Thanks, Mike! Would you cross-post this pic to my new thread?

 

Caster is the front-to-rear positioning of the wheel. Like if the driver side wheel is further back than the passenger side, the car will kind of fade off to the left because there is slightly more weight on it due to the increased amount of car in front of the wheel.

It still seems odd to me that Nissan supposedly doesn't have camber adjustments, especially with so many people lowering cars and destroying their tires by doing so.

 

Thanks for the explanation. Yeah, I think Nissan MUST have camber adjustment. I don't see how they couldn't. Every car has it, right?

 

No, that's why they make camber kits.

 

Go to a tire store like Discount tires and ask them what normally causes this to occur. One I know for sure is the Rotation of the tires. At 5100 miles you shouldn't have seen that happen (IMO). The other reason slips my mind yet I was told them both a few months ago when I bought new tires on a Saturn.

 

According to Tire Rack specs, the OE RE040s have a tread life ratio of 140! Owners of other cars have reported even shorter treadlife, like 7500 miles and worn out on one side.

 

On behalf of my wife (she's Deb), I talked to the service people at the dealership in Tulsa, OK who will be delivering her car. All the service mgr could tell me was that he was aligning every 350Z that came in because he felt that kind of car should be aligned before hitting the street. He said that none had come back so far but that they hadn't sent that many out that would probably have over 4000 miles yet.

I am new to this argument or debate - does anyone have a definitive answer as to what is causing this premature wear? I've read some posts saying that it's alignment, others that it's the tires, some are blaming it on no camber adjustment ....

My wife has a 300ZX 2+2 that will eat tires if it's driven hard. I think the most she has ever managed to squeeze out of a set of tires was 18,000 miles. The Michelin Pilot's have been the best tires so far. She has 113,000 miles on her 300. I have had it aligned and have had different shops tell me different stories. Some insist on weighting the car on both driver and passenger side, others say no, while some say there are two ways to set up the car ("in town" and "highway - led sled" driving) and setting it up one way and driving the other will eat tires and cause uneven wear. I doubt that she will ever see a set of tires that will go even close to the 40,000 I get on my truck. I'm looking at a G35C for me - here's hoping it doesn't have that problem.

If you do have a definitive answer, I would appreciate it.

 

too much camber will produce the same symptoms as weak or sagging springs. this can produce a wear pattern as discribed above. other suspension compnents is what that means. camber has to be adjustable to compensate for every day wear of the suspension componets.
Nissans quality is good but not that good.

 

Caster is the amount the upper ball joint tilts rearward in relationship to the lower ball joint. The more rearward tilt the more the tire will try to steer straight. To compensate for road crown the left upper ball joint is usually moved ½ degree farther forward than the upper right ball joint. This will cause the car to pull slightly to the left. Caster does not cause tire wear. As to the tire wearing on the inside edges that is a camber issue and from my driving experiences this car has a lot of negative camber. That is why it turns so well. Add about one degree of camber to both sides and that tire wear will go away but so will the handling.
BTW go look at other cars tires and you will see cupping is very common.

 

I've got a touring 6spd with 4000miles and not seeing any kind of abnormal wear on front ro rears. I run 35psi cold tire inflation pressure and when driving around it general hangs around 36-38psi.

If your tires are really getting feathered or scalloped that bad then something is wrong or you got some bad tires.

Also, I have seen where this scalloping can be caused by a poorly balanced tire. What happens is that the tire hops ever so slightly when rolling. This is caused by a tire that has an improper road force distribution.

I have a '91 BMW 325i that had a serious tire scallopping problem. After getting numerous alignments and tire balancing and even a new set of tires I still had the problem. Finally I found out about the Hunter GSP7200 roadforce tire testing machine. The system applies a road force to the tires when spinning. This quickly identified that one of my tires was slightly out of roud. The system then matches up the high spot on the tire to the low spot on the rim. Guess what -- worked great problem solved.

However. many - many cars on the market today wear tires unevenly due to their suspension setup. I have a Mazda RX7 that loves to eat the inside edges of tires both front and rear. Guess what it's normal.

 

5k miles just checked and my tires are doing the same, cupping on inside.. Been running a pressure of around 35psi cold all way around. This is a performance model with 18"wheels.. Anyone dealt with NIssan yet on the issue?>

 

I just had my car serviced at 6000 miles and so far no problem with the tires. Perhaps some of us are driving too aggressively.

Keep on Z' Still Jumpin' for Joy !!

 

8000 miles is a bit steep! What kind of tires are your car again? I can't believe that they would equip the car with such low wearing tires.

What you can do, though, is go and look at different tires possibilities, to see if there is something out there that will wear less...

 

The stock RE040s are very soft compound tires. The S-03s have a much higher treadwear rating (in addition to being rated much higher in every other category), I'll be switching to them as I wear out the REs.

 

Hmmm. 5000 Miles. No Scallops. Scept when I order them. No Road noise. No Blose problems cause I didn't get the Blose System. Just to let you guys know, check out some Stook Boards, they are constantly replacing rear tires because of constant wear. One thing I don't understand is this: "I shouldn't have to replace the tires all the time I mean it's not like this car is a Ferrari/ Porsche" argument. Why? Do Ferrari's/Porsches use inferior tires? What causes the need for constant tire replacement on their cars. Could it be that the cars are driven at exsessive speeds/handeling and have a lot of horsepower sent to the wheels? Couldn't the Z fit this catagory? What about an FI Z33 with 400+RWHP? Would it be accceptable then?

 

I took my Z in due to the loud rumbling between 15-30 mph, i had no idea what the prob was, the tech took it out and said my tires are feathered, Long story Short they are replacing the fronts for free and giving me a free alignment. For all you guys who think feathering is normal then get your head checked, cuz no car should sound the way mine did at 7000 mi, just take it to the dealer, i predict that this is going to be a major problem very soon involving alot of Zs

 

The Kuhmo Ecsta Supra is a Z rated tire witha tread wear rating of 40,ooo miles. It doesn't have super excellent grip, but that is expected since the mileage is higher. It might be something for you to look into.