Hey everyone! I am buying my first 350z and am picking it up on monday!
It's a 2004 350z touring convertible.
However I have been doing some research on the car and am getting pretty concerned about the tire wear issues that I hear about on these cars.
Has there been any kind of fix or anything I can do to extend the life of the tires?
After I pick it up im thinking of going to go get a 4 wheel alignment, but im not sure if that will really help the situation from what I hear.

 

Annual alignments will go a long way to helping extend the life of the tires. If you live in an area that has rough roads and lots of pothole and speed bumps, 6 mo might be a better plan. I also found by keeping 0º toe-in up front made a big difference too.

 

I had a friend just recommend to me that I invest some money into a camber kit and that should definitely fix it. Any specific recommendations along this line? (links please)

 

Not true. If the car isn't lowered, have the rear alignment set to stock specs and you don't need a camber kit. The rears seem to wear about twice as fast as the fronts, and that's just part of owning this car. It's not a problem, it's a feature

 

yeahh >.< I just hate the idea of having to replace tires every 15-20k, but oh well.

 

Camry's are nice cars.

 

Haha no Xp im good with sticking with this z I found I cant beat the deal. the guy is selling it for 8,500 and everything checks out good on it and has never been in a wreck or anything and only has 69k miles!

 

Sounds nice - post some pics when you can.

The tire thing isn't really that big a deal. An average tire costs ~$150, so over 15K miles the cost isn't bad.

 

I would just drive the car and see how the tires wear. I'm thinking you are getting a bit concerned about nothing. If you drive the car normally, you will get good mileage from your tires. If you drive it like you stole it, expect to replace the tires yearly. Most of the time, tire wear isn't the fault of the car, it is the fault of the driver.

 

Owning a sports car is not for everyone

 

04 vert with 69K and he only wants $8500. Spidey senses tell me there's something fishy. Make sure it has a clean title.

 

Spidey sense is definitely tingling, OP is buying a Z for 8500 from a private owner with low miles, is worried about tire wear because he wants to cheap out on maintenance. This is either another dream thread or I see much rice in the future.

 

I thought it was pretty sketch at first also. I ran a car fax and ask the guy plenty of questions. Checked the oil (even smelled it) and coolant and everything turned out great.
I have owned sports cars before (to be honest I actually own a 1969 mustang, a 1973 baja bug and a 1974 fiat 124 spyder, so this is my first modern day car lol)

but like i said everything checked out good on it and its just a once in a lifetime deal. the guy wants to sell it cause his girlfriend cant drive stickshift and he's wanting to get a 4 door jeep for more room lol.

 

just get an econobox so you can buy some harder compound tires that roll for 40-50,000 miles

 

well im not looking for an econobox though. I just didnt know if the tire problem was really that bad or not you know?
but like "davesz#3" had said, as long as i get annual alignments it should be too bad so yeah. Its really no biggie to me

 

x2. lol

 

I just got home from driving the car all day, Runs pretty great, pretty fun to drive too. Its a good change of pace from my mustang

Only problem im encountering is that I believe that the synchro for 5th gear is starting to wear down...It goes in fine if im really easy with it and shift up from 4th at 3900 rpm, but if I shift down from 6th or am running it a bit hard than it doesnt fail to grind.
I'v done a little research and see that a lot of people just go ahead and replace the trannys in 03/04 with the CD009 trans, I'm considering either replacing the trans with the CD009 or could I just replace the synchro and it should be good?

(and yeah i still need to check the trans fluid before i start jumping to conclusion so yeah.)

 

source a trans, but just drive it till it gets really bad. It could last 5k miles , it could last another 100k miles. A minor grind doesn't really hurt anything.

Btw, after labor, replacement is cheaper.

 

Well I might be doing the work myself. I'm used to working on older vehicles though so somthing newer like this will be new to me, but i dont think it could be that bad. I have money left over from buying the car so I might get some pricing either way.
The grinding is kind of bad if you dont get it in slowly at 3900 rpm, not sure how long its gonna last, but we'll see!