The time has come to replace the OEM Michelins. As I have read in this forum about everyone, including myself, were disappointed with the excessive noise and hard compound of the Michelins.

I'm looking to decrease the noise and improve the ride quality on my 05 RL. I'm not interested in going around corners at 100 mph and would like something in a all season design. We average around 130 inches of snow in a winter.

Would like suggestions on what brand, compound and tread design that everyone is replacing these OEM tires with.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

According to Tire Rack's Tire decision guide, it's the Dunlop SP Sport 5000 Asymmetrical you want. I always replace the POS OEM Michelins on my Honda\Acuras with Dunlops, and you immediately notice how much quieter they are.

AND, they are cheaper too!

 

Well, if you look at the tire rack, which has about the best website for this kind of stuff, it looks as if there are three choices, the others being UHP Summer tires or snows.

Dunlop SP5000 Asymmetrical (UHP AS)
Michelin Pilot Sport AS (UHP AS)
Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 (Grand Touring AS)

So if those are unacceptable for you, and you do not want to change wheels, then the question is what other tires are "close".

I am thinking 235/50-17 has many more choices, like 20+ in just All Season V rated or higher tires, which are cheaper to boot.

Cons of course, are section is a little less wide, but since cornering is not a concern for you, it should not matter, and a little shorter so you will get some speedo error, like 60 mph indicated is really 59, and associated odo errors. Should not affect the navi since it is getting real time positioning through GPS.


Anyone have any experience with this size, which I think is the stock size for Australia NZ cars IIRC saddlerau's emails.

 

i have the dunlop sp5000's and love them. road noise is minimal and i like the tread pattern, looks more sporty/aggressive on the RL than the michelins IMO. here's a few pics:

 

Just curious, what kind of mileage did you get on the OEM tires?

Also, in another thread I had questioned the use of All-Season tires here in New England and was warned about the performance of the OEM AS in snow. perhaps the Dunlops are better.

 

[QUOTE=AustinTaper]i have the dunlop sp5000's and love them. road noise is minimal and i like the tread pattern, looks more sporty/aggressive on the RL than the michelins IMO. here's a few pics:

How many miles on your Dunlop's? I've seen other posts indicating they wear badly. I'm getting ready to replace my OEM Michelin's on my 05 RL, 79,000 miles (100 miles high speed highway 5 days/wk). I'm leaning toward the Dunlop's but only concern is the treadwear.

 

I would guess the tires have less than 5K miles on them so it's too early for me to speculate on tread life.

 

I had two sets in past on a 1995 Legend in 225/50-16. They were decent for UHP tires, 20-25K miles. Towards EOL, snow performance sucked, but I would expect nothing less. This was in Washington DC area, average snowfall like 20-25 inches.

 

I went with the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. I had them on my '04 TL previously and always felt that these are the best tires I ever had on a car. I've not had these on my '05 RL for about 6 weeks or so and I'm very happy with them so far. They are pretty expensive but so far, they've been great.

BTW, I live near Rochester, NY where we get 130+ inches of snow per year and they do pretty well.

 

I replaced the stock OEM at delivery with the Pilot A/S, 35k miles and 2 Cleveland winters and still great, probably have another 15k of good traction left.

 

I really disliked the Michelins that I got on my 96 RL when I bought it in 2000. I went with Bridgestone Potenza's based on user reviews at tirerack.com and it was a vast improvement....

 

Yokohama Advan S4
Michelin Sport AS
Bridgestone RE960

All these are Ultra high performance all season tires with similar performance and price.

I have the S4 and can attest that they offer much improved performance over the OEM MXM4 in dry and wet conditions. I haven't used them in snow yet but my research hints that the S4's are the best in the snow and should be significantly better than the MXM4 in those conditions according to tirerack and consumer reports (although not as good as snow tires obviously). Noise and comfort are imperceptably lower compared to the MXM4.
Three good choices!

Here are pics of my s4's
http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/i...view=slideshow

 

I just replaced mine at 65,425 miles. I had picked up a set of takeoffs so I'm guessing it will be a while before I need to consider another set of tires.

 

Thanks all for your posts. We're new RL owners (an 05) here in Ontario Canada. We have 70,000 klicks on the car and the rear tires are worn. That's only 42,000 miles or so...

We will run snow tires since they often don't plow our thruways here soon enough.

Regards
DaveL

 

Has anybody used the Hankook Ventus V4 as a replacement tire. 245/45/17

 

No, but I rode around Summit Point Raceway in a 330i for about 40 minutes with Hankook Ventus S1 evo's.

The BMW school instructor driver said he used to buy expensive tires, but has recently tried the Hankook max performance summers from the Tire Rack and was quite pleased with them for the price and the performance. I was thrilled by the ride around the track. By the end, he said they were getting hot, greasy feeling, but I would never drive a car like he did so that would not be a limiting factor.

