Suspension Noise problems of the 2003 Nissan 350Z

Fax from (MD) re the problems he has experienced with his defective 2003 Nissan touring model 350 z. The consumer stated he received a recall letter/TSB regarding premature tire wear and a roaring noise. The consumer took the vehicle to the dealer and was told there was nothing wrong with the tires. The consumer tried to explain that he could hear the noise. The consumer examined the vehicle himself and could clearly see there was a problem. The tires were wearing on the inside toe. The dealer agreed to replaced the tires, however they had to be special ordered. The consumer returned to have the tires replaced. However, one month later within 3,000 miles the consumer had to return to the dealer for uneven tire wear. During the tire replacement for the second time, it was discovered that a rear strut needed to be replaced. The consumer requested a buy back of the vehicle due to the faulty suspension system of the vehicle.

Tire wear caused by faulty suspension. After 3000 miles tires started to "roar" when coming to a stop and tire noise while driving begins to increase.

My 2003 350z displays most of the common complaints of other owners. . . Tire feathering, pulling to the right, excessive tire and brake noise, a/c buzz, bose sound system that can't be heard above road noise. Some of the above are annoyances, others, such as tire wear and handling are definate safety issues. Nissan has changed the front suspension on the 2004 350z for the reason that the 2003 suspension is flawed. There should be a recall!.

I recently (9-13-03) purchase a 2003 Nissan 350z track edition with 2500 miles. I purchased it at dobbs Nissan in memphis, TN 38115. In purchasing the vehicle I notice a little road noise that I though was normal coming from a car with 18" wheels. It did not appear to be a problem at first. After my first service visit at dobbs Nissan I notice the noise getting louder, I address this problem with tj (service advisor at jim keras Nissan 2110 covington pike, memphis, TN 38128) along with a list of other problems. Tj diagnose the noise and suggested that I rotate the tires, he also indicated that the tires are scheduled to be rotated at or around 5,000 miles. My response was that the car was making the noise when I first purchase the vehicle and that it progressivly got worse. After coming to a dead end at jim keras Nissan about replacing the tires under warranty I pursued to contacting Nissan USA refering to the entire service ticket, but specifically the tires. I was refered to firestone in which refered me to a local dealer (firestone 4035 austin-peay hwy, memphis, TN 38128). I was scheduled to bring my car in that evening. I meet with jesse ( store manager), he evaluated all four tires and inform me that the front tires were not defective but had uneven wear, possibly due to misalingment or worn suspension components. Jesse also inform me that he didn't think it was the tires but, he was willing to absord 50% of the cost of replacing the tires per firestone's approval. He made a call to Nissan USA (rep. Alex morgan) to get them to ok the other 50%. Nissan declined that resolution. They (Nissan USA & firestone) are using the consumer to slove issues that should be handled by their companies. I was given the run-around from both Nissan and firestone. Giving the nature of all complaints, I wonder when will Nissan accept the responsibility of repairing or replacing whats wrong? I hope not when someone is hurt or killed!.

The suspension problem is reoccurring, and mis-diagnosed a. Roar from front suspension under 40 mph. First attempted repair @ 7,279 miles. Changed brake pads and turned rotors. Attempt failed, roar remained. B. Roar & pulls to the right at highway speed. Second attempted repair @ 7,720 miles. Changed right side compression rod. Pull to right corrected, roar remained. C. Roar severe,visual damage{feathering} on inside edge of front tires. Third attempted repair @ 11,077 miles. Rotated front tires side to side, off rims {directional tires} also did four wheel alignment. Roars less, but still very noisy. At 12,000 miles noise increasing, new feathering now appearing on inside of front tires. This suspension problem not corrected.

03 Nissan 350z track edition. Front suspension issue causing very bad tire wear and very loud tire noise in front of car. Car has been aligned and still continues to wear tires unevenly. The car only has 3100 miles on it.

Suspension of car causes tires on the front of the vehicle to wear unevenly. Tire tread feathers and a loud roaring sound is very noticable. I took the car to the dealer back in the spring to correct the problem, but it has now returned.

