My car had started a vibration in the car when traveling at 60-70mph on the highway after a recent brake disc replacement (under warranty). Maybe it was there before but not prominent as much. It's not related to braking or acceleration but simply driving at speed. It drives fine on city roads. I called the dealer to check it out and the lady answering the phone thinks that tires need balancing and made an appointment for next week.
Now the situation has changed a bit.
After yesterdays mild snow one of the rear tires was showing low pressure. This was the same one which had a nail removed and patch performed (by the dealer) about a year ago. I checked the tread and it looks like the tires are well worn out. Especially the rear passenger one. I assume when the cross bars across the treads are touching the surface it is time to replace ...right? The mileage is well past 40K.
In addition, after yesterday's snow the mild incline on our approach road (which was untreated) was too much for the tires to handle and my wife was really concerned when the car slipped sideways out of the road even when it was barely moving. Somehow she managed to come out avoiding the ditch.
The questions is now is there a point in balancing the tires now or change the tires and then do it?
Again I'm not thinking winter tires yet. I hope that a new set of "all seasons" can work well since we are not in a heavy snow belt area. ......... Hmmmmmm... Need to think.

 

Replace all the tires with a Balance and an alignment.

 

What he said...

 

Have any leads on what type of tires?
I always seem to settle on Michelin LTX on my trucks and pilots on my passenger cars...lately been able to catch the $70 rebates at Costco.
i normally ship to my alignment shop and ask to road force balance with his hunter machine with a printout of the alignment specs for my records.

My car is new so not going to worry about this now but Mod, do know of the alignment specs for the rdx 2014 and newer?

 

If I were you I'd get a new set of all-seasons now. Its possible (but not probable) that one of the tires is causing the vibration and balancing may not do much esp. if it has a bulge in it. 40K is a lot of miles on a set of tires.
Also, in choosing a new set of tires, I also went with the LTX since after reading hundreds of user reviews, they seemed to be better-rated for road noise than any other tire.

 

I had started a thread for RDX tires about 6 months ago and got nowhere . Therefore I omitted the discussion about tire brands. But I'm open to suggestions.

https://acurazine.com/forums/second-...es-rdx-949127/

Like I said in the above thread, my top priorities are good all weather grip, comfort and less noise, everything else is secondary except I don't want cheap "no name" tires. I checked Tirerack website but they don't seem to have any stores nearby. The only good stores nearby which I know about are are Firestones and I presume they would prefer to sell Firestones / Bridgestones (which I don't have a problem with if you guys recommend it highly).
I'm guessing that the dealer (where I have an appointment next week) will likely tell me the same suggestion to change tires. I don't know what tires they carry. May be OEM Michelins which my car came with and I've been happy with them so far. I don't know the prices they charge also. I recall the service lady mentioning about "road force balancing".
There is no Costco nearby and I'm not a member anyway. There is a Sam's club which I haven't used at all. Then there are Walmart and Sear's.

 

Yes. The wear bars indicatie needing replacement.
Giving opinions on tires is very subjective...depending on your driving habits, conditions, budget and even appearances.

I normally use tire rack.com. Good reviews, regional online customer service gives great advice (I've had some give first hand road test opinions).
Free shipping to my install/alingment shop.
I would never think of buying tires from a dealer.

I am running the Michelin premier on a 4-mo v6 Passat that I drive very sprinted usually with 4-adults, a full load and has slight suspension stiffening...
good tire wear, inexpensive and quiet....from Costco.

i have LTXs on a Jeep GC that is a beast in the snow and on any road conditions. Also on my ford trucks for work...
for the RDX I'd prob pick more of a grand touring A/S tire. Not as hard or noisy as the LIghtTruckXTire.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireS...inLoadRating=S

 

The Premier LTX was the OEM tire on the 2016 Lexus RX and just to be clear, was designed for use on crossovers and SUVs as well as light trucks (not that THAT is a big deal).

