jomaxum

I think I have a fix for the tire feathering. Change tires!!!!!!!! SOunds simple but listen to this. Many have complained that the Nissan fix of eliminating all toe-out in the alignment has screwed up the handling of their Z. The Z was designed with the right alignment specs, negative camber and an aggressive toe-out setting so the car would perform. The mistake Nissan made was using a Bridgestone directional tire, the Potenza. Perhaps this was due to politics, both Japanese companies....

Now for the fix. I switched to the Avon Tech M500. This is a non-directional tire, but has an outside vrs inside mounting requirement. The inside tread blocks are different than the outside blocks. The inside blocks are much smaller. This means the tires and wheels can be switched side to side after 1000 or 2000 miles. This will change the rotational direction of the tire and will compensate for and reverse the directional feathering which is designed into the Z. No need to dismount and reverse the tires, just switch side to side like a normal rotation for staggered tires on the Z.

The Bridgestone tires are crap by the way. Every Bridgestone tire I have ever had, especially on 4X4s all cupped and feathered over time. The Avon tires are rated with twice the treadlife, 280 vrs 140 and are rated much better by the TireRack. Same summer ultra performance specs as the Potenzas and are 60 dollars per tire cheaper to boot. Avon is an English company and make great tires, hence not used by Japanese company like Nissan.

Keep your factory alignment settings and handling of your Z, just change your tires. I will also change my shocks to Koni Sports in front soon. I have them in the rear and the ride is 100% improved, no bounce of wheel hop any more either.

Beaker02

Hmmmm. Could work!

pulpz2

Thanks for the ideas. I switched to Eagle F1-GSD3s because of the reviews at tirerack and the tread design. But I did not think about going back to the original factory alignment. Had it set a the April 04 TSB spec. If, in a few more thousand miles I see no adverse wear with toe-in I'll switch back to toe-out, which is what I prefer.

jmagilto

iTrader: (1)

I have to agree that the big problem with the 'feathering' is not - in fact - the tire wear - but rather - the tire noise. I switched to the Bridgestone S03 Pole Postitions. Its like a different car - the tires are so much quiter than the RE040's and the Blizzaks. (which were about the same)

I wanted to go with the F1's but did not want to change rim/tire size.

We will see how the S03's do long term......

jer

pulpz2

Are you running 17s or 18s? I was able to find the OEM 17 inch tire size.

kpiskin

iTrader: (5)

I was looking at getting the Avon M550 A/S for my 17s when my Nissan replacement tires go bad. Right now I only have 2,000 miles on those and they seem to be okay. Avon is a UK subsidiary of Cooper Tire. Cooper decided to buy Avon to extend their racing line of tires. Supposedly Avon has a good rep in Europe. I think you can only get Avon tires through TireRack.com right now if you're in the States.