I thought I was in the clear at 5000 miles but...

Now at 6200 miles I checked my front left this evening at the gas station and I can feel the cupping on the inside of the tire. Time to go see the service manager.

 

I have had my car (VIN#000921) since August 27th and replaced the front tires at 3700 miles. I actually got them replacecd at no charge at the Bridgestone/Firestone dealer under a customer satisfaction rule. I also called Nissan consumer affairs and put in a complaint.

 

So a few weeks ago I take my Z into the dealer for the front tire cupping problem. They find the alignment (toe) to be way off both front and rear.

They found the front tires to just be toasted at about 6200 miles. The rears were also getting feathered too.

So I call Nissan and demand new tires. I tell them that rotating the tires is not going to help and that this was a factory defect. Nissan calls my dealer to confirm the tire problem. My dealer says yup tires are wasted.

So Nissan authorizes 4 new tires for my car! But get this they only have the front tires available anywhere and the rears are not even available at all. 4-6 months to get them. So my dealer tells Nissan to give me some other Bridgestone tires --- SO3's !!!!
Nissan searched high and low for the regular RE040's but could not find any as my dealer told them.

So Nissan authorized my dealer to give 4 brand new Pole Position SO3's. Whewwwwww!!!!!!!!!!! Score!!!!!!!!!!!

They go on next Tuesday. Can't wait to see what they do for ride quality and grip.

Hopefully with better tires and new alignment they will last.

Squeeky wheel gets the grease baby!

Ja

 

I have a question. I just noticed roar this about 3 weeks ago and it is getting worse. I am at almost 8000 miles, but I do a lot of highway travel so I don't hear the braking roar as much, and I haven't thought to check the tire tread for evenness. I just got onto this thread yesterday for the first time.

Anyway, I'm contemplating my next move. My thought is to just call my service department and make an appointment to bring the car in. I understand about making a stink with Nissan, but won't Nissan be getting the word anyway from the dealer who does all of this TSB warranty work on my car, especially if the dealer and I determine that my tires are toast and demand new ones. Frankly, it's a little too much hassle for me to be calling some phone jocky to ***** and moan about something that my dealer hasn't even looked at yet.

Also, what about this water on the windows problem? Has anyone had that fixed to their satisfaction?

 

I have a question. I just noticed roar this about 3 weeks ago and it is getting worse. I am at almost 8000 miles, but I do a lot of highway travel so I don't hear the braking roar as much, and I haven't thought to check the tire tread for evenness. I just got onto this thread yesterday for the first time.

Anyway, I'm contemplating my next move. My thought is to just call my service department and make an appointment to bring the car in. I understand about making a stink with Nissan, but won't Nissan be getting the word anyway from the dealer who does all of this TSB warranty work on my car, especially if the dealer and I determine that my tires are toast and demand new ones. Frankly, it's a little too much hassle for me to be calling some phone jocky to ***** and moan about something that my dealer hasn't even looked at yet.

Also, what about this water on the windows problem? Has anyone had that fixed to their satisfaction?

 

Sorry

 

OK here is what you need to do if you see problems with your tires:

1. Take car to dealer and ask them to check the alignment and conditions of the tires. Tell them you are getting a lot of noise or roar when braking. MAKE SURE you get a before and after printout of the alignment settings (for proof later if needed)

2. Dealer will check and adjust alignment as needed.

3. As per Nissan TSB "Noise when braking" the dealer is only authorized to swap your tires left and right (removing them from the rims)

4. Now if your alignment was way out of spec then you will need to call Nissan and ask for new tires as this was a defect from the factory and a known problem. DO NOT let anyone tell you that these are performance tires and will do that or that is just the way this car is -- BULLCRAP.

5. Nissan will call the dealer to confirm the status of the tires -- good, bad, ugly --etc. This is where you need the dealer to tell Nissan that new tires are needed and the old ones can't be saved. All I can say is ***** and ***** until they give in. Goto a Bridgestone dealer to get them to say it is not a tire problem if needed.

6. If you are lucky you will get new tires, but don't expect anyone to just offer them to you. The other option is to goto a Bridgestone dealer and ask for new tires to replace the "defective ones" you got. If your mileage is low enough they will do this under their customer satifaction policies.

7. Pray to the Z God the problem does not return.

Cheers

Ja

 

My personal opinion on the best way to approach this (and any issue for that matter) is:

1) Take your car into the dealer to have them look at the issues (more times then not, they will say they don't have a fix). What I have learned is that when the Service departments say they don't have a fix, they mean that Nissan has not provided then when a fix/solution. So that leads to the next step....

2) Call Nissan Consumer Affairs and make your case on the problems you are having with your car. They will open a case, and will then start the dialog with the dealership. Believe me, more times then not this is the most productive step in the process. This as you put it "phone jocky" is the one that can light the fire under the dealer.

3) Most likely, you will have to return to the dealer, but should be greeted with a better attitude and desire to fix the problems. Of course they act like THEY have worked really hard to find all of the solutions to your problems but in reality you know better.


*Keep in mind this doesn't alway play out like this, nor does every problem get fixed. However, I have found this to be the best process flow to get things done, or at least in accordance with how it flows between Nissan and their dealerships. The argument of why as a consumer do I have to go through this is valid, believe me I have done my fair share of bitching, but when the end result is that you just want your baby fixed you just have to do what it takes!

Good luck!

 

My inquiry was more related to why I have to involve Nissan if my dealer helps to my satisfaction, up to the fix they now have. I had just heard several people say, "first, call Nissan and *****," when I know that if I was the "phone jockey" I wouldn't do a thing until someone at the dealership told me the problem is valid. Anyway, I have a call into my dealer, who is usually very helpful and candid with me, at least on my 93 TT.

