2003 Nissan 350Z: Second-quarter update
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2003 Nissan 350Z: Second-quarter update
THE SECOND QUARTER with our long-term Nissan 350Z came and went with a ton of fun behind the wheel. The Z remains quick and tight, and looks great on the road.
Tires were the biggest issue during the quarter, specifically the front tires. At 11,000 miles we started hearing quite a bit of noise coming from the Bridgestones up front. Indeed there is a lot of online buzz among Z owners about rapid tire wear, and it turns out we are experiencing the same thing. Nissan has issued a service bulletin to dealers saying that on some models, there is something inherent to the suspension design/geometry causing the inside edge of the tires to wear in a choppy manner. Nissan couldnˇ¦t tell us how many ˇ§someˇ¨ is, but thatˇ¦s what causes the noise. Our dealer says the bulletin instructs service technicians to reduce toe-in as much as possible.
[Since the tires are unidirectional and different sizes front/rear, you canˇ¦t rotate them. The best you can do is to remove the tires from their respective rims and mount them on the other side, then the worn inside edge becomes the outside edge. As long as the inside edge is smooth, the noise goes away. We had our tires removed and mounted on the other side and that helped for a while, but the noises are back. We plan on putting snow tires on in the third quarter.
Other than that, itˇ¦s been routine maintenance, oil changes and the like, and plenty of fun, hard driving. The Zˇ¦s 3.5-liter V6 just loves to rev and pumps out its 287 hp smoothly, with no real dips in the power curve. The six-speed manual transmission is still a nice-shifting, short-throw box. The logbook remains full of praise, calling out the heavenly engine note, how the car is wonderfully balanced, how the interior is comfortable over the long haul, and simply what a blast the Z is to drive. In other words, in the half a year the Z has been here no one has tired of grabbing the keys, and we donˇ¦t see the enthusiasm diminishing any time soon.
The quarter ended with 15,500 miles total on the Zˇ¦s ticker.
Tires were the biggest issue during the quarter, specifically the front tires. At 11,000 miles we started hearing quite a bit of noise coming from the Bridgestones up front. Indeed there is a lot of online buzz among Z owners about rapid tire wear, and it turns out we are experiencing the same thing. Nissan has issued a service bulletin to dealers saying that on some models, there is something inherent to the suspension design/geometry causing the inside edge of the tires to wear in a choppy manner. Nissan couldnˇ¦t tell us how many ˇ§someˇ¨ is, but thatˇ¦s what causes the noise. Our dealer says the bulletin instructs service technicians to reduce toe-in as much as possible.
[Since the tires are unidirectional and different sizes front/rear, you canˇ¦t rotate them. The best you can do is to remove the tires from their respective rims and mount them on the other side, then the worn inside edge becomes the outside edge. As long as the inside edge is smooth, the noise goes away. We had our tires removed and mounted on the other side and that helped for a while, but the noises are back. We plan on putting snow tires on in the third quarter.
Other than that, itˇ¦s been routine maintenance, oil changes and the like, and plenty of fun, hard driving. The Zˇ¦s 3.5-liter V6 just loves to rev and pumps out its 287 hp smoothly, with no real dips in the power curve. The six-speed manual transmission is still a nice-shifting, short-throw box. The logbook remains full of praise, calling out the heavenly engine note, how the car is wonderfully balanced, how the interior is comfortable over the long haul, and simply what a blast the Z is to drive. In other words, in the half a year the Z has been here no one has tired of grabbing the keys, and we donˇ¦t see the enthusiasm diminishing any time soon.
The quarter ended with 15,500 miles total on the Zˇ¦s ticker.
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Elohite
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Apr 21, 2008 04:08 PM