Grounded:
I first started to see wearing at 1700. The dealership made an toe alignment adjustment and all seems well for the moment.

Today however, I started hearing a thumping side coming from the left front or rear of the car. I know it's not a rock, and I am not losing air pressure....I hate to say it, but it sounds like a bearing

 

Hard to do a search right now...impossible in fact.... sorry:

what do you ask for on an alighment? anything special? or just "factory tolerances"?

Thankx. J

 

BlueDragon,

I have had my car realigned and tire replaced/swapped 3 times with Nissan Tech providing several different alignment specs to try and correct the problem. The alignment machine at the shop has been recalibrated multiple times to verify that it is properly setup. And I still have the feathering problem.

Some seem to be fixed with the alignment; others, like myself, were not.

JD

 

I'm sorry that they were not able to fix the problem. I'm still concerned because since everyone seems to have this problem I think it's just a matter of time for me.

 

Geezer 902

Just tell the dealer the tires are wearing on the outside and they will align to specs. My toe was way ouut and believe most 350's come off the boat out of alignment

 

Well, I have a set of tires comming, but the new set will just end up like the first set if there hasn't been a fix found and initiated! I would hate to ruin a second set of tires over a fixable problem I could have had taken care of! I love this car but for a poor man like me to replace tires every 4000mls, I'll have to get a third job!

 

I got my front tires replaced and they scratched both rims! The dealership couldn't change the tires themselves so they sent them to the local Goodyear store who you would think would know how to change a tire for Pete's sake. I'm sure I'm not the first person to have this happen. If this happened to you, did they replaced the rims or just do some tacky touch up?

 

What could they possibly doing wrong that a simply tire change can't be done?

I've never had my rims scratched and I hope I never do (knock on wood.) I'm glad that they ended replacing both rims for you though.

 

I recently had a horrible experience at a Goodyear shop in Atlanta. Don't ever take your car to one of these places. they breed Morons!

 

Can you elaborate the problem that you had? I've taken my vehicle to Goodyear before and never had any problems. My roommate also takes her C5 to them with no problems.

 

Ok, just got off the phone with a Firestone rep. Really, honest guy. Told me when tires cup (feather) it has absolutely nothing to do with the alignment. He specifically told me after I asked if alignment would have anything to do with it, "Nope, not cupping." The only thing he said would be is either the struts or the suspension. I am bringing it in this Saturday. I will give an update on what they say.

If you have any questions you want me to ask, post it.

Really tired of waiting. Lemon law is calling me out.

Black Track.

 

Please, lets not put out "misleading" information out.



Cupping is not feathering. Two completly different things.

Scott

 

Sure,

My problem with the one by my house in Atlanta was that they were dishonest with me, gave poor service, and were absolutly not competent to do anything but an oil change. To start, I took my Injen Exhaust there to get installed. I gave them the diretions and asked that they use them to do the installation. Six hours later they give me a call to tell me that the exhaust does not fit my car and that they called injen and injen made two versions of the exhaust, one for u.s. specs and one for Jap. specs. This sounded plausible to me at the time so I went to pick up my car and the injen exhaust. When I got there, I asked the mechanic if he used the instructions, he said no, that he did not need any instructions to do the installation, and was adamant about this. Well, it turns out that they also lost several parts of my injen exhaust system and could not find them. At first they said they were locked up in a tool box, and the mechanic that had the key had already gone home. They said to come back the next morning and I could get them. I come back the next morning, and they said that they could not find the parts, and that the mechanic that worked on my car had called in sick, and would be back in the shop in 1 week. Then after I raised more hell they changed their story and said that the part that they lost never existed and that I must be crazy. Well after filling a complaint with the BBB, several days later I got my exhaust parts back and installed it myself in less that two hours. I also found out that they never called Injen, and completley made up that story about the U.S. and Jap. spec exhausts. The manager there was total ****! I could not beleive the level of service I recieved there. I checked with the BBB (Better Business Bureau), and there are several outstanding cosumer complaints agianst this same shop. From now on the only people who will work on my car are myself or the Dealer.

 

If I did, I am sorry. Regardless, I will bring it in this week for them to look at it to determine the problem. This guy has been drag racing with cars that use these tires...Porches and etc...

Black Track.

 

You guys will have to go round and round with the dealer to get the rims replaced. One front rim alone is over $450 and no business wants to cough that up over a scrap! My suggestion is to be persistant. It wasn't like that when you took the car in and it shouldn't be that way when you bring it out! They owe you new rims. Not many tire machines are equiped for an 18" rim and they end up getting cut to the metal!

 

D$*N! Only 1500 miles since my re-alignment, tire swap, and rim scrape. I noticed that my tires were suddenly very loud again, and checked them out this morning - they are feathered almost as bad as they were at 3500 miles before they were swapped.

I'm going back in tomorrow, and I don't know what I'm going to tell them to do. I may just have them make a note of it and drive them another few thousand miles before I get new tires. With no fix, it will just keep happening. Since it isn't really a safety issue, I'll just deal with the annoyance of it for a while.

Part of tomorrow's meeting is to find out exactly what they plan to offer me to take care of my ruined rims. I don't plan to accept anything but new rims, although I may let them delay their cost since they will obviously be unmounting these tires again soon.

 

So which is the cause of which?

 

Cupping is caused by uncontrolled wheel oscillation, (bad shocks) like your Firestone guy said. Feathering is caused normally by the tire “scrubbing” (the tire rolling in a slightly different direction than the direction of the car. (alignment problem)

Scott

 

For those who have been following my Saga with this Tire wear problem ,here is an update. Just took our Z in for 3rd time for feathering tires,Dealer says again" Nissan says it is normal wear." The second set of tires have 3800 miles on them. Theyare starting to sound like a set of superswampers on a 79 Chevy truck.

The dealer has been great. They got Nissan to install the first set of tires when every one else was swaping sides. But on the second set of new tires,They told us that they cant do anything if Nissan will not pay for the repairs. Nissan told them only one set of tires free and Alignment. The tires were replaced at 5000 miles the car now has 8800.
This friggin car is going back to Nissan. We starting the process of filing Lemon law papers today. I wanted to do it last week but our attorney told us to take it back to the dealer one more time.

If you are also having the same problem I suggest you dump the car. If the word gets out that you must replace tires every 4000 miles the value of these cars will drop like a rock. All it will take is one artical in Autoweek or major automotive publication and it is over for the value of these cars. Just ask any owner of a 99 Ford Cobra.This tire problem has effected to many owners to be a fluke. Nissan has a major suspention issue with these car. If it was an easy fix dont you think it would have been corrected.

Please do not make the mistake of keeping your car if you are having the same problems.It could cost you a lot of money. Nissan is full of promises but not correcting the problem.

Thanks for everyones help and good luck to you all.
Soon to be former 03 350Z owner Mark