Hi, new to the site but looks like a lot of great members with helpful advice here. I am looking at a 2004 XE with V6 2WD for my daughter who wants an Xterra. I have test driven this one with 84K miles and its very clean and rides smooth all things considered. The issue is the steering is hard to turn and wants to pull back to center hard. The tires are worn badly and the steering recall has not been done on this one. The seller has offered to do whatever is needed to get the steering right for me including new tires if thats what I want. I asked him to take it to the Nissan dealer and get the recall done, is this a common problem with these Xterras? Its literally pulls back so hard I would not let my teenage driver drive this thing. Thanks for any help.

It shouldn't do that and it's not common that I know of. My '04 SE 4WD has 33X12.50's and even locked in 4WD it doesn't "pull back" to center. IMO it sounds like there's an issue with the rack & pinion.

I'm sure some others will chime in.

And welcome to XOC!

Jeff!

First things first,
get a set of tires on it and get it aligned.

Wait for a 4WD Xterra

Thanks guys, no 4WD for my daughter trying to keep her ON the road

They are taking it to Nissan dealer today to get the recall done and check out the issue. I will hopefully get to re-drive it tonite. Will let you know what we find out.

LOL

That's weird, around here, with the weather, etc, the 4wd IS to stay on the road, as opposed to leaving it accidentally.

Well I just heard back from the dealer. The Nissan dealer did the recall but that apparently had nothing to do with the issue at hand. Its been diagnosed as a bad steering gear box. They are swapping that out and will let me know when its ready for a new test drive.

Last update on this topic. Test drove it again and bought it. Steering gear box made a huge difference in how easy the wheel was to turn. Got a new set of tires also and knock out the last bit of steering gremlins. Needless to say my daughter loves her new X.