Those miles and problems are almost identical to mine. I bought my daytona in May 2003 and the 7500, 8500, and 15500 are pretty close to what is happening to me. Today, I had the 21000 mile check up done and told them the growling was back. He called me about an hour ago and said they were ordering tires and should have them in a few days. Geez.

 

you're definitely right that it's Nissan that decides what's covered under warranty and what's not, but it's entirely plausible that the dealer is the ******* not doing the work, even though Nissan has authorized it. don't ask my why. i've gone in at least 3 times for feathering only to be turned away by the dealer saying they can't do anything to the car ("working to design"). i insisted that Nissan is willing to pay for all fixes, but they refused me service. i called nissan and complained and they were surprised to hear that the dealer turned me away when i had a "known issue" that the dealer should be willing to correct at any cost. so in my case, nissan is willing to help me fix the problem, while the dealer refuses to do so.

 

I've had a similar experience, but I have a feeling that this arrangement is really an easy way to point fingers from both sides. What I'm saying is, Nissan claims that the dealer should not refuse to work on your car, yet the dealer won't work on it because they will claim that Nissan isn't going to pay them. Who's telling the truth? In many cases, we'll never know. I suspect that Nissan is turning down payment for a lot of this work though, which is shitty on their part.

 

Yeah, I knew someone would bring this up; I know a lot of people have had similar experiences and I almost mentioned it in my first post. The reason I didn't is because I just can't explain it!

I don't know if there are different arrangements they have with Nissan or they have so much non-warranty service business that they can afford to turn this down, or what! One thing I can tell you; both the dealers and Nissan customer service are very skilled at deception. Don't necessarily believe what either of them tell you or lead you to believe.

I think you have two choices; the best one is to find another dealer that's willing to work with you. It doesn't matter where you bought your car you can have warranty service done anywhere. If that's not practical, what you need to do is have Nissan (who will usually try to make you think that they are eager to resolve your problems) call the dealership and tell them to do the service. After that, all you need to do is make an appointment.

Good luck!

 

I had to exactly this at my local dealer. They refused to work on my car, and I had to get NNA to tell them to work on it. I'm to the point with them now though, that I'm trying another dealer.

 

I am CONVINCED OE Bridgestone Potenza RE040s are 90% of the continued cupping on 350Zs. Why? Because only a few owners have reported 0 problems with the OE tires. Why does Nissan continue to put faulty tires on our cars? Maybe their contract with Bridgestone is still in force and they must fulfill that contract.

I have said this so many times I'm sure everyone on this thread is sick of me. A tire with a wear rating of 140 should give you 15,000 miles max and even then, you have to be absolutely RELIGIOUS about maintaining recommended tire pressures. Low tire pressure wears down the edges of the tires, right? How much could a tire rated at 140 UTOG wear if they are a few lbs. low for a couple of weeks? I would say, A LOT!

The owners who are reporting the most wear are the ones who continue to run the OE tires, I know this because I have followed every single incident on this and all the other threads on this subject. One of the owners who had his tires examined by the Nissan team of engineers Nissan sent over heard one who said "the 350Z is intended to be a toy, used on weekends for maximum performance". The OE 040s perform very well on a track, they aren't worth a **** as daily drivers. Buy new tires, sell the 040s to racers or use them as racers only yourselves. They are WORTHLESS as daily drivers, unless you drive them like a maniac on the street as well as the track.

Buy new tires, get a proper alignment from a shop who specializes and stop blaming your dealer who may not have the experienced aligners you need. The smart ones send you elsewhere, others refuse to work on your car. Until Nissan can deliver cars with other tires for whatever reason, if you get 12,000 miles on the 040s, accept it and get other tires. I don't think the suspension design is faulty, Nissan marketing was, because they thought the Z would not be a primary car for anyone. WRONG! It is the primary car for a lot of people who purchased one. Poor alignment, improper tires for the way the car is used is the problem, IMO.

