I can't because I have never heard of it. What was his source? If you could find out, we can move to inform Nissan we know its out and we WANT it NOW. We need a hard copy in our hands for this, if it exists, otherwise its worthless. Could you dig deeper and find out if you can get in writing??

 

Has anyone else heard anything about this? This would be great news.

I just dropped my car off at the dealer tonight with a 2 page list of items that I want addressed. I took a Symptom/Action approach... listed the problem & how to reproduce where necessary, and then recommend actions based on what's worked for people posting here.

I also have a call into Steve Lam @ NNA.

 

I just thought about this for more than 2 seconds. If I recall correctly, camber is not adjustable on the Z. If this is true, then a different length control arm would adjust the camber.... correct? So if we have a camber issue what's the cause, incorrect engineering or damage in shipping?

Any thoughts?

 

Unless the control arms were damaged in some way by shipping, and your info is correct, it should be incorrect engineering or assembly. The lower control arms could be too long, thereby changing the camber with the top of the tire leaning in too far.

This does not explain the feathering on tires which were feathering on the outside(too long at the top?), rather than the inside like most wear problems. So, do we have incorrect control arms and should they be examined for assembly problems?

Were apples mixed with oranges, wrong control arms at top AND bottom through assembly error?

"Are the top and bottom control arms different lengths"? Shorter at the top, longer on the bottom =negative camber, too short at the top(too much negative camber causing the inside of tires to wear faster), too long at the top=too much positive camber, causing fast wear on the tire's outside shoulder?

If the control arms are different lengths, you could have a comedy of errors if the part numbers are screwed up. You could end up w/cars with two short control arms, a short and long control arm reversed, two long control arms? and normal short top and bottom for the cars that have NO PROBLEMS!

I am going to bed, I must be at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. I couldn't possibly be correct, I find all the wrong answers to eliminate a possible, not a REAL fix.

Boomer--TTFN

 

WOW! I didn't even think of this combination. I think you and I are two of the people along with Enforcer who have outside edge wear. Anyone else? The comdey of errors you point out is quite interesting. Does someone out there have this combination

\ Long \ Short
\ Short \ Long

which would result in feathering along the outside edge of the left & inside of the right. What about the opposite...

/ Short / Long
/ Long / Short

which would feather the inside of the right & outside of the left. More interesting about these combinations, wouldn't we have the car pulling to the left in the first scenario & right in the second.
Could our cars have been built after a long night of drinking Sake? The arms were taken from the wrong bin?

As I said in another post, my car is at the dealer. I'm expecting a call today. I'll have them check if there are part numbers on the control arms.

Boomer, thanks again for your insight.

 

Well sort of. My tires are in at the dealer and I got a call on Thursday for an appointment this week. SM was out when I called but we spoke yesterday. My appointment is on Wednesday morning. I am getting two new front tires. The interesting thing is the SM is taking my car personally over to the Hunter Tech Center. They run the alignment machines at my dealer. They are doing a complete analysis of the current set up with the old tires and then they are going to optimally set up the car to the specs of NNA. My SM was at Mitsu when the 3000 GT had this problem for two years and knows his stuff ( I think). The intersting thing is he mentioned that he has some ideas from NNA on what to do. Could this be control arms? I am meeting him at 8:00 AM and he promised me a full and detailed info session on what is happening. I will post tomorrow morning when I get to work.

FYI, my car has already had one alignment back in February and the feathering got way worse. I now have 11,000 miles on my Z and except for the mack truck sound from the tires, I love it. I hope this resolves my main issue and yours, too.

 

Why the hell won't my service manager replace my front tires?sheeeesh and I can't get STeven Lam at NNA to tell him to do it either, obviously he's giving the okay to others*shakes head*. Anyone else not getting there front tires replaced under warranty??? I know this sounds sick and its always the last excuse and would never use it but humm... I'll wait to say

 

Please post your results ASAP for the rest of us.

 

Please post your results ASAP for the rest of us.

 

nice, let us know the old and NEW Align specs and any thing else you guys figure out. I would think someone with LOTS of align experience would have a good idea of what it could be.

 

OK, I was on the wheels and tires thread and silverz said he was told Engineering was aware of the problem and a fix will be available in 2-3 months. I posted him back, asking for details, but he may not be on the site anymore. If I find out anything more I will post it here.

