What I need is for some of you to go out to your car, stand about 10 feet back and see if you wheels stick out or not, the same on both sides. Mine don't as I have stated on various threads. I need to determine if others have this issue or is my Z assembled wrong somehow. If enough of you look and don't have this issue, I can insist the dealer find a way to fix it.

In my case the right rear wheel sticks out about 1/2" beyond the rear fender edge/mud guard edge while the left is within the wheel well.

Please help me out with this. It is driving me nuts!!!!!!

 

mine is kinda like that, but dude, as long as the alignment is good and it drives fine, don't WORRY.


let God be with you. Don't freak out bro.



sang

 

Thanks for the cooperation and the words of support. I know I shouldn't let it get to me, but the car shouldn't be that way. I look at other cars on the road and I haven't seen any other like this except for old beat up cars. I think this is a build defect and Nissan should fix it. I just want to see if anymore chime in after looking at their cars.

 

I remember reading this thread a few days ago. Today, I took a look at the rear and found out that my left(drivers side) is sticking out more than the right side. This is after switching from my Gram Lights to GT-C's.

I remebered that you mentioned in another thread that you jacked up the car to put in coilovers or something? While switching wheels, I took a pretty long break(about 2 hours), while the front was jacked up. Could that have "shifted" something to cause this?

And yes, now I know what you mean about it driving you crazy!

 

I think this may be more common, just most may not have noticed it yet. I am concluding it has something to do with jacking the car one side at a time. It must cause the aluminum suspension components to give or bend or something or the body shifts somehow. I had it up on one side for about an hour to 90 minutes. It was up on its passenger side and the driver side is the one that ended up with less wheel gap and the wheel is further in the well than the passenger. The lifting issue I suspect would fit the problem.

The car rides and handles fine, the dealer was able to align it to factory specs so whatever it is doesn't interfere with that. It seems this is a mystery because I have gotten no real feedback nor direction despite all the knowledgable folks on this board.

And yes it does drive you nuts, if you are a perfectionist about the car as I am.

 

Check this out. I've been jacking my Z up alot lately for brake and suspension work. My method is to first, use the factory scissor jack to lift the front (not sure if I do drivers then passenger or vice versa), then I floor jack the rear via the diff. The last time I did this, I noticed that after I lowered the rear onto the jackstands, the right rear never settled on the jackstand! I double checked that the jackstands were all set to the same height (they were) and I checked that were under the same points I've used before. So I'm thinking that I've twisted the unibody somehow!? If so, this really has me concerned about the structural integrity of the body.

Any thoughts on how I can have this checked/verified other than the dealer? Thanks guys for the input.

 

Or you could just be on an uneven surface. If your garage floor isn't perfectly level all the way across, it could easily cause the car to not rest on all 4 jacks.

 

There was also a thread some time back that said feathering is caused from the way cars are shipped meaning trucked across usa but it was the way it was TIED DOWN with a lot of presure bending the alloy suspension. I wonder if that is real problem our sus. is weak but light, bends very easy.....the lift is the only way to go when raising the car.

 

I just checked... my wheels are even left and right, but I had them installed by a shop that raised my car all at once... using two jack stands for the front and a hydraulic for the back

i'm interested in finding out more about this though because I will be switching to my winters soon (bling bling 16s! ) and I will have to jack the car up one axle at a time

 

I really am starting to believe that this car can either bend when raised one side at a time or the suspension subframe shifts or bends under that lifting condition.

I can see no other explanation for this shift after jacking up the car for the suspension work I did. Its is the only way the wheels can be uneven like this and accounts for the different wheel gap one side to the other.

I really wish one of the resident suspension gurus would read this and chime in!

 

i believe this is just due to tolerance~spec allowance when assembling the car, i dont think its from jacking the car on the ground at all. i had this on one of my previous cars & it looked pretty bad. i actually ran a 3/16" spacer behind both wheels to set that side more even to the other. it doesnt take as much spacer to remedy the offset problem, not as much as you may think you see(im not saying to use a spacer, just noting). i see it slightly on my passenger side rear wheel on my 350z. but its not bad & barely noticeable.....with both wheels tucked in the fender from the factory it goes unnoticed, then you add some meaty wheels with a heavy offset & it becomes more obvious as the wheels get closer to or even with the fender lip. this goes with all cars though. like i said, i had it on my mustang, my buddy has it on his 1992 corvette & i can slightly see it on my 350z. i truely believe its just the tolerances when assembled, that the body is just shifted slightly to one side either front/rear or both. it doesnt become appearent untill wider aftermarket wheels or heavier offset wheels are installed. i believe that if you go changing suspension parts youll just be wasting time & money.
its unfortunate & frusterating for those who have this problem a little worse that others! i dont think that jacking the car up on one side bends the suspension components. if the suspension components were bent enough to push the wheel out the alignment would be way off after jacking up the car. if it makes you feel better you can try jacking the car on the opposite side of the wheel that protrudes past the fender more. ill tell you in advance what will happen though, NOTHING. trust me i tried this numerous times on my mustang...perfect alignment, straight frame, drove me nuts.....
here is an option for you if it really drives you nuts. find out exactly how much the wheel sticks out as opposed the wheel on the opposite side. use metric measurements(or convert SAE to metric after measureing~ i.e. SAE measurement / 25.4 = METRIC AMOUNT). then deicide whether you like the wheel that is in the fender more or out of the fender more. add or subtract this amount to your current offset of your wheel. purchase a new wheel with a new offset to have the rear wheels even! (less offset to suck wheel into fender or more offset to push wheel out of fender).....exspensive? yes! nuts? yes! will it make you sleep better? depends on how much it really bothered you!

good luck!

-justin

 

Hey Justin,

Thanks for chiming in but this problem surfaced after springs not wheels. I still run the stock 17's. Oh and I did try jacking the opposite side and letting it sit for a while and like you said, NOTHING!

I am going to swap springs from side to side this coming weekend and verify the problem is not the Hotchkis springs.

 

didnt realize this was a problem caused from lowering the car WICH would also make this seem more obvious since the wheels are closer to the fender lip vertically. again, could have possibly been this way from the get-go.....let us know how the spring swap goes & sorry for misenturpriting why you were seeing this problem!

-justin

 

No problem Justin. I will post my results some time this weekend after I redo the spring installation and side to side swap. I have adjusted the bumper cover slightly to compensate, so cosmetically the "sticking-out" is more even now, but the difference in wheel gap from left to right remains at about a 1/4 to 3/8 inch difference. I believe only a varience in the springs could cause that. If it is the springs, the problem should move to the other side after the swap.

We'll see what happens........

 

Do you have the alignment specs from the NISSAN Dealer.

If they aligned it to spec that does not mean that they are aligned evenly...

 

Here you go:

Camber: left front -1.2/Right front -1.2 deg
Toe: Left front .02/Right front .01 deg
Total toe front .03 deg

Camber: Left rear -1.9/Right rear -1.9 deg
Toe: Left rear .03/Right rear .02 deg
Total toe rear .05 deg

Thrust Angle .01 deg

 

this is very interesting indeed

looking forward to the results of the spring swap

 

well... .03 degree's left will be tilted in .01 degree's more then the right...

so maybe you are just seeing that and it looks exadurated with the lowered stance?

 

I am not even going to check my car. It would drive me NUTS if there was a variance.

 

LOL, LOL, If you are like me it will drive you nuts! Don't look if you can't handle it..