ratattack17

Anyone seen this issue before? Had an alignment couple months ago. Issue still kept getting worse. Suspension is bone stock, not lowered and my tire doesnt seem to be hitting anything. This is happening only on the front tires. Could it be bad tires? I am going to get it checked out in a few days. My tires are michellin pilot sport a/s 3. According to the side wall these tires are about 3 years old but had put on 01/2017. Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!

icer5160

iTrader: (4)

Usually an alignment issue would show unusual wear signs on one side of the tire (inside or outside tread), especially if it's the front wheels, which typically means a toe "in" or "out" misalignment. Your tires are getting chewed up on both sides. Are you hitting corners like a mad man? If not, I would get a second opinion on the alignment job and look up any potential mfg. issues with those tires. It's strange that the rubber is peeling back like it is.

Another thought, if the alignment was really off, you would hear a lot more noise from the front tires when traveling at highway/freeway speeds.

More thoughts, get your front suspension bushings checked out. There's a few in the front that are common failure points. If the bushings are shot, an alignment won't really help. Usually you can hear a clunk or thunk during starts and stops if you have bushing issues.
-Icer

MicVelo

CK_32

iTrader: (1)

That’s called chunking. My friend had this happen to his BFG K02 truck tires.

Have you been doing any aggressive driving?

His were due to a bad batch but you’re kind of SOL being 3 year old rubbers.

ratattack17

Thank you for the term chunking! Helped me do some more research. I have some 3 year tire protection plan so I am probably going to see if I can get these replaced. I had my control arm replaced and that's about it. I have checked out the other bushings in the past while this was happening and all seemed Gucci. Hopefully it's just a defect in the tire!

ratattack17

2004 350z

CK_32

iTrader: (1)

Find the lot number because with out that you’re not ganna get anywhere.

It should be some where on the tire to show mfg lot and production date. So they can look up if they had any issues with their rubber batch.

MicVelo

As I figured it would be. I'd guess you're experiencing a form of the tire feathering/cupping that cursed the first 1.5 years of Z33 production. To be experiencing it now, 14 years down the road (pun intended), I would speculate that it's an advanced form of the disease that originally caused the issue, a faulty LCA or more likely, maybe just bad control arm bushings that are sloppy enough to cause the tire to be "flopping" on the inner edge.

I would take the car in and have the alignment checked and the suspension checked for play. And THEN replace the tire(s).

JMII

Check the wheel bearings. I had bad front bearings which accelerates the "cupping" problem.

ratattack17

Thanks for all the replies! Got my LACs replaced right before my last alignment. To my knowledge faulty struts, suspension components wouldn't cause my tread to peel away like that would it?

MicVelo

Absolutely could.

Feathering and cupping such as what's on your tire is almost 100% attributed to faulty/worn suspension components.

Think about it, faulty alignment can cause a tire to ride on one or more portions of the tread more than others at any given moment and loose/worn components can cause wobble and bounce which is the biggest culprit behind irregular tire wear.

That was the culprit behind the early model feathering issue - that Nissan never really did admit culpability for but did have a TSB or three on it.

Could be a bad tire, yes, but I'm going with suspension. See what your tire dealer says. I have replaced customer tires before for the sake of good will but with a note on the invoice stating "Detect suspension issues. Final replacement."