I own a 2003 Nissan 350z, enthusiast model. It is only 6 months old with 7500 miles, and the front tires (and to a lesser degree, the rears as well) have begun to feather. Feathering is a type of uneven tire wear that causes very unpleasant road noise when driving and also sacrifices the life, performance, and reliability of the tire. Feathering is caused by defective suspension design -- it is not a problem with tire design. Experts note that feathering will happen when the suspension exhibits excessive toe-in. Nissan has received multiple complaints regarding this issue from fellow members of a 350z forum of which I am a part, but it will not issue a permanent fix for it. (they have issued an immediate short-term fix, but the problem recurs in 2,000-3,000 miles after this fix. No permanent fix is available and Nissan is just delaying the permanent repairs until warranty runs out with this temporary fix. ) if you will, please look at my350z. Com and search for "feathering" and you will see that a good majority of 2003 model owners are experiencing feathering problems. My car is completely to factory specification, and at this rate of tire wear, I am afraid the tires will have to replaced in less than 1,000 more miles. I am worried that fellow 350z owners that are unaware of this serious problem will be risking their lives, if they expect the tires to last 20,000 miles (the average), but they realize that at 20,000 miles they've been running on nothing but a bald set of tires. Nhtsa, this is a very serious safety problem that needs immediate action. Tires are the only things holding the cars to the road, and the tires on the 350z are wearing out at unbelievably fast rates. Unsuspecting people will be injured because of this problem that Nissan is aware of, but will not bother to fix. Nissan must be forced to fix this issue, as they have simply been ignoring this.

I have a recurring problem with feathering of the front tires and now the rear tires are cupped as well. First problem was noticed at 7,000 miles and Nissan replaced the tires and realigned the suspension at around 12,000 miles. I noticed a lot of road noised and noticed feathering of the front tires at 19,500 miles and was confirmed all four tires cupped by my Nissan dealer. Claim was filed with Nissan consumer affairs and was notified today that they would not do anything about this.

I took my car (2003 Nissan 350z) to my Nissan dealership on or around September 25 to have the Nissan tire feathering/cupping/road noise technical service bulletin performed due to excessive road noise when braking, and visibly uneven wear on the inside tread on all four (4) tires. Nissan's "fix" for this issues is to dismount the tires from the wheels and switch the tires left to right (because they are directional tires and cannot be "traditionally" rotated). Feathering/cupping came back less than 2000 miles later. I have an appointment scheduled for 10/16/2003 to have the issue looked at again, and also filed a report with Nissan north America. Tons of other Nissan 350z owners are having the same issue. This is not a fix for the huge problem Nissan has with this car, and we need a final resolution! replacing the tires with new oem or other branded tires does not seem to rectify the issue either. I feel as though my safety, and the safety of others is jeopardized. The suspension or some other mechanical aspect is clearly not engineered correctly.

I have a feathering problem with my front tires due to a front end suspension defect. My efforts with Nissan corporation and the dealer (ed napleton Nissan in north palm beach, florida) have been fruitless. The service department threatened to not service my car when I brought up the lemon law. The dealer then admitted to the problem (once I provided information that others reported this problem) and said they would try to get reimbursement for the tires. Then the dealer then only offered tires at dealer cost (which was higher than a local repair shop who did install replacements). Nissan corporation (yanique, customer service person) in California was both condescending and argumentative with me. The Nissan representative advised that tire reimbursement is on a case by case basis. When I purchased this vehicle the dealer was advised that I would drive a significant number of miles commuting to work. Thus, my vehicle first experienced this problem immediately following my 15k miles service. The dealer switched the front end tires and immediately afterward, I could hear the noise relating to the alignment problem. Although I was advised by another Nissan 350z owner that he experienced uneven tire wear, it didn't register with me until the tires were switched at 15k that there was a problem. I believe the dealer was buying time knowing that I will continue to place significant miles on this car and didn't reimburse me for these tires based on the same reasoning. The dealer states that they didn't manufacture the car or the tires and thus, they are not responsible. Nissan is aware of this problem and have tried to keep the issue secret from the public. Apparently there is not fix and a recent auto magazine article has identified 39,000 vehicles with this problem. I would hope that this complaint receives sufficient attention, since this problem is both costly to the consumer and could pose a safety problem due to poor traction of the front end tires.

2003 Nissan 350z has constant problem with front suspension which causes tire noise, improper tire wear, and premature replacement of tires. Nissan is unable to align the car or fix the vehicle in any way that avoids the problem long-term. Replacing or rotating tires does not solve the problem, neither do alignments or balancing. Dealer gives the customer difficulties when servicing the suspension under the factory warranty, and is not addressing the issue with the consumer, safety, or customer service in mind.

