Does anyone know for certain if the feathering on 350z's causes an appreciable decrease in tire life? Or is the main negative effect just tire noise?

I had assumed that since one edge of the treadblocks was wearing faster, tire life would be severly affected. However, I've also wondered if perhaps the uneven wear stabilizes after a certain point and then the tires wear evenly although the initial feathering still remains. If the latter were the case, then tire life might be decreased only slightly and the only problem would be tire noise.

It would be nice if anyone with a lot of miles on feathered tires knows the answer to this. I personally don't really care about the excessive road noise, but am very concerned about having to buy new tires all the time. Thanks.

 

Mine feathered and I have gotten almost 30k on them. The rears need to be replaced, but I can easily get 5k more on the fronts. So no, I would say it has not decreased my tire life.

 

man i hear too much about feathering, somebody just blow up Nissan already

 

Man I cant believe you could stand the noise???
Be careful though. A guy down here had is tire pop on the highway because of feathering.

 

Was that on the stock tires?
That's good to know that the tires will at least last a while even though they're loud. I can always turn up the stereo but I can't re-tread the tires.

 

in my case it definately decreased the tire life. but thats cause the car went 15 thousand without the TSB being done. cause of that the wear was never evened out. my guess though is that if you are prudent enough and rotate the fronts from side to side every two or three oil changes you will be able to get the full life out of any tire OEM or not. I have already spoken with a tire dealer here, not nissan, and he has agreed to do this for me 1-2 times a year for a cheap price of 30 bucks each time, have to use a shop cause the tire has to be remounted every time. this in my opinion is a small price to pay to get the full life out of a 250-300 dollar tire.

 

ranger5oh

Did you have to swap and rotate your tires frequently to get 30k on them?

 

To answer all the questions:

Yes, this is on stock tires. I still have them on. In fact I drove in the rain yesterday and the rears still have enough tred to do 70 on the freeway with no problem. They are definitely feathered though, could be the tire feathering posterchild if you know what I mean.

No, I did not rotate them, not even once. I did have them balanced at 15k.

Yes, they are loud, but my stereo is louder.

I never had the TSB done, didn't see the point. I can put up with a lot, this is my first "nice" car and have always had older junky cars before this, so I am used to putting up with noise, and stuff. So nothing really bothers me. I just enjoy driving my Z, life is too short to complain all the time.