Because this problem is with the coupe only, I figured I would post here to get the best response. How many people are having tire wear problems. I have only 20,000 kms or 12,500 miles on my factory tires (run winters half the year). The inside of the rears are almost worn out and the front tires are feathering and the road noise is so bad that I have to crank up the stereo to drown it out.

I can find no tsb's on this for the coupe. I know the feathering issue if a big problem with the 350 Z and Nissan is replacing tires. Add this to the brake wear on the Brembo's and this is going to get costly. Mine is a pre-order 2003. Anyone else having serious concerns with this?

 

I have 19,500 kms. on my '03 A/T coupe and the tires are wearing evenly. (have about 15k on the summer Pilots).
My depth gauge indicates about 7-8/32nds. across the treads.
C.

<font color=red>GSM</font color=red>
<font color=red>GSM</font color=red>
<font color=black>Silverstone Coupe</font color=black>

 

Not checking alignment and resetting it to perfection every 90-120 days depending on mileage. If ultra soft tires seem to feather at 8k half that mileage ADJUSTMENTS should be self protective.

Quasi [entry level] performance lux car need lots of owner attention: Alignment rotation and re balance of tires, brakes, etc.

Not something many owners are use to! The time and expense.

 

I have an '03 6MT coupe with 18000+ miles. Rear tires (original PS's) appear to be wearing evenly. Front's had significant cupping at 15k (well before that, actually, but I didn't catch it even though i could hear the tires roar). Got an alignment and swapped the fron tires left to right. Keeping an eye on the front wear now, but nothing to be done about the roar.

I believe that this car is extremely sensitive to alignment settings. So to some extent I'm in agreement with Q45Tech's points made elswhere that ya need to stay on top of this car's alignment settings. However, I'll make two additional points:

1. There is so much variation in driver's experience that it is reasonable to assume that the cars are coming from the factory misaligned. I for one am pretty pissed off about that. It's probably true that most cars from any manufacturer come from the factory misaligned. But I didn't buy a Saturn here, I expected better.

2. The target demographic for this car (Coupe) is a middle-aged, upper middle class male who just sent his kids off to college (or just finished paying for his kid's college) and Infiniti KNOWS this. (OK, I know there are younger drivers on this forum and you love the car, but take a look at the other Coupe drivers on the road. And, do you think Infiniti put instructions for loading two golf bags into the trunk for YOU?). I think Infiniti made a big mistake here. The target demographic (green pants, plaid sportcoat crowd - see, I've insulted everyone :-) is going to become dissatisfied with this car and that's going to have a halo effect on the whole brand. That demographic will put up with semi annual alignments and $1100 tire changes for a while, but their next car is going to be a Lexus.

My 2 cents.

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

The target demographic (green pants, plaid sportcoat crowd

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I'll have to disagree with you there. Most people I see driving a coupe in my area are younger men or women. I also recall one of the launch articles in C/D or R/T stating that this car's target demo is "young affluent males...probably 28-38". I don't think this car was set up for the 48-58 crowd..it's just not luxo enough...

just my .02

'04 G35C / 6MT / DP / Graphite / Prem / Aero / Pedals / Clears

 

By the way, don't assume that younger people know more about cars than some of their older fellow G drivers. The fact is, most people know almost nothing about cars. More than likely, the older G drivers have probably had experience with a lot of other performance cars - the G isn't there first.

I have an '03 coupe and at every dealer service I had inquired about my alignment and was told it was OK. Starting at 12k miles I got the "tire roar." The tires are now at almost 17k miles and really not wearing that bad - just extremely noisey - in fact loud enough for an old guy like me to hear - so you know it's really loud!!

The real quesiton is, if the Z is having this problem and Nissan is addressing it, why aren't they doing it on the G?

 

I posted alittle while back on the wear that I'm having on my 04 G coupe also.. I have 11,200 on my tires and have been hearing that 'Roaring" noise for quite awhile now.. I went to two dealers to have it checked out and they both said "It's the soft tires they put on the coupes and because you can't rotate the tires the wear is not evenly dispersed they called it 'Cupping" The dealer told me I can get new tires OR I can turn up my stereo to drown out the noise".. Was not real impressed with their answer... I REALLY wished they would have informed me about these kind of tires before I bought my car.. Doesn't make Infinity look real good to me~ I guess NOW I'm looking for an all around tire for my coupe that wears well and are QUITE!!!!... Any suggestions?

 

RedHOTG35, you bring up an issue I wonder about. There's a difference in my mind between "feathering" and "cupping" on tires:

- Feathering is uneven wear of every treadblock from front to back. You run your hand around the circumference of a tire in one direction and the edge of the block is "sharp," reverse the direction of your hand and you don't feel the edges at all.The key here is that every tread block is affected more-or-less the same.

- Cupping is when you get uneven wear around the circumference of the tire, with some blocks wearing more than others.

I will reluctantly accept that feathering as described above is a unavoidable consequence of putting a soft-compound tire that can't be rotated to change its direction of roll on a high performance car (I have my doubts, but it seems plausible). However, in my 30-some years of experience driving (I'm an enthusiast, not a pro, so take my opinions for what they're worth) cupping has ALWAYS been diagnosed and treated as an indication of some problem with the suspension. In the case of the G, the suspicion is that the car is extremely sensitive to the correct toe settings. You should insist (at the least) that the dealer put the car on an alignment rack, check the alignment and make any necessary adjustment. If the dealer refuses (they shouldn't) take it to an alignment shop in your area. If they find it out of alignment, you have a legitimate beef that I (in your shoes) would take to Infiniti.

 

I have 7 Thousand miles on my 04 Coupe. My fronts look great with no feathering at all. They actually look almost new. However, my rears are wearing prematurely on the inner treads. This is not acceptable. I have dropped my tire pressures to 27 in the rears to compensate. I will never get the RSA's as replacements again. Regardless. there is no excuse for this type of wear and "IT IS NOT AN ALIGNMENT ISSUE".

2004 G35C/IvoryPearl/Graphite/5AT/Premium/Clear Bra