Steering wheel wobble

pp3harris · Postby **pp3harris** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 1:57 pm

I bought my 2006 Pathfinder a couple of months ago with 64,000 verifiable miles on it (another story.) The steering pulled to the right and the Nissan dealer I bought it from said it needed a castor/camber kit and that it never should have left his lot this way and replaced the kit and aligned it free of charge. That's the good news. The bad news is that I have driven it 7000 miles and it has developed a intermittent steering wheel wobble. I hesitate to blame it on the steering itself because it smooths out after driving several miles. Do I have a tire problem(recently balanced) or a steering problem?Thanks for the advice. These forums are great.

eieio · Postby **eieio** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 2:55 pm

pp3harris wrote:I bought my 2006 Pathfinder a couple of months ago with 64,000 verifiable miles on it (another story.) The steering pulled to the right and the Nissan dealer I bought it from said it needed a castor/camber kit and that it never should have left his lot this way and replaced the kit and aligned it free of charge. That's the good news. The bad news is that I have driven it 7000 miles and it has developed a intermittent steering wheel wobble. I hesitate to blame it on the steering itself because it smooths out after driving several miles. Do I have a tire problem(recently balanced) or a steering problem?Thanks for the advice. These forums are great.

welcome!

yes, these are great forums
what pressure do you run your tires at, are they the correct size, are they excessively worn or worn unevenly?

pp3harris · Postby **pp3harris** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 3:13 pm

Thanks for the reply. I run 35 psi all around, tires are 265/65R17 Yokohama that the dealer (Headquarter Nissan, Columbus, GA) put on when they sold it to me. Why they put a set of new tires on a car with only 64,000 miles on it is a mystery to me. They say that the used cars sell better with new tires which I believe but I darn sure would not have bought Yokohama tires myself. I would not be concerned but there are comments on this forum about Pathfinder steering.

eieio · Postby **eieio** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 4:32 pm

pp3harris wrote:Thanks for the reply. I run 35 psi all around, tires are 265/65R17 Yokohama that the dealer (Headquarter Nissan, Columbus, GA) put on when they sold it to me. Why they put a set of new tires on a car with only 64,000 miles on it is a mystery to me. They say that the used cars sell better with new tires which I believe but I darn sure would not have bought Yokohama tires myself. I would not be concerned but there are comments on this forum about Pathfinder steering.

are they the correct size tires? - refer to tire info plate @ drivers door jamb
are they worn unevenly?
How did the alignment come out?
Did they show you the before & after specs, with an acceptable range to compare to?
I replaced the tires on my '05 SE-OR 4WD long before it had 64,000 miles on it. (LOL, it still doesn't have 64,000 miles on it.

)
I generally suspect a tire issue first with a steering wheel wobble issue (especially @ as low a mileage as yours), though it can be other things causing it (but more rarely).

pp3harris · Postby **pp3harris** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 6:48 pm

They are OEM size tires. The alignment was satisfactory. I suspect you are correct to suggest the tires. They have worn evenly but only 7,000. The jury is still out. The wobble I can live with. I am going to drive it and hope that the Yokohama tires wear out soon so I can put Michelins on there.
Thanks for the interest.