I have had my Z since November, now at 15k. noise from front end sounds like maybe rotors or uneven tire wear. Called the local dealer, have an appointment today. He says that he may be able to get tires replaced, but i have to carry cost of alignment -since car has over 12k miles. Anyone else get this response?

Also asking to get the rattles in dash and passenger door taken care of - does anyopne knmow of a TSB for these? Vin is 4876.

Thanks for all the info - it helps when going into this

 

MY car was initially set at -.0.26... it's now at 0.06... We'll see if this makes an improvement.

HOW the HELL did a new Z with only 6000 miles get to be -0.26???

 

My current delima is this. I had alignment, front tires replaced at 10k miles. I'm now at 16k and my rear tires are in desperate need of replacement. The feathering could be back on the fronts, but then again I was never good at diagnosing this before so not sure.

My options appear to be:
1) buy new/used rear OEM tires and wait to see if the feathering comes back on the fronts
2) buy new rear non-OEM tires (won't match fronts) and same as option 1 (wait on fronts)
3) buy all 4 new non-OEM tires now, with the hope that either a solution is obtained by Nissan (not real confident that will ever happen) or I add the Nismo S-tune supension soon after (no long term tests yet to prove this fixes the problems)
4) Do nothing and fight with Nissan about getting this problem solved (not realistic, but thought I would include it)

If anyone has new options, or opinions on the ones I've listed, please chime in.

Thanks,
Scott

 

What are the last 6 digits of your VIN? I just bought car yesterday trying to see if my range might be affected thanks

 

car's outside now and I can't go run out and check right now. I know the build date was 01/03... (Supposedly WELL after NISSAN had the "newer" alignment specs out)...


Just as an FYI... my TOE was off on ALL FOUR WHEELS, and so whas my CAMBER on both REAR wheels!

I'm not sure if the cupping / feathering is going to come back yet, but I can tell you that I THOUGHT the car drove and handled well before. Now it feels like a true SUPER CAR on rails!

 

Hey Scott! Long time no see. I am in nearly the same boat as you, and I am leaning (myself) towards option 2.
Will I see you at Saturday's ZCoT TX Tour?

 

Awesome, at the 3750 checkup I'm having them check it, right now its "railage" all day long I can't even imagine better My build date was 11/02 so I can def have the prob, thanks bro

 

The dealership had my car aligned at 1700 miles. There was wear on the outside of the front tires.
Had the oil changed to day (5500 miles) and asked the service manager to look at the front tires again (with all of the 38 pages of problems, I want to make sure the alignment was holding).
The dealership I go to is great.
The service manager looked at the tires and said they were now wearing on the inside. He advised me to bring the car in first thing Monday morning. He said we needed to align the car again.
Obviously, Nissan defintiely has a problem. I am hoping they will find out what it is and make the corrections. I will continue to monitor the tire wear at every oil change.
I hope at the end of all this we can say it was a minor first year vehicle problem.
I think we all need to keep communicating on this site and share the information as we get it.

 

I had the alignment problem, my car is 3 weeks old. I called my tech ( a very nice girl named annette) and told her have an alignment problem. She said pulling to the right...I said yep but there is no fix. To my suprise there is! Compression Rods!

I am going early next week to have the work done and I will post the results


T

 

I had 8750 sum odd miles on my car and it sounded like I was on knobbies. I got my dealer to take a look at it they said your feathering alright. They called Nissans warrianty deparment and low and behold there sending me a new set. Will be in next week, Thanks Victory Nissan of Chesapeake....lol sounds like a commercial

 

I spoke with two nissan reps out of chicago from Nissan North America, and they said there is still not a fix on the tires feathering and or the noise produced by this! And, from what I can see, the way that nissan keeps making more cars including the new convertable, they are not concerned with coming up with a fix. It looks like we are out on our own ladies and gentleman! They don't even mention that nissan engineers are even working on the problem or anyone for that matter! I still love my car though! Maybe it would be nice if they did too!

sin"Z"erly,
calvin

 

Cal_Z, I am a female living in Central California and the Nissan Dealer is trying to passify me. They have put new tires on my car, but scratched my wheels. I am now waiting for the Tire Dealer to get me new wheels. Since Nissan appears to not be coming up with a permanent fix for this problem, is there a way that they can be forced, through some legal means, to come up with a fix?
Kathy

 

I can't see Nissan being forced into anything unless there is a safety issue. As I see it, annoying quircks will get marked down to be fixed by the time the next model comes out but it would cost way too much to make a re-call. Even if they had a fix, the legal or finacial departments within Nissan could shoot it down. I'm losing my sense of hope. My biggest fear is that this issue will ruin the market value of the car.

Does anyone have access to recent alignment specs that I could take to the dealership? I have the before/after from my first alignment and I'm wanting to compare the two and see if there have been any changes. I'm afraid that Nissan will not authorize a second alignment unless I can prove that they have changes specs on us. Thanks in advance.

 

From what I have read here, it seems that the problem I am starting to have may be feathering as well. (started at around 8K). I thought I was going crazy because the noise is not the issue but the feeling I get in the pedels at lower speeds is.

When driving 30 to 40MPH I can feel the road (and/or tires) it seems rough to me. In addition the breaking at slower speads feels rough as well. I remember smoother roads and breaking untill about 2 weeks ago.

I have not noticed any kind or wear pattern on the tires yet but then again I have not taken them off the car for a closer look.

Did anyone else notice the breaking to be a bit rough in association with the feathering problem??

 

ZredZ,
I haven't heard that anything can be done to make nissan do a permenant fix. Like someone said previously, if it is not a hazard, then they won't have to fix it! This is a good question though! I have a few friends of the legal field and I will be asking that question to them tomorrow when I go back to work! I'll will come with a response tomorrow evening! It must be your good looks kathy, and your appeal that makes your dealer passify you! Because my dealer sure hasn't done me that way! Although I did get new rims after they damaged mine also. But, it was after 4months of bickering that I finally got a new set! And they damaged them again!

best of luck,
calvin
SS, 6mt, touring
p.s.- the show at Indianapolis, Indiana was wonderful! I met lots of interesting new friends and learn so much more about nissan!

 

Cal_Z:

I had my car aligned at 1700miles. I just had my oil changed at 5600 last Friday and they looked at the alignment today. The car is still aligned perfectly and the tires are wearing ok. My Vin number ends in 5885, I'm not sure that's good or bad
The service manager assured me that Nissan is very much aware of the problem and he said if my tires start to feather he will purchase new tires for me until the fix is found.
Too many folks have bought cars with a problem. A good attorney can start a class action suit against them and make the situation very visible. Bottom line, this is a new model with new model problems.
I do hope they find the fix, I too love this car!
Lew

 

I just bought mine last tuesday and its a 5/03 build date with the last 5 being 18660....will i be ok it has 700 miles on it and should i ask for an alignment already?

 

It wouldn't hurt to have your alignment checked! You may be the lucky ones.

cal-z

 

My alignment has held for over 5K with no feathering. If you see abnormal wear on the tires bring it in to the dealership...
Enjoy the car

 

Well, I thought my dealer was being responsible and thoughtful. They said my alignment was to be done when new tires for the front arrived. I received the call on Monday, telling me the tires had arrived, to take it in for alignment. Left it in the morning, at 4:30 p.m. tried to contact them with no luck. Then I went straight to the dealer, and after some waiting they told me the car was ready. Lo and behold, when I checked it out, it had the SAME tires. I told them so, and then they called the tech. He said that Nissan was not allowing new tires to be installed because of that problem, they just swapped sides. I'm calling NNA today, I already have a case # cause I thought something like this might happen.