 

Okay, so just to be clear. What you guys are essentially suggesting is to cancel the appointment with dealer for next week, and go to Firestone and get the tire changed, balanced and then see if vibration persists. If yes, then make another appointment with dealer?
I assume these independent tire shops likely also charge a hefty fee for tire change, balancing and stuff like that...? I have no idea about their rates as well. If I can keep everything around a thousand dollars, then I might go with the OEM Michel Primacy MXM4s.
Or may be I should also call the dealer and ask what kind of tires do they keep and how much do they charge for tire replacement?

 

Sure, find out what the dealer will charge you, I'd be interested to see how it compares to a local tire dealer. Have you checked 1010 tires?

Also, you said the dealer had recently replaced the brake disc...do you mean the rotor ? The new rotor could be out of balance but its not too likely.

 

Yup...dealer should be no charge if you can convince your service writer the vibration came after the warranty brake repair and tire puncture repair.
ask for a mechanic that knows how, to double check the balance on the tire in question.
if you get nowhere might as well start shopping for tires somewhere.

if no Costco or tire rack or big o or americas tire etc...then I checked in my area and sams club has a limited selection but Walmart does not have and sears has mercifully closed the only nearby store.
Firestone and Goodyear have poor reputations for selection and service around here.

I tried the primacy on said Passat and new they did not hold their line on a brisk downhill grade with a series of hard banks...only tire I've ever returned. Luckily got from Costco but Michelin might refund on a prorated basis.
$700 all in would be a good price but money should be the least concern when safety of family is involved.

 

Yes, the brake rotors.
Here's the thread.
https://acurazine.com/forums/second-...gy-pkg-951304/

 

That's what my faint hope is because the vibrations were much more after the brake job. I noticed it right away while returning from the dealership. I will pay for the tires since they need changing anyway, but if they could help out with the labor for road force balancing and stuff like that (unless it is much less) it would be a plus for me.
The tire puncture repair was more than a year ago and out of the equation.

 

Other things to check are:
- check the torque levels of the lugs nuts. I've had issues when they use an impact wrench set too high. That can damage the lugs/studs and move the tire/disk out of alignment to make it feel like the vehicle tire(s) are out of balance. I ended up getting my own tq wrench to double-check the tq after any tire service. I even had to get a 2 foot breaker bar because some of the lugs were too tight to loosen with the spare tire tools.

- Do cross rotations in between rotations. I always go for non-directional tires so I can do rotations and then cross rotations. It helps even out the wear, tires last longer, keeps the tires quiet longer because the cross rotations smooth out any tire wear imperfections. Kinda like your right shoe sole has a different wear pattern compared to the left shoe sole. Cross rotations evens out the wear with side-to-side or cross front-to-back rotations. Even when you get a road vibration you just can't get rid of, cross rotation can sometimes reduce or eliminate it.

- Road force balance with new tires. They can adjust the tires on the rims to help minimize the amount of weights needed to balance. This can find the sweet spot for balance by applying (I think) 1200lbs of force to find the hi/low spots on the tire/rim. Your vibration might be because there is hi/low spot on your tire; but, the tire might be perfectly balanced on a regular spin balancer.

One of the top rated all season ultra high performance tires is the Conti DWS 06 tires. There are a few tires that will outperform the Conti DWS 06 in a few areas; but, there aren't a lot of tires that check all the boxes like this one. It really depends on you driving style and needs if the Conti DWS 06 supports your driving conditions. I love them so much I'm on my 2nd or 3rd set on my three Acura's and my daughters Mazda3 5-door hatch. These tires have:
- +50,000 miles tread life
- non-directional for rotations/cross rotations
- excellent dry/wet/snow/slush/icy weather grip
- quiet during entire tread life (always to my rotations or X-rotations every oil change)
- improvement in braking because of excellent grip
- very stable at any speed, even at 100 mph
- very stable and much less squeal in the curves with or without sh-awd
- Can weigh less than some other tires, less rotational mass to move

 

I checked with the local Firestone and they are more interested in selling Firestone Destination LE2 which they have in stock even though he reluctantly agrees that sometimes he does get if from tire rack and so on. They don't do road force balancing but says that he does "hi-speed" balancing. He says that is what is needed for new tires. I don't know what the difference between them is. The installation seems pretty cheap at about $7.00 per tire.

