Hey guys, a couple of weeks ago I bought a 06 RL and have some questions. The car has 91k miles(one owner) and I wasn't looking for a car with so many miles but it was at a friends dealership that I trust and it literally looks brand new with almost no interior wear at all. One of my problems is with the tires(Michelin Pilot Sport A/S) they are very loud and I think they hurt the ride since the car rides worse than our Nissan Altima. They still have a lot of tread left but when I took all 4 tires off in both the inside and outside edges of the tires the rubber is coming off in chunks....some chunks are the size of peas and all 4 the same way. I'm not sure what would cause this but it almost looks like the tires are dry-rotted. The car wonders all over the road while driving so I'm going to have to buy new tires I guess. Another thing is that the power steering whines and I wasn't sure if I needed to have it checked, I checked the fluid and it was on the low side of the ok range. Its not a very loud whine but can be heard in the car when nothing is on. My last issue is that the driver side unlock sensor on the door handle is goofy. It works great for a day and the next may not work, its odd in that it will work every time or you can't get it to work at all. I haven't had time to play with it but it seems to work great on cooler days and nights and doesn't work in the heat. This is only the unlock side that I'm having problems with, the lock "button" on the front side of the handle works every time. Anyone have any ideas...can the sensor be cleaned? Thanks guys for any help you can give me. I think that after I get the tires squared away I will enjoy this car a ton.

 

sorry guys I meant to post this message in the main forum and not here, can a mod move it for me? Thanks

 

Check the code on the side of the tire for the manufacture date. It is a 4 number code...first 2 are week made, last two are the year made. (ie 1206, 12th week of 2006) That will give you an idea of just how old they are. If there are pea size chunks coming off, I suggest you get the car into an alignment shop ASAP for a 4 wheel alignment and a check out of the entire suspension. Might be the very reason the previous owner bought something else.

 

if your friend is connected / owns the dealer that sold you this car - have him buy you a new set of tires... any dealership selling a car should not sell it with defective tires that are having chunks come off...

good luck.

 

before getting the tires replaced ... u should find out what the root cause of the problem is. if its just because they are old then new tires will fix the problem ... however if there is a suspension issue new tires will do nothing for you. if i were u i would take it back to the place that i bought it from and have them diagnose it for you, and have them fix it for u properly for little to no cost, considering its ur friends dealership.

 

Thanks for the replies guys, I didn't get a chance to check the numbers on the tire but will take the time to do that tomorrow. I should mention that when I bought the car I asked that they check the tires because the tire noise was so loud. When I went to pick up the car I was told it looked like the tires weren't rotated properly and honestly I got a good deal on the car so I wasn't gonna let tires sour the deal. Only after they rotated the tires did I start noticing the car wandering while driving and even then its only over rough pavement. When the road is smooth the car tracks straight as an arrow...come to think of it it really only tries to pull right when it does pull. I had my buddy check out the car before I bought it, he works for Lexus troubleshooting "problem cars" in the southeast and he found nothing mechanically wrong with the car but did mention the tires looking rough even before he ever so much as sat in the car. He didn't have time to get it on the lift but said it didn't look like the tires were wearing in a way to suggest something is out of spec on the car. The tires are directional which might have something to do with it also. It is odd that all 4 tires look identical and the entire contact patch has the same amount of tread left...its just chunks are coming out of the tread on the inside and outside of the tires but not the middle. I'm still working on getting the tires straight but would like to know if anyone has any ideas on the power steering or the door handle sensor issue. Thanks again guys for the help!!

 

with respect to the door lock, it was a known problem on 2005 and I think on 2006
only way to fix is to replace the handle. Original owner should have done this under warranty