Yes I really don't understand all this backorder on the tires. My dealer had my replacement tires in less than ONE WEEK!

On another note. I saw a commercial for a Nissan dealer yesterday. This particular dealer was offering FREE TIRES FOR THE LIFE OF THE VEHICLE. I got a good laugh out of that. It probably excludes the 350Z though.

 

Here's a follow up article in Autoweek about the 350Z tire problems. I think Nissan had better step up to the plate and do some serious damage control. About time they get exposed in the media.
Former Z owner.Zeeman03




http://www.autoweek.com/search/searc...34305&record=1

 

I replaced my tires with Bridgestone S03s at the end of October and took off on a 3500 mile trip. The previous front tires were so noisy that it was a blessing to have quiet tires on the trip.

Now I have about 5,000 miles on the S03s, they are starting to wear unevenly in the front again. I ran my hand over the front tire and feel the ridges when going from front to back on the inside. Damn!

When I had the S03s put on the service manager from the Nissan dealership was in the same tire store having the TSB done on a Brickyard like mine. We talked about the tire problems and why I was replacing mine. When he left he said to give him a call if I had any problems.

So Wednesday I called him up and reintroduced myself. I explained that the tires were exhibiting the previous problem and I wanted a solution. He asked when the last time I had an alignment, 15K, and told me to bring it in Friday morning and they would do an alignment.

I show up Friday morning and explain to the service writer what my problem was. She asked if I had had the TSB done and I said yes and that was back at 12K with the previous set of tires. I explained that it wasn't the tires that were the problem but the mechanics of the front end. I was beyond the stock answer so she said there was a Nissan engineer coming in the next Friday to look at several Zs that had the same problem. She went back to ask the Service Manager about the visit and they decided to have me come back next Friday.

How many of you out there have had your Z evaluated by a Nissan engineer? Have you ever recieved any satisfaction? Hasn't this been going on since last December or January?

I plan to take off next Friday and stay with the car and ask questions if I can get by the Mickey Mouse rules dealers use to keep you out of the service bays when they don't want you there.

 

When was an alignment done? If so is it still in spec? I would demand to be there with the engineer. Good luck & let us know what is said.

 

I agree w/Mark. Tell them you want to be in the service bay and bring a copy of the Autoweek article. If they balk, show it to them. 39,000 350Zs is not your everyday problem and your car is right in the middle of this fiasco. People need to stop being nice about this. Start reporting these excuses Nissan is telling their dealers to say to us in R&T, Car&Driver, Motor Trend, Automobile, etc.

This has gone on long enough. Nissan needs to hold up some of their intros of new models and do some concentrating on service to their cars already on the road, this is ********!

Boomer--my opinion and I damn well mean it.

 

ChinaClipper:

Another Great Mind indeed. I wonder why it took so long to get mine, since it was both the lowest VIN delivered here and in the first truckload of two Zs. I was called in May and told to start looking for delivery by late July. Does anyone know how they're brought into the US? ie at one port and then transshipped via rail/truck to zone distrbution centers. It took almost three weeks longer to arrive here in Pa. compared to your Tx. address.

Yes I agree the service guy is feeding me a load of crap. Remember this is the guy who said that the new trans they put in is filled with Nissan's special gear oil and I shouldn't change out to RedLine's synthetic. We all know that the manual trans comes with regular old dino juice. Now the Auto trans is a different beast...perhaps he was confused or mis-spoke.



Boomer:
Persuant to your last reply on this thread; this still doesn't explain why every Z is not effected by the uneven tire wear. I wonder what the % is? Did anyone do a survey on this yet?
To paraphrase Autoweek's News article, even though Nissan doesn't consider this a safety issue, I have to agree 100% with you, they need to pay attention to us [the pre-order gang and the early/1st year owners] now!

BTW Would tearing out and replacing the whole front-end suspension cure the tire problem? What a bitter warranty pill to swallow if that's the only solution for Nissan.

 

ChinaClipper:

Another Great Mind indeed. I wonder why it took so long to get mine, since it was both the lowest VIN delivered here and in the first truckload of two Zs. I was called in May and told to start looking for delivery by late July. Does anyone know how they're brought into the US? ie at one port and then transshipped via rail/truck to zone distrbution centers. It took almost three weeks longer to arrive here in Pa. compared to your Tx. address.

Yes I agree the service guy is feeding me a load of crap. Remember this is the guy who said that the new trans they put in is filled with Nissan's special gear oil and I shouldn't change out to RedLine's synthetic. We all know that the manual trans comes with regular old dino juice. Now the Auto trans is a different beast...perhaps he was confused or mis-spoke.



Boomer:
Persuant to your last reply on this thread; this still doesn't explain why every Z is not effected by the uneven tire wear. I wonder what the % is? Did anyone do a survey on this yet?
To paraphrase Autoweek's News article, even though Nissan doesn't consider this a safety issue, I have to agree 100% with you, they need to pay attention to us [the pre-order gang and the early/1st year owners] now!

BTW Would tearing out and replacing the whole front-end suspension cure the tire problem? What a bitter warranty pill to swallow if that's the only solution for Nissan.

 

HWJ:
Every Z might be effected, however drivers don't check thgeir tires and they probably think road noise is normal for a sports car!!!

 

We've got threads crossing each other on this issue, just like before. One owner had the Japanese engineers look at his car and they reset the alignment to full toe-in specs and told him it would take care of the problem. Whoever on this site can get to Nissan and find out about new alignment specs needs to help us, a lot of us have dumped the OE tires and are playing Russian Roulette w/new expensive tires we paid for ourselves! I am not interested in 60 days of driving on my new tires waiting for their report while the tire wear is still eating on the sides of my tires. We need some relief now!

