I have a 6MT coupe with about 11K miles. The front tires are noticeably chopped and the rears have areas where the tread is worn off near the center line. Needless to say, the noise these make when driving is very irritating. To the point, I have had the tires inspected by a tire dealer. His opinion is that the tires are not defective, but rather something about the car's suspension has caused the uneven wear. I first reported my tire concerns to Major Infiniti at about my 7500 mile service but the problems first became apparant sometime after 3500 miles. Major just said, at 7500 miles, "that's just the way these tires wear. All coupes chop the tires". I didn't think much of their response, so I pressed them as to what could be done. Their solution was to dismount the tires and swtich them to the opposite wheels. This did improve the driving noise some for awhile, but when washing my car a couple of months later, I happened to notice that they had mounted the rear tires to rotate in the wrong direction. Wow, how sloppy can these guys be to screw this up when it was specifically a tire problem they were to attend to. OK, that was easy to resolve, just move the wheels from side to side.........BUT they scratched my rear quarter panel in the process and had to repaint it!!
Anyway, I'm still irritated with the tire noise. I know these tires wear down somewhat quickly, but they should wear evening I would think. Infiniti of N.A. doesn't seem too responsive to my concerns. They are telling me that this is normal for a sports car. I think they are full of crap. (Maybe they are secretly on the BMW payroll) I don't find it acceptable that Infiniti thinks it's perfectly ok for "all coupes" to ruin the tires after a few thousand miles. Michelin may give me some consideration for a set of new tires and I may take them up on that, but I find Infiniti's customer service, as well as that of Major Infiniti (Kansas City) to be severely lacking. Has anyone else had similar tire problems? What did you do about it?

 

Well I just got my coupe last week, but the dealer told me that i should be expected to change out the tires evey year to year and a half, i also have a '97 BMW 328 and the tires on that are not wearing evenly, the car has 83k mile, it could be one of two things that your centers are wearing faster then the rest of the tire, either the suspension is bad(which on a car with only 10k I dont think that is your problem) or it could be that the tires are over inflated, i know when i got my car i checked the cold tire pressure and they were at 39.5 psi where the car says it sould be at 35psi so you should check you tire pressure and hope that is the case.

 

no expert here, but I think a lot of people are having pre-mature ware. and our tires are noisey!

"What if there is no tomorrow....There wasn't one today!!!" Bill Murray
'04 OB/GL Prem.Pkg./Sport.Pkg/Splash

 

o ya, our tires are nosiy to begin with

 

Noise and wear is the last concern with ultra performance tires!
Directional tires feather if not kept precisely aligned, Directional tires must be demounted and flipped to equalize inner static camber and caster induced camber wear.
Directional tires must be flipped to wear the feather [heel/toe] wear in the opposite direction.

Every tire engineer understands this! The general public doesn't understand and doesn't want to pay. Yet they want the ultra performance.

The major problem is the G35 is the first heavy [relatively] true performance car for many buyers......lack of experience in dealing with and paying for tire maintenance.

Same with brakes.

 

For about $20 per wheel and a 90 minute stroll through Sears, this is a great maintenance item to add. I plan on twice a year for this flip. Doing this will also ensure balancing is kept up.

2004.5 Coupe/5AT/Ivory/Everything but front spoiler/Nismo CAI/Crawford V5

 

this is common. I have the same thing. Noise and uneven
wear was noticebable around 8000 miles.

Neither my Infiniti dealer, nor the michelin dealer recommended dismounting the tires and rotating. They both looked at me like i was crazy for suggesting it.

Michelin's "warranty" for tires is basically nonexistent and of course, the dealership will do nothing about it either.

I will never own another michelin tire.

I now have about 14k miles. The noise from the front has not really increased any, but the wear is pretty uneven. It looks like the rears will be fairly bald in a few thousand more miles. I plan on just getting some new goodyears.

03 6MT coupe, red/willow, premium, aero, splash guards, alum pedals, clear corners, limo tint, Phatbox 40g mp3 player

 

The tires are ultra high performance which means they have more hookup than they do longevity. I never was able to get more than 13k miles on pilot sports and my other car as well so I felt good that I got 14k on my G before I swapped out. If you put on a tire that has a harder compound you will lost some of the performance of the car, but this is for those who actual drive their cars. If you just cruise than you can put on a higher treadwear tire. I wouldnt put on a goodyear on my lawnmower though...take a look at the GF Goodrich G-Force KDW.

Northface

 

The tires are ultra high performance which means they have more hookup than they do longevity. I never was able to get more than 13k miles on pilot sports and my other car as well so I felt good that I got 14k on my G before I swapped out. If you put on a tire that has a harder compound you will lost some of the performance of the car, but this is for those who actual drive their cars. If you just cruise than you can put on a higher treadwear tire. I wouldnt put on a goodyear on my lawnmower though...take a look at the GF Goodrich G-Force KDW.

Northface

 

It is not Michelin*, it is the tire design and YOU as the customer. You have purchased a tire design not suitable for your expertise and expectations.

Been a known problem since 1990 when the 300zxtt came out with directional tires.

Don't assume Infiniti dealer personnel or even Michelin dealers know very much about the technical design elements of tires.
* All makes and brands in the same category [ultra high performance directional] [same compound softness] will have the same heel toe feathering problem! And need the same flipping of tread inside out to create compensating wear in the other direction.

Notice that BMW and MB normally use non directional Michelin tires and reserve directional for their ultimate models.

If the tires wore out at 8,000 miles you would never hear the noise problem.

 

So far I'm lucky with my tires. A litlle over 12k and they still look good. I could probably get another 5k-8k out of them. They have gotten noisier over time, but this is to be expected.

How long are most of you guys going on your first set of tires on your coupes?

Thanks.

 

The tires do wear pretty quickly - 20k miles is a reasonable expection for the Pilot Sports, in my opinion. Less if you get into "spirited" driving.

I don't agree with the folks who seem to imply that chopping (by which I believe you mean "scalloping" or "cupping,' a wavy wear around the perimeter of the tire) is normal. You probably need an alignment. It could be wheel bearings, but that's very (extremely) unlikely on a new car. Get the alignment and, if the noise bothers you, you can somewhat reduce it by having your tires dismounted from the wheels and swapped side-to-side.

The 350Z has a well-documented issue with being very sensitive to mis-alignment. So much so that Nissan has extended the free alignment period from 12 to 24 months, and will replace tires with serious cupping for free (if less than 20k miles). But, they haven't seen fit to do that for the G35. Go figure.