I bought new tires, put 6400 miles on them, no abnormal wear at all from a dealer's alignment. I will be putting new shocks on when they are available and thats all. I would urge the Moderators do everyone a favor and archive this thread, because the same subjects keep being repeated over and over again w/o gaining any resolution at all. We are now on the 4th or 5th incarnation of the tire wear saga and the thread's originator got his tire problem fixed long ago. Its in this thread, do a search if you don't believe me. This thread benefits no one any longer in my estimation, continue to wallow in it if you wish, but its not helping a thing that I can see.

BTW, I am the first owner to publish a list of problem areas with the Z in the Fall of 2002, so I do have crendentials/experience with the Z's flaws. We need to move on and off this topic now.

Boomer--my opinion, use it or lose it, I don't care.

 

Even if the dealer says he can not fix/work on your car when you take it in, be sure and have them put it in the work order that you complained about the feathering and they refused or could not fix your car. That way you have a paper trail of all the times you took the car in. This may come in handy when dealing with NNA or if you go after the lemon law.

I am in a good position since I can drop my car off at the dealership and walk two blocks to work. I plan on taking my car in twice a week untill I get it fixed or I have annoyed them enough to buy it back.

 

Well ... The dealer would not fix this problem originally. I had to call 800-NISSAN1 and start a case. That was 7 weeks ago. They finally convinced the dealer to handle the problem, even after the dealer tried to weasle his way out of it ... I actually got a call from Nissan and they said, "the dealer recommends that you take the car back where you bought it ... since you didn't buy it from them ... they dont really want to shell out the cash to fix this problem which is not covered under warranty" ... in a nutshell, thats what she told me. My response was, "Why isn't it covered under warranty, and you need to remind him that I just bought an '04 Altima from them not only two weeks ago." She did, and my appointment was set for yesterday. The dealer rotated the tires, and had something done to the alignment, although they wont tell me what was done, and said that the people who did it don't make printouts of what the alignment was before and after. So its a mystery. I have a 2004 Enthusiast.

When I brought the car in yesterday, the dealer tried to pull the ... "its past 12,000 miles" crap ... he didnt want to do the work ... said that the alignment and rotation is no longer under warranty. To which I had to pull out my receipt of when I had the car in his shop at 9,000 miles ... where he (yes, the same guy) sent the car home without any work done, and told me to call 800-NISSAN1 and start a case ... SO between 9k and 12k, I started the case like he said ... and he was STILL trying to weasle his way out of fixing the problem.

Thats why my sentiments towards dealers are less than positive.

I cant stop thinking about how I would be treated if this car were a BMW or a Lexus ... My boss has a 3 series, and he noticed ONE TIME that the fuel guage was at empty whe in fact he had just filled it up the day before. It reset after turning the car off, then back on, and never happened again, and the dealer simply ordered up another gas tank, gave him another 3 series to drive for three days, and replaced the tank in his car. No fuss ... no arguing ... no trying to weasle out of it ... just raw customer service. The way it should be.

Why can't Nissan just admit the fault in this problem and quit trying to get out of repairing it? They are one of the largest car company's on the planet. Surely they have enough engineers to find and fix this problem.

OH ... the dealer told me that Nissan recommends that I rotate the tires every 5k miles from now on ... by having them swapped to opposing rims. EVERY 5K!!! I would be doing that every 3 months if that were the case, and that has to cost at least $30 a tire. Thats going to get awefully damn expensive, and they want ME to bear the cost. Thats what Im talking about ... why should I have to pay for something that is not my fault?

I would trade the car in, but I just cant do it. I would loose too much money, and well ... I cant imagine driving anything else at this point.

Mike

 

See my previous post for another perspective on the problem, please.

 

Although I have been a frequent contributor to this thread, I have to agree with a lot that Boomer says. My experience has been that the RE040s are a very good track tire. That is the only reason I have any respect for them at all.

