Has nissan fixed the porpoising (bouncing) problem for the 2004 coupes?

Question, has the porpoising/ bouncing problem been solved for the 2004 coupe models and the roadsters? did they change the shocks on these newer cars?

Is the feathering still a problem on the 2004 models

I am thinking of buying a Z and feel a little disapointed by thee problems.


2000 BMW 323 auto with sports package

 

I have read several reviews of the convertible roadster and to the best of my knowledge none of the articles said anything specific about ride problem fixes. Also the 2004 coupe models whatever they will be have not been announced, but my bet is that they will offer either a new suspension across the board or offer an option for those that take the word "touring" seriously. If you want to tour in a Z you better have good kidneys. Nissan apparently doesnt give a damn about the 2003 Z owners and their ride problems. I would advise a lengthy test drive before committing to a Z.

 

Reprise: I drove from South Metro(HOME) to North Metro, a trip of 68+ miles on interstate, secondary roads and city streets yesterday by myself on Friday. I got out of the car once before returning home and was hurting by the time I arrived. I have serious ortho problems(hip replacement) and the ride is simply too stiff with stock suspension and slightly softer(non-OE) tires. The biggest problem for me is the BOUNCE, and I had a full tank of gas, since the Z is very sensitive to fuel tank levels.

Rebound control is almost non-existent, so a change of struts has become mandatory. I don't believe Nissan will retrofit any new suspension parts for any 2003 cars. I will buy my own, because I love the car, but anyone who can't tolerate the ride needs to find out before you drive the car, not after. If a dealer refuses to let you test drive the car, walk away or you may be unhappy with the ride and have my predicament. Why Nissan chose the settings they did is a mystery to me. Not every buyer is a racer and calling my model a Touring is not even close to the truth and is just plain stupid.

BTW, I have had an artificial hip(s) since 1970 and none of the other sports(y) cars I have owned since have been this uncomfortable for me. As the European article points out, you don't need a rock hard suspension to be a sports car.

Boomer-my advice, use it or lose it, I really don't care.

 

SO what set up is recommended? New Struts only or also new springs? what brands are recommended for a decent less bounce and less tire feathering?

What about the transmissions, are they also going bad in the 6 speeds?

 

2003 or 2004? I can only speak to 2003s and I will buy Konis when they come out and they are engineered to work w/stock springs. 2004s may have the running changes incorporated in the Euro model suspension, or not? Test drive a 2004 if you haven't tried a Z yet. OH, coilovers are usually stiffer than stock.

The 6MTs are being replaced in each 2003 car as needed so far and Nissan is just doing it w/o fanfare or explanations.

 

It is a shame the euro market is getting the suspension we should have gotten all along. Heck it has stiffer springs but the shock is different. That is our problem the shocks. Curious to see what is really different on the euro Z's. Progressive springs? I still wonder if they are getting the NISMO S-Tune........

 

I've owned a Porsche 911 Carrera and Acura NSX, both rode like a sports car, that's what I expected from the 350Z. What's this bounce you guys are talking about? The 350Z rides and handles a whole lot like the NSX, that's one of the reasons I bought it.

 

I guess everyone has their own take on what ride quality is all about. Speaking for myself (and wife) riding on country roads and even highway in our "Touring Z" can be an extremely tiresome experience. Although we have other cars for long distance traveling I had thought of taking the Z on 150 mile jaunts for long weekends, but I really don't know if we'll be able to walk when we get to our destinations.
I have never driven an NSX but I have never read anything bad about its ride quality. If you don't mind the Z's ride quality then you must be the profile driver that Nissan had in mind when it put together its suspension. Unfortunately, some of us romanced ourselves into the "pre-order" madness and never got to truly test drive the car. When mine arrived in Aug. 02 I couldn't wait to get it off the lot and even then it took several months before we realized that the ride really sucked.

 

That's a good point. My other current vehicles are 4x4's with solid axles front and rear. I last drove a Dodge 1 ton 4x4 for 350 miles to visit a friend and it did not bother me. Guess it depends on what your expectations are?? I think the best solution would be to have a Lexus 430 LS for road trips and the Z for fun on the weekends and a Toyota Landcruiser for shopping and when the weather is bad. If you could send me a cashiers check for $150,000 I will buy these three vehicles and do an indepth analysis to determine if these 3 vehicles are the best mix.

