devildogg

Well, I just had the TSB performed on my little Z. 10730 miles, I forgot how quiet the car was. I guess I just got accustomed to the road noise. Let's hope it doesn't return. My build date was April 03. The dealership really did a nice job, not a mark on my wheels. Damn, I love this car!

Regards!

lew f

Devil Dog:
I too had the pleasure of new tires at 9400miles and realized how bad the noise was, after the fact.
I will not take the chance of letting this car get past 12K without protecting myself from a warantee perpsective. I had one run in with Nissan North America "Customer Service" and that was enough!!!!

Pit Bull

If they gave you new tires at around 9000 miles, how are you going to protect yourself from a warranty perspective before you go past 12000 miles? Just wondering??? Want to keep all of my options available.

mrice

Open a complaint file with NNA. I just got new Michelins at dealer expense, if they feather it must be an engineering issue, not a tire issue.

kawataworks

Pit Bull -

As long as you have taken your car in before the 12,000 miles were up, to deal with this issue you will be covered (although I am sure some dealers will try to say otherwise) for the rest of the term that this issue is not resolved according to the Song-Beverly Warranty Act. "If the defect exists within the warranty period, the warranty will not expire until the defect has been fixed."

So if the cupping issue occured within warranty period (ie 12,000 miles) and the issue has not been resolved even after the warranty period has expired you, by law are covered for that issue.

Ian

SteveZ

iTrader: (3)

Let me guess - Pilot Sport A/S? Check your traction/wear ratings across tires.
Since the RE040's are soft, I'm seeing replacements come through that are likely to take longer to show any problem just due to compound being harder.

That tactic sounds like just extending the time and hoping you'll go away or not experience the problems until well after your warranty is up.

SteveZ

ZISBAK

Well, after 3000 miles with a new set of front tires courtesy of dealer, the feathering has come back!!!
So far at least I'm not getting irrated road noise like I had before, but I'm pretty sure it will creep up soon or later! I will try to go back to dealer to complain about the featherin. I did spoke to someone at the Discount tires, and they indicate that due to the block tread design on those stock tires, they tend to have tendency to feather! I'm going to see if the dealer willing to replace the front again, so I could replace the rear at the same time. Now I have close to 13000 miles.

SteveZ

iTrader: (3)

Nissan has not acknowledged any defect exists that causes feathering or unusual wear. All they have done is put out a TSB to swap tires side to side to even out the wear.

NNA's official stance is there is nothing defective about the 350Z related to this problem, period.

No defect, you're out of luck post-warranty period.

SteveZ

iTrader: (3)

You may be hearing something in the rear wheel area related to a brake issue. One of the mag's long term test car had a click or rattle from the rear that turned out to be related to a plate or similar. Might have been R&T or Auotmobile.

Possible you hear it in R only because at road speeds it's just "noise".

lew f

Pit Bull:
I protected myself by filing for the Lemon law. As much as I love this car, the response I recieved from the NNA rep forced me to do it. There is no fix and tires should not feather. Others on this thread are trying to buy and develop their own fix. Nissan needs to step up to the problem. I now will force them too with my situation. If you, Nissan won't protect me by the car back!!
Lew

SteveZ

iTrader: (3)

Best of luck to you, and if you have retained an attorney, you might want to consult with he or she on whether you want to post much more info outside a Court...

SteveZ

iTrader: (3)

oops...that's him or her!

kawataworks

Though Nissan has not foramlly acknowleged a "defect" in the car, the TSB should cover most people, if the dealer replaced the tires due to cupping and uneven wear prior to 12,000 miles.

I am sure though that many dealers are going to fight against having to replace the tires. I have heard many such stories from some of the guys on my list that I am tracking their progress with this issue.

I myself have 16,500 miles on my Z and had the Pilots put on my car authorized by Nissan at 13k miles. This is the second set of tires that they have replaced after the OEM 040's first showed signs of cupping.

