhaps one with a softer sidewall that feels a little squishy to drive on?

I use a set of dedicated snow tires as I drive in Utah and have quite a commute to and from work everyday. The traction on the winter tires is good, but they feel slightly squishy at highway speeds. Kinda like you were saying about how maybe it's a little windy and that's making the car feel a little 'off' even though it's not actually windy outside.

It's very noticeable the difference when I switch between the all-seasons and snow tires. Btw, I'm using the same wheel--stock 18's--in both situations, I have the tires dismounted and remounted each season (for now).

 

yeah, i'm starting to think it's a combo of mechanical, conditions and tires. i haven't had the shop i use look it over since i bought, i guess it's time to do that. i'll report back if they find something that is off.

 

quick update that actually creates new questions. so i took the max to my shop and they said that the suspension was tight and everything was great. what they did find is that the rear tires were inflated to 45 psi! what the heck? they came that way from discount tire and i verified with a gauge of my own that they were in the low 30's when i was driving on them. so my question is, we have had a lot of temp fluctuations here in michigan lately. can a cold day/warm day back to back mess the pressure up like 12 to 15 psi? is that possible? and would over inflated tires cause the excessive body roll that i described earlier?

 

would an aftermarket sway bar, say stillen or racingline, help with the body roll due to the rear end being heavy?

 

I have the Stillen rear sway bar and it is an amazing difference. Cornering at speeds such as taking on on/off ramps is much tighter.

 

No. The general rule of thumb approximation is 1 psi for every 10 degrees. So to make it change 12 psi, you would need a fluctuation of about 120 degrees.

 

this is what i thought, but still confuses me. got the tires from discount tire. experienced the problem mentioned above, check pressure at my dad's and they were both at about 30psi so i bumped them up to 32psi then the shop, that i honestly do trust, says they were at 45 psi and said that the problem i described could have been due to the overinflation. i supposed my gauge and discount tire's was inaccurate. who knows. it seems to drive better today though. time will tell is suppose.

 

I have very similar issues with my 2009 Maxima, first felt the "stepping out" driving through Chicago in the rain. This past week went from Michigan to Maine for the Holidays and had quite a trip due to rain and snow covered icy roads. It was a near constant feel as if the car wanted to come around on us. We just slowed down and continued on. When we got back to Michigan made an appointment with the local Nissan dealer and they found the right rear shock to be leaking. Will be fixing it on Wed next and hopefully this will correct the problem.

 

hmmm, i just asked my shop to check sway bar and similar parts. not sure they looked at the shocks.....let me know if it helps. and i'll have mine checked.

 

You should be able to do a quick DIY check on leaking shocks. It's visible and you can fit a hand up there to check for fluid. Also you can do the push test.