 

I just got back from the dealer and they were very nice. Gave me hail damaged Maxima to drive for the day or two the Z is in service. Got to say my hopes are somewhat high as I spoke with the SM. He is working with the District SM here in Dallas. All I can tell you right now is that the SM and Hunter are going to measure the current specs ans see what the cause is. The SM and Hunter are going to optimize the alignment with Nissan's help? Still no official fix he says. I feel this is a test run for them.

He swore he will give me all the info on the specs before and after. I will request (strongly) that I get them in writing so they can be posted for all.

I will keep you posted when I get any calls and get the info.

 

Perfect, ezchief. Thanks, Boomer.

 

Hey ezchief, I had a good talk with Richard (SM) the other day. I was very impressed with him as well and he explained the process your car (tires) was going to be taken through to hopefully find the cause of this issue. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as well. It sounds like this Hunter outfit has some amazing equipment.

Funny, I had to stop by the dealer on Sat because I had a screw in my brand new tire courtesy of the tire feathering. It just won't stop!

You should try and join us at our next Dallas meet ezchief. We are planning one on Sat the 26th.

 

I have made it to a couple meets I think. When the weather got cold, my car washes stopped in frequency and I know how **** some of the guys are in the meets (Brad). Although he says he has turned a new leaf after one track weekend.

I will keep my eyes open for the next meet. Would be a good way to exchange thoughts and results on the feathering.

 

I just got my car back yesterday after the Magnnuson's Nissan dealer put new tires on my car. It runs nice and smooth now. I forgot how quiet the car runs when the tires are NOT cupped.

However, I had put 1,100 miles on my previous tires AFTER the alignment and tire swap (from left to right) and found that you could see the feathering/cupping was coming back on the inside tread blocks.

I mentioned that to the dealer as I dropped off my car but they insisted that they want to put the new tires on anyway and take a "wait and see" attitude. I have a strong fear that the feathering/cupping will happen to the NEW tires.

I will update as soon as I see the problem return.

 

I have a couple of things to report. Took my car in for service they inspected the tires and said that I did not have the feathering issue. The service writer wasn't there for me to speak with so I called back today. Got a different service writer and asked him to confirm what was acutally done. He said that the alignment cannot just be checked w/o doing an alignment job. As such, I don't have any specs to publish. However, in speaking with the other service writer he was very interested in the issue and asked that I bring the car back in for him to inspect. He has the same attitude as I do... he'd rather catch the problem early. I'll post info after I make it back over there.

On a related topic, there were 2 Boxster's and 1 Boxster 'S' in the parking lot today, parked near me. Interesting enough, both Boxsters had Bridgestone S-02's on it and both had extreme wear on the inside edge. The Boxster 'S' had Continentals on it and had even wear. Has anyone checked out any Boxster forums and gotten any info from those owners? Is there something we can learn about the difference between the Boxster & Boxster 'S'?

 

Well guys, here is my latest. Just got a call from the SM. He said they worked for three hours taking measurements, checking the angles on the suspension components, and stressing the suspension to see if it moves or shows signs of misalignment upon load. Also, checked the tires to make sure they met specs. All of this was done at Hunter remind you.

1. Tires meet specs even though they suck. Not an issue or problem.

2. Geometry and stresses were good but revealed the proposed problem.

Upon further testing:

The toe out as seen in most if not all of the spec sheets posted on this forum (Aggie and Kawata )were way toward the negative end of the spectrum. He noted on mine, and measured that the toe out increased upon load (passengers) thus pushing the toe to the extreme toe out position. For instance, Aggie was at -.21 and got realigned to a more "neutral" toe position. If aggie, which I do not know, ways 200 pounds, this could force the toe out of spec and every time he drove, the tires were eaten and featherd.

I did not get my car back yet. They have faxed their findings to get a new optimal toe setting so the toe out is reduced or removed all together upon load (he infered NNA engineers). Once they get the optimal toe setting, they are going to align my car to that, test it on the road and do measurements back at Hunter tomorrow. If the toe out is resolved we might have our solution we have been looking for (I hope).

More to follow tomorrow>>>>>>

 

Everyone experiencing this problem now or in the past...
PLEASE POST on THIS THREAD
so we have a complete list. Nissan Dealers are acting like NNA and Nissan Technical have no idea that this is as big an issue as it really is.
The thread is only for VIN, location and when you reported the condition to your dealer.

Please Post!!!

 

For instance, Aggie was at -.21 and got realigned to a more "neutral" toe position. If aggie, which I do not know, ways 200 pounds, this could force the toe out of spec and every time he drove, the tires were eaten and featherd.

I guess, I am going to have to get one of those "No FAT CHICKS"
bumper stickers, or make them pay for tires!