OP here. There's been some progress in the situation, but no solution yet.

The service manager told my wife that he would swap the wheels/tires with one of his demo's as a goodwill gesture, but he would not put on four new tires. In other words, I'd give up my wheels and tires (now with about 2200 miles on them) for demo wheels and tires with similar mileage and unknown history. No thanks.

I'm going to hold out for new fronts. I think that's reasonable given the circumstances. I told the SM that I was certain one of the fronts was bad and that I would be happy with two new tires instead of four. He seemed OK with it, but passed the buck to an as yet unheard from regional guy. It's going to be another week or so. By then the car will have 3000 miles. I just KNOW he's gonna mention some tire warranty pro-rating nonsense. I'll lose it on him at that point and probably "accidentally" expose my Glock 26 in it's Galco pancake holster.

My question; is this typical Infiniti service, or am I just a lucky schmuck who got a a bad tire and a bad dealer? My Chevy service writer treats me like royalty for the lousy five spot I palm him whenever I drop the truck off... I get BRAKE PADS covered under warranty. What gives with this Infiniti crap?

 

I can understand why the dealer doesn't want to fork over the cash for new tires so easily. What I would do is try to take a drive with someone to show exactly what you are talking about. After that, hop in another new G35x and show that it's not just a awd thing.

 

I def didn't experience that with the dealership i brought mine to. They spent countless hours trying to troubleshoot the cause of the vibration in mine. They put on new rotors, replaced the final drive, swapped out the driveshaft, put a different set of wheels on, and finally flew in an Infiniti Engineer to take a look at my car. Granted I think they went above and beyond by flying in an engineer, it was a great help and the dealership was great about it. They have a customer for life because of it.

I would definately keep pushing to have them find the cause of the problem... that's there job. That's why the get paid. They may not necessarily have to go as far as to fly in someone, but they are a customer service department. You go to them when your car has a problem, and that's what you did. They need to fulfill their side now.

 

OK, OP here again with a looooooong update. Note the date of the last post. Now look at this post date. THAT is how long it has taken to clear this up. Here's the update:

When I last left you guys I was getting ready to meet with the regional service rep. I got a call the day before our appointment from the dealer telling me that he was not going to be in until the following week. That week came and went, as did another. Finally, we met with him; a kid of about 28 years old who drove an '06 G35X just like mine. I described the problem and asked him to drive the car. He declined. I explained my dilemma and how I beleived there was at least one bad tire on the front. He asked "So you want a new tire?" I replied "Two". He stood up from examining the tires, said "OK", and disappeared inside the service department only to emerge 5 minutes later. No tires in stock, come back next week.

The wife took the car for the tire swap which took about an hour. I checked the tires when she came home, but it was raining and I could not really tell if they were new or not. I also did not think to mark my rims with some tape or something, just so I would know. I drove the car. It was different, but not better. There was a shimmy, but less vibration. Hard to explain. I felt defeated. This car was really starting to **** me off.

She drove it for another couple of weeks before exploding and calling the service rep again, explaining it was still vibrating and something had to be done. Sensing the impending meltdown, I decided to wing it on my own. I contacted a friend who knows a guy who used to work on a racing team. He's got a shop in the town where I work. Yeah, he'll take a look at it. I brought it in yesterday. I get a call from him midday... "C'mon down and take a look at this". Uh-oh.

The car is on his lift, raised just enough to get all four wheels in the air. His helper is in the driver seat. Car in drive, wheels spinning. Car is SHAKING on the lift! Front left tire has a visible hump which has been marked with yellow chalk. Rear right has a much smaller hump also chalk-marked. He hasn't even had them off the car. He then tells me "You DO know those are factory wheel weights on the fronts, right?" Uh, sure. The rears do not match. Out comes the depth guage. The fronts, supposedly new, have 6/32" (left) and 7/32" (right). The rears (originals) both have 8/32". I have been given take-off's with less tread than my originals. Bastards.

A call goes in to a Bridgestone representative. The rep happens to be around the corner and stops by. He looks at the tires and listens to my story, saying very little. He deciphers the date codes on the distorted front tire and tells me it's over a year old, how can it be new? How, indeed. The tire also shows feathering, a sign of having been on a car with a toe-in condition. My alignment is within spec. This it total B.S.