A number of us have sent letters to Nissan North America and now we finally got a response; Jamie in the Nissan's Executive Offices 310-771-8415 called one of the guys and acknowledged the receipt of the letter.


Below is a copy of the letter
________________________

May 3, 2003

Nissan North America, Inc.
18501 South Figueroa St., Gardena, CA 90248, U.S.A.
Phone: 310-771-3111
Fax: 310-771-3343

cc: Carlos Ghosn, President & CEO NML, Shiro Nakamura, Senior vice VP of Design NML,
Mamoru Aoki, Chief Product Designer NTC, Kazutoshi Mizuno, Chief Vehicle Engineer NDA,
Alfonso Albaisa, Associate Director of Design NDA, Jed Connelly, Senior Vice President NNA,
Bill Kirrane, VP & General Manager, NNA

Dear Nissan Motor Co.,

We implore the leaders of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. to stand behind and deliver on Carlos Ghosn’s promise, "The New Z will deliver the performance and high design qualities of today's cutting-edge sports cars at a truly attainable price. Our goal is to build a memorable, no-compromise sports car..." by fixing the tire feathering/cupping issue on the 2003 350Z. (TSB Ref: NTB03006)

We demand that the Nissan Motor Co. make a commitment to quality and ensure the “Z” heritage not be diminished by allowing a sub-standard product to be on the market.

All of us have put our faith in the Nissan Brand by purchasing our 350Z sight-unseen. Many of us pre-ordered and put deposits down for our cars, 8 to 12 months, in advance because we believed in the words of Shiro Nakamura, Senior VP Design NML, “First, the design offers strong visual and driving appeal, but the Z can also be appreciated for the more practical side that comes with everyday ownership – durability, utility, comfort, reliability and low maintenance.”

We plead for a timely and thorough investigation of this issue. Please do NOT allow shame to be shed on
Kazutoshi Mizuno, 350Z Chief Vehicle Engineer, by turning a deaf ear on a serious problem with the 350Z.

We call for a complete and permanent solution and most of all, justice. Please do not let us down. We believe
as Carlos Ghosn does, "that the Z is the heart & soul of Nissan". We would hate to find out that the "350Z DNA" is made up of inferior genes.

In Solidarity,
The Undersigned

Ian - VIN #100157, Case Complaint #4082264
David - VIN #100594
Scott - VIN#100903 Case Complaint #4059755
Robert - VIN#1766
Jason - VIN#100725 Case Complaint #4049797
Vince - VIN#000877 Case Complaint #4075864
Cobey - VIN#101116
Rod - VIN#110836 Case Complaint #4084933
James - VIN#1324 Case Complaint #4079129
Chris - VIN #103197 Case Complaint #4063661
Jim - VIN#003283
Steve - VIN#004278
Cam - VIN#103689 Case Complaint #4006573
Steve S. - VIN#006118 Case Complaint #4083945
Tim - VIN#103395
James W. - VIN#101018 Case Complaint #4081081
Brad - VIN#000368 Case Complaint #4069344 (2nd)
Conal - VIN#000786 Case Complaint #4089440
Michael - VIN#010832 Case Complaint #4084381
Matt - VIN#002594 Case Complaint #4089713
Keith G. - VIN#000680 Case Complaint #4088854
Keith H - VIN#001434
Lee - VIN#100674 Case Complaint #4087221
Glen - VIN#013166
Rick - VIN# 002043
Jerry - VIN#006027
Mark - VIN#015615
JD - VIN#002533
Joy - VIN#100850
Ricky - VIN#00172
Steve Se. - VIN#005449 Case Complaint #4126032
Richard - VIN# Case Complaint#
Jim T. - VIN#007045 Case Complaint#4203517
Vic - VIN#007468 Case Complaint#
Todd - VIN#005309 Case Complaint#4248428
Ron - VIN#009176 Case Complaint#4240264
Chris 2 - VIN#007549 Case Complaint#4097306
Thad - VIN # 114492 Case Complaint#598815
Mika - VIN #004318 Case Complaint#4254193
Robert - VIN#003612 Case Complaint#
Jacques - VIN#109759 Case Complaint#4309843 NHTSA DOI number is 10043366
Ramon - VIN#002338 Case Complaint#
Josh - VIN#112964
Milt - VIN#002370 Case Complaint#4322037

SteveZ

iTrader: (3)

"I myself have 16,500 miles on my Z and had the Pilots put on my car authorized by Nissan at 13k miles. This is the second set of tires that they have replaced after the OEM 040's first showed signs of cupping."

