Dropped my car off this morning at Germain because I'd been feeling some pretty significant vibrations while driving. I could feel a slight jutter through the gas pedal, through the floor and also around the center console floor area (under my ***). A few weeks back, I had taken my car to Germain suspecting bad wheel bearings and they believed that the vibrations were due to the "aggressive tread pattern" on the Nitto 555s while I had my 19's installed. After changing back to the OEM wheels, the vibrations got much worse, so I took it back in today. Just got off the phone with them and apparently, both wheel bearings are bad and the left side was so bad that it actually caused damage to the wheel hub assembly. Hmmm, "aggresive tread pattern" eh? Anyways, extended warranty is covering everything, so looks like I'll just be spending $75 for repairs. Can't wait to get it back this afternoon and see how much it's improved.

 

I had one of my bearings replaced under the 60,000 mile powertrain warranty last month. I still have shaking in the steering wheel at highway speeds but i think the tires need to be balanced again. I didn't know the car would need an alignment after they replaced the bearings and of course the dealer didn't do one so i drove about a week with the car out of alignment so maybe it knocked the balancing off.....But iam not sure!!!!!!!!!

 

75 bucks is a good deal. hope its improved.

 

i had my passenger side go out during a weekend out of town. i drove about 300 miles after the first sign and luckily my hub was fine. they also covered it under my powertain warranty. they threw in an alignment for goodwill.

 

wow.

I was very suprised to see this thread. I have had the same issue's.

I put on some Michelin tires (don't remember the exact model). After about 30,000 on the tires, I started getting that same vibration/shaking. I have the car put in the shop to look at the front-end, with nothing found....I continued a few more weeks, then had the car looked at again, only to have a mech tell me that the tread was separating from both front tires, which was the problem.....I replaced the tires with Yokohoma tires (very nice!) and the ride smoothed out a ton. About 10k miles later the shaking started again.... I have a friend (Mechanic) look at the car ahd he found that the front wheel bearings were bad. After taking the hub assembly off, we noticed that the bad bearings ruined the hub assemblies.

I have replaced one side (bearing and hub) and its already a lot better. The dealer was back ordered on the hub assembly so I can't fix the other side until next week. I wonder if this is a known issue, since they were back ordered on the hubs.

Any thoughts?

 

If you only replace the bad side. Does it make the other side wear faster. Question is should both sides be replaced at the same time to avoid any problems down the road...And can someone explain the difference in sound between tire drone and bad wheel bearing....

 

mine was a violent vibration that got worse with acceleration and cornering at any decent spped. i had just the passenger side replaced about 15k ago with no sign of the other side failing but i am not sure if it causes the other to wear prematurely. mine took very little time to go from a hum to actually vibrating the front end of the car.

 

how do u know if your wheel bearings are badd ??? i have 19 with stock struts with s-techs

 

Re-read the first post. I mentions some of the symptoms.

 

Wow! How did you get them to do the maintenance under the powertrain warranty? I thought "powertrain" was only limited to the engine block?

If that's the case then I need to go talk to my dealership.

 

if you jack the car up doesn't the wheel shake if your bearings are bad

 

That's a great deal, Tim. Glad to see that your extended warranty is paying off. I never bought one, but I'm lucky that I haven't had any issues yet.

 

You lucky that it's stilll under warranty, I had the same things happend to me this past spring, both bearing and wheel hubs where shot, it ended costing me a 1000$ cdn to get every thing replace.

 

Won't be able to pick the car up until tomorrow morning, but the service rep mentioned that they've repaired everything and it's good to go. He mentioned that the bearings on both sides were completely trashed and the driver's side hub was really worn as well. Glad my extended warranty is covering all the repairs.

 

is this a known issues with are cars it appears to happening in the 00-03 models

 

also how many miles on some of your cars

 

Do some browsing around, there are numerous threads about guys having issues with their wheel bearings going bad. I posted this thread to include the information about the wheel hubs going bad as a result of the bearings.

I've read where some guys have had to replace the bearings with as little as 30k miles. I have 74k miles.

 

i had about 50k on mine.

 

yes because wheel bearings are part of the 5/60,000 powertrain warranty. If you paid for bearings then you need to talk to your dealer. I still have a copy of the dealers repair printout if you need it for proof....

 

lol... yes, a failed bearing can cause hub or spindle damage if it gets bad enough, but if a tire is that bad to make a bearing noise in its later stages (which is pretty bad), it would show in the form of feathering, chopping or cupping.

