orange-man

I live in the Chicago area and have been driving for 27 years and was taking my new TL on the highway tonight after a light snowfall and my car was sliding corner to corner, hard to explain, but like it was twisting left to right back and forth, almost like you might see in a cartoon.

It happened continuously even when I took my foot of the accelerator and let it get down to 40 MPH. Yes it was very slippery tonight in Chicagoland, but cars were blowing past me no problem. I've searched the forum for tire posts and people keep mentioning snow tires. I've driven so many vehicles in Chicago weather and never bought a snow tire in my life and never felt the need until tonight while driving on freshly fallen snow on unsalted roads.

These tires were just horrible. Usually I can't tell one tire from another, but tonight my wife was looking at me as if to say "what are you doing?", but I felt like I had no control.

There must be some good all season replacements aren't there? I have no place to store tires and no desire to mess with them. I don't want to jump to a new tire as the posts I have read seem to indicate how quiet these tires are so I don't want to jump to noisy tires. It is outrageious to have to buy new tires for a brand new car isn't it? I'ver never heard of such of thing, but I feel this is where I am headed.

If anyone can make some recommendations on quiet all-year tires, I would be most appreciative.

Thanks in advance.

RJC RSX

what are you doing driving that fast in snow? no one else has complained about the tires in the snow. if you want a bad experience, try some michelins. are you sure the vsa was on?

PeterUbers

iTrader: (1)

I think I was driving behind you tonight.... do you have a black '04 TL ?? I was on 94 East headed back into Chicago from Skokie and I saw a sharp black TL ... looked sweet.

That's right around when the snow started getting heavy.

rets

So, u may see him sliding serverly and slip away while stopping?

I believe what he said on that very snowy day. But for my experience on the first blizzard in New York, last Friday noon, when the snow began to accumulate and many bimmers pulling over to the roadsides, I had no problems at all with my EL42. I would see some slides, that's normal, all my Michelin tires in other two vehicles in my garage have the same symptom.

And, I also saw my VSA kicking in and flashing to help.

This EL42 in snow seems much better than they in the water-full roads...

rets

We know it's always hard to drive while tons of snow just starts to drop off. I don't want to say EL42 is pretty good in this condition, but this tire is fair for dealing with snowy roads in my three days driving over our first white weekend. The roads I drove on was snowcapped, especially the first three hours on last Friday.

Did you see your VSA flashing? Had you felt your car working hard to keep balance?

The only thing I would think is that snow in Chicago was dropping too fast, and you'd be unable to make tires stick on roads. Or speed is too fast?

If my memory is correct, someone already has Michelin Pilot Sport A/S now. That may be one of the good choices.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

neuronbob

I find that the EL42s perform adequately in light snow, but not nearly as well as the Dunlop SP Sport 5000s I owned on my previous TL. I am almost certainly going to be switching my tires out--this time to the Pilots, just to try something new (and proven).

TorontoTL

I would love to know how the Michelins turn out. I live in Toronto and would love to have adequate snow traction and good performance in the dry months. i don't want to have to worry about changing to snows in the winter every year.

Ken1997TL

My Dunlop Sports are excellent all round tires at a reasonable price, get those!

rets

We have a 4 inches snow today again, and the TV predicts the following 12 hours sleet then rain would wipe out everything.

It's not the heavy snowing conditions as some of you in the north of snowland.

Immediately, I tested my 94 Legend (FWD, 3500 lb) with Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus 205/60VR15, 99 GS300 (RWD, 3600 lb) with the same Michelin 215/60VR16. It was snowing at time I did the drives.

Legend doesn't have any anti-slip stuff, but those normal tires did help wherever I need my car go to, but the car would slide away in some occasions, especially the initial start and the hard brake. On the streets, my car didn't control well over icy cornors, but slowing down could eliminate all issues.

GS300's TCS was working a lot to help the car handle better and grip more in snowy conditions. I felt better in this car when it's using the same tires as my Legend's although this car is RWD and its tires slipped in the start. Icy streets would have similar issues as my Legend, I think it's caused by tires plus its powertrain. But most of tires would lose controls over the icy. Actually I hardly drove this car in snowbound environment in the past. (Somtimes, I cannot understand why those BMW 3s need to pull over when snow starts. )

Finally, TL (FWD, 3600 lb) with EL42, I didn't see any problem at all as my GS300 (I should say it's better than my GS300 in snow). I drove all of them on Van Wyck between LGA and Hillside. Those having TCS or VSA are able to control better and drive faster (60mph) although those three cars all use the average tires.

It's impossible for me to have winter tires on, but the better performance tires may help my TL do better. I'm interested in having Michelin Pilot Sport A/S (Ultra High Performance All-Season) or Bridgestone Turanza LS-Z or V (Grand Touring All-Season) for 04TL.

However, since someone has his dealer replaced the new tires, I'd like to wait and see what Acura dealers would do for us in the first half of 2004.

Got to clean three cars next week... :tflamer:


EL42

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

Energy MXV4 Plus

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....gy+MXV4-A+Plus

SlntSam

I drove the summer tires in the snow (very light snow) once while waiting for me snow tires and I was pretty scared too! But that was expected.

Anyhow, you saw your VSA light flash? I only saw what I think was the Traction control light flash...or are they the same light? Triangle with an exclamation mark?

I think there's an actual light that says VSA too as I think I've seen it when starting the car.