 

That is exactly what happened to me except I thought changing to different tires, instead of the awful 040s, would solve the problem. It helped, but not enough to make the ride OK. I am banking on the Konis to be the final solution. If they don't get rid of the bounce, I will trade or sell the car. I expect them to work because Gordon at Koni rode in their test Z and said they did get rid of the bounce.

We will see if thats true on the roads I drive on here. My "preorder madness" is long gone and this is the last try to improve the ride for me.

 

I just bought a new 350ZR in Miami and drove it over the weekend back to North Carolina. I had my wife with me, and a very limited amount of bagage (good reason for that with the ZR!). That totalled up to 1,075 miles of driving on everything from smooth blacktop to rough concrete, including a significant stretch of construction zones.

I was very impressed with the ride, both my wife and I had no problems and she has some back problems. The ride was much better than the Coupe I had. I found the ride controlled, not at all harsh, and very comfortable. Sure, a Lexus LS430 would have been smoother but I'm very impressed with the ride of this, which is really a sports car.

I've also had a chance to hit some hard turns with it and don't feel I've lost anything. The car tracks perfectly, is well balanced in corners, and seems to respond well when pushed. Of course, your opinions are yours and mine mine but I will recommend the 350ZR for most any riding.

John

 

Well Boomer, you and I have been posting for all of this year plus, and I know for the most part we share the same concerns and reservations about the Z. The question now is, who is going first to see if the Konis' are the answer. My bet is on you. I know you will be brutally honest with all of us and let us know if it is truly THE ANSWER! Do you think they will be available by December?

 

I have a 2004 Enthusiast coupe 6MT. I've been following the tire feathering and bouncing threads, and haven't found my car to exhibit any of those problems (yet). I only have 2000 miles, so the tire feathering problems may not arise for another 8000 miles or so. Sadly to say, I'm expecting it to surface, and have been monitoring my tires every couple weeks. If I'm one of the lucky, feathering may never surface, but it helps me deal with the situaltion if I expect it to happen.

As for bouncing, I have not perceived that characteristic in my 2004 Z. However, before I bought my car (7 weeks ago), one of my coworkers told me he saw a Z along the same stretch of freeway that both of us commute on, and he noticed that the car looked like it was bouncing all over the place. He told me the bouncing at the rear looked similar to that of the rear axle of an empty 18-wheeler trailer. That observations was about 6 months ago, so it was definitely a 2003 model.

I drive that same stretch of freeway (HWY 50, near Sacramento/Folsom), which is concrete pavement with slight undulations, and I don't get that resonating bounce that a lot of you folks speak of. My air pressure is checked often, and it's at 35psi. I know most concrete pavements exhibit undulations from wear and strain from loaded trucks. I can feel the undulations in the Z, but I can't really call it an unliveable bounce. I do, however, know exactly what some of you folks are talking about because my motorcycle has that head jarring nauseating bounce on certain stretches of I-280 in Silicon Valley. While I'm bouncing around like a clown on meth, everyone else in a cage looks like they're having a nice leasurely drive.

I've found that it all boils down to a combination of wheel base, weight, spring rates (also influenced by tire pressure), and damping rates, that has a fundamental frequency that equals that of the undulation frequency. A matching frequency would amplify the effects of the undulations, thereby causing a bounce that may even cause your wheel to lose contact with the pavement. You can change the fundamental frequency by changing any of those parameters. That's probably why some folks have been able to add weight to the rear end or change spring rates to eliminate the bounce. However, that change may take care of a particular stretch of road, but if you drive on another strech of road where the undulations are spaced out differently (slab segments are different lengths) or travel speed is different, that bounce might resurface.

If you speed up or slow down 15-20mph from the speed that causes the most severe bounce, it should change the frequency of the undulations enough to reduce the bounce to a more tolerable level.

All-in-all, I wouldn't expect a suspension specialist to design a particular suspension for repeated undulations of the pavement. Concrete pavement designs differ from state to state, and country to country. It is just very unfortunate that the combination of weight distribution, spring rate, and % damping (shocks) matches that of concrete pavement undulations/warpage in your neck of the woods. Those Nissan engineers tried to optimize weight distribution and suspension characteristics while staying within a set budget, but unfortunately they fails in real-world test on old concrete pavements in certain parts of the world.

