droideka

That is how I sound. I don't care at all what anyone thinks about my tone or language. This has gone on long enough and 102 pages is ridiculous.

Don't go to a dealer to get an alignment, hell, don't go anywhere to get an electronically assisted alignment. Simple as that.

GaryK

Nice attitude. So your opinion is that if I don't want to spend money above and beyond what I already paid for the car, in order to get what it should have to begin with, I should **** off? Why should the folks that paid their hard earned money for this car have to bend over and take it? Sure, I'll install the S-Tune supension as well as everything else you recommended in the other thread....but I'm not paying for it.

Ah, it doesn't matter anyway. I'm personally through with Nissan and I will be getting rid of this car. But I'm not going to take the huge loss that Nissan has set me up for. I'll probably be pursuing a buyback very soon, since my "authorized dealer" now says they can't fix my car and therefore they won't work on it any more for this problem. Warranty is not honored....breach of contract. The funny thing is that NNA's response to me about this whole thing is, in a nutshell, "too bad...we're not doing anything".

GaryK

For those that care, my latest trip to the dealer was this morning. I had made an appointment to bring the car in because I have 1300 miles on my new set of tires and they are already f'ed up. The tires aren't wasted, but they're bad enough that they're already howling. When I got there, the service manager just told me that there was no use leaving the car since they weren't going to do anything with it. Their position is that there is nothing more they can do since they've already done the TSB, and they do acknowledge that there is a problem with my car.

I just love this car. Yeah right....

navybulldog68

What we all ought to do is ask nissan for the s tune suspension and nismo sway bars and new tires, except i dont want any more Bridgestones, some Michelins would be good. If they would do that for me id be a happy camper. chances are probably slim and none though.

navybulldog68

Let me ,ake sure i understand. you are saying from your personal experience that the s tune suspension and a proper alignment fix the problem? What company did your alignment sir and do you have the Nismo sway bars? Thanks

navybulldog68

Let me make sure i understand. you are saying from your personal experience that the s tune suspension and a proper alignment fix the problem? What company did your alignment sir and do you have the Nismo sway bars? Thanks

Boomer

My total toe was 22 before alignment. I'm buying the Konis, not the S-Tune and I have every confidence that will be enough. To each his own, Droid, I'm glad your problem is fixed. I'm having my alignment checked again at my independent shop, any discrepancy will be corrected. I expect to get a lot of miles out of my A/Ss, if it takes an alignment every 6 months, so what, its a sports car, not a Camry.

NissanCar

I really feel for all of you suffering because of Nissan incompetence and arrogance.

I cancelled my order for a '04 DB Enth because I did not want to be stuck with a >$30K car that has an inherent flaw.

It is obvious that Nissan has no real intentions of resolving the tire feathering issue and is leaving their customers out in the cold.

Infinity on the other hand has stepped up to the plate and extend the warranty of the G35's breaks (3yr/36K) and even offered to PAY for brake pads and/or rotor replacement customers may have already paid for!

Amazing isn't it?!? Same company, but their customers are treated very differently.

Would you believe that the only time I've seen G35 and "Lemon Law" mentioned in the same thread was from a guy upset about the RADIO RECEPTION!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I'm now a proud owner of a '04 G35 Coupe. I guess all of the time I spent studying performance mods won't go to waste

Check out my simple tribute to tire feathering:
http://tirefeathering.reallysucks.com

Good luck guys/gals,
NissanCar

Michael-Dallas

There's been too much of a lynch mob mentality and too many half-baked conspiracy theories on this board regarding to tire wear.

Tires are a consumable item and Nissan tuned the 350's handling characteristics w/ the alignment specs. Otherwise, the 350 would be no different in handling w/ a G35 sedan, which shares the same suspension design.

