Another sliced sidewall
 

I discovered that I had a slice in the right front sidewall. It must have happened in a pot hole.

This is the fourth damaged tire in 2 1/2 years - 3 sidewall slices and one sidewall puncture ! I have never had a damaged sidewall in any other vehicle.

My conclusion is that these low profile tires are too fragile for the weather beaten roads of New England.

I dunno. The roads here in Cleveland are just as weatherbeaten, if not more so, and the stock wheel/tire combo seems to do quite well here. I've hit potholes on a number of occasions at freeway speed in this car and haven't seen any issues with the tires. :wish: Fingers crossed, knock on wood, hope I don't jinx myself, etc.

R. White, sorry to hear of your tire problems. As a previous resident of Boston I can relate to your comments about the deplorable road conditions this time of year in New England. Hopefully the patch crews get working soon.
Curious as to what tire pressures you are running in your RLX as underinflated tires could be contributing to your tire aliments. For every ten degrees of temp drop the tire will lose 1 lb. of air pressure............. Therefore running higher pressures this time of year may be more prudent.

Good Luck!! demosan

I echo the comment about air pressure. I also have popped a sidewall by hitting a pothole. I my case it was on a freeway going 75 mph. Before starting my trip I noticed that the tpms showed a pressure of around 30 lbs. I figured I would fill the tires up after the trip since running at freeway speeds would warm the tire pressure enough to be OK.

I still don't know if I had started with 36 lbs in the tires [meaning the pressure would have been 39-40 lbs when I hit the pothole] would have prevented the problem. Since the cost of the tire is not cheap, to say nothing of the inconvenience it caused me, I am now more proactive about keeping the tires at the correct pressure. I went to the extend of buying the nifty JACCO inflator which is always in my truck, ready to use whenever the pressure drops much below 36 lbs. cold. Pretty cheap insurance.

Huh?

While it is correct that tires lose 1psi with every passing month and the pressure changes by 1psi for every 10 degrees of temperature change, that has little to do with what tire pressure to run "this time of year."

Since temps have been rising in the last few weeks, psi in tires has actually gone up - everything else remaining constant.

A "slit" sidewall is seldom caused by a pothole, unless the tire pressure was so low that the rim caused the damage.

Impact damage from potholes usually causes bulges that lead to catastrophic failure but it would have to be one odd pothole to "slit" a tire.

buy tire insurance next time?

My tire and wheel insurance for my RLX has paid for itself 2x and I still have two tires and two wheels that can be replaced before insurance is voided.

I just can't figure out why you guys have so many pothole problems.

Is there no tax base at all?

:-)

Of course, we have the opposite problem here, where VDOT is a basically sovereign entity and you never really know what they're going to be doing next.

The roads in Boston and New York are truly terrible in many areas as the weather is simply brutal to keep them smooth. Also in many places, the road crews just grind off the top layers, and place a new 2 inch depth surface on top of the old substructure so as to limit road closures and minimize disruptions. This does not resolve the road problems for the longer term, but does put a nice band aid on the constant problem. I don't think it is a funding issue as the taxes up here are horrendous, but rather it is a volume of road and disruption of traffic flow that makes it such a problem. I think that people who live in the more urban areas have the worst roads as the suburbs are fairly good for the most part. In NYC and Long Island, the man hole covers and the metal plates meant to cover ongoing works in progress are the main culprits. The potholes are also Hulk sized and deep so I doubt many tires can put up with that abuse very long.

Yet another datapoint how Acura traded a lot of ride and reliability for a VERY small amount of bling.
Seriously, PM me if you would consider some lightly used replacement 19in OEM tires. (not better, but cheaper.) Or better yet the 4 complete tire/wheel assemblies.
You can use them as winter rims. Or use them pit stop style - have a set handy to swap out the tire/wheel in the garage when you get home after a trip out and about. Sounds like you will get good at it!

My issues George have all been road debris.

Sad but true. In theory, the jurisdiction is responsible for vehicle damage caused by road issues that the jurisdiction should have/could have resolved. This means that they are responsible for pothole damage if they are aware (or should have been aware) of the pothole and all jurisdictions have some methodology for filing a claim. Accordingly, they are responsible for long standing potholes that cause damage but not for that pothole that popped up right after the freeze and you were the first guy to hit it.


Filing a claim isn't fun, takes forever, may be denied (and you have to appeal) and sometimes has limitations - in Virginia, for example, you must show that you had an alignment within the last year if part of your claim is that your alignment is off.


Taking pictures of the pothole (maybe over several days) is helpful. To prove that they should have known about the pothole, take a picture of the pothole while a cop car is swerving around it.


A few years ago I hit a pothole driving into DC. It had been there quite a while and a day earlier there were several cars lined up on the side of the road changing flat tires because of the pothole. A cop was there as well and it was reported on the radio.


The day I hit it it was raining, the pothole was full of water and I wasn't thinking about it. Luckily I never got a flat but a bent wheel and a tweaked alignment. The damage was about $500.


I filed a claim with the Park Service (it was on the GW Parkway) and after several back and forth letters ("we didn't know about it""prove you had an alignment [the car was about 3 months old]" and "please show us quotes for the parts from another dealer" I got a check about a year later.

R. White, sorry to hear of your tire problems. As a previous resident of Boston I can relate to your comments about the deplorable road conditions this time of year in New England. Hopefully the patch crews get working soon.
Curious as to what tire pressures you are running in your RLX as underinflated tires could be contributing to your tire aliments. For every ten degrees of temp drop the tire will lose 1 lb. of air pressure............. Therefore running higher pressures this time of year may be more prudent.

Honestly, I pay little attention to tire pressure. I will keep an eye on it. Question: the sticker says "cold tire pressure ". Does this mean at any temperature ? -15 to 100 ? Most technical testing is done at 70 F except for footballs!

My tire and wheel insurance for my RLX has paid for itself 2x and I still have two tires and two wheels that can be replaced before insurance is voided.

I didn't know there was tire and wheel insurance, but I would have turned it down anyway since I don't buy extended warranties.

"Cold tire pressure" means that you have NOT driven the car for at least 4 hours. When you start driving the car, the tire temps go up and the air pressure goes up.

HTH

Cosmetics vs. practicality

Call me OG but I will stick to the basic tires ......