did some research before buying a 350z and noticed the tire feathering problem on older 350z's .. along with oil burning on 06 models .. and a few other things .. ended up buying a 07' with 3K miles and full warranty till 2011

anyways .. was changing my oil for the second time a few weeks back and noticed the inside of my front tires worn a little .. didn't think anything of it .. just normal from turning and stuff

but lately I started hearing "roaring" when braking .. but the weird thing is that it continues to make noise after I start moving again at low speeds .. hmm .. remember seeing that in the "FYI tire feathering thread"

do many 07 / 08 z's (or all z's) have this problem?

the weird thing is that the tread depth on the inside of the tires varies from the same as the outside to very thin / none

heres a picture





should I run it by a nissan dealer and take advantage of my warranty? demand new tires? or wait till it gets worse?


EDIT - might help if I said I just hit 11,000 miles

 

They *might* realign it but they won't give you new tires. Tires are considered "consumable" items like brake pads and aren't covered under warranty.

All Z are suseptable to tire feathering as it is easily caused by improper tie-in settings on the front wheels. And the Z seems to be prone to losing the front end alignment, especially toe.

 

damn ..

sucks b/c its a brand new car with the original tires .. only daily driven .. no track or racing

probably take it to the dealer where the first owner bought the car and see what they say .. seems kind of stupid to me that b/c the car came from the factory with a bad alignment that I should have to pay for new tires every 10K miles

anyone had experience with this problem and what dealers usually do?

im pretty sure they'll replace the tires if I make a big enough scene .. I work at a dodge dealership bodyshop and ive seen managers replace tires on a 150,000 mile car just to get the customer to shut up

but anyways .. also got some rattles to address on my visit to the local nissan dealer

 

let us know how that goes, because technically they are only suppose to last 15K or something but if u can get them to give u some new ones then i might try this too lol. are u trying to get all replaced or just the front

 

yea im down if it works as well...lol i only have 12k hahahaha

 

nah .. not looking to get them all replaced .. the tires got plenty of tread for 11,500 miles but the insides of the fronts are worn down to no tread and its starting to make noise going down the road that wasnt there 6000 miles ago


just annoys me that I bought a brand new car to aviod the cost of fixing stuff with my old cars and after four months the tires on the front are worn out on the insides

 

They might be willing to "flip" the front tires which reverses the inside/outside edges giving you a new clean inside edge.

Am I to understand that you bought this car new only 4 months ago and you've already put 11,500 miles on it?

 

Oh yes. I circled the high spots. These have some road dust on them. The low blocks are black and clean.

Swap the tires. I think you can get another 5,000 miles out of them.

 

...hmmm...I thought Nissan had worked THAT bug outta the Zs! Bummer.

 

"bug"? Alignment problems aren't a "bug" - they're the reality of driving a car on city streets. Sure, there's a small chance that a car may come misaligned from the factory. Or, it could have been damaged in transit, hit a pot hole or speed bump, or any of a dozen other things that knocked the front out of alignment. It only take a small amount of toe-out to cause the feathering. As I have been preaching for years now - you have to get your cars alignment checked every 6 or 12 months or you will have tire problems.

 

I got off work today right before lunch (ran out of work )

its friday so anyways .. found out theres a nissan dealer right down the road from the body shop I work at .. so went passed there to get them to check the tires out


heres what they told me after waiting over two hours for them messing with my car ..

1) the alignment is off (toed out too far) which is causing the noise and feathering .. could of told them that when I got there but ok

2) they cant do the alignment or tires under warranty b/c the "adjustment warranty" is 12 months / 12,000 miles .. so I missed it by 5 months or so

3) there is a airbag recall so they fixed that

4) checked over everything and everything looks fine except the alignment

SOOOOOO ..

I guess I'll have to go get an alignment done .. got a friend that works at a shop that does them so probably get a discount and watch him do it

makes me to damn nervous giving my keys to some random tech. at a dealer to "play" with my car for two hours and not being able to see whats happening

but anyways .. the service writer said the 03/04's were really bad about it and he hasnt seen many newer ones with the problem

so it was probably my daily driving that messed with the alignment .. I have to drive a 100 miles a day on roads near atlanta that arent "new" .. haha .. and are pretty bumpy

so could I get away with getting an alignment and leaving the tires (I dont care about the noise) .. or should I get the tires swapped over too

the service guy said either buy new tires (HELL NO) and alignment .. or swap them and align

as for mileage .. I bought the car april '09 with 3000 miles .. original owner bought it in april '08 .. and ive got 11,000 on it now

oh and this has nothing to do with the tires but im glad I didnt look at 370's before buying my car b/c there badass in person .. and the nismo 370 looks amazing .. but I got a "new" touring 350 for WAY cheaper than a base 370 ... so im good for now

 

.. I'm definitely going to have to start getting it checked every 6 months

 

was just thinking .. since I have to get alignment anyways

should I just go ahead and get some drop springs .. found the tein s-tech springs drop it .7" yet you can get back to stock alignment (if not really close)

 

If you drop it, you'll be looking at a whole new series of alignment related problems.

 

Typical cause is lack of rotation, alignment, and improper air pressure. Check out camber kits if you lower to help avoid irregular wear again.

 

rotation on a Z .. thats funny unless you mean side to side by taking the tires off the rim and swapping them

air pressure .. its spot on every time I wash the car (once a week or two weeks)

alignment .. CORRECT haha

 

I think he means that the inability to do a tire rotation is a big part of the problem, in general.

 

OH .. in that case it makes a whole lot of sense

 

Aligned or not, the front end will get noisy when tread depth gets low. Specifically the OEM Bridgestones. I've done some subjective qualitative tests, and it's really bad in between 20-30mph. I think the whole cabin resonates from the frequency generated in between those speeds. Alignment is spot on, the tires are just loud. The noise is non-existent on my winter wheel/tire setup.

 

71,000 miles and I have yet to solve front tire feathering. Good luck.