KZGTR

Damn! It's only 6000mile...
Will acura replace it for free? Or I need to pay it myself?

Type-S1

Should still be under warranty... Take it back.. That's a defective tire..

nym31mp

join the club i had one last mounth......u can take it back and it will be prorated and no its not a defective tire u prob hit a pothole or something that caused the rim to slam against the tire and cause the bubble..........i didnt bother w da dealership got a firestone for 100 and i was good to go........

fldave

KZGTR, The Acura dealer will probably have you go to a authorized tire dealer for the warranty/ replacement work.

What make/model tire (I'm guessing Michilen Pilots?) Good luck!

FlDave

Vicman17

The Dealer would make all crappy excuses so they would NOT replace your tire. Michelin dealers would give you the runaround then tell you to go back to the dealer. I noted a bubble on my tire after I took them off to be stored in winter. I've NEVER hit a pothole or a curb. I know 'coz I'm the only driver. I challenged the dealer to remove the tire and check for damages on the rim/ suspension before they judge that I definitely hit a curb. They just gave me the runaround. I have a five year bumper to bumper warranty (extended option), and this still does not cover the tire. They should have made that exception clear and distinct, before I bought the darned warranty.

Bottom line is, I had to pay for the tire then called the CS rep of my Acura dealer to see if Michelin would reimburse me for the cost. It has been almost three months now and I haven't seen or heard squat from anyone. Honda musta had some awesome deal on these Michelins that should be declared "seconds".

Just saving up some dough so I can get decent summer tires other than these $$htty MXM4s. We should get a petition going to knock on Michelin's door so they would acknowledge a defective product or lose customers.

I bet with the amount of members who end up replacing stock tires with trivial "bubbles" in this forum, that should be substantial enough.

bloo_tls02

This a great oppurtunity for you to switch out those stocks for a better tire. I had the saem problem and decided to just replace all 4 tires and use the Mich's as spares.

KZGTR

Thanx everyone. I just talked with the dealer.
As you said, they "assumed" that I hit a pothole and said it's not under warranty.
I guess I will call the Acura Client Service first. $235 for a tire is not worth.

NYDesi80

Good Luck Newbie, I had the same problem about four months ago at 9000 miles. I had a bubble at 6000, replaced the tire for 200,. I, like you posted my problem up on this forum and many people told me that this was a common problem with the sucky michelin tires and told me not to spend the 200 bux on that tire and get something betteer and cheaper. I didnt listen and jut replaced the tire. 3000 miles later at 9000 I got another bubble with another tire, at that point I said F it. I tried getting the tire pro rated, so called Michelin, went to Sears, as they were an authorized dealer and they inspect the tire for you to determine if the tire was defective or pothole induced the bubble. Of course it was the pothole and I wasn't going to spend 200 bux again!! I just went out and bought 4 Continental Conti Extremes and called it a day. They were about 90 a piece, thas right I bought 2 tires for the price of one Michelin, and it improved my handling and everything. Ever since then, no bubbling, and I've hit potholes harder and bigger then before, as you might notice that all road in NY area are herrendous now!! I had it on my car for about 3000 miles now. The tires are stronger and tougher built, since it has a thicker steel belt inside, so it can take the hit that our NY roads throws at us. Michelins suck!

So the piont of all this, is I wish I just listened to people on this forum before spending the 200 bux intially and I would've saved 200 bux!! Oh well you live and learn. I should've never bought another Michelin to begin with.

songoku

Michelin sux.

You're just paying too much money for just name brand.

Louinma

I'm sorry to say that I now have gone thru 4 front tires with bubbles. They are all on the passenger side, which is where the Pot Holes usually live. The first one occurred at 6,000 miles. The Dealership said that it wasen't covered so I wrote a letter to Michelin, who said it's my problem. Well i'm not at 45,000 miles on the 02 TL and have gone thru 4 Michelins. I replaced the last two with Coopers and they are fine after hitting a few big holes so far this winter.