I'm not sure, though, that the thread should be archived. There is still too much that's uncertain. We still don't know "the fix". People have replaced the tires with completely different brands and still reported feathering. As far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out and I am still awaiting a real fix from Nissan.

It will be interesting to see my experience over the next 6 months with completely new tires and a professional alignment.

Brian

 

Hello Boomer...
I'm still on the rant, however with New Front RE040's supplied by NNA - I'm enjoying the car once again. I've driven it to work twice since the new tires were put on. About 350 miles since the new tires, in one month. I daily drive my Max.
I see where you have bought new tires. Could I ask the brand, size and how much?
As I now have three new 18" RE040's on the car, and Driver Rear is checked out good. I feel I can take it to speed.
I have my four original 17" with 4000 miles ( chrome ) and
bought a set of 17" from a Forum member with about 2000 miles.

I now have 12 RE040's on rims and a pair of new front 18" spares tires available to me. ( belonging to wld350Z ) - His rears are slicks.
That is 14 RE040's... All the extra rims and tires I got on the cheap. But I recognize your above statement to be factual.
I have been delaying any change in tires, to not delute the
common problem this thread addresses. I think the car is capable of matching mileage of it's tires with an Audi TT. 18 to 24 thousand miles, with out noise.

Also Wld350Z has an alignment to Nissan Specs. He has a set of Volks - 19" GT-7's and Toyo TS-1 - exact sized diameter to the original tires. VDC does not gripe.
After some mileage, with alignment to spec, the tires show some
feathering but are not yet Growling.

I read you have 6400 miles and are operating properly. Be advised I'm not ragging on you, but I have great mileage on tires on my old pair of 1981 280zx Turbo Coupes. 30,000 miles on Yokahama AVS Sports is not out of line. Road trips only... Even the old Dunlops on the white car have 20,000 and look like they can do more..

Boomer, I'm glad you have this issue ( Feathering ) down to the tires. But we still have the bounce/porpoiseing to solve. Hopefully the Koni's will solve this. Eric Hu and I should have the unit's in three weeks.

I will go down the path of change the struts/shocks with Koni's and hope I get the use out of my three complete sets of RE040's. If they show signs of premature wear, we can feed the "Tire Eating Monster" a freash set of rims/tires of "best available".

If the "Tire Eating Monster" eats those, well **** it.

Ha !

Cheers Amy -

Thanks for your input Boomer.. You are most likely right as the 350Z was designed to run Pilot Sports by Michilin, and changed out to use skid pad tires near the end. And only in USA market.

Baka !

 

Hobson:

What tires do you intend to run?
Also do you have any suspension mod's
- Please post Alignment specs
- Inquireing minds want to know.

Cheers Amy -

 

Boomer:

A fellow I spoke with on this subject said:

That tire ( RE040 ) uses a uni-directional design - one direction only. But the tire does not comply to other UNI-Directional designs.
The design is special as it uses "as explained by this fellow" a cross cut bias link between tread and side wall.

I don't have a clue what that means but maybe you guy's know.

Is this why the leading edge is high and the trailing edge is low after some many miles?

Cheers Amy -

 

I have the 5AT Touring, Amy. It means I have 17" wheels. I bought Michelin Pilot Sport All Season or A/Ss for short. They $202 ea. frt and $212 ea. rr in the stock sizes, 225/50/17 frt and 235/50/17 rr. They have a UTOG(wear rating) of 400, as opposed to 140 UTOG for the 040s. Wear ratings from tire brand to another vary some, but the A/Ss are expected to be long wearing. When I add the Konis, I will have a new alignment from my suspension specialist that will give me the best handling setup, more toein, and expect only 25-30,000 miles out of the tires with sport settings. It will take me a couple of years to get that many miles on the car since I'm retired and they should have no cupping at all from their harder tread.

Unfortunately, they don't fit your 18s, or they didn't last time I looked. However, I think Yokohama may have all seasons in the stock 18 sizes. You have the right attitude, Amy, just drive it and let it eat the 040s and come to grips with any fix we get when they are worn out. I'm just tired of wringing my hands and crying, woe is me, which is why I made the post.

