Are your coupes lowered?

My car rides at stock height and I have no trouble getting over 20k on my tires and I don't exactly take it easy on them.

 

Honda, Mazda, BMW to name a few. I love my G but am able to admit Nissan has a design deficiency when it comes to this suspension and the affect on some G's and Z's.

The Miata has to be discarded because it's so lightweight. I'm not certain about the tire wear on the S2000. The two performance cars that I'm very familar with are the 996 and M3. If I got 10K miles on my rear tires on the 996, I was lucky. My M3 tires were good for about 15K miles at best.

 

Weight has nothing to do with tire feathering and the RX8 was actually what I was referring in any event.

Just to clear up if there is a misunderstanding with the issue. The question is not about overall short tire wear it is about feathering or cupping causing premature wear on part of the tire. For me this has meant getting about 10k miles on my fronts instead of a projected 14-15k. Most of the tire is good for the additional miles but the inside wear prevents this from happening.

Experience with several friends and associates that have had the good fortune to own the the cars you have also owned have not had significant feathering issues. Short tire life, yes but only due to soft tire compounds and power of the cars.

 

Using a BMW is a great example. My girlfriends 325i handles better than my G35 Base Coupe and those stock michelins lasted over 22,000 miles with some meat still left. They wore perfectly evenly across every tire. Not a sign of feathering anywear. Who can say that BMWs are not known for handling? The G35 Coupe seems to be plagued with tire issues. The only reason the Sedan is not in this category is because of the rotation advantage. Every Sedan loaner I have driven has had some feathering on the fronts, everyone.

 

These cars as well as the 350Z's have a problem with tire feathering. Negative camber is not the problem. If it were only negative camber, the inside would wear faster than the outside. The problem here is that if you feel the inside of your tire, you will feel lumps, or the tire cupping/feathering. You can hear the road noise continue to get worse as more miles are put on the tires. I do agree not to expect the life of the tire to be long, because they are sport tires. BUT at the same time, our cars do have a problem. There already is a class action lawsuit going on with the Zs. Most of the Gs I've seen have this problem. My car has 13k miles, and the road noise has from the tires feathering has got much worse.

 

I'm sorry, but I believe that negative camber is the problem with the feathering. The "lumps, or the tire cupping/feathering" as you describe the insides of the tires is the excessive wear caused by the negative camber. The reason it does not wear smoothly on the insides is because the car is in motion, going over bumps, and road irregularities. The same thing would happen to the tire if you had bad shocks. This causes movement up and down and the insides of the tires are not in a stationary position. If we were able to adjust the negative camber even slightly, without going through a major process, we would not have all these tire issues. No one is saying to bring the Camber to 0. However, some negative camber needs to be taken off. I would love to try -.5degrees on my car which presently reads -1.3 However, I am not planning on changing control arms, or making modifications to become a guinea pig for Infiniti. Let them step up to plate with the solution.

 

If the negative camber would be the problem, your BMW would have problems as well. Go look at your BMW, and you will notice how much the tires camber. All BMWs do that. Thats one of the reasons the handling is so aggressive. How about cars that are dropped? They all have negative camber, and tear up the tires on the inside, but they don't feather. If it were as easy as adjusting the camber, don't you think Nissan would have done so already in order to avoid the problems? What they feed consumers at the dealership is b/s, saying that the tires feather because we should expect that of a great sports car. One thing is to have the tires wear prematurely because of negative camber eating the insides, and having cupping/feathering is a completely different story. Bad shocks due cause cupping, but its because the tire is boucing creating the uneven wear.
Also, if you notice, the feathering is happening only on the front tires. Thats because it only happens to the tires that steer. If the negative camber were the case, the feathering would also happen to the rear tires, but it doesn't. Regardless of the fact, I was just trying to clear up the original poster's issue which some people were misconstruing. And you're right, Nissan does need to step it up and find a solution.

