I know it is an old subject and I thought I had it taken care of 2 years ago.

I originally had it show up at 5k miles and had the car aligned and shortly there after installed the Rays and Toyo T1s' which were fine for almost a 1 1/2 years and 12k miles at that time the rears were bald so I switched to S03's. That was about 4 months ago and about 5k miles and the feathering is back with a vengance. I had the car aligned before the tires were installed due to an accident and about a month later because I was hearing a noise, the only issue was the camber being slightly out which I would assume would cause an even wear on the inside but not the scalloped wear I have.

Is this a Bridgestone problem???? I hate to keep buying expensive tires if this is going to be an ongoing issue.

 

the jury's probably still out on this, but i've read that the rubber used in potenza tires, combined with the Z's suspension settings contributes a lot to the feathering problem

that's why, as good as they are, i've avoided s03s

 

I am starting to think if that is the case, just too much coincidence that RE040's and S03's both feather by 5K and the T1's go over 12K with no problem.

 

Nissan Consumer Service told me the feathering on my second set was a tire problem - take it to Firestone. Firestone took one look and said sorry, even wear like that is a toe/camber problem, come back when you can adjust toe. Reluctantly, Nissan authorized another alignment and said that will fix it and the sound will go away. Yeh, right!
Pushing 17,000 miles (7,000 on the second set) and they still roar.

 

One possible solution which seems to work is getting a tire that can be rotate d from side to side. Rare on a sports tire, but there are tires out there that are non-directional and by rotating in this fashion, you can counter the original feather pattern in the oposite direction.

The longer lasting tire you had is/was most likely directly related to the tread wear rating (probably a value double from the Potenza tire).

One question for others...a rotational tire is labeled rotational because of the thread pattern (e.g. is designed in a "V" shape or similar shape for displacing water only)...or is there some other aspect of a rotational tire such as inner steel belt is formed in a way with one rotation direction in mind?????

I ask because one can in theory retate his/her tires temporarily to aliviate the threading issue as I mentioned above.

Some solutions to the threading issues as I have read over time:

- Put fronts on back and back on fronts and drive on them for a week with a few burnouts here and there

- rotate fronts (Careful, drive only on dry roads) -- haven't heard of someone trying this.

- replace tires with new potenza tire (Seems only Nissan is getting this re-treaded tire, so order them through a Nissan dealership) -- this tire will last the entire life without feathering as it has a revised outer tread which is contenous rather than blocked.

 

Thanks, Oh my GOD Mike lives, good to see you around again

 

To answer your question in my opinion, it is a NISSAN problem and they are blowing us off about it. Nissan would not have issued a "recall" to check the tires if it were not their problem.

 

I would agree but it still could be the tires and Nissan decided to take the responsibility, it is too much coincedence that the RE040 and S03's feathered and the T1's didn't.