I'll never buy a Michelin again !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lou,

monky

Hey KZGTR,

I feel ya man I just got TWO tires(Michelin MXM4) with bubbles, I realized this week. One is about the size of a golfball. I called acura and it seems like they haven't really looked into it. I've been researching the problem and it seems REALLY common the 2002-3 TLS. A lot of forum members are mentioning that the tire dealers see it happen all the time.

Anyway I called acura and told them to look into it, but they said they will if more people complain about the issue. Can you guys or anyone who has had this problem give them call?

I'm at 12k Miles and losing two tires is pretty crappy. They gotta do something about this. I am not going to be paying 400 for new tires every 10k or so.

So please lodge your complaints with the acura client services at 800-382-2238. Seems like most dealers aren't going to do anything.

Thanks.

Ohh any recommendations for tires? I saw people going for contis and yokos. contis seems to have a noise problem...I'm going for cheap/value cus i'm a poor college kid =)

Louinma

As I mentioned, I now have Coopers. They are $100 verses the 170-190 for thee Michelins.

Lou

TimN88

I got one in mine too from a pothoole i didnt even see. Im lucky i didnt get a flaand/or bend the rim. The bubble isnt too bad. I may just wait it out and get 4 new tires (NOT michelins!) this summer anyway. The Type-S dopesnt even see much use now bc the overgrown civic (CR-V EX) gets driven around town more often.

kevin cody

I have like 5 bubbles in a new falcon tire. rear tires are getting old so I am replacing all the tires. Eill keep the one goosd tire as a spare! tire looks like hell.. It could blow at any time right??

TimN88

I see you are from NY/CT. Which dealer did you go to?
I bought my car from MT. Kisco Acura, but i did take it to Greenwhich Acrua to get a HID headlight replaced when it burned out. They were closing but they had a guy stay a half hour later to fix it. They do some good work there and i've heard they will honor warranty claims that they could argue not to honor. I dont see why every deealer doesnt do this. Its not their $, honda compensates them for warranty work, right?

Huey Tran

NYC,DC or any big cities.I got a bump from this last snow storm in my benz with brand new tires.I was so pissed!!! Dam city with these hugh ass potholes.

elah

go buy a matching 30$ used tire...

Turboara

yup, NYC driving sucks. Just replaced 2 tires and had 2 rims straightened which were pretty badly bent.
BTW, my replacements were sumitomo htr+. great tire, great price. I highly recomend them. Last year I got the sumitomo htrZ on my dsm and they have been great as well, although the htrz is not an "all season" tire. The htr+ are.

make sure to change your tires soon, bubbles are very very bad to have. Mine was the size of a golf ball initially, and within 1 week became the size of a grapefruit.

monky

So I read in some forums that if you mention Acura TLS to the Michelin service people they tend to warranty it. I called them up and there was a lot of hassle finding a tire dealer that was willing to do a warranty check and claim. They started calling on my behalf and said they are gonna reimburse 50% off the tires no matter what the inspection says. Not great, but better than nothing and I can still the get the brand name stuff.

I'm not sure if they covered it cus they know there's a problem with the MXM4 and TLS's or rather it was such hassle for me to find a tire dealer that was willing to do the warranty work. I would have gone with the 100 dollar Yoko's or Conti's otherwise.

