Thanks, I'm going in for an oil/filter change next Monday and will point out the feathering after the service. I want to test the dealership and see what they say, before I give them the answers i.e. tsb# etc. I hope they past the test and recommend rotation and alignment. I guess the nice thing is that if it works I got it early and if it doesn't and I'm back at 8-9K I will beat them for some new front tires before I am out of the 12.5K warranty.

 

I've found a solution to my wear problem. My current tires are Bridgestone S03s and I've had the TSB, alignment, another alignment and still have the feathering slowly returning.

Yesterday my son and I took the Z to the track and ran autocross. 6 runs apiece and I don't care about the tires. The course takes care of the feathering quite nicely.

 

Just an update from back then on the tire problem. Nissan replaced the front tires with Michelin Pilot Sports. I had to pay $100/tire, which was fine. It made all the difference. I've logged 10K miles on these tires and it's been great. I went with Michelin HX or something or other in the back. A little less expensive. If anyone reads this and knows of a tire that is high performance with more mileage, let me know... rxbethany@msn.com

 

Bnbutler, just curious as to why you had to pay $100.00 at tire for you Pilot Sports. Were you over 12,000 miles? Nissan replaced my fronts with Pilot Sport A/S at no cost to me. You might want to look into this.

 

Lucky you I'm about to take my car in for new tires. Sucks that they will be the same piece of crap on it now, but this is the 4th documented time in for the problem. I tried to get my dealer to go with the Pilot Sports, but he refused. He owns a 350 too...what a dick...

 

what kind of luck are you guys having in getting the tires replaced after the 12000 ml mark?

 

not too up on how to navigate in this forum but if you can search my posts on this thread then you can review my story on how I got my tires after the 12k mark. In fact I got them at 15k free. I wont go into it now cause I have done so about 2-3 times already. Cal_Z if you cant get the search then pm me and I can walk you through it. Overall not too hard, just takes a little more patience and polite persistence.

 

I had mine replaced at 9400 and now at 15k they are feathering again. The Service Manager told me to wait till the next oil change and he will replace them again. I now will try to get him to replace the fronts with Michelin Pilots and I will buy the backs sine i have (20K) on them and they will need replacement.
On a side bar, I drove the car to Columbia SC from Atlanta today and got 27.3 miles per gallon.

 

I had mine replaced at just on 18,000. No arguments from Nissan or dealer. I had first reported the problem at 9,000.

They tried the TSB at 9000 - didn't work.

They redid the alignment at the same time as the new tires, to the "roving Japanese Engineer" spec. I'm on 19,500 now, but it's too early to see if the feathering is coming back. It hasn't yet, anyway.

 

Had to pay a visit to Autoway Nissan in Clearwater today on a related issue (wheel damage and repair done during the last tire change) and here is what little info regarding tire feathering I was able to glean from the Service Manager. By the way, in spite of everything I have said about these guys, they still have the best service department in the area. Anyway, with regard to my car, while we were looking at the wheels , the Service Manager, the same guy who claimed I had no feathering 1 month ago, looked at the tire and, with no provocation from me, announced that I had feathering on the outside edge. This is what I have been trying to tell him for two months. He is as stumped about the cause as I am. He also showed me his latest feathered RE040 collection. He said he just recently replaced 5 more sets, if I understood him correctly. He said multiply that by the number of Nissan Dealers and that is alot of cars. He then showed me a 350 that had just come in for feathering. It was an '03. He wasn't sure about the mileage but thought it was close to 15K. He said Nissan denied the customer a new set of tires stating that "they are only a 20k tire". And these were bad. Way beyond heel and toe. The inside tread blocks were just completely cupped beyond all recognition. I can't believe the owner waited that long to come in. I also asked the SM if he had any knowledge of a suspension change in '04 and he said he did not. In my mind all of this does not bode well for that supposed forthcoming tire fix. I am really starting to believe that Nissan is just going to blow this whole thing off. I then told him that I had filed the motor vehicle defect form and asked him if he had a problem with the final repair attempt being done there. He said he did not. I'd like to thank Steve at Autoway for taking the time to speak to me in a friendly, open and honest manner.

 

has a formal complaint been filed yet? this feathering problem has affected so many of us. i for one will sign on.

 

I think about 40,000 complaints have been filed but Nissan does not seem to care about letter and fax campaigns, Internet ranting, customer surveys, phones calls to Nissan Consumer Affairs or even bad press. They are clearly winning the battle in the forums. They have beaten us down to the point where we are just plain tired of talking about it. But that is not to say that they are winning the war. Ultimately there is only one thing that gets there attention and that is litigation. Here is an e-mail from a Nissan employee recently posted on another forum. It may be indicative of their ultimate position on this issue.

