Over the last year or so, I've noticed my steering has developed a "sloppy" feeling to it... a lot less tight than it used to be. I've driven other 4th gen. Max's, and the steering feels tighter. Granted, I do have almsot 170k on the car... but my pwr. steering fluid is always full, doesn't leak, and my tied rods and ball joints don't have any play to them.

Is it worth replacing my steering rack with a new OEM one? Or are there aftermarket ones available with a quicker ratio?

Or even a steering rack from a newer Max., say a 2000 or newer?

After I did drilled brakes, stainess lines and KYB's, this is all I have left to do on my Spring time "TO DO" list...

Any help?

Thanks guys!

 

Im in same boat as you except just under 70k miles on my 95. The wheel seems looser than other 4th gens I've driven.

 

Since you're confident the linkage is solid, take a good look at bushings. Verify the steering rack bushings are good (generally they are), and the control arm bushings too. If those check out, replace the rack. Supposedly the racks from 99s (or is it 99 SEs?) have better feel than the earlier models.

I replaced mine (149k) with a 48k 97SE rack and the improvement is noticeable.

I dunno if a 2000+ rack will fit.

Dave

 

I have the same issue...

'98 GXE w/ 93k
SLOPPY Steering!!!!! Big time.

Jacked up the car, no wheel movement when pushing/pulling the top & bottom of the wheel BUT when pushing/pulling the left and right of the wheel there is just the tiniest amount of play which translates to a decent amount of steering wheel movement.

Is anything wrong? If so, what? This isn't exactly forte.

 

I was in the same situation when I bought my max 3 years ago, since then I've replaced control arms that come with new ball joints and bushings and end link stabilizer bushings, the steering has definetely improved since then...If you don't want to spend $$ on control arms, just replace the stabilizer end links..check this thread on how to :

http://davesz.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=474610