snoby

Hi everyone,
I've searched on the forum, however I can't seem to find the answer to my question.
I had the dreaded tire feathering issue on my 04 Z - I would start hearing the tires roar around 7k miles. About 2 years ago I got the updated RE040 tires from Nissan. These are the tires with the inside edge rib. Where or how do I buy a replacement set of these tires? These new fronts lasted me for 20k miles before the roaring came back.

thanks,
Matt

DavesZ#3

iTrader: (26)

If the roaring came back, you still don't have the front end aligned properly. Before you trash another set, you'd better get an alignment.

The RE040s have been discontinued and replaced by the RE050. You might still be able to find some RE040s left over in somebody's stock but it would probably be a better idea to get the new tire (RE050).

snoby

So in everyone's experience the problem has always been the alignment and not the tires? Because I had the car aligned like a million times when I was trying to get through this mess in the beginning and it wasn't until I got these new tires did I get over 7k miles before hearing tire roar.

03performz

iTrader: (8)

If they kept aligning them to the stock specs. then it won't help. Make sure they're using the updated specs.

DavesZ#3

iTrader: (26)

New tires only fixed the symptom (noise). The TSB that solved the problem was an accurate alignment. The 2nd gen RE040s were designed to reduce the noise by going to a different tread block on the tire edge.

Feathering is the effect of the leading edge of one tread block being a different height as the adjacent edge of the next tread block. That washboard pattern is what generated the noise.

DavesZ#3

iTrader: (26)

By now, you would hope that just about everyone has received updated alignment specs. Any reputable shop certainly would. The big problem all along was the fact that people were doing alignments on machines that were out of calibration. That would ultimately leave the Z with another bad alignment.

snoby

So correct me if I'm wrong, it has absolutely nothing to do with the tires. It's all in the alignment.
I remember back in 2004 or 05 i went to a couple of different shops with the updated specs and I saw on the computer screen that the alignment was dead on.

The only reason I'm harping on this is because it sucks to go through a set of tires every 8k miles. I mean it was the thing that made me want to get rid of the car... The only reason.

DavesZ#3

iTrader: (26)

Yes, the feathering problem was related to Toe-in settings.