I was changing the oil on my wifes bone stock daily driven 05 coupe 5at with sport package, when I noticed the inside of the front tires are showing cords! I mean they are gone! The middle to outside of the tire looks normal. I have been experiencing the "tire roar" for pretty much the life of the vehicle that I just interpreted as road noise on low pros in a sports car. The car has 20k miles on it now, but the tires should have been changed 5k miles ago easily. After doing some research, I know I am beating a dead horse but can't find any new info. I have made my official complaint or two hoping for a tsb. I know there are worse stories than mine but I find this unnacceptable. Further more, everyone I talk to at Nissan/Infiniti tells me a different story: From I've never heard of such to it's my fault I should have rotated the tires(which is kind of impossible--I know I can switch wheels)to Nissan is giving free tires for the life of the 350zs(which I know is untrue)to it's only an issue on 03-04s. I have heard just about everything except what I want to hear-- come on in and let us fix the problem

I did call a couple of tire shops to get their opinions and before going into my story, I basically surveyed them on different cars such as corvettes, m3s, porsches, etc. According to them this type of thing-specifically inner tire wear on the fronts-is fairly common on different high performance cars due to the aggressive camber angle and most people just deal with it but they do admit that 15k miles is on the short end of the spectrum. Of course they could have been trying to sell me some tires, or underestimated how bad my tires were.

Now I have had a few rides in my life from old beater trucks to hot rods, but this is my first real sports car I guess, and I have never had to deal with such a problem. My thought is this: I drive a Scion xB daily and Scion could have adjusted enough camber angle to make the box go around corners better and called it a sportstoaster if you were willing to replace tires every 1000 miles. My point is this: A $37,000 dollar "sports car" should be able to handle without sacrificing the tires.
Any input or new info would be appreciated on what I should do.
Thanks,
Joseph

 

i dunno dude, women do some crazy voodoo to cars..my ex somehow found a way to burn the oil out of her new eclipse ???

 

Joseph, If you got 20k miles out of a set of tires, you did pretty well. The G does hold alot of camber and thus will wear out the inner edges of any tire. Thats true for any sports car & people just deal with it. seriously man, if you wanted awsome tire wear, ya should of bought a Camry. Everyone always wants something for free.

 

that's just how this car is dude, 15-20 is around what everyone gets.

You want better tire life, try putting on 17s with some hard tread all season tires...it will look and handle like ++++ but you will get more miles out of the tires.

 

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I don't agree that this kind of wear is "normal"
I think alignment and tire pressure along with proper camber adjustment is critical for correct tire wear.....

This is my front tire after 24,000 miles....a couple of years ago......it wore perfectly even as far as I concerned.....I replaced them at 37,000 miles, and that was only because I picked up a nail through the side wall on one of my tires......

I would bitch to the dealer if your cars alignment is to specifications....

 

Mine still look like that and, minus the winter tire switch, they also have around 37k. The only problem with my fronts is the ROAR. Uggh.

 

I have an 06 manual coupe, w/ turbo by Eternal Motor Sports, and this is normal some tires just wear out at 15-20k miles I have 15k on mine and I have to replace the tires,keep in mind I drive daily and very aggresive, I guess this is the price you pay for a sports cars... go to tirerack.com and compare your stock tires w/ other tires you'll see the difference.

 

The 05 and later have a good degree of negative camber - which causes the tire wear and allows the car to handle better too. The only alignment adjustment on the car is Toe...no camber or caster at all...which is VERY standard on non-ball steering cars for the past 8 or so years. (like BMW and Mercedes whcih have a ball steering setup)

To get camber - you have to put on camber kits. 20K is great though and the RE050's suck to begin with. Toyo's and Michelin's have deeper tread, and will last longer too.

The dealer does have a replacement tire program though, for premature tire wear on our cars, and your limited to 2 replacement sets if this happens to you, however I think it is for 10K miles and under. It never hurts to check it out though.

The best way around it all though - SPC front and rear camber sets. It'll cost you about $700 total for the kits, and about $300 for install and proper alignment, at a really good shop. This will practically double your tire wear and replacement interval and pay for itself over time.

Rick

 

Thanks for all your input guys. I feel like I could get it re aligned and get a set of tires that don't suck like the Bridgestones and then swap wheels on the front to "rotate" them every 10k miles or so and get 30k miles out of them. I just wish the car came with a disclaimer. Because this isn't normal to me, and I don't think it should be to any of you either.
And Ralph that is excellent advise, thanks. Really though. If you guys know anybody looking for a G for cheap I will let mine go for about trade in value. I would rather give somebody a good deal on one than let a dealer ram it to me. So the first person to offer me 28,000 gets it. I will trade it in probably monday or tuesday if not.
I will post another thread as an ad although I don't see a cars for sale section--hopefully it will get redirected instead of deleted.
Here is my phone number as I will not be around the computer too much this weekend if anyone is interested.
832 597 7912

 

dang, good thing you caught it.

i would get the car aligned. 0.05 degrees each side front, .10 each side
on the rear for your toe setting...although your tire store is correct that
these cars are setup with aggressive toe settings for straightline
stability.

with the above alignment setting you may or may not notice a difference
in straightline stability, but at least you will get more miles.

should be able to do 20k miles without going down to the cords! but
the tires will need to be replaced at around 18-20k miles. really depends
on the tire and wat kind of temps you are driving. some tires are only
meant to last 15k miles.

im running S03's on my car, with about 10k miles on the fronts i see a good
60-65% tread left on the inner side of the tire closest to the car. it's wearing
pretty flat though, considering im running -1.8 camber with 0.05 toe-in on
each side. i expect to replace in about 10-12k miles.