I interpret this to mean that Nissan has fixed the problem at some point in the '04 model year with their rolling suspension change and everyone else unfortunate enough to have purchased one before this is on their own. This is totally unacceptable in my opinion. There are only two possibilities here. Either Nissan has fixed the problem at some point during the '04 production year and refuses to apply this solution to the vehicles produced before this time or Nissan has not fixed it at all and is still producing cars with the problem as we speak. In either case the best choice, and perhaps the only choice that Nissan has left us, is to seek protection under State and Federal Lemon Laws.

In light of this I offer you my interpretation of the 2003-2004 350Z Accelerated Repurchase Program or How to Drive a 350Z for Two years For Free. Nissan has a State Certified Arbitration Program in most States. You don't need an attorney and even if you get one he or she may be forced to submit to the same arbitration program. Of course, you can also file under Federal Law in which case you will need an attorney. In any case I am not giving any legal advice here so much as outlining the vehicle preparation neccessary to take advantage of the Repurchase Program that Nissan has forced many of us to pursue. Laws vary by State and in this example I am using the three (3) strike rule plus a final repair attempt which is typical. Save all work orders and take meticulous notes of every event and conversation related to the issue. If you take the vehicle in and they do nothing, get a work order that says that they did nothing.

If you own an affected vehicle you should not delay in getting it in for service. Don't wait until the front tires are cupped beyond all recognition. Take it in at the first sign of heel and toe wear. This pattern became apparent at just over 3,000 miles on my vehicle. They will undoubtedly apply the latest TSB. Strike one. Perhaps they will even give you new tires if you ask but you are better off not asking for new tires. If they replace the tires you are looking at 3,000-5,000 miles before you can re-assert your claim. If they don't replace them you can take it back immediately. If you get it in early they are less likely to replace the tires.

Assuming that they only do the rotation the first time, take it back in again in about 30 days on the basis that the tires are still cupped and noisey and you want new tires. They may re-apply the TSB, replace the tires or do nothing. Strike 2. In any case get a copy of the work order.

Let's assume that you got new tires during the second repair attempt. That would probably be typical. You may have as little as 5K on the car at this point. Now you need to do some driving. You've got to put enough miles on the car as fast as possible and take it right back to the same Dealer that replaced the tires last time as soon as the heel and toe pattern starts to appear. He is going to be very reluctant to replace the tires again at that point. Nissan is going to be very reluctant to replace the tires again if at all. They may do another alignment. In any case, it's Strike 3 for Nissan.

If the tires were not replaced at the third repair attempt then you can send your certified vehicle defect notification to Nissan and go right to the final repair attempt. Otherwise you've got some more driving to do. At the final repair attempt, Nissan, based on what I have seen, will do nothing more than check the alignment and replace the tires. Don't accept snow tires like the Pilot Sport A/S or other ultra-hard low performance tires that will just mask the problem and delay your case. Insist upon the soft high performance tires that the car was designed for. Once the final repair attempt is completed you've got some more driving to do. Rack up enough miles until the feathering begins again. Take a road trip out West or East, as the case may be. That should do it. That's Strike 4 and you can now go directly to arbitration where you will easily prevail based upon Nissan's total lack of a case. But before you do that send Nissan another certified letter offering to settle the case. They don't want a retitled "lemon" on their hands. They don't want to pay for legal fees and other expenses. It is in their best interest to settle. Offer to settle for a complete repurchase with no offset for use or, at the very least, the offset limited to the mileage at which the problem was first reported. If they don't settle, go after them with a vengence. Enter the certified Arbitration Program if it exists and file a Federal Suit. Now they are looking at very expensive legal fees and may reconsider your settlement offer. Either way it's going to cost you nothing and you will win.

 

Three weeks ago, after listening to the tire noise grow louder and louder, I decided to call Nissan Consumer Affairs and file a complaint. My '03 Touring with 7,500 miles was suffering from the grease streak problem, squeaking brakes and annoying tire roar. The rep. took down my info. and tried to tell me that he hadn't receive many complaints related to mine(total BS!). I asked him if he was aware of the TSB's that had been issued to correct my problems and he said he'd check into it, whatever that means. Either way, I didn't really care what he had to say, I just wanted someone to document my issues.

