I'm looking for some help and sugesttions with my 04 TL A-Spec. I've seen alot of complaints and problems about the standard TL tires, but I seem to have almost identical problems with my A-Spec - road noise and and vibration at 45-55 mph. Also, another issue (I'm not 100% sure this is related) is the steering wheel which is turned about 5 degrees to the left while the car is driving straight. Now, I don't have to turn the wheel to get the car to go straight, its just normally like that. Both of these issues have existed since Day 1 of owning the car.

The first time I brought the car to the dealer (at about 400 miles) they told me that the tire pressure was off, they adjusted that and it seemed ok at first. After a little driving around though I noticed the same problems. So, recently I went back to the (now at 4000 miles) to go over the problems again. They went over the alignment and tried balancing the tires and said everything was to spec. Then they start to tell me that the wheel is out of round. So I said OK, get me a new wheel. They told me it would be $400 for the wheel because I bent it, which I told them was rediculous because I've had these problems since day 1. I also asked them how they possibly could have balanced it if it is "out of round". They also said that is why the steering wheel isn't straight. I find this to also be BS because if I put they "egg shaped" wheel on the back, my steering wheel is still cocked to the left. I'm fairly mechanically inclined so they can't really BS me.

Now, as far as the steering wheel goes, I know they steering wheel was replaced by them for the Aspec package. I'm not sure what the mechanical connection is, but I believe it might a gear looking connection - could this be off a tooth? When I go back again I want to have some good suggestions and arguments, does anybody have any ideas? Could the tires on the ASpec (Yokohamas) also be junk? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

I don't have any of the problems you mention. My friend who took my car to 150 mph while I was out of town did mention a alight vibration at 85-90; I haven't confirmed that yet. My steering wheel is aligned perfectly. I'm sorry to hear you're having these problems.

 

I have a 6MT TL and am experiencing vibration problems at high speed. It seems to be worst when the car is cold and as the car starts to warm up, the vibration lessens but is still there when doing 60+ mph. There's been a lot of comments about changing the tires fixing this but I think it's bull. I recently installed a new set of 19" x 8.5" OZ Galileo III's with 245 35 19 Nitto 555's. I get the same vibration with my new wheels/tires as well. In regards to my stock wheels, I have the standard 17" x 8" wheels with Bridgestone Potenza RE 030's(summer tires).

My gut feeling is that it's a rotor problem since the vibration changes with temperature.