 

I called up my dealer who does only OEM tires with road force balancing. They charge $240 for the stock tires (which is $235 on tire rack BTW). OTD they quoted around $1100 which I think I might go with. I was okay with the OEM Michelin Primacy MXM4 so far. The price sure is a little more than the local tires guys but not by much. What do you guys think?

 

Stay away from the Firestone Destination LE2's. They were OE on my '17 Ridgeline and I always had this little vibration. They were also horrid in ice/snow. Dealer said it was normal to get that little vibration, even though they checked the balance on the tires. Put a set of Michelin Snowies on for the winter and the vibration went away, the snowies are quieter, and my mileage went up about 10%. I won't be putting the Firestones back on the Ridgeline....and would NEVER consider them for our RDX. If your dealer can do an OE for pretty much what the local guy can, and their warranty/service are good, seems pretty decent to me. You just never know who is doing the tire busting at the local shop and how they will stand by their work.

As to the Firestone dealer not doing road force balancing, it is totally different from high speed balancing. The tire and wheel are matched to each other and pressure is put on the combo during the rotation to determine the best spot on the wheel that the tire belongs. It is truly a much more advanced way to balance the tire/wheel. High speed, or spin balancing, is OK and generally does the job; however, I have seen road-force do some amazing things to vehicles that had perfectly balanced tires, per the spin balancer, but still had vibration. It is also much more expensive. In my area, it ranges from 25-50 per tire, depending on the tire/wheel combo. It can be worth it, though....I once had a vibration that only hit over 70ish and a road force smoothed it out completely. It was worth it to me since my main travel highway is US 40, which is a 75mph speed limit here in AZ.

 

Okay, decision made. I'll go with the dealer for OEM tires which is what I was tending towards anyway. The Firestone guys didn't give me much confidence. Thanks for all the help guys (and to Doobiewah for the tutorial too) .
I sure hope the vibration goes away with this. Will see.

 

As I wrote in a different thread, our 2013 RDX Tech had a slow leak from a nail in the side of one of the OEM tires. We went to our local Discount Tire shop. We buy all of our replacement tires there and they treat us very well. Even though they were the OEM tires (i.e., not tires sold to us by Discount Tire), the manager gave us a pro-rated amount toward 3 new tires. We had roughly 28,000 miles on the original tires. I believe they could not give us anything for the damaged tire, but they did give us a pro-rated amount for the other 3 tires. I did not want one new tire and 3 old tires, so we replaced all 4 with the same Michelin Primacy MXM4 tires. The total was $850, which included tax (6.75%), TPMS kits, environmental fees, road hazard (refund/replacement) certificates, and lifetime adjustment, balancing, valves, and rotation. There was also a $70 rebate from Michelin, so the total was really $780.

So far, I have always been happy with Discount Tire, at least the shop closest to us. They have good prices (which I expected) and they treat us very well and seem to do a very good job (which I did not necessarily expect). You might want to check them out, since the price I got was much better than the $1100 price you quoted.

Gregg

 

I would go with the dealer as well if you don't have a Discount Tire who could get a better price(as the poster said above). I am happy with the OEM Michelins, but $240/tire is pretty steep. Discount Tire sells the Primacy MXM4 at $187/tire and then you get a $70/rebate from Michelin. Your out the door price with installation and lifetime balancing(which dealers usually do NOT give so you have to pay for any rebalancing later) would be $825 plus taxes BEFORE the $70 rebate(which works out to $170/tire).

 

Yes, our bill at Discount Tire would have been even less, but we decided to get the road hazard (refund/replacement) certificates/insurance, which was extra.

Gregg

 

You got a great deal as you must have paid even less than the $187/tire price currently listed on the web site in Atlanta.

 

In addition to the $70 Michelin rebate, Discount Tire was offering $100 off the purchase of 4 tires. They have this promotion from time to time. That helped!

