The regional spokesperson for Nissan USA Customer Care just told me to pursue the tire manufacturer for any problems I'm having with tire feathering.

He said that their experts have not determined that the 04's have any suspension issues yet, and that I received a complementary set of tires already, so there's nothing he can do.

Does this mean that every part on our cars that isn't manufacturered by Nissan.....It's the customers responsibility for finding out who the manufacturer is, and trying to get warranty work from them?

What happened to accountability.

 

I agree with what he said. I believe the problem does lie mostly in the design of the Bridgestone Potenza RE040 tire. As I have stated before, the 350Z is not the only car to experience tire noise as a result of having this tire equipped as the OEM tire. The reason it is most pronounced on the 350Z is that we run around negative 1 degree of camber on the front. That will immediately cause the inner part of the tire to wear quicker than the outside. Nissan obvously has some kind of large contract with Bridgestone and can't change the tire the 350Z comes with easily or I am sure they would have after all the money they are paying to replace so many tires. Nissan is caught in a lose lose situation. You, however, have the option of not equipping your car with the Bridgestone Potenzas any longer which is what I would recommend.

 

Tut,
I value your opinions on all of my posts. I do. Especially because you offer another way to look at things.

I have to say on this one though....That as a manufacturer of vehicles, it is Nissan's responsibility to equip a vehicle they've produced with adequate products.

Wether or not Nissan has a large contract with Bridgestone is not my problem. My problem is....as a Nissan customer, I am unsatisfied as many other customers are with the tire noise, and short tire life.

I only have 5000 miles on these tires. From what I've read, there are others having problems with tire manufacturers other than Bridgestone.

P.S. You've only owned your vehicle for 6 months, which is the exact time I started having problems with mine. Glad you've had good luck so far.

 

what is it that car companies see in those stock RE40 tires?

 

Problems, yes. You gotta remember though that all the chips are stacked against any tire we put on our cars:

1) Directional tires
2) Different rims and tire sizes for the front and the rear
3) No way to perform a proper rotate and balance
4) Aggressive alignment specs from factory including -1 degree camber at all 4 corners

This is where you just have to decide what you want to do. You have a few options the way I see it:

1) Accept it and be willing to buy tires often
2) Fix it by using a combination of the following things:

Buy the same size wheels and tires for all 4 corners
Buy alignment kits to set the alignment less aggressive
Get alignments often
Have a proper rotate and balance done often

3) Decide that this is not the car for you and sell it (I would prefer no one pick this route)

I guess I can just see where Nissan is caught between a rock and a hard place. They have decided they aren't willing to compromise the sports car part of the 350Z to appease some of its owners. I have actually had my car for about 9 months and 10,000 miles. I obviously didn't stay with the stock wheels for very long so I can't personally speak to the "feathering issue". I do expect my $1000 set of 19" tires to wear out quickly as I have done nothing to stop them from wearing out quickly. I picked option 1 above. I may later change to more of an option 2 person, but never will I choose option 3.

 

With all that said, what is a reasonably priced, well handling tire that one should the replace the stock with?

I've had good luck with Sumitomos in the past (on Maxima and Mazda MX-6).

 

I disagree. A negative camber of one degree is common on most cars. Negative camber will cause inside tire wear but not feathering. BTW Zs with other than Bridgestone tires still feather. While I don't know the answer, I do know that after installing camber arms front and rear, shocks, springs, sways etc. The tire wear is gone. But I did all this for other reasons than to just rid myself of tire feathering.

 

If you have had good luck with Sumitomos and they make a tire in the size you want, then I would say go with that. I would say some of the more popular are the following:

Potenza S03
Dunlop SP9000 (I love mine)
Toyo T1-S
BF Goodrich g-Force KDW

When looking for tires remember that the treadwear rating is company specific so you can only use that number when comparing tires from the same company. Obviously the lower the treadwear rating the stickier the rubber tends to be.

 

For me.... I guess I've been spoiled by cars I've owned in the past (Which stickered much less than the Z) because I never had any problems with getting issues resolved.

I've been a loyal Nissan customer for 5 years and 3 cars now. I think it's time I take my business elsewhere.

Nissan should put a disclaimer on the Z if they feel that getting 5K-10K miles on a set of tires is adequate.

 

Picture please. This hits to the question of what is "feather" versus simple inner tire wear and noise. I believe most owners have narrowed "feathering" down to a loud noise heard when braking from 20 mph along with uneven inner tread wear where the inner tread blocks are all worn, but each is not worn evenly. Like I said above, all tires have the chips stacked against them, and will get inner tire wear and noise eventually, now whether that is "feathering" or not is hard to tell on the Internet as that term has been beaten to death and is used for any kind of tire irregularity. The issue is people looking for one thing wrong that is causing it and wanting Nissan to fix that one issue. I wish it were that simple, but I try to let people know that it isn't that simple.

