# Front Shakes Frontier



## stacey63 (Dec 18, 2005)

I have a 99' Frontier. My problem is with the front end. The steering wheel vibrates back ,and forth ,and the front squeals when I turn sharply. I took it to 3 shops for alignments. One told me it needed to be greased to stop the squealing. The squealing stoped for about a year ,but the vibration continued. Another place said it was the tires. I moved the front ones to the back. Still have vibration in steering wheel ,and squealing. None of the shops found problems with front end parts. What could be causing this?


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## azrocketman (Oct 5, 2005)

stacey63 said:


> I have a 99' Frontier. My problem is with the front end. The steering wheel vibrates back ,and forth ,and the front squeals when I turn sharply. I took it to 3 shops for alignments. One told me it needed to be greased to stop the squealing. The squealing stoped for about a year ,but the vibration continued. Another place said it was the tires. I moved the front ones to the back. Still have vibration in steering wheel ,and squealing. None of the shops found problems with front end parts. What could be causing this?


Some squealing during sharp turns is normal. If you are holding the steering wheel hard over a squealing noise from the power steering is typical. Noise from the tires in tight turns is also not unusual as they may scrub a bit during hard turns.

A possibility is the front wheel bearings are dry. This is the only part I would grease that would cause a squeal in a hard turn (dry suspension joints would probably "creak" more than they would squeal).

Another possibility is that the front brake pads are worn and the "warning" feature is being activated. The warning feature is a piece of metal that scrapes the disc rotor to make a squealing noise.

The vibration in the wheel may also be the brakes. Have the front discs checked for warpage. Note that the wheel bearings should be repacked (greased) while the rotors are removed for servicing (either machining or replacement if required). 

Basically, a trip to a brake shop may be your next stop.

Steve


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## jerryp58 (Jan 6, 2005)

stacey63 said:


> I have a 99' Frontier. My problem is with the front end. The steering wheel vibrates back ,and forth ,and the front squeals when I turn sharply. I took it to 3 shops for alignments. One told me it needed to be greased to stop the squealing. The squealing stoped for about a year ,but the vibration continued. Another place said it was the tires. I moved the front ones to the back. Still have vibration in steering wheel ,and squealing. None of the shops found problems with front end parts. What could be causing this?


Any chance the truck is stuck in 4wd?


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## stacey63 (Dec 18, 2005)

The sound when I turn sharp like when I back up is more of a creak. I did have the suspension joints greased. I s this something I can do? I changed the brakes in March. The
rotors were abit worn. Especialy on the inside. Also the lower slide pin would not come out ,and gave me problems when putting the new pads on the drivers side. Maybe I should resurface the rotors. Are they hard to remove?


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## stacey63 (Dec 18, 2005)

Its not stuck in 4 wheel I checked


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## himilefrontier (Jan 21, 2003)

The creaking under full crank of the wheel is an easy problem to fix and is common to 2wd Frontiers( I think the 4wd uses a similar suspension, so this should apply to yours too). The steering stops are of a rather poor design and need to be lubricated with some chassis grease. I use my finger and some wheel bearing grease and do the friction points on the lower control arms every so often and it goes away. As for the vibration in the wheel, it may be that your torsion bars are out of adjustment and need to be set up again. This is a pain in the ass, but can be done at home as long as you have acces to a FSM , a tape measure, sheet of paper, calculator and a 19mm Gearwrench. I had this problem with my 2wd and doing a reset of the bars coupled with a new alignment fixed the issue.I also adjusted the steering box at that time to take out a little slack from the steering, but that is unrelated. If you have old tires , they too may also be the problem if they have been driven hard on as they can become out of round.
As for the brakes, the pin being seized will cause you problems as the calipers are designed to be full floating and need to be free to move.This will kill your pads and overheat the rotors causing them to warp. You will need a caliper pin kit to fix this. The rotors are not too hard to remove on mine ( yours may differ), but you will need genuine Nissan wheel bearing seals when you replace them. Use dealer parts only as many aftermarket seals will not work ( I have had this problem with a few Nissans!). You should also repack the bearings while you are in there and BE SURE TO SET PROPER WHEEL BEARING PRELOAD when you reinstall the rotors!!!! Also, use new pads when you put it together as they need to be properly bedded to the rotors after resurfacing and the old ones will have already taken a set. Use the 30-30-30 bedding procedure and you should be fine( 30 moderate stops from 30 miles and hour 30 seconds apart).


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## stacey63 (Dec 18, 2005)

Your info has been a great help. I do recall that the dealership I bought the truck from had to grease the steering stops ,and it did cure the creaking noise. I have had two front end alignments on it ,and none of them caught the torsion bar. Would that have come up when aligning it? I will probable go to a Nissan dealer to get the torsion bars reset. I work on things ,but dont have the tools for that kind of work. I am also going to get a new caliper kit to replace the slide pin that is stuck. Are they hard to remove? The rotors are held by five bolts according to my book. I want to resurface them. Will I need a puller to remove the rotors or will they come of easy when the bolts are removed? Thanks again.


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## nissanmadness (Sep 18, 2006)

You don't have to pull the rotors off the hub to resurface them. Best to leave them on so they will be true when you reinstall them. You should pull the hub with the rotor attached. Then they can set it up on the lathe to cut them. They can also cut or resurface your rotors on the vehicle. Just find a shop that offers that service. Then they can do your stuck pin too. You should have them check that your calipers are free and the pistons are not sticking in thier bores. Don't forget to repack the wheel bearings and get new seals.


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## dvdswanson (Nov 6, 2005)

have you balanced the tires? or do you just have the vibration on turns? it sounded like you had two problems. what kind of tires do you have? are they starting to separate? are they out of round? just some things to have checked.


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