Last month I bought a 2000 Nissan Maxima SE with 99,000 miles on it. I'm enjoying the car, but I'm still on the learning curve of getting used to it.
The front shocks were shot. The car tracked stright ahead and had no tendency to pull in any direction.
I had a local shop replace the shocks. Following that I find that the car pulls to the right.
Today I had it aligned. They said it needed a little adjustment and they were happy with the result. As far as I'm concerned, it still pulls to the right. I told the alignment shop that the shocks had been replaced and to inspect for anything out of place. They saw nothing out of place and insist that there are no shims or spacers involved.
I haven't had it on the freeway yet. The local highway does have a normal crown and the car definitely wants to roll off to the right.
what did you replace the shocks with(oem or what other aftermarket brand), whats the history of the car was it in any accidents(if the frame has been bent it can cause alignment issues or tire wear and other things) and have you tried going to another shop and have them inspect it. just a few suggestions. when i get home im gonna find a thread about the rear alignment cause i cant access alot of site s on my work computer. but keep an update on the cituation.
I don't know what the replacement shocks were. Probably not OEM, very likely from the NAPA store in town.
The previous owner claimed no accidents and I see no evidence of any repairs.
However, the car did drive straight and true before the shocks were replaced. (To me, this is a key point---it went straight once!). I went right back to the shop and told the mechanic that it was now pulling to the right. He said that replacing the front shocks does not involve the alignment, which should be done every few years anyway.
This shop has two branches. Yesterday I took it to the other branch which has the alignment equipment, told them my story, and they aligned it. It needed just a minor amount of adjusting, they said. The mechanic who took it out for a short test drive came back with a smirk on his face which told me he wasn't happy with it.
Anyway, today I brought it back to the branch with the alignment equiment and they said they'd fix whatever is wrong. It's been there almost four hours and they haven't called me yet.
My automobile knowledge goes back to the old days when we had springs and shocks rather than strut towers. Maybe there is something I just don't understand. Even if you left the shocks off completely, wouldn't the car go straight if it was aligned correctly?
The mechanic who gave me a ride home today said the springs can only go back one way. He says the "out" marking can't be put in wrong and since the spring was still compressed it has to be put back right side up and in the correct orientation. In other words, its impossible to make a mistake.
cool yeh sounds good i mean its probaly not the shock but other suspension parts like tie rods or contrlol arm could be the culprit have them check that aswell if they cant fix it with just doing alignment, imean almost 100000 on you r car stuff tends to go out tou know, im sure they will say their is some play but just ask them what needs to be replaced. good luck let us know what happens when you get it out the shop.
Here is what seems to be the story. After a lot of disassembling and reassembling, the shop went to KYB shocks from the Sensa Trac's (Monroe) that they had put in.
The car goes nice and straight now.
Assuming they told me the whole story, there was something the matter with the Monroe's, although no one even has a theory as to what the problem was. According to the shop's owner, there was nothing to see....he said maybe the dimensions of one of them was slightly wrong.
The real lesson is that I should have learned a lot more about shocks before just taking it to the shop.
When I went to pick up the car, they wanted an extra $100 because the KSL's are more expensive. I said, "Were even", because they had already charged me $98 for an alignment I didn't need.
The owner was a bit miffed and tossed me the keys. The look on his face made it clear that it was time for me to get out of there and I left.
I can sympathize a little with how hard it is to run a business and getting bad parts right out of the box only makes things worse.
I just checked parts prices on the internet and my sympathy went away.
The Sensa Tracs are listed on my bill at $215.57 each. Installation was $220.00.
On the internet I see the Sensa Tracs for sale at around $115.00 and the KYB's at around $90.00.
With a $100 mark-up on each shock and 2 hours at $110/hour and another $98 for the unneeded alignment, I think they did OK, even with the bad parts story if that is even the real story.
At least it's fixed.
I'd say that my experience is just life in the big city...but this is a small town...and the shop in question is generally accepted as honest and capable.
yeah i wouldnt have suggested the monroe ones since they are the generic version and are crappy (like u said live and learn) its a good decision you went to kyb its a pretty good brand and teckico blues are good too. about the fee and all that i mean they are a shop and a business in it to make money yeh they over charge but thats cause they can i guess i mean next time you can just buy the parts online next time and have them put it in and save some money. but its a good thing you got that taken care of and riding trouble free.
i have a 2000 se with 135k, i thought the same thing when i bought mine but it's all good. but a front strut bar and it wont happen, i replaced everything and it still did it, it has to do with the power placement or something, strengthen ur suspension. wrked 4 me
In my last post, I reported that the car went straight. It went straight, but listen to this.
If the steering path was disturbed by a bump, by a gust of wind, or even by a changing road crown, the steering had no stability and was, in fact, unstable. Instead of the car tending to return to the direction it was going, it would tend to diverge further in the direction of the disturbance.
I wanted to believe the car was OK. Since the car was new to me, I tried to convince myself that it just had sensitive steering. However, I did remember that before any work on the shocks, it was as solid and stable as any car I've ever driven.
One night after a drive of a few hours I realized I was exhausted. My eyes had to stay glued to the road and steering was a never ending series of small corrections.
I brought the car to a front end shop in the next town.
The mechanic there found that the alignment adjustment on the right side was rusted in position and had not moved in recent times.
He found that the left adjustment was far out of spec in the wrong direction.
He broke the right adjustment free and performed an alignment. Now the car drives like it is supposed to.
His theory is that the first set of replacement shocks had one shock bent right out of the box. Then, with both that set of shocks and their replacements, they tried to align the car using only the adjustment they could move (left side) and eventually found a setting that made the car go straight. However, the setting they found was in the wrong direction and created the lack of stability in steering.
The car drives fine now and I'm pretty sure this is the end of the story. I could go back to the first shop and complain, but I'd be wasting my time. At one point one of their explanations was that I needed new tires. I reminded them that they did the prepurchase inspection (including driving the car) and said the tires were fine. Their answer was that sometimes tires have problems that you can't see or measure. They had no answer for why the car went straight and was stable before they worked on it.
Bottom line is that this shop is losing a customer. They took care of 3 cars for me, including smog checks, over the past several years. I even sent them a few customers. Not breaking loose a frozen adjustment cannot be excused. Let them try to fool someone else. They don't need my business.
And, yes, the owner knows. Several posts back I related how he threw my keys to me in a manner suggesting I get out of there.
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