Now, I've only read about 30-40 posts on this subject, but are any of you finding problems with bounce on asphalt pavement (AC)? I suspect that you shouldn't at all because AC does not exhibit cylical undulations. If nobody has problems on AC, then it's mostly a road issue...poor ride quality from poor construction and poor design of rigid/cancrete pavement.

Do any of you who have the bounce problem live near Sacramento? If so, we can do a comparison test. Just PM me.

don

 

You undoubtedly have another perfectly reasonable slant on our problem. The cure for our complaints are not that arcane. As you and many others have pointed out it is a matter of changing out the shocks, springs, sway bars etc etc. Who knows. I for one am not an engineer. But I do know that Nissan has the expertise to solve our problems and has obviously decided for what I surmise are economic reasons, not to do anything about it. (These are the same people that create all that fabbo Infiniti technology). I would be content to at least have them admit to the problem and make real workable recommendations for a fix (besides buying into their overpriced Nismo program). That too won't happen, so we will all bumble around and sooner or later one of us will happen on a fix that really works and I for one can only hope it won't involve massive amounts of dough. If I am not mistaken I think I already did that one.

 

Brutally honest? Funny, I hadn't thought of myself in that way. Anyhoo, rest assured I will post my impressions as soon as I can get the Konis installed. THE ANSWER remains to be seen and I am looking forward to getting the Konis. BTW, only the rears will be available first which is sensible since the bounce seems to come from the rear. OK by me, they may be all we need at first, then we can install the fronts later if we like the rears. December would be nice for a Christmas present, November would be even better. Apparently, Gordon said January to avoid dissappointing us, but indicated it could be sooner.

That would be nice. offlogic, will you buy or wait? Remember, I have special ortho problems you may lack and they may be perfect for you and others and not quite right for me. I am shooting craps here and hoping for a seven. Boomer

 

You appear to have a good grasp of the issue and you presented a very clear argument. Furthermore, you are correct that the problem is rare on asphalt pavement (but not impossible in my experience) and far more frequent on concrete pavement.

However, in the same way that I would not expect an engineer to design a suspension system that works well only on a certain stretch of concrete, I would also not expect an engineer to design a suspension system that only works well on asphalt. (I have driven on many freeways in LA, Orange County, San Diego, and Phoenix in this car. A few stretches are ok, some parts are barely tolerable, and the rest are absolutely dreadful. It’s not the same in other cars, even other cars with a sports suspension.) As with all other parts of the car, compromises must be made for the car to be drivable under a variety of conditions for a certain price. I don’t think Nissan found the best solution this time, much to the dismay of my internal organs. I’m all for a sports-car ride, but this is a sports-car ride plus more!

If I had to commute on the freeways every day, I don't think I would still own the car. Thankfully, I rarely need to use them.

 

I have serious bouncing on AC, enough in one spot for my head to contact the headliner! I run 33psi in my Michelin A/Ss, 35 is horrible everywhere around here, but a couple of lbs less is more tolerable in the worst spots. I don't seem to have any underinflation issues and may go back to 35psi if the Konis work as I expect them to do.

 

Roadsters respond" have you noticed the bouncing problem in your cars, is the ride ruff?

We all pretty much know what some coupe owners are going thru

 

Since I haven't perceived a serious problem with the bouncing (above and beyond what I'd expect from a very firm suspension), and have the same car as everyone else, I'm going to have to visit the nearest Honda dealer, and test drive the S2000 on the same stretch of road that has concrete pavement. I'm so curious now as to the comparison between cars with similar design goals.

I drove into work today, and paid extra attention to the ride. I did notice a firm ride that transfers some mild bouncing on concrete pavement, but again, not enough to complain to NNA. Can someone in Northern California, preferably those in the Sacramento or Bay Area direct me to a stretch of road that brings out a more severe bouncing problem (the nauseating, head jarring kind)? Or am I just lucky to be here in CA, land of smooth roads?

Oh, my last car, a '94 Nissan Sentra has the bounce on the new Cypress freeway through Oakland. The stretch is over a concrete box girder viaduct, not concrete pavement. The sags at midspan hit the same frequency as my suspension, and that bouncing made my passengers ill to the stomach. That Sentra has no perceived bounce on the stretch of Hwy 50 where the Z has a mild bounce. Just like the south end of I-280 on my motorcycle, barf inducing bounce, but not aggravating in cars.

 

I thought 17" rims should make the ride less "bouncy" then larger ones? ALso maybe I shouldn't complain or just don't notice because Im not sure what bounce you guys are reffering to.