 

I will not say that negative camber has to be the only culprit. What I am saying is that negative camber is a major factor and whatever "distorted front end geometry" is part of the equation as well. Since I am not a Master Tech, I can not give an absolute definitive answer. Bottom line is there is a problem, Infiniti knows it, Infiniti might probably even know what it is, but it is all a matter of the mighty dollar. They would love for all these cars to go beyond their warranty and unless there is a massive reprisal after the mother company (as in a class A lawsuit) they are hoping it will go away quietly. When these cars become dated, all the aftermarket companies will have all the tools and parts necessary for the perfect fix. It will be the third or fourth owners of these cars that will have the benefit of correct front ends. Isn't it great to have a warranty on a car that can't be warrantied?

 

Weight has nothing to do with tire feathering and the RX8 was actually what I was referring in any event.

It's funny I never even considered the RX8. Although I agree that weight doesn't cause feathering, it will certainly be exacerbated in a heavy car compared to a light weight like the Miata.

Anyway Infiniti must have made some changes in the '05s because I've got over 8K miles and no feathering. As a matter of fact based on the existing tire wear, I expect to get at least 15K miles on the tires which is just about what my Dealer predicted.

 

Is this mostly common on coupes w/ the staggered setup? My issue is not tire wear, as I have plently of tread, but that doesn't mean a damn when it sounds like off road tires after 8k. Hell, these aren't cheap tires and ridiculous to expect to replace them every 7-8k miles. This car isn't that high performance. It's a sports coupe, not a sports car. If this problem is so common and doesn't seem to be related to tire brand and complaints are actually filed with Infiniti, at some point in time they have to accept responsibility.

 

Are your tires unidirectional? The tires that are not unidirectional seem to be less affected with the tire feathering issue on the fronts. When I had my Goodyear RSAs, I had around 7,000 miles on them with very little evidence of any feathering. It was present, but very slight. Once I went with the directional tire, Avon 550 A/S, after 2,000 miles it is very evident. The tires make a difference as well with the degree of feathering not to mention the noise.

 

I have OEMs Bridgestone Potenzas and I assume that they aren't unidirectional because I don't see an arrow on the sidewall indicating the appropriate tire rotation direction. I just checked the tire wear on each tire after 8K miles, and they look nearly perfect in terms of wear. My 996 and M3 showed a great deal of wear on the outside of the tires after 8K miles, which I suppose is typical for cars that are driven very hard through corners.

 

As mentioned earlier, tires other than the unidirectional ones don't have as severe a problem with feathering. The Michelin Pilots and Avon 550 A/S and many of the Ultra High Performance tires will have the problem. It must be due to the combination of the design of the treads and the setup of the notorious G35 Coupe's front suspension.

 

As mentioned earlier, tires other than the unidirectional ones don't have as severe a problem with feathering.

That's an interesting observation. Anyway I've been happy so far with my '05 G. It handles well enough, stops quicky, has decent acceleration, has a nice exhaust sound, and the brake pads throw off almost no brake dust. I also owned an '02 Audi TT, and I just couldn't keep the wheels looking good since they always accumulated brake dust so quickly. The G isn't in the same class as the M3 or 996, but when I look at how much it costs to own these cars, the G was a no-brainer for me. Decently equipped M3s are now pushing $60K, and it's hard to get a 997 for under $80K. When you consider that 90% of my driving is done under conditions where it's impossible to push a car hard, why pay such a great premium for ultra performance cars. Now if only the G would increase their HP to the 330 - 340 range, it would really be awesome, especially if the price remains in the $30s.

 

I don't know if there are changes made to the '05's although my service manager says there aren't. However the problem seems to be only on some cars so it's quite likely you wouldn't have an issue anyway. The type of tire may make a difference somewhat on different models or year of car. It seems to have with the 350Z. If you are able to get 15k miles on your tires, especially your rears you must be a very gentle driver with them. My ps2's are at the wear bars with 10,200 miles on them.

Hopefully Nissan will step up to the plate and recognize this design flaw and offer some sort of compensation for this and what is otherwise a great car.