Im sick of people always saying, "Well, if you got 10k or 15k miles out of your tires, you out lived those tires. Its a sports car!!" That is what the Nissan dealers keep telling me.

The only way that would be accurate would be if the tires are evenly worn down all over, right? My rear tires (which are now rotated to the front) are in perfect shape! I have 25,000 miles on them and expect to get another 10,000 or more out of them easily! My front tires (just rotated to the rear b/c of the awful noise they were making)...the middle and outter tread is in great shape! Its just the inner tread thats cupping and feathering.

To me it seems like buying new tires every 10k to 15k miles is just throwing money away! My tires aren't wearing out that fast, it something in the car thats causing PART of the tire to wear down faster than it should.

 

You can't rotate the front to the back or the back to the front because the tires are different sizes. Your rear tires are bigger than ur front. If you put the rear to the front you will screw up the stagger and who knows how the tps or vdc or the handeling will be effected. You cant rotate staggered tires from front to back or visa versa! All you can do is move the right tire to the left.

350Z Tire Sizing
Standard 17":
F-225/50WR17
R-235/50WR17
Touring 18":
F-225/45WR18
R-245/45WR18
Track 18":
F-225/45WR18
R-245/45WR18

I would recommend putting them back. It might not be safe to drive.

 

Its called feathering & has been discussed here to a fare-thee-well.

Get an alignment.

I got 24,000 out of all 4 of my OEM tires.

 

Yeah, I've gotten a couple of alignments and that part is fine.

I have the base model, so tps and vdc does not apply, right?

As far as the tires rotated from front to rear, it drives better now that it has in a long time! I have not noticed anything difference in handling.

 

I don't know :\. It just doesnt seem safe with a counter stagger. Plus it might look funky too.

I'm no expert, but all i can say is that the car was not designed for that setup

 

No but physic still does.

The car drives better but handling hasn't changed ? That's funny...

There are reasons to have the tires staggered you know. Safe handling for one...

 

With the 17in wheels and tires, I cant notice a difference from looking at them. Its only half an inch width difference. The 18s may look noticeable if rotated?

I'm just going to drive it like this for a few thousand miles and see if the front tires start cupping again, even after the alignments. If it does become loud and start cupping, I'll probably just try to sell the car. If there are no signs of problems, I'll hang in there and purchase a new set of tires.

 

what about that bolt thats supposed to prevent putting the wrong wheel on the front?

i got 23k outta my oem potenzas! 140/160? tread rating, what cant you expect

 

Kolia... What I mean by the car drives better is that it no longer rattles my teeth when driving on the interstate. Also, its much more quiet inside the car.

The handling seems to be the same? I dont race it or anything. Just a daily driver to work and back, mostly highway driven.

I think the staggered may be more for looks in a stock Z.

 

I just removed the extra bolt in the front and the rear wheels fit on perfect. I know a couple of guys locally that have done this a while back and said they've never had any problems.

As I was removing the extra bolt, I thought to myself "I wonder how much bridgestone paid Nissan to put this bolt on here to try and stop rotating ha ha!" I could see bridgestone getting a kick back from Nissan for customers that have to keep purchasing new tires.

 

All i have to say is wow

 

OMGosh

 

You're not honestly running wider tires in the front are you??

 

Yeah, the slight 1/2 inch wider are in the front now. I'm tired of the car sounding like im driving on square tires. If the new fronts start to wear unevenly i'll know its time to sell! I'm not putting anymore money into this car unless I know I will keep it!

 

I dunno man...there's a reason for it. It could just be for performance which I think is what you think. If that's what it is you're thinking I'm gonna say...NO! I'd put them back the way it should be. It may seem fine now, but the repercussions might be seen in the long run, just my 2 cents.

 

what in the....did i read this thread right?....

 

 

Looks were certainly a consideration when Nissan chose tire size.

But more so, handling and balancing. With 53/47 weight distribution and a sizable amount of torque availlable, wider tires are needed to maintain grips while accellerating out of a fast turn.

It also garantee the car will have a tendency to understeer in almost all situations. Understeer is easier to manage to most driver. Just be aware of that when driving in the rain and adjust you're speed accordingly.

 

You know what i find funny about all this ....All these people that have these tire problems and not one person has said lets all contact the BBB and then have every single person call the HQ of nissan and tell them you want this fixed... I sorta had the same problem when i bought a new chevy one year it had the large goodyears on it ( I think like 245/50/16) i noticed at about 12k it started to "feather" the outer edges i took it right back to the dealer and said something is not right here (i know that for a fact when tires wear on edge like that its a balljoint problem, so of course the dealer said we will check it out ...sure enough they claim there is nothing wrong and its from 2 things 1.cornering too fast (lol i liked that one) and 2.the tire compound is very soft ( lol) so i leave and go to an independent garage and i tell them i wanna get a front end alignment but i couldnt because something is wrong can they please check the front for me ( this works great all the time, sometimes you gotta act dumb) Well within 10 min they call me over and say "you have 2 bad ball joints" i say really well thank you and i am on my way back to the dealer, now i have all my info i need so they cant BS me any longer. now tell them what the other garage said and put them on the spot! Remember no dealer is going to volunteer to fix this problem if you dont arm yourslef with the 100% correct info. Remember folks no tire should wear abnormal at 10k miles period!

 

yeah... uh... right. NOBODY has contact BBB, NOBODY has contacted a lawyer, and NOBODY has contacted NIssan.

Have you read these boards at all???