boltjames

After reading all the posts about the dreaded, evil Bridgestone tires I was all ready to go sliding off the road and have my son's vomiting in their car seats from all the awful flatspotting.

Nope.

Having just driven the car in 50 degree sunshine and 25 degree ice and snow I can tell you that these tires are 100% better than the Michellin's I was running on my 2000 RL and are almost the equal of the Nokian's I put on the wife's Odyssey.

Maybe it's better traction control from Acura. Maybe it's better weight distribution on the TL than the RL. But it's definitely an improvement over where I was.

So, shoot me if you will but I love these tires folks. My car was born a week ago, so perhaps they're the 'new' and improved SN's but either way......I'm a happy camper.

BJ

daviddww

oooooooo, risky post on this forum!

Tripp11

Quick, hide the women and children!!!!

Nah, I don't have any problems with the EL42's either. Low noise, no flatspotting (that I've noticed), adequate snow traction, average wet traction, and adequate dry traction. Wear rate - too soon to tell.

I'm not dismissing others problems with the EL42's - just relaying my experience. Hell, maybe when we get some cold weather again, I'll notice the flatspotting.

elessar

Hmmm... well, I got my TL a month ago, and up until now, I'd had no problems with the "new" Bridgestones. But this morning, I drove my car for the first time since yesterday's little snowstorm, and it seemed fine at first, but as soon as I got it on the turnpike (only about 5 minutes' drive from home) and took it up to about 70 -- BINGO! Vibration city!!! The bad vibes only lasted for a couple of minutes, but it was a very rude awakening.

Boltjames, do you keep your car in a garage? Just curious... I (unfortunately) have no garage, so maybe that makes a difference - i.e. it's not so much driving the car in the cold weather, as it is keeping it parked outside when it's cold. Just a thought. And yes, I did let my car warm up fully (a good 10-15 minutes) before taking off this morning. I even tried shifting into neutral to see if the vibration would stop, to rule out the exhaust resonance issue that some of you have mentioned, but it kept right on shakin'.

Like I said, it only lasted for a few minutes at highway speeds, and then it seemed to settle down. But this definitely makes up my mind about the Bridgestones... I had been contemplating keeping them until I'd put a good 30k miles on them, or at least until next winter, since I hadn't had any problems with them, but this does it - these puppies are history! Michelin Pilot Sports, here I come!

WickedWiz

I just completed a round trip between Seattle and Los Angeles (nothing like a long road trip to break in a new car!). I put over 3000 miles on the Bridgestones in 11 days. I have to say they performed perfectly. I detected no vibration anywhere between 55mph and 130mph (Had a little fun with a BMW 5 series!). I took a couple of on-ramp much too fast, and the Bridgestones never complained.

I guess the biggest problem I've seen with the summer tires is launching the car in the rain...My wife can't seem to do it without spinning them.

Tread life has me concerned...I'm thinking 20k might be the limit if you're a "spirited" driver.

Wicked

Xerxes480

I'm glad to hear some of you haven't had problems with the Turanzas. I get my car seven days from now, and I'm paranoid about tire problems.

-X-

finishline

I had a loaner car with the Turanzas which drove great. I wish I could say the same about my car (vibrates/road noise/feel every bump in the road/jitters). Obviously, some of them aren't bad.

lindros2

Point of reference: I garage my car, live in Atlanta, and vibration is atrocious.

neuronbob

Just made it through another big snowstorm on the Turanzas. I think it's because the snow was mostly slushy. The only time I had trouble was on a steep hill that was icy, but once I stuck the tranny on "L", that's all she wrote.

I now have minor flatspotting on colder days but it goes away--hadn't noted it before the last couple of weeks. This is on an early VIN 5AT.

TLGator

boltjames - I agree with you that the Turanzas are fine. A lot of people have heightened awareness/concerns about the tires because of this forum. They are, in fact, more than adequate tires.

But...I test drove a TL with the HPT's (sorry, I don't know what brand they are) and it handled a hell of a lot better. Granted, HPT versus all-season is not a fair comparison, but the difference was so great that I have to assume there are other all-seasons that would do better than the Turanzas. I could be wrong about that, and anyway I agree they are fine overall.

finishline

Yours may be, but some aren't fine. Even the Acura tech that drove with me noted that "the whole car vibrates" in the 50-60 mph range and that it was unacceptable. This isn't just flat-spotting because I drove the car for 300 miles and it never changed.

Yaaro Dhana

I second neuronbob's comments. The Turanzas were not bad when the snow was slushy but were quite nasty when the snow was a bit packed in and the temperatures were lower. In the latter case, the VSA/Traction-Control kept kicking in all the time and the "feel" of the car was bad - twitchy and unsettled. Switching to snows helped quite a bit.

TLGator

Sorry, I didn't mean to mis-speak. Obviously those with vibration and/or flatspotting issues aren't happy with these tires. My mid-year TL doesn't seem to have these problems, and temperatures in this area have been both mild and cold since I got the car.

So what I meant to say was that for those of us who don't have those issues, these tires have otherwise at least adequate characteristics. They are certainly quiet. But, the handling is still sub-par in my opinion.

RavenHwk

Nope! Only tire CRITICISM is allowed on this here board ....

boltjames

TLGator, what have you done to CLGator? He was a good guy! Let him go!

Those HPT's.....better traction *and* more quiet or just better traction?

TLGator

:p

The HPT's definitely provide better traction, and also give more responsiveness in general to the steering. The ride is a little harsher than with the Turanza's, though, and I found the Turanza's to be quieter as well.

But I'm getting the impression from others in this thread that there are other ALL-SEASON tires out there than handle much better than the Turanza's without sacrificing the smooth, quiet ride. If that's so, I feel like I'm only getting 90% of the available pleasure out of this car because Acura put subpar shoes on it.

But as someone who leased, replacing the tires now means either storing the Turanza's or trading them in now and putting out some bucks for different ones.

I'd rather not spend any more on this car right now and I don't have anywhere to store the Turanza's, so I'm gonna live with them. As I said, I think they are pretty good overall, now that they have evidently been reformulated without vibration or flatspotting problems.

But if I had the bucks to burn right now I'd probably trade them.

WOODMAN

I have EL42's on my 04 Sienna as well as on my 03 I35 and have had no problems at all. I keep them properly inflated and have not noticed any flatspotting or traction problems. I do tend to drive on the fast side and was worried when I read all the problems on the new TL. Do you think it affects all EL42's in any size? or could it be with the specific tire size on the new TL? Just wondering if I should replace the tires on both cars. Thanks.

digital_b

traded my oems for pilot sports before I even had a vin. I dont know if the michelins have a harder ride but no flat spotting or vibration issues, just the minor resonance sound at 1500rpm/50mph which I guess is inherent to the tl.