I'm having the usual tire problems on the front of my '04 base model 350z. Does anyone know if this will work? I know the rear wheels will not fit on the front of the Z, but if I buy two more front wheels and tires and place them on the back, will this cause any problems? Or will it even fit in the first place? That way I would have 225/50/17 tires and 17x7 wheels all the way around. This way I can rotate the tires and hopefully make the tread last longer. Alignment doesnt seem to help my problem so I need an alternative to keep purchasing new front tires. I have the base model, so I dont think I have to worry about traction control or air pressure monitor, right?

 

There is someone else on the forum who has done that. He has had no issues. Unfortunately, I can't remember who it is.

 

Since you don't have TCS/VDC, then there should be no problem running the same size wheels and tires all around. Several of the AutoX guys do it when racing so it's definitely doable.

 

i thought the rears DID fit on the front? am i mistaken?

 

don't know if this helps, but i am running 18x8.5 all around...

 

I'm running 19x9 with 255/35/19 front and 19x10 285/35/19 rear no problems

If tour going to move your rears to the front you may have an "extra" bolt on each front hub (not the lug nut bolts) that will have to be removed...it's nothing but a bolt to stop people from trying to rotate their tires. If you pull a front tire you will see what I mean. It's that way with my 03' touring at least.

Fritz

 

Thanks for the info! I read in the manual that says you cannot rotate the tires because something about an "extra" bolt that will block the rear tires from fitting on the front? I'll take off the front tire and check it out. Hopefully with the extra bolt removed, I can test it out.

 

I'm surprised you have not received more responses. The steering geometry is set up for different size tires....front & back. So are the electronics.

I'm not so sure you can put same size front & back. I'd get more definate opinions from pros before spening a bunch of bucks.

 

Update: Rather than purchase two new front rims to put on the rear, I removed the "extra" bolt on the front hubs. I then rotated the rear tires to the front and the front to the rear (the stock 17inch). They fit fine once the extra bolt is gone. The inner tread on the front tires were in horrible shape from cupping and extremely noisy while driving. Now that they are in the rear of the car, the car drives and sounds like brand new again! Has anyone else experimented with this??

 

INSIDE TREAD WERA...NOISY!!!!!!

Put them back where they were...take your car to the dealer and you will get a free set of front tires and an alignment...GUARANTEED YOU HAVE THE TIRE FEATHERING PROBLEM AND THEY WILL FIX IT

 

front tires swapped side to side exery oil change should do the trick...

 

yes because we should have to fork over 60+ bucks every 3000 miles for Nissans defect. Thats what the dealer told me!

 

if you get tires from discount tire it comes with a lifetime balancing contract. It costs $25 I believe to get them dismounted flipped and remounted and balanced. I did it every oil change in the rear of my Bimmer and it helped with the tire lifetime GREATLY.

 

say what??????

 

Sarcasm. That was exactly the response I was going for.

And DJ, while that discount tire deal still sounds great... isnt it a fact that MOST sports car tires should last around 30k miles without constant rotation?

Why should you have to spend 30k(ave lifetime)/3000(miles per rotate) = 10(rotations)*25(dollars per rotate) = 250 dollars to have it rotated over the life of the tires!? Thats pretty much the cost of two new front tires! And if you dont have the 25 dollar deal, a rotation is around 60 bucks, right? Thats 600 bucks to rotate your tires every oil change during the expected tire life.

Now you tell me, is it really such a great idea to rotate the tires every 3k miles?

 

I thought oil changes were at 5K miles...uh oh...

 

Depends on the oil. I use Mobil 1 Synthetic every 3k miles. I believe the manual says every 3500 miles, I think...

 

Got 24,000 miles from OEM tires; rotated fronts once.......at Nissan expense.