I have a 2005 G35 with less than 5,000 miles. Steadily increasing tire noise has led to the determination that the inside of both front tires have cupped to the point where the noise is very noticeable and annoying. I am interested whether any other G35 owners have had similar problems or whether there is anything other than a normal alignment that would correct the problem. I realize the tires are shot - aren't they?

Any ideas?

The term is heel-toe feathering normal on directional tires or any tires that do not get flipped and rotated to counter wear in the opposite direction. The soft the tire compound the more frquently you must rotate.

Car with different front rear sizes are the worst.

Directional tires are the punishment one gets for trying to squeeze max performance out of the first 8,000 miles of life.

The only 100% solution after you have exhausted a dozen alignments [tweeking settings slightly] is to live with the situation or convert to tires that can be rotated and flipped on rims FREQUENTLY.

I have also seen this happen after installing an aftermarket suspension setup where an alignment was bypassed or there is an issue with the struts. On one of my old vehicles, every time the shocks went bad, I would get significant "cupping" as well until the shocks were replaced. Rotating the tires in that scenario did nothing but make sure all tires received the same treatment.

Thanks for the post. I should have mentioned that this car has the Sport package and therefor the tires are both directional and different sizes front/rear. Therefor no rotating. The car has not been driven "aggressively" and I have (so far) not heard of other G35s with similar problems. Do think there is any recourse to Nissan or the dealer?

Take it in and show them. Some dealerships can be a pain to deal with while others are ok. Kinda like flipping a coin. For the most part, Infiniti dealers are a billion times better to work with than Nissan dealers.

not been driven "aggressively" and I have (so far) not heard of other G35s with similar problems.

That's some on the problem not wearing the tires out before the feathering develops...............they all have it to varing degrees just as MB and BMW and any directional tired car has.

I have a C43 AMG same problem, ...............every car with dirctional tires. varies by weight and alignment specs, high caster, and local road roughness.

Incorrect Caster Setting Excessive shoulder wear; tread blocks show "heel-toe" wear pattern. Unequal Caster setting (either right or left side is out of specification) Sharp pulling necessitates steering compensation and feathered wear. Unequal Toe setting (either right or left side is out of specification) Sharp pulling necessitates steering compensation and feathered wear. Combination of two or more settings are out of specification. Irregular tread wear with feathering and smooth spots

Notice the rear tires don't get the heel toe feathering because there is zero caster in rear..............of course they get other problems from too much power/launch style............fast wear.

Caster can have an effect here, too. Caster causes the wheels to lean or tilt when steered, which changes camber (called "camber roll"). A lot of caster may therefore cause an increase in shoulder wear. This type of condition is common on vehicles like Mercedes and BMW that have high caster settings.

As the tire rolls along, the deflection and squirming of the tread produces harmonics that cause certain areas of the tread or ribs to wear more than others. The wear pattern can be further compounded by other factors such as toe misalignment, wheel imbalance, wheel runout, underinflation or lack of rotation. After awhile, a "heel and toe" or "washboard" wear pattern may develop that generates annoying noise and vibrations at speeds above 40 mph. Once the wear pattern is established, it's too late to reverse it by rotating the tires. So the only cure you can recommend is to replace the tires and possibly switch to another brand or style that is less "quirky."

http://www.babcox.com/editorial/tr/tr129622.htm

i have the 2005 g35 sports package and six speed. Cupping is definitely there and the dealer is blaming it on the possible misalignment. there's only about 14,000 km (who knows in miles).

the noise and dealer satisfaction makes me think i'm driving a $15000 vehicle.

It is not called cupping if the heel of the block is worn more than the toe or the converse. ///////Cupping is result of weak shocks or a term incorrectly ued by non tire engineers.

Toe feathering shows up as a saw edge across the face of tread raise from inner to outer tread block

These problems are found on every brand make and model from every country with directional tires that don't get rotated.

http://www.lasercannon.com/Newz/feathering.htm

Thanks for the post. The dealer has agreed to give me an alignment and new front tires under what he refers to as "good will". I haven't had the work done yet (7/27) but so far I feel like he is taking the easy way out instead of trying to determine what is causing the problem. I think, perhaps, he knows something he doesn't want to talk about. Let me know how you make out.

pgbaxter wrote:Thanks for the post. The dealer has agreed to give me an alignment and new front tires under what he refers to as "good will". I haven't had the work done yet (7/27) but so far I feel like he is taking the easy way out instead of trying to determine what is causing the problem. I think, perhaps, he knows something he doesn't want to talk about. Let me know how you make out.

As Dennis said, this is a problem inherent to directional tires on every car. There is no fix for this. These are things you have to deal with in a car with the kind of performance the G has. That being said, the dealer has really taken the only way out and probably has gone far beyond what others would do. I've been running nothing but performance directional tires as long as I can remember, and I've always had some issue with cupping. Some tires were better than others. The Pilot Sports that came with the car were pretty bad. The S03's I ran were better but still showed some signs (though they had more tread left when the rears were done so it's not a direct comparison). You could always try and go to same size wheels and tires(though the VDC may be unhappy with that), use asymmetrical tires and rotate them often and not have an issue with it. But other than that, you're pretty much going to have to deal with it all the time to some extent.

"We suspect that the tires just can't cope with all this power and mass, because they were feathering quite badly after fifteen laps of the private Ascari racetrack. "

from new BMW M6 review:http://www.automobilemag.com/a...mw_m6/

Is there anybody out there who has tires that are not feathering on the outside and getting louder after a few thousand miles? My daughters car has Falken ZE 512 tires on her Tiburon and they are also feathering and getting louder

From RX8 forum:

Every domestic and import car forum I have searched has topics about high performance directional tire feathering and increased noise after 8,000 miles!