The tire rep sense my outrage with the dealer and decides to warranty two tires. I complete a form and he has them brought over from a local distributor and they are mounted within an hour.

Guess what? My car doesn't shake anymore.

Here's the killer:

While this was going on, my wife calls. The Infiniti rep has called, says he'll be in town tomorrow (today) and will meet with her. Perfect!

I take the copy of the warranty form which essentially makes a LIAR out of this guy and show it to him. I ask why he gave us two worn tires off a car with a bad alignment. He looks at the form, says "You got two MORE new tires?" I say "No, I got two new ones to replace the USED ones YOU gave me". He looks perplexed, says "So, it's fixed?" Yeah, it's fixed... no thanks to you.

I will not return to that dealership unless I absolutely have to. A local Nissan dealer proudly advertises that he works on Infiniti's. He's got my business for now.

 

i've heard sometimes with either crappy rotors or with hot temperatures that rotors can get warped eaisly, especiallly if they are hot and you put water on them immediately after, like a car wash. My old lexus was prone to this, and the wobble was caused by uneven rotors. Just a heads up

 

legal action

 

Not. Could be a combination wheels and tires,Work your way outward.Have them check the balance on wheels first.Then wheels and tires.

 

I though of it, but I suffered no loss. Sure, I could whine about the time it took me to haul the car in and out of the various shops, but it would eventually go nowhere.

I could try to say that they gave me a faulty front tire in malicious fashion, but good luck trying to prove it; the Bridgestone rep took the tire and all I have is the warranty receipt.

Basically, it's a service department that KNEW the tires were bad and did not make any valid attempts to rectify the situation. My action will be to stay the hell out of there. Sucks for me, too. There are no other Infiniti dealers in my area.

 

Interesting post, I have 1500 mileson my 06 x and noticed the vibration the other AM, it seems to go away after a few miles( I initially dismissed this assuming it was a paving issue as it occurred as I was leaving the house in the AM). If this persist I will haveit checked!

 

Don't wait. You have a tire out of round. Each mile you wait will be a mile they try to prorate your replacement.

 

Another update, this one much quicker.

I thought she was nuts, but when the wife complained about a shimmy shortly after the two new fronts, I took the car for a drive. Gawd-DAAAYM if this thing wasn't shaking again!

I steered clear of the dealer and brought the car back to the racing team guy. He spun all four wheels on his balancer and found three of the four out of balance by at least a half-ounce each Unbeleiveable when you consider they were last balanced by a tire rep. And I really doubt I lost weights on three out of four tires.

In the meantime, I've done some research on the Bridgestone Turanza. I suggest everyone else do the same. Check out what they have to say about it at www.tirerack.com

I wonder what Infiniti was thinking when they put this POS on their car as OE tires?

 

hmm.. i got a 06 35x, 20k miles on it, no vibration what so ever, i was going 100 barelly touching the steering wheel wid my two fingers, no vibration.. usually when u get vibration at one speed and not always is the balancing, like the dude said it above, try replacing the tires

 

I had this checked out and the dealer realigned the car and RFD. Got in the car today when she was cold and I think it is now worse. But Again only when she is cold!!!!!! And it was 33 degrees this AM, not to cold for Central Maine.

 

This sounds like the tires flat spotting from sitting overnight in the cold. My stock El-42s did this. The replacement Michelin MXV4-s8 do not do this nearly as much.

 

I'm just curious. I just picked up my 2006 6mt sedan. Mine of course is rear wheel drive but has similar vibration issues as yours. I only have 100 miles on the car and the service rep is talking about a break in period. I had an Audi A4 before this and the car exhibited no vibrations whatsoever from 0-120 or so mph. None. Not even with my winter tires on steel rims from tire rack. The dealer is grinding my rotors to within specs to see if this helps at least with the braking vibration and shaking of the steering wheel. They should just replace them, but I'll keep you guys updated when I get the car back.

I think that my tires are probably out of balance from the car sitting for a long time until now.