Let us know if you try the Hankook all seasons.

 

can't go with 245/45/17. It lowers the overall diameter by an inch, and will throw off the speedometer. Also looks smaller.
Probably stay with pilot A/S. Turanza serenity is new but not as aggressive as A/S.

 

Yea I missed the 45 aspect ratio. That would be too small.

Let us know what you end up with.

 

I will be replacing the OEM Michelins soon. How much wider can you go on the stock 17"s? Discount tire says I can go up to 255/45. Has anyone done this? Any thoughts? I am seeing the choices increase and prices drop at 255 vs 245 as I browse for deals online.

 

I meant 255/40

 

found this on a tl.

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-tires-wheels-suspension-97/why-you-should-get-255-40-17-tires-your-oem-rims-595122/

 

255/40-17 is worse, too small in comparison to 245/50-17 by greater than 6%. Your speedo will be showing 60, but you will be traveling only 56.4. You will be greater than 1.5" in diameter difference. I personally would not do anything more than a +/- 2.0% difference, but that is a personal standard....

But to answer your question, I think, if 255 is too wide, it is not. I am running 255/40-19 and I think slawek65 is running 265/40-18 and toying with going to 275's

 

I've used the tire size calculator from the Miata forum for years. Recently found a better one: here's a link

I find it really handy for checking multiple tire sizes.

http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp

Dave

 

Thanks! That helps.

 

When you shop for tires, it might be helpful to be aware of their age. This video explains the risk and how to read the code on the replacement tires.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

 

I ended up going with the Michelin Pilot Sport. They feel sticky.

 

Lease coming to an end. Have about 2000 more miles with the car. Any recommended brands for the short term? Looking to replace with 235/50R17. 245/50R17 are too expensive.

 

Summer or All Season?

 

All season. Been reading up posts on some Kumho tires. Namely the Ecsta ASX (Ultra High Performance All Seasons) or the Ecsta LX Platinum (Grand Touring All Seasons). Both are within about $8 of each other on Tire Rack. I'm wondering if I could get a better deal locally (heard that tire shops are desperate for sales at the end of October).

Bridgestone Serenity's are highly touted, but I'm not willing to shell out an extra $40 per tire with the limited period of time left on the lease.

 

I saw on 1010tires.com the General All Season tires are available. About $150/tire. Not bad and good reviews.

I am up in the air on replacing my OEM set, over 62,000 miles. I might go with a new set of wheels/tires + new springs...

That way the future replacement tires will be somewhat less expensive than the current 17" replacement prices. Just my

 

Agreed, static... My lease is ending, so I'm taking the 18" ASPEC rims (i bought) off and putting back the 17s.

Not a big fan of General, but i'll go out there and read up on them. The Platinums are going for $128/tire.

 

Anyone received flak from Acura for not using the original size of tire the car came with when returning a lease? I've read the contract AHFS contract and it mentions nothing about tire size.

 

They might not "notice" the different tire size but who knows.

When I traded in my wife's 2004 TL it had 3 kumho's and 1 bridgestone. 1 Kumho bit the dust and I kept an original bridgestone OEM tire (lucky me). Did the trade-in deal and two days later we got our new MDX no questions asked about the TL.

 

Yeah, in the lease it specifically says "missing or unsafe wheels or tires (including spare), tires with less than 1/8th inch of tread remaining at the shallowest point". Nothing stating you must use a tire that that matches OE size. There is part of the lease that came through the fax that is faded. I'm going to head by the dealership and ask to see a blank lease. See if there is any verbage in there.

Otherwise, I would be forced back up to 245/50R17's. There is a General that TireRack is selling for $109, but it is a Summer tire. Not sure how I feel about driving around on this tire during the winter. All though, I do live in Dallas...but, we do get bad weather on occasion. Hmmm......

 

I would not recommend a summer tire for cold weather/winter in Dallas - I had lived in Dallas for 19 yrs and, yes, you do get winter weather.

 

I think they would pull the specification table on you in the OM, and the specific section on tires, and tire sizes which says

Replace your tires with radial tires of Wheels:
the same size, load range, speed
rating, and maximum cold tire
pressure rating (as shown on the
tire’s sidewall).

And then there is a table with sizes for standard, PAX and the spare (this is the 2006 manual--2005 has no PAX in it.

 

Good point, Chas... Guess I'll get the Generals.

 

When I turned in my wife's '04 RSX-S on a lease return, the guy doing the inspection did not mentioned anything about the differnt tire size on the car. The OEM were P205/50R17. I had P225/45R17 on them.

 

I have no opinion as to whether you should or should not, never having done the lease route...I was just saying they usually have some way to enforce things if they want to...whether they choose to is another story... a lot of big companies usually have pretty good contracts so they can fall back on them if the need arises.