Unfortunately it is true. At 8931 miles I brought my car in to the dealer because of tire noise "Roar" and they informed me that I had the same problem that seems to occur with the 2003 models "Tire Feathering". I wish that Nissan USA would fix the problem on all of our vehicles. Most of us are dedicated to our vehicles and Nissan but I sure don't want to have to replace tires every 9000 miles. Also, FYI...I don't drive the car very hard.

 

tell me about it

 

Surprising. At over 13000 miles, the tires still seem fine. Picked up a '04 Touring in Oct 2003. But that sucks that it has happened to you. At least they taking care of it.

 

This may seem like a dumb ? but has anyone put aftermarket wheels on and still had the tire feathering problem happen to them?

 

Yes I've heard people on this forum that have aftermarket feathering.

So a 2004.5 with feathering, huh? What's the build date? And 9,000 miles on a 2004.5... nice!

 

11K on my husband's 2004 roadster. Build date 3-04. No feathering. On my 2003 coupe, I have feathering so I have been checking his car weekly. Love my coupe, Love his roadster.

 

I put on Nitto tires with my Nismo wheels after an alignment and have no feathering after 7,000 miles. My cars build date is 3/03.

 

I put after market wheels and tires on my 2003 and same result -feathering

 

Performance directional tires with soft compounds on performance suspensioned cars all feather to varying degrees. Unless you rotate and flip remount every 3-4,000 miles.

The differential heel toe block wear [///////] eventually get deep enough to notice [the sound] but you can measure it on 1,000 mile tires.

Precision frequent wheel alignment is something non performance car owners don't understand............been a known situation on 300zx since the early 90's.

If you have performance tires just something you get use to or buy harder non directionals [and lose performance].

Japanese have a hard time understanding why someone would buy a performance car and then complain about the on going cost of the performance..........[tire and brake replacements].

That's the problem with introducing a relatively inexpensive to buy sporty car ..........buyers don't /can't reserve the $200-$250 per month for maintenance.

If they explained this in detail fewer would/could buy the car.

Used [2nd, 3rd, 4th owners] they will sport cheapo tires and hard brake pads, paper thin rotor, and Azone belts and garbage oil filters and fluids as they drop down the food chain........towards the junk yard.

I always suggested tires be optional, in that the buyer must bring their own when they buy a car..............tires are such a pain for the factory as are wheels and quality soft brake pads.

Somehow buyers think the factory can break the laws of Physics.

 

I really don't mean to be rude, so please don't take it that way... but this has nothing to do with ongoing maitenance. It has to do with poor design. Why do you think SO many TSB's have been issued?

 

I have friends with Porsche and BMW sports cars. They do not have this problem.

Thanks

 

Its a pain in the A#$ but I do like plan on just rotate and flip remount every 3-4,000 miles and new
alignment better than buying new tires

 

So with all the magic of aftermarket adjustable suspension arms, bushings, tie rods, camber adjustments, wheels, tires, spring rates and all the suspension junk out there for this car no one has diagnosed this problem? Aside from the chassis, it's possible to change every other component related to suspension. With all the complaints, no one has taken it upon themselves to figure out what's causing it? I must have read 75 threads on the issue, with no actual diagnosis..

 

What do they do for you if you have feathering? New Z ??? Im just over 10000 and my tires seem loud to me but im not sure how loud is the "Feathering Loud" Can someone give me an idea as to how loud it is. I suppose i can also just look at the wear on the tread of my tires correct??

 

311roadster, what is the build date on your 2004.5?

 

Ahhh crap, now I'm going to be checking my wheels every day. Someone should knock on the doors at Nissan headquarters and give them a hint.

 

just keep a eye on the insides of the front tires bro.

 

I thought the problem was too much negative camber in a non-adjustable control arm (or something like that) that can be fixed by switching to a NISMO piece (adjustable) while keeping the warranty.

It certainly is bs though that I will have to do this if I decide to get a Z (95% sure I will in 2005).

Sorry you're having the problem with your 2004.5.

I also don't understand why people think Nissan silently fixed the problem in the 2004 and 2004.5 models. Certainly it must be pretty easy to put one on an alignment machine and see if the negative camber specs match the 2003 MY.

Basically it comes as no surprise that the problem still exists. To what degree time will tell. There's probably not a lot of 2004 or 2004.5 owners with over 7-8k miles on their car.

It sucks though that no TSB has been issued yet for 2004 owners. Nissan certainly knows if they've corrected the problem sufficiently or not. Again, it sucks they are not saying one way or the other.

Z-Stalker

 

Is there any truth to the "directional tires all feather" comment?

 

You're not the only one. Far as I have been able to tell, no one knows exactly WHAT is the exact cause. No one knows why it happens to SOME and not to others. No one knows for sure how to fix it, not even Nissan which has released TSBs and aligned cars which develop the problem again. People have done things and the feather has not returned (yet), howefver I've never seen a definitive thread/post which stated...

This is what causes feathering, this is what fixes it.

I honestly think people who thought it was "fixed" for 2004.5 were just kidding themselves, as there didn't seem to be any changes and still aren't any changes. If I am wrong, what exactly was changed? Alignment from the factory? If so, then an alignment shoudl fix it, and it has been posted many times that this si not the case. You may have a 2004.5 and not have feathering.... yet. Hopefully you never will.