MikeRadio

I think the traction exclamation point is the same as the VSA...

i think the other VSA light means it is checking the ciruits for it and will light if ther eis an issue...

Anyone know? my manual is in the car lol!

rets

Did I have slightly lower expectation than other ppl's?

I really didn't see it so bad... Perhaps, I'm too indifferenctly fearless to understand the problems? What kind of tires did you have in your previous vehicles?? All of you use the premium tires all the time?

I was disappointed while seeing TL spy-photo showed test-model using EL42 on Sep.

My triagnel VSA is flashing during the starts from the traffic and slippery conditions.

As MikeRadio said, another one is for VSA problems...

jyg tl 3

going through snow, it means it is working,. my non sport 528 with michelin all seasons is better in snow than my 5mt
legend was. if you travel at safe slower speeds , the vsc will keep you out of serious trouble,

SlntSam

I was on the Summer tires that come with the 6MT version which I know won't be effective in cold weather and won't work at all in the snow. There's even a warning on the Acura site about the summer tires and snow. So in that case it was expected that the tires would perform really crappy in the snow and ice.

On my old car I used snow tires as well because I had switched the all seasons to summer tires.

vtechbrain

When we had our first snow about 1 inch I said in this site that the weren;t too bad. We just had 7inches and the same day I ordered some blizzak lm 22 from the tire rack! The car definitely has too much power for those tires in the snow!!!! I'll make another post to report on how that goes. If anybody is interested, the rims on the TL are 375 a piece! That makes it 562 dollars / wheel!!!!

rets

vtechbrain,

Lots of ppl talk about how good Bridgestone LM22 is. Would like to see what you said of it.

I know you're capable of having them, and happy we don't have so much snow here. Cannot imagine how big storage room I should have for all my cars' accessories.

Heard about Aluminium rim is not good for salt. Could I know what kind of rims did you get? Thanks.

Chitown-TL

I too live in the Chicagoland area and didn't experience the problem you had but if you are looking for an all around tire to replace the OEM tires then I would higly recommmend the Michelin Pilot A/S. I am going to wait to see if Acura is going to do anything about these tires but if they don't I will eventually replace them with the Michelin's.

I had to replace the Pirelli P6000's that came on my 00-Audi S4 within the year of owning it because the Pirelli's were the worst tires I have ever owned.

vtechbrain

The standard acura rims are aluminum. Your are right, alumiun tires can corrode (just like steel but less) but, They have multiple coats of clearcoat to protect them so they should last a long time looking good. I hope to pick up the goodies at the dealer sometime this week. After I drive them through some of the white stuff up here I'll let you know how it went.

rets

Thanx.

GCool

Orange-Man, I too live in Chicago-area and I too experienced the same thing you did. There was hardly any snow on roads, but the car was sliding side-to-side even when driving at very low speeds (around 10 mph). And when you applied brakes, there was no way you could keep the car straight. Even though the VSA/traction control was kicking in, I don't think it did much. The only thing that seemed to help was the ABS brakes. Even though it was a very powdery and slippery kind (& not wet) of snow, none of the other drivers seemed to be having any problems driving in that road condition. I too think the stock tires suck big time.

With all the quality problems the new TLs have been having I think Acura did some serious cost cutting (to increase their profit margin) and went with cheaper stuff rather than quality higher-end stuff.

orange-man

GCool, I was beginning to feel like I was nuts or somehow was doing something wrong after reading so many posts from people with opposite experiences, so I'm at least glad to know that I wasn't alone. Maybe it was just a bad combination of fresh snow and temperature near freezing, so I will give it one more chance and if it happens again, I'm definitely getting rid of these tires. Until last week, I couldn't tell the difference between one tire and the next.
The thing I can't stop thinking about is that EVERYBODY was whizzing right past me with no problems at all. That's the warning flag if nothing else.

gbriank

Anyone take a gander at Bridgestone's website? They actually state the wear rating is 140, traction is A and temperature rating A.

mrpete

I have about 300 miles on my new '04 TL 6spd now. Overall I've not noticed the flat spotting too much. Vibration at 50mph etc. has been minimal.

What I do have a problem with is these sob's in the RAIN. In one weeks time now i've almost whipped out TWICE. This is not acceptable. I've been reading how aweful these 'all-seaon' tires are. I live in Ohio and will see lots of snow soon. I was going to wait for the first few snowfalls to make a decision on the tires.

If this cheap SOB's can't ride in the rain how can they ride in the SNOW?!

Any suggestions on a good 'all-season' decent life tire?

Pete

ADodge

We live in the snow belt east of Cleveland so I knew the Turenzas wouldn't be right. Last weekend put on Blizzak LM22s on ASA JS1 wheels (from tire rack). No snow yet but daughter has blizzaks on her Jetta and goes just fine, we should be OK.

One thing I noticed on taking off the OEM wheels was a buildup of grit and salt debris on the inner surface of the rims from previous driving on snow and salty roads. This could certainly account for imbalance and thumping at highway speeds. Shows the need to spray out the wheels when cleaning.

D_Nyholm

Like others have said, you should try driving with teh Michelin Pilot Sports that came stock on my car. They are a handful with the RWD.

From looking at the tire rack comments on them, they look like pretty crappy tires. You may want to look into the ContiExtremeContact Continentals. They have been getting decent reviews with the G35 drivers as well as the Pilot Sport All Seasons, though the Continentals are much cheaper.

COntinentals:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....ExtremeContact

Pilot Sports A/S
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....ot+Sport+A%2FS