I got an alignment last week and performed a tire rotation today on the passenger's side as I did the driver's side last week. While doing the tire rotation, I noticed that the wheel seems to wiggle in the direction of camber adjustment just a bit for the front passenger tire when it is jacked up. Is this normal or did they mess up? I don't remember ever seeing this kind of behavior before so I don't believe it is normal. Can anyone confirm or deny my concern here?

Thanks

 

if the wheel wiggles when the car is jacked up its the bearing...

 

camber is not adjustable on the 5th gen maxima....

bearing or bad tie rod ends are the likely culprit...

 

Thats interesting b/c camber was the one measurement they said was off on the front passenger wheel and was corrected by the alignment. At least this is what was claimed in their diagnostics report. I though it was only the rear that had unadjustable camber, toe, and caster.

 

camber can only be adjusted up front if you have aftermarket camber plates or camber bolts....if your camber was out of spec, you might have a bent component somewhere.

 

If camber is unadjustable, why do people here say that sport lowering springs like the H&Rs do not require camber bolts? Is it simply b/c the change in camber from the lowering does not exceed the factory recommended range?

On another note, what would some of the other symptoms be to a bad wheel bearing? I have a slight vibration and a slight right pull, which is why I went to get the alignment in the 1st place. Also, if I replace the wheel bearing, will I need to get the front aligned again?

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

vibration could be from wheels not being balanced. slight right pull could be alignment issue or just unbalanced tires. get them checked. on your wheels if you jack up your car and can wiggle the wheel by pushing on the wheel, its bearings man.

 

what he said ^^

also, many directional tires (and others) have what's called "radial pull", in which it tends to pull to the side, because of the tread design (i don't know "technically" why it does it though).

to check for a bad bearing, jack the car up. Then grip the TOP and BOTTOM of the wheel firmly and push/pull. If there is much play, then it's a bearing. Don't push/pull on the sides, since there is some inherent play in the steering, and you'd feel that.....

another trick for bad bearings. Jack car up. With one hand (no glove), grip the front coil spring. Then with the other hand, spin the wheel (needs to be out of gear, obviously). If the bearing is significantly bad, you will feel notable vibrations and little "ticks" thorough the coil spring - it transmits and amplifies the vibration from the hub assembly.

all that said, any half-decent mechanic can diagnose a bad bearing EASILY (yes, even a Nissan Tech can do it!!)

 

Thanks everyone for the help. It certainly appears to be a wheel bearing. I am surprised though b/c the car only has 40k miles on it and that seems early to have such a problem. Hopefully Nissan will cover the work under the powertrain warranty.

 

I had to buy a new camber because the people down at good year said it was off. I could tell because it was pulling to drivers side. They asked if I was ever in a front in accident (I haven't been in one).

 

Hey everyone, I know this is an old thread but I was wondering if anyone could help me out?
I have an 01 i30t and I was driving in a really bad blizzard and my car spun out of control and hit a median sideways so that the front passenger tire and wheel hit the the concrete median from the inside. The inside lip of 17x7 wheel broke from the impact and of course the tire's air is out. Point is, I quickly replaced the tire with the spare but realized that the camber was pretty off...in this direction--> | \
when i replaced the spare I held the top and bottom of the spare and shook it really hard to see if it was the bearing or not and It was really solid.
I'm wondering what it could be? Does anyone have any idea?

 

After a collision like that you need to have it professionally checked out by a suspension shop. Could be a number of things that might be damaged.........

 

If you're lucky, you only bent the LCA. Go to a suspension shop and get it fixed because the tire will wear out REALLY quick.

 

Yea I think I definitely bent something because of how solid it feels. Im gonna take it into hoover wheel alignment (shop in the Twin Cities) and have them check it out, but before that I think I need to get a new wheel for them do the alignment work on it. Plus they open on Monday.
I feel like a complete dumbass for this one.

 

Can't you elongate the holes on the strut to give you some room to adjust camber?

 

In theory you could but I think you would stand a good chance of the "adjustment" slipping as the wheel hits potholes and stuff. That's why there are camber bolts for people to buy.

 

Yup, its official. I bent a control arm, strut and my K-Frame/susp Crossmember, not to mention breaking the freekin wheel.
Wheel cost me about $135 on ebay
Front susp crossmember cost me $200 from a junk yard
Control arm cost me $120 new
Strut cost me $100
still not sure how much labor is gonna be, all I know is, its gonna suck really bad.
Dang it, I should have been driving alot slower in the snow.
Lesson learned!