Pilot Sport? A/S? First replacement set was another set of RE-040's?

Thanks.

Grommit

iTrader: (3)

Uhh, so what exactly was this 'guy' told? Was it just a standard, "Thank you for your interest in Nissan. We appreciate your support. blah blah" or was it something more meaningful?

If they don't get a fix for this I am honestly going to just give up my $1,000 deposit and save myself the headache of dealing with this issue in the future. I'm sure I'd lose a lot more money if I did pay for the car and then tried to trade it in or sell it later down the road when I get cupping.

Anyone up for a protest infront of NNA's building?

kbsig106

They had to "re-torque" the right end. It had come "loose" and that was why I was hearing the clicking sound.

On another note: While the Z was in for the "clicking" - they had also received 4 new tires per NNA to be replaced. However after 6 hours in service, they realized NNA had sent the WRONG SPEED RATED TIRES!!!!! I about lost it right there in the service dept. The dealership blames NNA customer service and NNA customer service blames the parts mgr. Either way this is total BS. So I had to leave with the same 4 sorry a$$ tires that make my Z sound like a Kenworth.

NNA cutomer service left me a message Monday morning saying that they will "upgrade" me to priority one.... WHAT?? Was I not a priority before?!?!?! So the BS continues. Also I worte my local paper to see if the automotive section would like to do a HOT story on the 350Z problems. I heard back from the editor of that section and he's going to do story in the near future.....


Nothing beats bad press....

ezchief

And nothing kills a car's resale value like bad press. I too am frustrated but can't we give them a little more time. Kawata, what was the response from NNA? I guess how long do we wait? Some have filed lemon law claims and others are trying their own fixes. I guess I am one who "hopes" they will address this issue and stand up.

Oh yeah, I was a pre-order and have 22,000 miles on my Z.

kbsig106

HOW MUCH TIME???? Isn't my time valuable also? Besides it's been a year already and the 04's are showing the same problems. I mean come 'on this isn't rocket science we're talking about here - it's just freaking tires. What get's me is they ordered the damn tires and I waited for 3 weeks like a good little consumer. They call me to say the tires are in and I go to the dealership at 7 am to drop the z off. They called me a 3 pm to inform me of the "bad" news - wrong tires. There is a safety issue here folks and Nissan needs to step up BIG time. Someone is going to get seriously hurt or worse if something isn't done to correct this.

I ask you this... At what cost should this be taken care of? A life, a family, a few hundred bucks???? Nissan has all of us by the ***** and we should not stand for this. As far as resale value, I could car less at this point. I'm actually glad I leased the Z so at the end of the 48 months I can let them have their POS back and let it be some one else's problem.

I HAD faith in the system until last week when Nissan seriously let me down. I wanted this car to be corrected in the worse way, I even defended the Z as my wife @itched me out several times. I've gone to the wall for this car and I expected the same from Nissan however that has not been the case. That's why I've gone to the press - it's time to turn the tide on Nissan and take the aggressive approach.

Pit Bull

They better hope that mine doesn't have this problem. I'm their worst nightmare. I retired in my 40's and I don't have anything better to do than bug Nissan and the dealer. Matter of fact it will be fun

corsair

iTrader: (12)

I took my car to the dealer today to address the tire feathering issue. I spoke to the service manager and explained this was a known issue on the 350Z. Without further explanation I took a seat. 20 minutes later I was told that 4 new tires were on order for my car and would be fixed under warranty no charge.