 

I actually had my car up in the air doing an oil changed and noticed my passenger side tire moving back and forth very easily. I took it to the dealership and they replaced the bearing and hub under the powertrain warranty.

40k miles here

 

Thanks! I'll let you know if I need the proof.

Park2670 - Thanks for chiming in too. Every bit helps.

 

is there any audible signs of a bad wheel bearing? I did the test where you grab the wheel at 6 and 12 o clock and shake it...it feels very tight...so is there any other signs I should look out for?

 

I just drove around the neighborhood cuz I've been hearing this intermitent noise whenever I make aright turn onto my street. Don't know what it is but I'm gonna jack up my Max tomorroe morning and see if it's whee bearing problem.

 

loud clunks on turns. depends on which bearing is bad, you'll notice which side is clunking.

 

Just picked the car back up and after $736, it's fixed. My warranty picked up $660 of the repairs and has paid for itself 2x's now.

Breakdown of parts replaced:

$418 in labor

1 - Driver's Side Bearing Assembly $82.12
1 - Driver's Side Hub Assembly $149.68
1 - Pass Side Bearing Assembly $82.12

Parts total - $313.92

Extended warranty deductible - $75

Warranty paid $660 of the total repairs.

I have a short drive 5 miles (non-freeway) from Germain Nissan to my house and the issue seems to be completely fixed. There is no longer any vibrations and the ride once again feels really smooth. Only issue now is that my rotors need to be replaced, but I have Brembo Blanks in my garage which will most likely get installed this week to fix that. Very pleased with the service I've received at Germain Nissan on Morse Rd in Columbus in the couple of years that I've owned my car and the times that it's been worked on at that location. Jeff Passa does a great job!

 

alright cool...i know my car makes no noises when turning...is there any noises made during straight line acceleration? i remember awhile back people say wheel bearings can make noises during straight line...i think

 

Yeah, my car was making noise while driving in a straight line. I could really "feel" it between 68-72 mph as well.

 

is it the same clunking type noise that nismonoob described when turning?

as for the vibration, how bad is the vibration and is it felt else where besides the gas pedal?

 

I also experienced the clunking noises from time to time while turning while (for example) pulling into a parking spot or making tight turns at low speeds. As for the vibrations, I felt an overall vibration through the floor and near the center console (under my rear-end) while driving normal. I could actually feel the vibrations at all speeds, but were much worse at the 68-72 range I mentioned.

 

bad bearings also can contribute to excessive steering wheel shake during hard braking or even slight braking at high speeds.

 

same thing happened to me at 80k got my wheel bearings replaced and tranny rebuilt all under warranty

 

Well, after a few weeks of the car "feeling" much better, I am now beginning to get some new fun noises again from the front driver's side wheel area. It's basically a rotational grinding noise that I can only hear between 15-35 mph when I'm coasting or coming to a stop or barely pressing the brake pedal during those speeds. I believe that quite possibly, something was not installed properly or was overlooked during my repairs last month. The noise has gotten worse just in the last 3 days and I will be contacting the dealer today to inquire about getting the car back in this week sometime. Looks like I'll be using quite a bit of my extended warranty for the last 25k miles that I have left of it.

 

Its probably those nitto. I have them too and they are noisy azz hell. I can't wait to get rid of them. I get that rotary noise also on the highway and i traced it to the nitto. I switched tires/rims with my buddys 2001 and the noise went away. Get rid of those nittos..........

 

Hmmmnnn...sounds like I need to check mine.

I get a low rubbing/grinding sound whenever I turn left...sometimes when I touch the brakes. I figured it was just time for brakes, but I have noticed a bit of shimmy even though I have new tires that were balanced.

 

I'm not on the Nittos right now. I've been riding on my OEM wheels since October.

 

My Maxima had a combination of bearing and brake rotor noise. After replacing the bearings, the rotor noise became more discernable. Mine was so bad that when I really got on the brakes, it felt like a jet was flying overhead. Changed the pads and rotors all the way around and voila! No more weird noises.

I felt that the rotor issue was related to the bearings. When bearings were grinding, they were heating up the entire assembly to temperatures far beyond normal. When I removed the old brakes, the pads were covered with scoring and the rotor was glazed and scored. An awesome combination for extremely loud brakes.

 

I changed the oil and rotated the tires and found what was causing the mysterious noise on the front driver's side. When I last had the car in at Nissan, apparently they felt the need to only tighten down 2 of my 5 lug nuts on that corner. Pretty much just the weight of the trunk lug wrench loosened the 3. Took it for a short drive after I was done with everything, and there are no longer any noises.

 

same **** happend to me when i first bought my 02 SE