Tim_Patrick

I'm new to this forum and this is my first post so apologies in advance. The car is a 2003 350z with roughly 165,000 I believe it's the touring edition and has a bunch of mods that were done to it when I bought it.

The car was lowered on manzo lowering springs when I bought it which had only been on it for maybe 1,000 miles, no other mods or adjustments were done to the suspension not even an alignment unfortunately. The car still went down the road straight and had no issues related to that but after about 500 to 1000 miles of driving it I had a blowout in the rear tire on the inner wall, after looking at it the rear tires were chewed up a bit on the inner corners in the back which I was assuming was due to the camber on the car. At the time I knew nothing about lowering cars or really the 350z in general and was told it was a cambered car from the factory but now I see lowering it made it worse. I bought new nitto now gen 5 tires for the rear at size 235 40r18 because that is what was on it before the blowout to compensate for the lowered suspension.

So the issue I'm having is right after putting these new tires on the car felt like the rear driver side tire was hitting the fender on hard right hand turns at speed. The car appeared to sit a tad lower or closer to the fender on the driver side and looked like it was sitting close enough that maybe the tires were a bit wider than the old ones somehow and managed to hit. So to temporarily fix this I used a fender roller and got the lips up and made quite a bit more clearance on both sides. I did a test ride on a hard corner it hit on before I rolled the fenders and it still seemed to hit, it feels kinda like a brake grabbing but feels more like it's rubber and something to do with the tire which is hard to explain but it almost feels like it grabs and skids.

After looking into similar issues I was wondering if it's either possible or likely that the issue is just that it needs an alignment from being lowered? I think it's that because the springs drop I believe 1.5 in the front and 2 in the rear it's so low that the camber and toe are very far off. And because of this on hard turns from the slight body roll it's causing the tire to squat a little bit more and set the toe off enough that because it's a new tire it is actually grabbing being pulled almost sideways when before the tire would just slide a little and that's what caused the blow out of the previous worn tires. Also the shocks/struts in the rear are original on the car never replaced.

I know someone will make a comment about this but since the new tires were put on it's only been driven maybe 40 miles, on my first trip when I felt the issue I parked the car right after then just took it for a test ride after rolling the fenders, I realize it's dangerous to drive a car with suspension issues and the car is parked not being driven until I have it fixed. Also I have ordered new shocks for the rear and an adjustable camber arm and toe bolts plus camber arms for the front I'm hoping this will solve the issue but regardless will be needed to be able to have the car aligned back into factory spec. But if anyone has an idea of alternative issues that this might be or have had a similar issue the input would really be appreciated !
Thank you for reading this, apologies for it being so long.

NismoPick

Welcome to ZDriver!

Without facepalming and going into rant mode: YES, YOU NEED TO GET AN ALIGNMENT. When you make changes to suspension, you need to get an alignment.

Life Tip:
Those who are too cheap to spend money on quality (necessary) things, almost always spend more money later to fix the resulting problems.

If you are handy, you can do a simple alignment check with a string, jack stands, and measuring tape. Search for "DIY Alignment" on YouTube. Otherwise, be on your way to an alignment shop that is lowered-friendly.