98 Pathfinder ViBrATiOnS!!!

vermontpenguin · Sep 18th, 2004, 10:30 PM

I have a 98 pathfinder with 100K plus miles. About 10K miles ago it developed a nasty vibration problem in the 50-65MPH range. The steering wheel vibrates violently, enough that your hands actually go numb. Over 70MPH it goes away. I have never seen any other car do this.

Possibly related- the steering is super sloppy. It drifts from one side of the lane to the other. I am constantly making serious corrections to keep it going straight. The suspension?

4 wheel alignment was done when this started, did nothing to help. The front struts have less than 25K miles on them. The vehicle has nothing wrong that a mechanic can pinpoint. I am going to get new tires to see if it helps. They still have 1/2 the tred though.....

The engine, transmission all appear in tip top shape, I have heard rumors that this may be the tie-rod ends going, and the Nissan Mechanics have no permanent cure. scarey!

So is it time to sell it or spend a few thousand to fix it?

Thanks for any advice you may have!

aaronford · Sep 18th, 2004, 11:28 PM

Speed related vibes can come from a lot of things. I would suspect bad tires. Or a thrown wheel weight. The slop can be adjusted out of the steering if it is indeed caused by the steering box. Have someone move the wheel back and forth to the ends of the play. Inspect the components to see where the slop is occurring. If in the idler arm/tie rod ends, replace as needed. If it is in the steering box, loosen the jamb nut, tighten the adjustment bolt til it stops, back out 1/16 of a turn, retighten jamb nut. Test again. A body shop adjusted mine because they thought it was too tight. I nearly wrecked on the way home. It was all over the road. My FIL does this for a living and showed me how to do it. (Text will have you back it out 1/4 of a turn, but I found this to be excessive.)