 

i'm actually really tired of people bitching about issues with the Z that have obvious solutions

tire feathering and the bouncy suspension:

yeah ok, so get a new suspension and different tires and STFU

If you bought the Z and didn't know about the tire feathering and are just NOW finding out about it after driving awhile, then it sucks to be you.

Do your homework next time you buy a car. Chances are if you can afford a Z, you can afford a new suspension and some tires or at least some Front A arms and rear traction rods.

...and welcome to the world of performance sports cars

 

I agree with you JFritz. A disclaimer should be included.

 

Way to burninate the peasants.

 

trogdor strikes again!

hehe

 

King Tut I don't need pictures, look at the tire thread or ask Nissan how many Z's they bought back do to this. My personal Z did this on the oe bridgestones and a set of kumho ecasta mx's. And this was long before any suspension work was done.
Nissan would not be buying tires for customers cars if it was inner tire wear due to the low tread wear rating. It's feathering and why would you defend Nissan in something that is known to everyone else?

Sentry 65 I agree.

 

So WHAT is "feathering" and HOW did you know your Kumho MX tires were "feathered" and not just warn out from inner tire wear?

 

Without trying to personally attack you, have you ever made money for a living? I don't know about you but I like my hard earned cash and don't like to throw it out the door on something I don't have to. Just because I can afford to fix the problem myself, doesn't mean I should.

If I would have thought for 1 minute that this car isn't a complete package, it wouldn't be sitting in my garage now.

Sentry, so according to you, the Nissan disclaimer should read
"Attention, this is a sports car, expect problems and fix it at your own cost"

 

feathering would be defind as tire wear on the outer and inner edges of the tire, with the leading edge higher than the following edge of the tread of the tire. It a jagged wear of the tread.

Negative camber would wear the tire even with more wear on the inside and less wear on the out side of the tire.

 

All these posts make sense…

For me, I had the tire feathering at 18k. I took it to Performance Nissan and the service consultant told me the tires would be under warrantee. Then I got a phone call letting me know that the back order tires are in. I came into the service area looking for the service consultant that ordered my tires. I came to find out that they fired the service consultant and I would have to pay for my tires because it was not covered in the warrantee. I didn’t want to purchase two new front tires and they basically told me they would rotate the fronts and re-align the vehicle. As the work was being done to my car, the mechanic told me that my rear passenger tire was punctured and that I would have to buy a new tire.

All in all, I just wanted the Bridgestone’s to wear out so I can upgrade my wheels to 18". Well, with the news of having to buy a new tire for the rear and potentialy having to buy new tires for the front in 3 months or so, I asked Jeff at Performance Nissan if any of his racing tires and rim sets would be on sale. Low and behold, Jeff was just about to markdown all his wheel and rim packages. The markdown was enough for me to rid myself of the tire feathering issue and get new rims and tires (which, BTW looks hot).

Ultimately, I know that the feathering may not go away. However, based on what I read; 18" for the 04 model has had no tire feathering yet. And since the tire size is larger than the stock tires (front & rear), I am expecting that these tires (Kumho) will not feather. However, I also am expecting to purchase new tires often due to regular wear/tear on these high performance tires.

I choose to take the problem into my own hands. I realized, I purchased this car knowing about the feathering issue that may not be resolved while I own/drive the car.

Either way, I still love my 350ZR therefore will do/purchase what I need to keep the car running at peak performance; thusly keeping a smile on my face. For me, it’s all worth it …

 

exactly


but the benefit is twofold

really you have two options

with replacing your suspension and tires you get:

-better traction
-better braking
-better cornering
-less body roll
-no more suspension bounce
-nicer, smoother ride
-longer lasting tires
-no tire feathering
-option to lower the car - lower center of gravity, improves cornering even more
-aftermarket suspensions are usually tougher than the stock one so it'll last longer and take more abuse

or

complain to nissan so that they

-replace tires with same crappy stock tires
-get alignment TSB which does little. (It helped my rears from feathering as much, fronts were still feathering though)
-complain enough that after awhile they might possibly (not likely) add some cheap fix to the stock suspension to prevent feathering.


Everyone has choices to make
I want better performance so I'm opting for the first choice

I'm in a similar boat in that I don't have money growing on trees. I'm going to change my suspension and try to get as many miles out of my stock tires as I can stand before I decide to upgrade them. Think of them as freebie tires - can do burn outs and hard braking and who cares if you ruin them, they suck anyway