In may of 2003 I purchased a new Nissan 350z. After around 9000 miles the tires began to make an increased amount of road noise. Upon inspection the interior radius of both front tires was worn in a very uneven pattern. The rear tires are fine. . . Mind you this is a rear-wheel drive car. Over the course of the next 3000 miles this noise became increasingly louder and at 12000 miles is unbearable. It sounds like I'm driving an eighteen-wheeler as opposed to a sport car. I brought the car to the dealership where I bought it - peter's Nissan in nashua, nh - they said that my tires were "chopped" and recommended replacing them. Of course they wanted me to pay for it, citing a tire defect. The problem with this argument is that my rear tires are fine and they recommended replacing my "chopped" fronts with another pair of the same tire. In my mind there is obviously a suspension geometry issue with this car. After being quoted $1008. 64 for two tires, mounted and balanced, from the Nissan dealer I proceeded to call Nissan north America's consumer affairs line. (1-800-nissan1) I spoke with a representative who told me that engineers are currently working on a fix and he brushed me off the phone quickly. I received no satisfaction and am still driving around my "new", under warranty Nissan product with an obviously defective suspension. Evidently Nissan expects me to shell out (using their ridiculous quote) $1008. 64 every six months or 10,000 miles for two front tires. Assuming the life of this car at a conservative 100,000 miles, that's $10,086. 40 in front tires alone. More than a third of the cars value new in just front tires! there is a defect here somewhere that Nissan has yet to address. The tires are a bridgestone potenza model. While I find these tires to be a low-quality product to begin with, the sort of wear occurring on my car is not a tire issue. Again, my rears are just fine.

I purchased a new Nissan 350z in may of 2003. At approximately 7000 miles I noticed some strange noises coming from the tires. After inspection I realized there was very uneven tire wear on the front tires. I then began doing research as to why this was happening only to find out that nearly every new 350z is experiencing this problem. Nissan's "fix" is to rotate the tires but anyone with a brain can figure out this does not resolve the problem, only gets rid of the noise for a few thousand miles. The wear on my tires was so bad they could not rotate them and were forced to replace the tires. After tire replacement, I noticed an immediate change in handling. I believe the strange tire wear is causing less than adequate performance/handling/traction and could eventually become dangerous if left unfixed. There are many speculations as to why this is occurring but all 350z owners tend to agree that the front suspension on the vehicle is causing the problems. Nissan is trying to hide this issue from the broad public but more and more people are becoming aware of this.

The tires began to feather and wear unevenly within the first 5000 miles of owning the car. The tires began to cup. The car now has extremely loud road noise. It is loader than any normal sports car should be and is horrible to drive. It is very nerve racking. The tire wear could be dangerous and result in a flat or blow out. The tire wear is probably due to a suspension issue with the car. Nissan has service records issued. Nissan told the dealer to swap my two front wheels, but this did nothing.

Cupping and feathering of tires- causing road noise, poor traction, & handling. Per owner forums, due to suspension issues which effect allignment. Others have had problems recognized and fixed. My dealer and Nissan say there is no problem.

Nissan 350z 2003 front suspension issue - tires are feathering because of bad setup in front suspension. This problem surfaced after about 5000 miles on the car in the form of a low rumbling noise when slowing down. This noise slowly got worse until I took the car in and niacin said the tires were defective. I was given a new set of tires that were not feathered and the problem went away until I reached another 5000 miles, at which point, the noise resurfaced. I once again, took it into niacin, who was very good about recognizing that there was a problem, and brought up the fact that the original issue was most likely not defective tires but a poor setup of some kind that was causing the feathering. They agreed and said a bulletin had been sent out about this issue. The solution, they said, was to switch the tires, re-calibrate something with the suspension, and the tires would eventually even out. I have only driven 3000 miles since this fix, but the noise is still apparent, and I believe there is still an issue in the front suspension. I feel that niacin has been very good to me about addressing issues as they come up, but if this is a bigger problem, I really feel that niacin should recall rhe front suspension and address the deeper problem. I can't keep replacing my tires every 5000 miles.

Excessive tire noise was noticed, took to dealer and found inside of front tires had worn away. Dealer re-aligned suspension and replaced front tires. Later, tire noise was noticed again along with pulling to right. Took to dealer and inside edge of front tires had worn away again, tires were replaced again and suspension re-aligned again. Right front suspension "compression rod" replaced due to pull. Tires continue to wear excessively along both inside and outside edges. Tires wear out in less than 10,000 miles. Once tire noise becomes severe, straight-line stability is affected at highway speeds. Tires could fail due to premature wear if vehicle owner does not inspect tires for inside edge wear at abnormally frequent intervals.

Front tire "feathering. " there is a common front end suspension problem with many of the first year Nissan 350z's released that causes the front tires to wear unevenly and prematurely fail. It can first become noticeable at several thousand miles. The front tires make excessive noise under braking at speeds below 40 mph. I have contacted Nissan north America on several occasions and had my vehicle in for service at the dealership, but to the best of my knowledge, a fix is not currently available. I replaced the original tires at 4000 miles because of the noise, then discovered at a chat room that many other 350z owners were having similar problems. Once removed, an inspection showed uneven wear on the inside edge of the tire that I was previously unaware of. Nissan has agreed to reimburse the cost of one replacement set of tires, but my concern is that the vehicle will continue to cause premature tire wear problems unless fixed. I don't know if this is a safety issue, but am convinced that a mechanical defect exists, Nissan is aware of it and a majority of early issue cars are effected.