Fella's, bought this Q, 1999, unfortunately at midnight, looked at the car but didn't drive at highway speed. Car has bad vibration in steering wheel. Spent couple hundred locally trying to fix, one new rim, mutiple balances, changed tires, etc. Took it to my closest Infiniti dealer, 2 1/2 hours away, they tell me tires are bad, replace tires, no fix. I request repair history on car from Infiniti. 6 page report shows car has had vibration and compliants from day one, 4-5 different sets of tires, another new set Friday, $900. Rotors have been turned, multiple balances, you get the idea. I contacted Infiniti customer service to get some help fixing this car that they NEVER fixed under warranty. They say no, they ask me if I have owned any other Nissan products, 5 differnt vehicles since 1987. Hell the wifes car is an I30. This will be my last, next car will be Toyota or Lexus and it might just happen as soon as the new tires are on Friday. Any of you have a problem like this? My question to them was why didn't the rims or rotors ever get replaced. If this is their idea of repair service on $50K+ cars they can forget it.

Well, as second owner of out of warranty vehicle, you don't have much to stand on.

Was the Hunter GSP used in road force mode? Are the wheels stock? Did they spin up and meet balance and measurement OEM specifications? What are the tires?

More information please. Imbalances take a lot of precision to trace.

Thats fairly interesting, normally the dealers rae really good... im not a dealer fan myself but generally infiniti dealers are among the best.....

First thing would be to test with a known good set of wheels/tires that are vibration free. If thats not it, then it hsa to be the rotors!!!

I have never seen it on an infiniti but I owned a 1997 gmc 1/2 ton pickup that had a brake shimmy since new. I did not worry about it until it had about 37,000 miles and it was starting to bother me. I did front and rear brakes, checked everything I could think of and could not find the problem. Called a shop foreman at a GMC dealership and discussed with him. They replaced both rear axles, drums and a leaking pinion seal out of warranty. It turns out one of the rear axles was machined out of round where the studs mount. I might suggest replacing both front hubs on the chance there is a problem there. If the tire was dismounted from the rim and runout was checked the problem might appear.

Another thing I thought of is tightening up the steering rack. There was a problem with the 2nd generation pathfinders that were cured of a complaint like yours with the tightening up of the steering rack.

Interesting post!My story goes like this!I've been noticing some very small shimmy at about 55-60MPH after I got new rubber (didn't pay attention before i changed tires). So, I've been procrastianting to go to a tire shop and check ballance (too lazy to do it at work ).Time came to change frnt+rear struts (cartriges upfront). To my surprize all, I say ALL , that unwanted shimmy is GONZO(gone), the ride now is like on cloud. I really enjoy this car now. It is so quiet now, i don't hear when frnt tires hit concrete joints on hiway!Different car it is now!

infiniti tech wrote:I have never seen it on an infiniti but I owned a 1997 gmc 1/2 ton pickup that had a brake shimmy since new. I did not worry about it until it had about 37,000 miles and it was starting to bother me. I did front and rear brakes, checked everything I could think of and could not find the problem. Called a shop foreman at a GMC dealership and discussed with him. They replaced both rear axles, drums and a leaking pinion seal out of warranty. It turns out one of the rear axles was machined out of round where the studs mount. I might suggest replacing both front hubs on the chance there is a problem there. If the tire was dismounted from the rim and runout was checked the problem might appear.

Another thing I thought of is tightening up the steering rack. There was a problem with the 2nd generation pathfinders that were cured of a complaint like yours with the tightening up of the steering rack.

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welcome to NICO infiniti tech!

to verify the hubs, i would just measure the runout first before you start replacing them... YOu could always try and shim the rotor and that might help (to offset bad runout specs)

I recently had a vibration in the steering wheel that took me a bit to figure out. It all started when I had a flat fixed. The tire dealer started talking to me about match mounting and bad rims. I was too cheap to spend money on all their suggestions, so I had them rebalance. The vibration just moved its speed range a bit. I took it back and asked them to match mount the repaired tire as this was most likely the cause since it was now on the front. I went in the garage to watch what was being done, and noticed a bump in the tread. It turned out my tread was seperating from the belts! I don't know why they didn't catch this the first time, but they should have. This could have caused me a problem at hiway speed.

I recommend anyone who is having probelms like this go into the shop who is working on your car and monitor the work and ask questions, unless you know and respect them highly.

The good news is that I got a new tire and lots of credit for the remaining tread. Everything is fine now.

-Mike

What brand, size and model of tire, may I ask?

maxnix wrote:What brand, size and model of tire, may I ask?

215 65R15 95S Yokohama AVID Touring.

Bstones, size is correct, I'm feel like Rack is bad, but no one wanted to replace it, I know it is used and I am the 3rd owner, but I think the previous owners got tired of it. This is Infiniti's flagship car, this is the best they can do? The local dealer (2 1/2 hours away thinks it is a Rack also but what if he is wrong, I'm quessing $1K probably won't cover it.

Maybe, in that case, its just a tie rod end?