You guys make it sound as though the 350 is the ONLY sports car (keywords: sports car) out there w/ tire wear issues. The Acura NSX is considered one of the best handling sports car out there. Ever consider the reason why? Perhaps this will shed some light. Pay particular attention to this comment made:

After a class action lawsuit about what they considered to be premature tire wear, the rear alignment settings were changed. With less rear toe, the rear tires last longer. There is no reason you can't run the original '91-'92 settings if ultimate performance is the goal and tire life is not a primary concern

Michael.

only1

iTrader: (1)

Michael,

I spoke with the district manager for Firestone/Bridgestone in Chicago and he said even with this car, we should get 20,000 miles, not 9000 miles on the tires and that the tire wear he saw on my tires shouldnt be happening and was from the car suspension/alignment.

grifferjr

for all of you owners out there that are taking their z's to an independent alignment shop, are you also taking a copy of the latest TSB, the Dec. 19th one? I am guessing that you are but i am pretty naive about cars. I talked to my dealer, i had the TSB done on the 19th and he confirmed that the settings were set to that in a conversation over the phone and sounds like even better luck was the fact that the dealer was unable to do it themselves, thus had the car sent to an independent shop. but still i dont want to be too trusting. if i can get some kind of piece of mind for 50-80 bucks, i will take it someplace and get it checked and confirmed.

Michael-Dallas

At 9k miles, my RE040's were feathered, but I still had plenty of tread left. The feathering was mostly a noise inconvenience for me and not an accelerated tire wear problem. I could have easily gone up to 15k w/ them, but the 4 track weekends I did chunked the center tread.

I've since replaced them w/ S-03's and asked for little toe-in on the front and couldn't be more happier.

Michael.

Hey Droid, I've brought this up one time already, but care to tell everybody about that RX-8 w/ factory RE-040's you saw up close the other weekend...?

boxsterkiller

What's up everyone! Love this forum too bad I have checked it all out because I'm always on Discussion>Repairing all the time. I am a pre-order Z owner and have all the Z problems including the feathering/cupping issue. I have 12,000 mi on my Z and Had feathering since 9k. I just got my free two new front tires on my Z since being on a "nationwide" backorder. The drifting to the right has gone way, but I am going to see if the feathering has. One thing that I have also noitced is that my dealer also changed some lower control arm, some dealers do it some do'nt know about it. Has anyone else heard or done this? Good luck to all Zers and there problems. I'm in the same boat Tranny, brakes replaced at 10k, belts at 10k,seat bolster coming undone, window streak, seat moves, creaking axles, rattles and squeaks,drifting to right ,feathering tires and a lot of broken clips ,scratches and marring from the dealer.

fuzzwart

I brought my Z into the dealership today to have the seat TSB done and I got a surprise when I picked it up. New front tires! I had been in two weeks ago for feathering and a tire order was placed. At that time, I was told that it would be at least a month due to the "nationwide backorder."

While talking to the service rep, he mentioned an "upcoming recall." From what he said, he understands that a recall is in the works for the tires as he said that the tires are part of the problem, along with the alignment.

We shall see ...

lew f

My Service Manager who has been very forthright says he has not heard of any recall in the works.

SteveZ

iTrader: (3)

It's one thing to speak your mind. It's another entirely to speak mindlessly:

1) YOU started this thread. YOU were looking for help. YOU were telling your tale of woe. Now YOU tell everyone else to **** off because they may or may not agree with you? NICE.

2) The only reason this has gone on so long is the problem has never been addressed. Don't be a baby and slam us for whatever juvi reason you have.

3) Just because you slapped a bunch of aftermarket $$$ into yours, which is hardly a daily driver given you track it, you are giving nothing back to all the people who responded to your first post other than profanity and an attitude.

Nice. Pacifiers and diapers are in Aisle 3, you'll be needing them. Sounds like you current load needs changing from your attitude.

~!UPDATE!~ Tire FEATHERING: FYI
droideka
Resident Evil
frisco, tx
01-06-2003
Today was my appointment to diagnose my car's feathering issue. The bad news is (what I was told) was that my dealer could not get through to Nissan Tech and ended up leaving two messages. The really bad news is that because of my "brick" incident (which only affected one wheel ), I could not get the alignment fixed under warranty and had to eat the labor and loaner car to the tune of $110.

Waaaahhh! Poor Baby.

The real Bad News is why you just haven't gone away along with your profanity and bad attitude...

