I've heard that the tire feathering problem found in the '03 models was taken care of in the '04 model.. is that true? If it is then why doesn't nissan fix the '03's that still have recurring problems?

 

Sad to say Nissan hasn't done anythig to fix the problem. You'll need to get an alignment and tires every 10,000 miles. Alignment not fixed on the 2005???

http://www.infinitihelp.com/Ownershi.../NTB03-006.htm

Wheel alignment:
http://www.infinitihelp.com/Ownershi.../NTB04-054.htm

From a earlier post:

Vehicle steers to the right slightly regardless of crowning of road.
Not severe, however not normal. I want to say bad alignment, however there is also a tsb on the front control arm for the 03's.

Owned the '05 Z for a month now. Some observations. . .

Well, it's been a month now and I have 2500 miles already. The engine seems to be settling in and smoothing out. Seems much happier these days.
Some observations:

1. Tranny is not the strong suit for this vehicle. I have an 05 and
some gears are grinding and other times I have trouble moving the shift lever smoothly into 2nd or 3rd. Smooth as in (not grinding), the lever feels like it is bogging down.

2. The clutch feels vague. Initially it was making a noise, only when depressed, not a clicking but more like a "clank" sound like if you hit the side of an empty coke can. This was around for a bit then mysteriously disappeared on its own. The first 1-2 inches of clutch pedal is extremely light and then firms up dramatically. This makes shifting smoothly a challenge. You never know when the clutch plates have engaged fully and just when you think, I have shifted smoothly and successfully, the vehicle does an ever so slight lurch to let you know that is not the case. I can certainly feather the clutch more, but this would wear out the cluch prematurely and a bit of a lethargic way of shifting.

3. Small rattles abound. Annoying, causes me to raise the volume of the radio, which is already a few clicks higher to mask the wind leak noise from the driver's side window seal which the dealer deemed normal.

4. Paint on the A-pillar, which is all plastic btw, feels course
compared to other plastic parts. It looks shiny, however feels like
there is no clear coat.

5. Gap tolerances on the front fender/hood are deplorable. If I ran a ball bearing down the gap it would fall into the engine bay and probably get sucked into the intake.

6. Passenger side seatbelt has portions that are frayed and the sad thing is, is that I carry NO passengers. Damage from the port?
Warranty? Hmm.

7. Vehicle steers to the right slightly regardless of crowning of road. Not severe, however not normal. I want to say bad alignment, however there is also a tsb on the front control arm for the 03's.

8. Our vehicles are not nimble. Very much a GT/Touring vehicle with good midrange. Vehicle is not as tossible as other vehicles out there. Could it be because of the stagger of the tires/wheels? If I ran the same size rim and tire on all 4 corners will it make this car more neutral?

9. Had to loosen and realign the passenger side wiper arm myself
because it was sitting up about an inch higher on the passenger side than the driver's side. It came from the factory this way.

10. Back to the tranny, I here all the rattles and noises that everyone else has, however I have come to accept them as a characteristic of the vehicle, unfortunately.

Although, most of this sounds negative, I still enjoy the vehicle quite a bit. It is just a bit of a let down for those of use who have owned Nissan products designed and built during the late '80's and early '90's. The quality control seemed better back then. Still for $29,470 quite a lot of bang for the buck.

I am afraid of what resale will be like on these in 2 years. Some '03 are already being sold private market for $20K. Just my $0.02.

 

thanks for the info.. man i'm starting to get scared about buying a Z..

 

Folks are having legitimate issues, no question about that. But count the number of folks with issues versus total units sold in the US and the instances of problems are relatively small.

Remember its a known scenario that folks will come on here and post complaints readilly, while folks that are completely happy will not generally post to that effect.

I have a 2004.5 purchased 4 months/4200 miles ago. I know it's still pretty early in the game, but so far I am happy with the car and have no issues to report.

Hopefully it will stay that way...........

 

My 2004.5 now with 9,500 miles shows no sign of feathering or tire wear. I can take my hand off the stearing and it will travel quite a ways without vearing . I too had great problems with shifting until about 3,000 miles - everything seemed to smooth out. It was VERY STIFF !! Getting right at 20 mpg very short drives and 27 on entire summer trip. I love the torque and handling. Have had really no problems.

 

It's pretty clear that the problem has not been fixed. Alignment parameters can delay the feathering, but it continues to occur. My personal belief is that the 04.5 cars came out with the correct alignment, but this simply delays the appearance of feathering (there have been several 04.5 cars with the problem).

If the feathering is an issue for you, you're probably best off staying away from the car. Too many people drive 5k and then say 'I don't have feathering' to have it develop a few thousand miles down the road. Nissan has been very duplicitious in its handling of this problem, and they are not taking care of the customers they have screwed over.

For those of you that don't have feathering, that is fantastic. I believe you to be the minority of Z owners...so you're the lucky few.

Every time I read this thread it saddens me, b/c I love the car to death...but I feel like I'd be doing you a disservice if I told you otherwise.

NzZ

 

I have an 04 and I have feathering. started feathering at about 6000 miles.

 

so does the NISMO S-tune fix it?

 

My 2004 has feathering. It sucks and I am suing Nissan to take their POS back because they are telling me two things. First, my car has no problem at all. And second, my car is not covered under the 2003 TSBs....even though it has the exact same problem.....even though my car has no problem??? Try to figure that one out.

 

Our Z got feathering at 11k miles the first time. Nissan gave us new tires and the "new" alignment, tires started feathering at 8k miles the second time. Our dealer was good but coulndn't do anything that Nissan wouldn't approve. End result was we traded our Z off and will not ever buy a Nissan product again. Nissan's customer service was worse than a McDonalds.

 

Do your own research and don't listen to the majority of responses to this thread. There is plenty of info on this site, the good and the bad. Take a few weeks and do a lot of reading.

Z-Stalker

 

I have a 2004.5 track and developed feathering at around 7,000 miles. I have had the S-Tune suspension installed over the weekend, (Thanks streetimage!), which I got to resolve this issue once and for all.

I'll let you know how the feathering goes in a few thousand miles.