23109VC

my dad has an RL too. he has the 18" aspec wheels. he is due for new tires and the tires on the car are Michelin Pilot Sports. he wants an All season / or essentially anyhting with a higher treadwear rating... even though he has the larger sportier sized wheels, he wants a long lasting tire.

he's not hte least bit concerned with cornering ability.

he's been to a few tires shops and theyh are all telling him he needs a 98 or 100 load rating tire. in the 17" he said they todl him he could go with 96..but if he has 18s he needs the higher rating.

he wanted a michelin tire, but nothign in michelin fits that criteria.

is this load rating rquirement crucial or is it BS?

he's now looking at some Kuhmo tire b/c it works for his load rating....

any suggestions on tires?

dwboston

Here are all the Michelins in the 245/45-18 size.

http://www.michelinman.com/action/ti...RimDiameter=18

The Pilot Sport A/S Plus is a good all-around tire and is fine on the RL. I had the Pirelli PZero Nero M+S tires on my old RL with A-Spec wheels and those were pretty good as well.

23109VC

thanks. My dad's concern is that when he went to Costco, they claimed that their data/records showed that on teh RL, with 18" tires, he needed the 98 or 100 load rated tires - and they REFUSED to install anything less on his car.... as the vast majority of tires avail for our cars are 96 rated - it ruled out almost all the tires.

FYI -= his car has 96 rated Michelin Pilot sport summer tires now...it's what was on it when he bought it..but he's more interested in longevity than performance, so he's not after summer tires, he wants a more conservative, higher treadwear tire liek an All season. the Primacy all season has a 620 treatwear rating! he's lookkng at that.

he was just worried if there really was some req. that our cars had a rating that high... I told him my car with 17" wheels came with 96 load tires. and the current 2010 RL specs show it comes with 96 rated 18"s... i htink costco is full of BS...

what do you all think?

whatever he puts on the car, it will likely be fine. he just wants to make sure it's not unsafe or somehow going to cause problems.

i told him I think costco is wrong and 96 rated tires are fine. it's not like he transports loads of concrete in teh RL anyway. 99% of the time the car is empty with just him and my mom...it's not like they need to worry about exceeding the gross weigh limits of the tire....

i told him to just get the MXV Primacy if that's what he wants. he found another shop that will install them for him.

dwboston

The 96 rated Pilot Sport summer tires are the stock A-Spec tires per Acura, so the load rating is no problem. Those were the tires on my 05 RL w/A-Spec wheels when I bought the car.

If his primary concern is tire wear then the Primacy tires are probably a good bet. Take a look at Tire Rack (www.tirerack.com) just for the heck of it. It will give you the available tires in the 245/45-18 size - maybe there's another tire that will work well for your dad.

Chas2

The Michelin Pilot Sport is a max performance summer tire. Assuming he got the true A-Spec package with the Pilot Sport Tires, the Del Rey Acura parts catalog shows those tires were:

42751-MIC-081 TIRE (245/45ZR18) (96Y) (MICHELIN PILOT SPORT TIRE)

If he wants an all season tire, tell him to buy the new Michelin 245/45-18 Pilot Sport A/S Plus which is a 96Y SL tire. It is the same load index 96, and the same speed rating of Y.

To his longer tread life issue, the new Pilot Sport A/S Plus has 500AA UTQG rating which is far in excess of the 220AA UTQG for the Pilot Sports that he now has.

That is my

23109VC

you guys all sound like me.

I also told him to get the A/S Pilot Sports. they are still a somewhat performance oriented tire, but the 500 treadwear rating meant he'd get plety of mileage out of it, albeit maybe not as much as the Primacy tire..but I'd sacrifice a tad bit of mileage to get some extra bite in the turns.... i know it's not a boxster...but it's still nice to have SOME fun in a turn...

i'll let you know what he gets, and i'll eventually get a chance to drive it and can report how it does.

i do know the last time i drove his car, even with his well worn out PIlot sports, those tires + his 18" aspec wheels, the car felt quite a bit tighter through turns than my 17" stockers on the stock Michelen MXM crapola tires.... although I do thinkk my car rode smoother..but that could just be a result of his car having super worn tires vs. mine having quite a bit of life left.

when he gets new rubber, i'll let you know what i think.

23109VC

i joked and told him to just get PS2s... that's what I would want to get when my crap MXM4 go out...

any of you running PS2s??

Chas2

PS2 would be great, but have a winter solution at hand if you live in such a climate.

danmm7

iTrader: (1)

I would recommend he gets Continental ExtremContact DWS tires from tirerack.com. Great tires, great price, good brand, great traction with 560 wear index. Michelin is usually over priced, in my opinion.

I have the Contis and i love them!!

pimpin-tl

Look at the Hankook V12 EVO tires. Super quiet, good traction, and last a good long time.

poppintec

toyo versado's 245/45/18

Chas2

This is a sample of one, but I was not impressed with Kumho Ecsta ASX. Pirellis, Dunlops and Michelins are smoother. I was also not impressed with Conti Extreme Contacts. Now this is 225/50-16 for my old 2G Legend, so your mileage may vary. Just sold the poor car with Kumhos on it.