I do believe I have it beat, the tire eater monster, I mean because I have no symtoms from a dealer alignment, no s**t, and I have all the faith in the world from my expert in keeping a decent alignment on the Z. The Konis will massage my butt and all will be right with the world, or whatever. I'm hoping your date and mine coincide with the Koni delivery and we can compare notes on how sweet they are. Baka, Amy. I wish cheers to you. Boomer/Keith

 

I have installed four Kumho KU19's (a fairly new model) $139 apiece from Tirerack.com. 245/40/18 front (same diameter as stock) 245/45/18 on rear (stock size). They are very quiet and smooth and so far I'm very happy with them, but they have only been on for two days and I haven't really wrung them out yet. They're rated 300 treadwear AA traction A temperature.

I have no suspension mods. My suspension is firm, like a sports car's should be; I have never experienced "porpoising" that I couldn't blame on the car simply following the road I drove it on, just like it should. I may eventually get some Eibachs to soften it up some.

I don't have the alignment sheet with me. He set the front to .05 degrees toe-in on each side, which he assured me was equivalent to 2mm total toe-in. Let me know if you want the full run-down; I can post it tonight.

 

Look, I'm not trying to get into a pissing match because you have obviously made up your mind about all this, but I will say that there are several things in your post I don't agree with. What I really don't understand is why folks who "fix" the problem by paying out of their own pocket insist that everyone else should do the same and quit complaining. If yours is fixed, fine. Stop posting in this thread. There are a lot of people that can't and/or won't pay out of pocket to fix a problem with a $35k car that should be taken care of by the manufacturer.

You sound a bit like Nissan by saying we need to "move on and off this topic now". You need to move on. You feel like yours is fixed, and I'm happy for you. Many others are not fixed, and they will not just drop this, essentially bending over and taking it raw from Nissan.

 

If the cupping issue can be blamed on the OEM tires, why is it that the rears don't exhibit the same problems?

 

The OEM tires are fairly soft, so the problems people are seeing will show up faster than they would with a higher wear tire. Unless the root problem is fixed, tires with better treadwear will only delay or slow down the final outcome. For some people, this may be a reasonable solution, but it does not fix the root problem.

 

Boomer,

The fact that the same subjects are repeated is the very reason that this thread must continue. The thread will go away all by itself just as soon as Nissan does what it needs to do. They are still cranking out cars with this problem or at least they were at the begining of the '04 model year. Too early to tell if the models being sold now still have the problem. If the solution was as easy as changing the suggested total toe spec by 1mm and changing to a different tire I can't imagine that Nissan would not have done this already.

I don't disagree with you in that there are undoubtedly much better tire choices out there but I don't believe that replacing the tires can solve the problem. I'm seeing too many posts where owners have purchased different tires on their own, including the Pilot Sports, and those tires have also feathered. So just how problematic are the RE040's? Here is a partial list of vehicles that I posted on another forum a while back that are, or were equipped with RE040's.

Acura NSX
Lexus IS300 Sports Cross
Lexus IS300
Toyota MR2 Spyder
Audi A8
Mazda RX-8
Audi A6 Biturbo
VW Passat
Nissan 350Z
BMW Z8
Lexus SC430
Mazda Protege
R34 Nissan Skyline GTR (I've read that the these tires were originally developed specifically for the Skyline)
Lotus Elise
Opel Echo Speedster

It would be interesting to find out which of these vehicles has had widespread tire problems, other than the rapid normal wear
that you would expect from a soft tire, and if a problem existed, was it corrected by simply switching to another tire.

 

Hey, nobody has to agree with me on this thread. I think its a waste of time given how long and often we have complained to Nissan, our dealers and each other. I'm simply stating what I have heard and experienced. Keep it going if you want, I am suggesting another way out of the swamp this topic has mired many of us in for too long. Its your right, go ahead.