Nissan GT-R Tire Tread Problem

December 24, 2009
By: Robert Silverman


The Nissan GT-R is one of the hottest cars on the road, an ideal car for a driver in love with speed and performance.  Unfortunately, that smooth ride starts to get rough quite quickly as a result of an inside tread problem with the tires.

Normally, run-flat tires have very hard sidewalls, essential for maintaining tire shape, improving steering, agility and ride comfort. They are filled with nitrogen rather than conventional air. The Nissan GT-R’s tires have unusually pliant sidewalls, which prevents pressure change during high speed driving.

In the case of Inside Line Editor Scott Oldham’s car, the performance alignment that increases the car’s grip also accelerates the front tires’ wear. A Nissan engineer informed Scott that a normal set of these tires lasts only 12,000-15,000 miles.  We find this to be unacceptable.

If you are experiencing problems with your Nissan GT-R tires, please click here to let us know about your experiences.  We may be able to help obtain some recourse for the situation.


Share this post:


9 Responses to “Nissan GT-R Tire Tread Problem”


  1. #1 John Maas says:

    I am at 12,000 miles and the tires are just about gone. All four tires show signs of cupping on the inner edge and the overall tread is about worn out.

    • #2 Michael Geldart says:

      Hi,

      I have a Nissan GTR and have done a combination of Road driving and Track days with the OEM Rubber on the car.

      My first set, the summer tires, wore out they around 15000 miles. I am fine with that. Also, I have the Performance alignment, my summer tires wore on the outer edge, mostly from track days I would guess. The All Seasons that I am running are wearing evenly.

      My comment is: suck it up, you bought a super car.
      The rubber compounds on these tires are as soft as you can buy. 15,000 miles is about what I would expect.

      If you want longer tire life, buy a set of Sumitomo’s with a harder compound like I did and mount R888’s on a set of wheels for the track.

      Mike G.

      • #3 John M. says:

        Mike,

        I aggree with you, I was just curious as to what others have been experiencing. They way they align my NSX the rear tires wear out in about 10,000 miles so I,m not really complaining. Although it does seem kind of fast for the all season tires.

        John

        • #4 Dave Passarelli says:

          I’ve put 160,000 miles on my Supra twin turbo since ’95 and have never had a set of rear tires go over 10k miles. The fronts last about 15K. My GTR is 18 months old with 8000k miles and the both fronts and rears appear to be only half worn, so I’m happy. You can’t expect great mileage from soft super sticky tires on these types of high performance cars. I don’t track my cars, but I sure don’t baby them either, which is also a factor on tire wear.

          Dave

          • #5 Randy W says:

            With only 8300miles on my GT-R, my rears are wearing evenly (to expect 12000) but the inside edge on both fronts are badly worn. No cupping, just worn nearly to the cord. Dealer checked alignment at the 1000mi service, but this is really disappointing. Spirited driving but no track.
            Having lived through the front tire wear issues on a 350ZX and 2 replacements under warranty, I fear Nissan has front end design problems. I’m going to whine to the dealer about it next week.

            • #6 Frank R says:

              Guys,

              I just watched the GT-R (mine is an 09) run against and stay with the $400,000 Lexus. I think that $310,000 should be plenty of tire money. I have 13,500 and my fronts just wore out. I don’t track my car but I live near the mountains and some of the roads that we play on could put many road tracks to shame and we push hard. My guess is that the inside tire wear is caused by the run flats that the car came with, the outside wall of the tire doesn’t flex in the corners and that contributes to the uneven wear… Just a guess.

              • #7 Jeff K says:

                They wear out after around 12,000 miles every time for me…

                • #8 Joel Diamond says:

                  GT-R fun to drive, tires wore out on inside on front 14000 miles, 2015 year, now replacing with Dunlop 7010 oe at 15000 miles.

                  • State: MA.
                • #9 Mark Trotter says:

                  Have a 2013 GTR- was not told about this car wearing tires out at 10,000 miles. Would not have purchased this car if I knew that.
                  Was told by the GTR customer help center nothing could be done to fix issue. Was also told that the CEO of Nissan would not talk to any of customers that bought a GTR. I guess we are just peons!!!

                  • State: TX

                Leave a Reply




                *Indicates required field.