 

It may not require replacing the entire front suspension. But it might require replacing enough of it to alter the geometry and provide a decent range of camber and caster adjustment. This could probably be done with a redesign of the lower control arms alone.

Based on what I know, playing with the toe-in is not going to fix the problem. I've had many cars with extreme alignments that I drove every day on tires like the z comes with. And I've never had this kind of wear just because of running a lot of toe out. Right now I think its a combination of too much camber and too much caster. When I get a chance, I'll probably double check the alignment on my car to see where its at. I'm used to doing my own race cars, so I'd like to see how close my measurements get to what they supposedly are.

 

Another vote for camber/caster kits? Redesign of the lower control arms by Nissan is unlikely anytime in the near future. Based upon the responses I, and others who jumped their Customer Service Division recently, don't inspire any confidence in me Nissan will be spending any real $ fixing the 2003s that are afflicted with this tire cancer.

More media coverage might, but the Z may be going the way of another icon, the Ford T-Bird. Sales are down to 7000 annually and they may have a 3 year run. I'd hate to see the Z go out that way, Nissan.

 

Boomer-
Funny that you should mention the mags. I just made a post in the repair section about how a relative of mine runs the R&T website. He told me that due to a high number of reader letters, the mag is investigating unusual tire wear in the 2003 Zs. I also mentioned the tranny problems and sent him a link to the threads on this site. Now this in no way means that the article will be printed, ad pressure sucks that way, but at least they are looking into it for us.

-Joe
https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=52114

 

Took my Z into the dealer this weekend. They told me they were going to order new tires before they even looked at the car, as per some bulletin that Nissan has out. The dealership was packed with other customers and they were short on staff, so I didn't ask him about the details. I don't know if it's a new TSB or something less formal.

I did ask what they were going to do to the car to stop the second set of tires from being destroyed and he didn't have an answer. He simply said that they haven't had problems yet with cars they have "fixed". But, he then acknowledged that it probably hasn't been long enough to tell. I'll try to find out more when the new tires come in (1 to 2 weeks).

While I was waiting for my car (7,500 mile service and Bose amp replacement), I wandered over to another dealership and started talking with a sales guy. When I told him that my Z was in for warranty service, he wanted to know why. After I explained how the tires were wearing, he immediately said that type of wear can be caused by a bouncy suspension system, such as a car with worn-out shocks. The interesting thing is that he claimed not to know anything about the Z and appeared to be shocked when I told him how the Z bounces on certain roads. I have no idea if this guy knows his stuff or not, but I though it was interesting that he came to that conclusion without any prompting.

 

Yes, everyone seems to know that except NNA. They say, party line here, "there is nothing wrong with the suspension on the 2003 Zs, thats why we are changing the 2004s to a more European(compliant /controlled) setup with stiffer springs and more rebound control and making it the Global setup". I'm not being sarcastic, we know its true because our contacts in Europe got our input on what was wrong on our 2003 suspension.

 

I don't have much hope that Nissan will really fix the problem either. It really is too bad, because I love the car overall. But there is no way I'm going to just settle for a car that eats tires like this. I'm pretty sure I won't buy another Nissan, as I'm already fed up with the way they're handling things...

 

I simply don't know what else to do. We've asked Nissan politely, demanded, cajoled, e-mailed, faxed, spoken directly with NNA's Customer Service, only to discover they have paid little or no attention to our problems. Talking to the NNA CS rep, who sounds like she's 15 years old and being told by her I couldn't put on the Konis to improve the ride or it meant tire wear problems re-occuring would void my warranty tore it for me. I WILL put them on when they are available.

She obviously doesn't know anything about the laws that place the burden of proof on the car manufacturer to prove a mod caused the problem. This ignorance is unacceptable in a national Customer Service Division, it is proof of why we can't get anything done on the tire problem. Also, waiting another 60 days puts other owners, including me, in a delimma. We have spent our own money on new tires and watching them get the cupping or worrying about them cupping has caused such stress in our members many have rid themselves of their Zs. Our resale value is dropping because of this. This is Nissan's fault.

 

I've been saying the bounce/feathering are related for a while now. Maybe that's why the S-Tune fixes both issues. Damn it Nissan!

 

FastQban,
I feel sorry for you. That was my dealer. Their service dept sucks. I didn't even like them changing my oil. I went there twice w/ the NSB in hand and neither time did they perform it. Last week I traded in my Z for a M-B SLK230. As the ACLU would say, I was disinfranchised by Nissan.

The early 90's
Maxima SE
Sentra SE-R
R32 Skyline GT-R
300ZX

Oh Nissan........those were the days.

 

So, should we file a class action suit or what? I have 30,000
miles on my car and are on my 3rd set of fronts and second backs.
The car has been aligned twice and the problem is still there.
I'm willing if everyone else is.

 

I think we should absolutely create a suit. Anyone know how these things work? The only probloem is that I am assuming in a lawsuit you must declare what you are suing for. What would that be? Nissan has yet to admit that there is even a problem let alone offer a solution. We could demand a solution, but then what?

Honestly at this point, I want to do it just to get back at Nissan. I will buy there cars in ther future, but I want my Z. And I want my Z NOW!!! I am on the bandwagon, let's just get it moving!!!
Any lawyers want to step up????
-Joe
(let's just make sure the bandwagon has the s-tune suspension so the tires dont feather!!! )