 

I can't even get Nissan to replace my front feathered tires, they said that I have to deal with the Manufacturer (Bridgestone) directly.. The service tech believes(dumbass) since my Z does not pull either way it does not have an alignment problem, which is totally incorrect . I called nissan's national # and filed a complaint, they gave me the same solution. This is DAvis Moore Nissan in Wichita, KS. I barely have 6k miles, and they won't check my alignment for free.*shakes head* Well at lest Bridgestone rep seemed to be helpful, I have an appointment tommorrow morning to figure out if the tires were cupping because of a defected tire or misalignment.. If its a misalignment i'm going to be owing Bridgestone some money. Shouldn't Nissan be owing me some new tires if the alignment is off??

 

Have you given the tech the TSB number? I just took mine in this morning for this problem, and gave him a copy of this entire thread, along with the other thread regarding the TSB, along with the other thread regarding the grease streaks.

 

Nissan North America is not stepping up to the plate with this problem. I took my car in to a local dealership to have them look at the feathering issue so they could report back to NNA. The service tech had just been to a training seminar and Nissan had told him that feathering was "typical" for a high performance tire. He in turn repeated this back to NNA about my tires and now they don't want to replace them. Their solution is to cross swap the tires and hope that it will go away.

I contacted a Bridgestone dealer who said that if you cross swap feathered tires, the car is not going to handle as it should.

Can anyone who has had their tires crossed swapped tell me how the car handles and if the road noise goes away?

 

I began dealing with local Nissan service @ 7k miles about 2 mos. ago. With some urging on my part over several weeks time, they eventually agreed to a free alignment and swapping front tires. This happened after 4-5 contacts by me. In all contacts, they definatly refused to consider replacing my front tires. They would not even negotiate this point. After the swap, all noise went away. It returned approx. 5-600 miles later and instead of noise from 25mph down, it now was noisy all the way up to 85+ mph. I went back to the dealership w/renewed vigor to see this problem rectified. It was about this time that I mentioned I was a member of a large world-wide group of 350 owners and this was not going down well with the membership. After getting nowhere w/service writer, shop foreman, etc., I went to the service manager and finally the gen. mgr. Bingo, in 10 min. of describing the problem, he made a few notes and said my new tires would be here on the following Monday! Long story short? It took a couple of months and finally the threat of the membership of MY350Z.com AND getting to the people who can really make a decision, to get my tires @ 15,000 miles just a week ago.
Oh, I took my car to another Nissan dealership and had it (re)aligned and it was indeed off so I still have a question as to whether the first dealership even aligned it when they swapped tires. Regards, Jim

 

My experience with this problem has been over 30 days and 2k+ miles. My beef is not with the dealerships but with NNA because they have not authorized the tires swap. So after making all the check marks and doting all the i's I went ahead and filed with the Texas DMV requesting fix for tire noise/feathering problem under Texas Lemon Law.

The Texas DMV stated that I have been the only one to report this problem to them and this is not a problem with majority of 350Zs. I am waiting for NNA reply to Texas DMV regarding this issue.

I am now requesting your help. How many of you, that live in Texas (or not), are willing to PM with your name in case I need to reference other 350Z owners that have had this problem. Does not matter whether your tires were replaced or whether you are still having problems getting this issue corrected. In order to count I need a person willing to be contacted to validate that they experienced this problem.

 

You already have my name and experience in my post above. Do you still need me to pm you? Regards, Jim

 

JimH,

Reason PM is that I may need to contact you via phone if you are willing. For now I need first and last name and method to contact you (e-mail, mail or phone).

If and when it gets to Tx DMV holding a hearing then I may be asked to provide information regarding others who may have experienced this problem.

Just got a call back from NNA and it seems they may be replacing the tires.

Nothing is for sure....other than my 6 visits to dealer and several phone calls to NNA and Tx DMV (DoT) and car out of service for 10 days out last month.

May be tomorrow I'll get final answer.

 

I too have the feathering problem on my Z. I currently have 10,000 miles on my car and started to noteice the noise a couple thousand miles ago and it has gotten worse.

I have opened a complaint with Nissan and have an appointment with the dealer in Newark, CA. on Tuesday 3/25/03. My plan is to first get the alignement fixed at the dealer. If they do not replace the tires, I plan to go to
a Bridgestone/Firestone dealer and get them to replace them.

Can you explain this "customer satisfaction rule" ?

Because swaping the tires does not fix the feathering. As I talked to a Wheel Works mechanic, they told me that the tires are shot and should be replaced, not swaped from left to right. It will only hide the problem.

 

Took mine in yesterday. They got to it late, so I didn't get to bring it home last night. However, giving them a complete copy of this thread probably helped. They are going to do the alignment, camber, etc. and then swap the front tires. They have already ordered new front tires and will install those when they arrive. I don't know if this will fix the ultimate problem or not. Has anyone that had the alignment, camber adjustment AND new tires had further problems or does that seem to do the trick? Please let me know what to expect. Thanks.

 

Uh, Rob, this is the first time I've ever heard of Nissan adjusting the CAMBER. It is not supposed to be adjustable as it comes from the factory, only toe is adjustable. This brand new procedure is what we have been needing all along and would you please verify it is truly a CAMBER adjustment. If it is, owners are going to be crawling all over dealers to get this done. Please verify the camber was adjusted when you pick the car up and ask HOW they did it. Thanks, Rob.

 

Don't get too excited. I don't know what I'm talking about. I thought camber was the toe and that caster was not adjustable on the 350z. Bob, my Nissan mechanic, told me they would align and toe.