Gregg

 

Now you guys are beginning to make me feel bad for going with the dealer .. The nearest real "discount tire" shop is around three hours drive and not practical for me.
One other discount tire I had seen in town is a rusty old building with a cardboard sign rough painted by a crude hand saying "discount tire service" hanging by a thread with a couple of crappy cars laying outside in shoddy condition. I would be wary of even buying an old tire with three month service contract from them. Recently even that board seem to have disappeared . Okay , that was an exaggeration...bottomline....I don't seem to have many good options out here anyway.

 

Well, if it makes you feel any better, my recent experiences with Discount Tire have been poor, to say the least. 15 years ago I lived in a town where Discount was THE best place to go. Moved to Flagstaff, AZ and they are similar to a used car dealer...they promise you one thing on the phone, your invoice changes, you have to call for a manager and they argue with you, even if you show them your email quote. Called them once and ordered a set of black walls. Was told they'd be delivered in 3 days. Two weeks later, they weren't in. I said I'd just get them elsewhere, and 'suddenly', I got a call that they were there. Went down to get them installed. Found out once I got home that they were raised white letter that had been installed with the black wall out, and they'd taken a black marker to cover the white letters. Haven't been back since.

Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't give my old 9or any other) Discount Tire my business, it's just the one here in my town that I don't trust. If you trust your dealer, and are satisfied that you are getting good service at a decent price, be happy and enjoy the ride on your new tires.

 

You're fine going to Discount Tire. I used to go there and got tires for my old Accord. The only reason I stopped is when I went in once for a alignment as part of their 'lifetime alignment' package and I was in and out in 15 minutes... Effers probably didn't even adjust anything, just throw it on the rack, said "LOOKS GOOD TO ME" and pulled it back down. I've learned a good quality alignment tech is worth his weight in gold.


Buying tires there shouldn't be a problem.

 

I know it's always the goal to find the best deal on things like tires, but for me, it's all about the service you get around the purchase. Most places can sell you whatever tire you want and will sometimes price match to get your business. But to me, it's more important to have a shop (or service department) that really CARES about what they're doing. And for some strange reason for me, tires have been my focus area for over 40 years. Once you find a shop that treats your mounts/dismounts with care, takes the time to prep the wheels before the mount, takes the time to balance them and check for proper road-force and spin characteristics, makes sure the wheels are torqued right (and not just slapped back on) - those are the most important thing to me. And when I need a rotation or rebalance down the road, or when I get a nail in the tire. Or when I need an alignment. It's all about the place I go. Tires are just a piece - service is the key.

In my case, in the southern tier of NH, I have used Carson City Tire out of Amherst NH for decades - and while I have favorite shops for other service items (maintenance, repairs, etc) - for tires/alignment/suspension, it's these guys for me. Plus for some reason they get killer pricing deals on Nokian snow tires - just a benefit...

andy

 

Agreed Andy. That's my take on ALL service related jobs I have contracted out (house, car etc.) Costco has great service and do take care to hand torque down each wheel when they are done but they also have a large volume of people to deal with.

Customer service is the #1 thing i look for when i do business dealings, if you don't care about me, why should i give you my $$?

 

Okay. So I drove to the dealer today. On highway speeds I noticed that the car was vibrating / shaking too much for comfort and I had to slow down. I even thought it had some other issue than the tires. Got the tires replaced with brand new OEM Michelins. Now the ride back was perfectly smooth. No issues whatsoever. Thanks you all for your opinion and advices, it was well worth.
Now, this problem is one thing off my mind for the rest of this season at least.

 

Good to hear. The Primacy's on my 2014 were very worn when I got it, the thing sounded and felt like it had monster truck tires on it, especially when slowing down for a traffic light. I knew they were the cause, so I bought the vehicle anyway and replaced the tires a few days later. Voila!

 

Nice! Glad to hear that took care of your issue. It always knocks the stress level down when the issue is solved without having to go too far into the "what if" scenarios. A win for you and back to that nice ride so you can pay attention to other matters....