happypants

If Nissan wants a "testbed", just drive along I-294 in IL northbound from 95th street to the I-290 exits. In my car I'm close to hurling by the time I get to the I-290 exit. Bouncing gets worse the faster I go, and I can't seem to get rid of it whether I go 60-80 mph. Almost all of the northbound road surface is concrete. Southbound is better as it alternates between asphalt and concrete.

I also have a 94 Nissan Altima and it does the same thing, but nowhere near as bad as the 350Z

droideka

I'd like to jump back into this with some info I gleaned last night...

I have now driven a Z with the TEIN Flex Dampers and EDFC. At "full-strength" (tightest setting) the Z is a stiff as a board, but does not have that annoying "echo" bounce that my stock Touring does and I absolutely love it. By echo, I mean (and I'll try to explain as precisely as possible) a secondary bounce that occurs roughly one second after the intitial shock of hitting a bump in any given road surface.

Imagine the following:

There are two points, A and B with a straight line in between. A represents the front suspension and B represents the rear.

A_______B

When I hit a bump the front shocks/springs compress and then rebound followed closely by the rears doing the same.

A^______B^

After both axles have clear the bump, I then get a secondary "ghost" bounce that starts at the rear and travels forward like a wave illustrated below.

1. A_______B

2. A^______B^

3. A_______B~

4. A______~B

5. A___ ~~_B

6. A_ ~~~__B

7. A~~~~___B

The MINI Cooper S is stiffer than the Z by far and I love that car, so I'm DEFINITELY not in the camp that wishes for a smoother ride. My wife doesn't complain about the Z, but HATED the MCS.

I think that some of you are on track with the theories that the springs and shocks are not properly balanced in the first place. This must be some kind of tradeoff that Nissan felt was necessary in order to sell cars. Several Zs have already been traded by people who thought the Z was too stiff to begin with so I guess it was damn near impossible for Nissan to deliver a stiffer suspension that 98% of us would have been completely happy with. That's typical. Worry about the minority that don't amount to sh*t so the rest of us will have to turn to the aftermarket. I swear that the manufacturers are in bed with the aftermarket tuners.

MannishBoy

iTrader: (1)

How does softening it up feel? Have you driven the G35C? Can you approximate it to that?

Boomer

Has anyone complained to Nissan about the bouncy ride? I just changed my tires to Michelin A/Ss and got rid of the "crash" the OE tires gave me when I hit a bump, but the bounce is still there.

I posted my displeasure at the other site and then came here to find 5 PAGES of complaints about the bouncy ride. No sports car I have ever driven has had such a uncomfortable ride. Before someone starts w/the, every sports car hs a stiff ride, I will tell you THEY DO NOT ALL HAVE AN UNCOMFORTABLE RIDE, no matter how stiff they are and that includes my 82 Mustang GT w/live axle.

After I put 5 way adjustable Tokiko shocks on my MR2T, I set them to full hard(5) and drove the car for a couple of weeks just to see how hard they were, and they weren't as uncomfortable as the Z rides even with my new Michelins.

For me, stiff doesn't mean uncomfortable if the suspension components are in synch with each other. The Z's are not or we/I wouldn't have this problem. My short road trip yesterday confirmed the tire change was worthwhile, but the bounce won't go away. Am I needing to fork out another $1K, or more, to cure the bounce? This car is beginning to be less of a bargain than I thought it was and still should be.

Boomer--quotient of irritability is rising in me, anyone for sending this whole thread to Nissan right now? Attribute it to me, my idea, my responsiblity.

Rant End. I'm beginning to feel like Droidkaus. "To the Moon, Alice".

z350z

Let's hope someone from Nissan reads this and they realize the problem needs to be fixed. Maybe whatever solution they come up with for future vehicle can be retrofitted to our '03s. I love my car, but I just can't drive on certain lanes of Highway 101 or I'll be bouncing up and down worse than on a trotting horse. This is not normal -- other sports cars definitely do not do it. It's not that the suspension is too hard or too soft, there is some kind of tuning that needs to be done here.

Pedal Pusher

I have a performance model with stock wheels and tires. My last car was a 1997 Vette which has about the same wheelbase and weight as the 350z. It never had this problem. It did have about 127 other problems but that is another story.