My RL vibrates pretty bad at about 70mph ever since I bought it. The dealer is at a loss since they can't test drive it that fast. They balance the tires each time I bring it in, finding one or more wheels out of balance and it gets a bit better, but never anywhere near as silky smooth as the TSX that I regretfully traded in for this a few months ago.

I'm at the point where I'd buy a new set of tires even though it's a lease just to get rid of the problem, but I'm concerned that it may be the AWD system or the wheels themselves. Any thoughts on this theory?

Looking at the wheels, I was surprised to see how many weights were stuck on to get them balanced. Logic dictates that if 3-6 big weights are needed to balance one tire, you're trying to compensate for some serious wheel or tire out of balance issues. The dealer says this is normal, and all part of Acura's new wheel balancing method. Also the weights weren't on the edge, but more centrally located. That could account for some increase in size to accomplish the same as edge weights, but still doesn't seem right.

 

Sounds excessive but they (at least my dealer) uses a new balancing mehtod where the machine puts significant pressure on the tire as it spins to simulate the car being on the road. I have a friend in the tire business who has the same machine and says this method is much better than regular spin balancing so maybe you just need the weight. I've always wondered if the TPM sensors tend to put the wheels out of balance, requiring hefty counterbalancing.

LL

 

The road force balancer is great, checks the tires for out of round specs, if they are out of spec they will cause a vibrating type ride.
I assume the rear tires were tried on the front.
Have they check for water inside the tires that need balancing often, rare but it has happened?

 

I've had this same problem with my 06 RL. I keep thinking its being caused by flat spots and so far have replaced 3 out of the 4 tires. The dealership bought 2 and thought that this would help. However, I just came back from a trip and was annoyed the entire time with the vibrations. It even began causing rattles that I've never heard in the interior. That also began to raise my blood pressure! It has been in the shop 4 times and each time they tell me its fixed or that they've done all they can. I'm considering looking into the lemon law and seeing if thats the route I need to take. I don't know of any other $50,000 car that drives like this. Its unacceptable!

 

before I would accept a large amount of weights on the rims. i would ask them to remount the tire on the wheel and move it. Sometimes this can help and lower the amount of weight needed to balance out a tire.

 

If it's not the tires, it could be that the wheels are out of round. You might ask the dealer to test your car by replacing the wheels/tires on your car with those on another RL. This was an issue with the 3G TL as well, and the solution I mention was used to test.

 

I went to the dealership for the 4th time and described the same problem of it vibrating at higher speeds. They sent me on a drive with the same technician as last time and while we were vibrating on the interstate..told me that ACURA services has outdated tire balancing equipment and that it does a horrible job on larger tires like the RL. When we got back I convinced them to take my car elsewhere and use top notch equipment to balance the wheels and check for complete roundness. I forget the name of the machine but they agreed to subcontract it. I drop it off next week...I also took a 2007 RL with 12 miles on it for a test drive to see if it had the same problems....AND IT DID! I am beginning to think this problem extends further then just my car. I have been really looking into the lemon law and as much as I hate to do it, will go that route if this advanced balancing equipment can't fix it. I honestly never would have thought I'd be dealing with this when I bought an Acura.

 

My 06 is buttery smooth 70MPH and ALL other speeds so it's apparently not an RL-wide issue.

 

Have the dealer mark and rotate the tires 180 degrrees and rebalance.

 

I went through a similar problem with my 2002 A6 4.2. The dealer mounted my summer wheels one year and I had a vibration all summer. Why they decided to balance them before they put them on is a mystery to me, since I didn't ask them to in the first place. I took the car back a couple of times to have them work on it and they could never get it right. When my winter wheels went on the car, I took my summer wheels over to Discount Tire and had them check them out. Yup...they were out of balance. I called the dealership and let them know about it. They called me back about a month later and told me their tire balancing equipment was out of whack and was going to be replaced.

So...take your wheels to someone else and let them check for balance. Repeating the process on the same equipment will yield the same results and the results will be poor if the equipment is not calibrated properly.

 

I had the same problem with my stock tires. I think it was a problem due to slow sales. My dealer had lots of cars over 90 days old on the lot. After 2,000 miles a mechanic said it was flat spots. That guy quit and at 5,000 I told the service rep that my car vibrates at 70mph. He said we fixed it while you were in for oil. I asked how they fixed it and he explained, "we rotated and re-balanced your tires". basic dealer bullshit lies. The next time I was in for service I drove the car with the service manager who called it road feel - what a crock-o-shit. Anyway, I am no longer having that problem because I bought Pilots and now it is good to go. I don't know this for sure but I suspect the factory isn't paying for flat spot tires so it is the dealers call - again I am only guessing about that but I am sure that they didn't want to replace them under warranty. The more miles you drive with that condition the less likely you will be to get a dealer to replace the tires. Good luck.

 

Ditto jhummer.

My RL was on the lot about 45 days. Before I took delivery, they replaced all 4 tires. Still there was some vibration, so they replaced the rotors. Apparently the rust build up from sitting some time caused the vibration and I was not willing take delivery and wait for it to 'go away'.

Having done so, my RL has be silky smooth at all speeds. No hint of flatspotting, brake pulsing or steering wheel shimmy. My TL was well balanced, but the TL exibited morning flat spot vibration for a mile or two. RL has been fine.

 

I have just completed a trip to California from Colorado via Navada and had some vibration at 90 and for a short burst of time up to 110. I had it on cruise control at 90 on the long salt flats and it would be fine for a while and then after running over a less even part of the road it would vibrate the steering wheel for a period of time and then go away. My 05 has only18k on it and the tires look good and at any other speed there is no shake. Never had this type of vibration on either my 02 TL or my 04 BMW X3 at any speed.
Please no remarks about high speed driving, I only indulge when it's perfectly safe with nothing in sight for miles.