I haven't been able to get to the tire dealer yet (20-mins away) , but will update on if they make good on their word. I'm in Boston area now, but I usually live in NYC. Boston/Cambridge potholes are much worse than NYC.

moat

My michelins lasted 40K or so with a really quiet ride and crappy winter traction. I couldnt see spending 200 per tire, so I spent 70 per corner on Sumitomo's.... great tire in rain, snow, or dry pavement until you hit a bump or wear them out in 10K. I went through 3 sets of fronts till I gave up and bought 225/50-17 Goodyear Eagle RSAs and I am very happy with them. Potholes are no problem, fairly quiet ride and excellent traction all around. Only downside they were 150 per corner mounted and balanced. still way better pricewise than mich's

my 2 cents...

imax

I purchased 4 Sumitomo HTR+ tires 10 days ago to replace the original Michelins that came with my 2002 TL-TypeS. This was after the recommendation of a friend who is in the tire business and after reading several positive online posts about this tire. Since day one I have had an oscillation/wobble in the rear end at low speed and around 45-50MPH. Tires were re-balanced and there was NO improvement. Alignment is good and this oscillation/wobble was NEVER present before the tires were replaced and appeared IMMEDIATELY after the Sumitomo HTR+s were put on.

I got a great price on the Sumitomos but I now have on order the new BFGoodrich Traction T/A 215/50V17; the BFGs will run me about $80 more for the set of four. Reviews are good, tread is similar to the Michelin OEM but BFG makes pretty decent tires so we'll see. I have a tire satisfaction time period on the Sumitomos and I am within the "Satisfaction" return time period ; thank gawd!

Personally, I will NEVER pay the extreme over-inflated (pardon the pun) prices Michelin asks for their tires; what BS.:o

bbznyc

What do you know... After a nice handwash, i notice a freaking bubbles on my front two wheels. God dawm.... So i run to my computer (A-tl.com) and guess what, there are posts all over the place.

Here is the thing:
- on driver's side the bubble is not too big but noticable.
- on passenger's side, the bubble is not seen when the car is cold but when i drove for 10minutes, it's huge!!!

I know i should change the tires right away but if i drive slow, can I????


Please let me know asap....


This just sucks....

monky

yea it should be ok as long as you dont get a blow out at high speeds. so be careful on highways. City should be ok if it pops then just put on the spare whatever. Call acura about these tires, cus they need to know about it.

Monty's Acura

I got a bubble on my front tire, but only after I hit a pothole on 1-9 in Jersey City. I was going to report the pothole to the NJ Transportation Department because replacing the rim (bent) and tire cost nearly $500 to replace. That's when I found out I could file a claim with NJ-DoT...which I did.

But before you go filing claims, please note that I did this back in August/September and still haven't received any notice on their decision. The outsourced company they used to process these claims have been pushing NJ-DoT to come to a decision. One way or another it will come to a close. Hopefully it'll be in a form of a reimbursement check 'cause I'm going to need it for the 30k maintenance schedule.

monky

so I drove up to Pete's Tire Barn, woburn, MA as michelin told me to...turns out they are a commercial tire dealer and they were wondering why michelin sent me there. The guy was nice and took at look at it and found another bubble so I have a total of 3 tires with bubbles. He then referred to a tire dealer down the road. He also added that the bubbles were due to potholes since if it was defect then a bubble would appear on both sides of the tire.

That brought me to Hogan Tire on Washtington St. They were nice people and took care of my problem. They didn't think that Michelin would give me a discount but they did the inspection and called them up and Michelin agreed to a goodwill discount of 50% off all 3 tires. My claim was linked to my phone number so it easy for them to link to my phone call earlier. On the phone, Michelin did say that they've been seeing this a LOT on the acuras, so thats probably why they were quick to give the goodwill. I would have gotten a cheaper brand anyways.

So the final cost was about 360 for 3 new tires. The tire dealer at Hogan mentioned he has been seeing a lot of this problem due to the particularly bad winters lately and trend of low profile tires. He also said that brand didn't really matter that much and michelin made good tires so I stuck with them.

But I'll probably get a cheaper brand when they wear out. No point in 50K tires if they gonna bubble in 10k. Anyone know tires that seem to be resist bubbling on the TL-S's?

I still think Acura should have been somewhat aware of the problem when choosing these rims and tires. They should have given some warning or guarantee against these problems. Right now, I wish I had the regular TL rims and tires, didn't think choosing Type S would cost this much more.