SteveZ

iTrader: (3)

I might be wrong, but I think the lower control arm you are referring to is part of the TSB for pulling to the right - a control rod of some sort was replaced on mine, it helped fix the pulling but had no effect on tire wear.

I was in the same place you mention at 10.5k - brakes completely shot, tire still wearing wrong, grease streaks, seat rattle/rock...I finally chucked it to an "year one" car and bought a G35 after 14 months with the Z. I'd rather walk from a car and all the hassles than spend $3-5k on mods from NISMO and another $1k on new tires in the blind hope it will address this issue.

I submitted complaints to 2 dealers, NNA, multiple contacts and never so much as received a response other than a "form letter" telling me to "contact my dealer". Even the GSM at the dealer was stonewalled by NNA - they would not give any straight answers, period.

IF I run into any of these issues with the G35 I have a lot more confidence they would address them, given how they replaced tranmissions and brakes for premature wear in '03, etc.

That's the difference when you sell a handful of models to far fewer customers. BTW, the G35 Coupe outsold the Z in November 2003 for the first month since the prior year.

Don't get me wrong - I own multiple Nissans and think they will get the Stock 350Z right eventually. They just blew it with many of the early the '03 models, especially in preparing their NNA management and assisting dealers in resolving problems.

I wish you the best of luck in resolving these issues, but if I had an answer I'd give it.

SteveZ

iTrader: (3)

Sorry for the length, forgot to mention you might find some help with the "creaking axles" if in the rear under issues with the rear brakes. Seems there is a plate of some sort inboard that can get loose and rub metal-to-metal, people really tend to notice it under slow speed and in Reverse probably because the roar of the tire noise isn't drowning it out.

SteveZ

iTrader: (3)

I read your linked article. I'm not sure what your point is, read this thread and you'll find lots of references to Audi TT's and other cars with the RE-040 Bridgestone with poor wear, but not with uneven feathering/cupping wear. People on this forum are not ignorant of other cars' wear issues - just the opposite, they're not happy because compared to other Sports Cars they're seeing worse than they expect. It's a well-informed group despite the occasional juvi response you see.

If you could attribute this issue to just the RE-040 the first replacement set of anything else would likely have ended this issue a long time ago. I lost over 2X the wear on the insides of my tires at 6k over the outer side. Swap the tires, fine, but the wear was on track for rendering the fronts utterly gone by 15k or a little more, with a lot of tread still in the middle 70% of the tire and the shoulders shot. If this was due to hard cornering, I'd expect the outer shoulder to wear instead.

Stating the 350Z as essentially the same as a G35 Sedan isn't a good comparison. It is shorter, has different braking characteristics, stiffer springs, less HP in the Sedan, and I believe the majority came with tires other than the RE040's.

One inconsistency is the G35 Coupe pulls .94 g's on the pad, is faster through the slalom than a track Z. I seriously doubt a heavier car with a longer wheelbase would do so with "the same suspension" and harder compound Michelin P/S tires.

Also, check out the long term R&T test car:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article....&page_number=1
Same issues with pulling to the right, but they massaged 19k out of the RE-040's somehow.

If soft compound put in there for handling was the main cause, as I understand your post, we'd just have replaced with harder tires. But, the Michelin P/S has a higher wear rating, same traction and temp ratings, but manages to last longer and stick almost half a g better than the stock 350Z Track on the skidpad. Why didn't Nissan just put these on the Z? Easy - $$$.

I don't think you can dismiss the wear as normal, and comparing over 40,000 350Z's to the experience of NSX owners just doesn't seem relevant.

SteveZ

iTrader: (3)

Sorry - one point your link mentioned that is worth looking into -
"The car wants the tire go straight when the alignment setting makes the tire want to turn, thus, (simplified) the car is dragging the inside of the tire more than the outside. and wearing the inside. Hard cornering does not effect wear as much as straight line driving."

I did very little HWY miles compared to a mix of rural and city. I noticed a lot of people I've talked to with rapid tire wear (<5K feathering) "just mostly drove to work and back on the highway"...mine didn't really show the wear until 6-7k.