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Loose hub (drive axle) nut

Two weeks ago I started to notice a grinding noise from the front wheel (2002 Max, 64K miles). I thought it was worn brake pads, although I did not hear the brake wear indicator screech. Upon raising the right wheel, I notice that the lug nuts were tight, BUT the hub nut was backed all the way to the cotter pin, and the wheel have a lot of play when moved in any direction (wobbly). I tighten the hub nut with a torque wrench to 150 ft-lbs ( don't know what the spec for it is), and the wobble (and later the noise) went away. Out of caution, I checked my wife's 2000 Max, and sure enough, on hers, the left side nut was also loose. Anyone else have experience this loosening of the hub nut? We've never taken the nut off since our cars were new, so it was not a matter of poorly done previous repair activity. Secondly, do you think that running with loose nut like this for a while may have damage/premature wear the splines on the drive shaft?

Reply to
cmdrdata
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=== Again we notice that the quality at Nissan has dropped. since that guy Goon took control of Nissan things sure have changed and not for the better when the quality of their builds are important.

Reply to
Shines

On my '97, in addition to the cotter pin, the nut was pinched at the groove in the axle, so that it wouldn't come loose.

Reply to
Filipp Stepanov

I take it back, no groove. Must have been thinking of some other car or maybe the rear nut?

Reply to
Filipp Stepanov

Reading between the lines of various posting (google search for Maxima bearing problem) I saw several post where other people havehad to replace their front bearings due to cracked housing. Then every so often, they mentioned loose nuts. To me, this is indicative that the hub nuts was probably loose and that they have been running this way for some time, thus putting stresses on the bearing housing, and later, the resultant crack. So I still believe that yall need to check your hub nut and verify that it is tight ( some website mentioned that they should be torqued to 200+ ft-lbs).

Reply to
cmdrdata

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