thanks for the reply. i am going on about 8,000 miles right now. the noise is still tolareable. at first i thought it might just be the roads but im hearing the noise more often..

 

take your hand and run it lightly over the inner and (mostly) outer edge of the tread. If you feel a "cupped" or irregular feel to the tread...this is what everybody is talking about. You will usually notice this way before it begins to make "the noise".

Feathering used to be caused by bad shock absorbers, but with the new, modern suspension systems today, there are waaay more variables to deal with.

I've heard of one dealership actually replacing some suspension pieces....but the owner didn't know which ones. Sounds like all the dealerships are grasping at straws right now.
zcardave

 

I took my 350 in to the dealer yesterday to have the alignment checked because:
(a) the 1-year warrantee was about to expire.
(b) I only have 3k miles on the 350.
(c) I've read on this board that if you catch an out-of-alignment problem early, you could avoid feathering (wishful thinking?).

The Service Director asked "Do you have feathering?" Nope.
"Is it pulling to the right (or left)?" Nope. "Does it make noise when you stop?" Nope. "Then WTF are you doing here" (he was thinking). I explained (a), (b), and (c), and to placate me they checked it on their HUNTER equipment - I was fully expecting it to check out okay, and have to pay the bill.

If their specs are correct, and if I read the printout correctly, all 4 wheels were out of whack, some worse than others.

Toe Front Specified Range: 0 to +0.08
Right Before: -0.03 After: +0.05
Left Before: -0.21 After: +0.06 (could it have been -0.21???)

Toe Rear Specified Range: +0.01 to +0.07
Right Befoe: -0.07 After: +0.04
Left Before: -0.05 After: +0.07

Total Toe Specified Range: +0.02 to +0.14
Before: -0.11 After: +0.11

Seems to me they made some major alignment changes, but I'm not a suspension expert. Maybe they recently changed the specs from - to + ?

 

Houstonians:


I had my right side compression rod replaced at 1300 miles for the car pulling to the right.

I am at 5300 miles now and my tires are feathering bad. The roaring noise is very irritating. I called 1-800-NISSAN-1 and filed a case/complaint. They called me back and told me to take my car into Tom Peacock for servicing. Tom Peacock is going to do an alignment and replace my tires. The only problem is the Bridgestone's are on backorder due to the large amount of Z's with tire feathering.
I will let you guys know when I get everything done and how it went. Safe Driving!

 

Tom Peacock?
I thought they sold Chevrolet's. Where are they located?
zcardave

 

zcardave,

Your thinking of Machaik Chevrolet with the Peacock emblem/logo. Tom Peacock Nissan is located on I-45 North and Airtex Rd. They have been pretty good on fixing and handling 350z problems, just ask C1 Bender and Toby.

 

We need a inside guy at one of these dealer service dept. so we can take our "mod" car to get warranty done.

All they need to do is preform the tsb, then fill out warranty paper, that's it... They don't even have to mention any aftermarket "mods" on them...

I am leaning toward buying the damn compression rod and do the work my self. I think it cost aroundd $180.00

 

Btw, I had my tires replaced by Mossy Nissan at around 12k, and that's also the same time I did the Eibach springs. So far, I have no signs of feathering (cupping). I am now at 20,400miles.

I am also using Bridgestone S03, so maybe that has something to do with it.. who knows...

 

Thats good about Tom Peacock being accomodating.
That's actually where I bought my car.
Haven't actually felt for the feathering issue yet, but I've got the noise thing and the pull to the right pretty bad...especially if there is an incline.
Has anyone else noticed an increase in pulls on hills or bumps?

 

I had the aligment and tire rotation done at 6400 miles due to feathering and it seems to have solved the problem. The 350z has just over 12k miles now and there is no pull or feathering. The service advisor at my dealership told me Nissan has new specs for the front aligment to fix these problems. He also said that the "pull to the right" and feathering problems might have been caused during shipping of these cars cause they sometimes get tied down too hard on the trailers.

 

Enron,

Unless these specs are brand new, last week or so, Nissan doesn't know what is causing the problems. They are evidentally having difficulty reproducing the feathering/cupping in Japan. They don't know why they can't get the same issue to reproduce there, but there are obviously plent of cars here demonstrating the issue.

When you say there is no feathering, do you mean by feel or by sound?

D

 

Ive visually inspected the front tires and they look fine. I also dont get the loud rumble around 15-25 mph like i had at 5xxx - 6400 miles. Ive also tried to feel for any cupping but I dont think i can tell.

Im going to roll over 12500 miles soon so i hope i am truely out of the water. I also would like to consider aftermarket wheels some day, but not if the feathering hasnt stopped yet.

 

took my z in to get my noisy front tires checked (7000 miles) but they seem to have been noisy since i got the car. Anyway I could feel that the tires was feathered on the inside of the tires. Dealer looked at it and said they would order me new tires, will see how that goes. Anybody know if their is a tsb for the lower control arm so i could have them check that?