I then contacted my dealership and explained to them that I was due for my 7,500 service and that I'd also need a few other services provided. I did the night drop thing and included a letter detailing my issues and the related TSB #'s. I also mentioned in the letter that I had contacted Consumer Affairs and gave them my case number. Later that day, the dealership called and said that they had resurfaced my front rotars, which would eliminate the squeal. They plugged something in the door to ensure that I'd have no more grease streaks. And then the best thing, they said that they would replace my front tires because of the noise and uneven wear at no cost to me. The catch..."Unfortunately, the tires are on back order,... blah, blah, blah." Anyhow, they arrived a couple of days ago and were put on yesterday. I had them print out a spec sheet for me listing the before and after settings for my camber, caster and toe. A couple of the settings were really off originally. My new toe settings are at .04 on both the LF and RF and .02 in the rear. My camber is at -1.0 LF and -0.7 RF. Do these numbers sound about right? And they ended up putting back on the same Bridgestone Potenza's RE040's. I asked him "Don't you think I'll be back in here in another 8,000 wanting new tires" and he said, "No, because we adjusted the pitch." What the heck does that mean? I also asked him about installing a new suspension and he said that wasn't necessary because now all of the settings are correct. Didn't know enough about "pitch" to argue with him, so I just drove home. Wow, what a difference new fronts make. I didn't have to cut my radio up at all to drown out the noise. It's so.....normal, now. Unfortunately I think it's going to be short lived. However, I'm going to stay optimistic.
My dealership treated me with a lot of respect and really appreciated my letter documenting all of my concerns. They really deserve some recognition for a great job with no hassles. My rep from Consumer Affairs on the otherhand, sucked the big one. I left several meesages for him and he never returned any of them.

So a couple of questions: do my settings sound accurate and what does pitch have to do with tire wear?

Thanks!

 

well i am in no way a car expert but i have done some homework on this car and its tire problem. this is the first time i am heraring about any "Pitch". maybe the dealer is using it as an all inclusive term. one thing i can tell you is that if they told you that they adjusted the camber and caster they are wrong. one of the possible inherent flaws with this car and its setup is that camber and caster is not adjustable. also in what i was told was that this is the same for the 04's. the only way camber and caster are affected on this car is indirectly in the changes of the toe. also keep a watch on your tires and you can get an appreciation of when and how the feathering will come back. the original 040's have shown to develop the feathering again rather quickly. when i got my fronts they were the harder all weather compound so they dont wear as much. I have been on them about 3.5k now and no signs YET. I know the feathering will come back, just not as soon as if I had the 040's on. man this is frustrating. glad to hear you had a good experience with the dealer though.

side note: how do you like the TSB for the grease streak. any problems with the door, window or wind noise now? I need mine done but i have heard some pretty bad horror stories about problems afterward. your input would be appreciated.

 

NNA told me that as long as your tire problem first originated before the 12000 miles it is under warrenty.

I had my tires swapped at 9000 miles and then replaced at 13000
by NNA.

 

LOL! I did the same with my Z last Fall at NHIS track day, fixed those tires right up! 'course I lost a fair amount of brakes, tread, etc. same time!

One piece of advice a guy gave me as a rookie to running a true street car on the track was after a lot of hard runs if you use the brakes a lot was to just change out the fluid. Sure enough, the brake fluid was darker red and ready for a change out. That, and don't put on the parking brake when you park in the pits right after coming off the track!


p.s. If you have the autocross bug check out the Hardbar & 6-point harness I still have in private classifieds - collecting dust now...puts the harness right height (shoulder, not below) and is a 2-bolt installation.

http://homepage.mac.com/stracy01/MOV00012.MPG

 

Looks like you decided to go with the G35. Can you detail your story on the switch over? Also, what are your opinions on the G35?

Thanks.

 

Add another one to the list. I just had my 03 in for the feathering.
Same story.
Started 8000 miles.
TSB 8500 miles.
Replaced tires 9500 Miles.

Thats were I am at now.

The service advisor said i had to rotate the tires side to side every 6000 miles. Get an alignment every year. It was a one time fix and the alignment should fix the problem, and there is nothing they can do if the feathering comes back.

We will see. I hope it doesn't.

 

I had a problem with my dealer dickin' me around, called NNA they sent me to another dealer a couple weeks ago. I had my tires replaced yesterday. I asked about alignment and the rep said I did not need it. Today he calls me and says NNA has requested they do another alignment on my car ASAP... The loop is starting again...


I am well over 5 times having my car in and my buddy (that drives a G) just laughs when he follows me into the dealer...Now I have to wait til it comes back to report it a lemon.
Does anyone know if you can file for lemon law after the 12k, 12 month time period if the problem still exsists?

 

Maybe you misheard - maybe he said "we adjusted the *****"