I recently purchased a 2007 TL Type-S MT6. Great car, in fantastic condition (29k miles), previous owner really took care of it. The one issue I'm having with the car are the brand new crappy tires that were put on it by the dealer to help sell the car. The tires they put on the car are from a manufacture called Sunew (made in China). I've never heard of this brand and what is on the web about them isn't good. The tread is very aggressive and they ride like crap. My biggest issue is the vibration I'm experiencing in the steering wheel between 60-75 mph.

With the vibration, I naturally thought it would be a balancing issue, so I had them done last week, but to no avail, I'm still experiencing the problem. So I did some research and found some threads on this site (specifically this one: https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-tires-wheels-suspension-97/vibration-65-80-mph-785796/). The tire place I originally went to did a standard balance and did not have the equipment to do a "Force Road Balace" as recommended in the thread.

So the I went down to Discount Tire today to have them road force balanced, the rep comes out to look at the tires, shakes his head and smiles and tells me that I'm wasting my time and money having these tires balanced, that the tire design and quality would make it very hard to balance properly and therefore address the vibration issue. He stated that there is a good chance that one or more of the tires aren't perfectly round and could have multiple imperfections. He recommended that I wear these tires and replace with a higher quality brand (which when I bought the car, I had planned on doing).

I don't think the guy was blowing me off (they weren't that busy) and I don't think he was trying to sell me tires, he seemed pretty genuine on his assessment. But I'm really having a hard time believing even a cheap brand cannot be balanced.

So I figured this was a good reason to put my first post on this sight and ask for some feedback. Thoughts?

Sorry about the long-winded post.

 

I think you're hosed with the tires you've got. Get some Conti DW or DWS or Michelin Pilot Sports and call it a day.


The Conti's have been getting great reviews here and are a good value at ~$125 per tire.


BTW - great first post & thanks for searching/reading first.

 

Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing, need to buy a nice set of tires that will complement the car. But I was curious on what others were thinking.

BTW, as a owner of a 2009 MDX (bought for my wife in Aug) and my 2007 TL Type S (a couple weeks ago), this is a fantastic site for Acura owners. Thanks for your input and time you put in here for folks like myself.

 

There is no reason why they should not try to balance the tires as if they were out of round they could see that when using the Hunter machine.

These low cost Chinese tires leave a lot to be desired, but they certainly look good when a vehicle is put up for sale.

Just curious, are they the OE wheels?

If money is not a problem, I'd buy new tires and try and sell the junkers. As the balancing is going to cost you some money, might as well invest it in new tires and balancing, but look for a Road Force machine.

 

Sorry about your luck with those cheap tires. I had some Nexens on mine when I bought my 05. They didn't stay on long...LOL. I put on some Pirelli PZeroNero A/S and liked them for about 20K miles and they were about 1/2 worn. I finally replaced them at 27K miles with some Michelin MXM4. Love these tires as there is NO balance issue at all. Rock solid at ALL speeds. These tires are not a summer or high performance all season but are very quiet and perform well. My dealer told me that Michelins are THE best tire for the TL and he also liked Yokohama because they balance out very well. I specifically asked him about tires for the TL and from what he has experienced and he has a lot from what I can tell, he highly recommends the two I mentioned above. I asked him about Continental and he wasn't too keen on them for whatever reason. Its mainly about how a tire balances out and Continental wasn't too high on his list.

 

@ Turnbonut Yes, they are the original OE wheels that come on the Type-S. I'm probably going to buy a new set of MXM4's in the next month or two. Thanks all for the info.

 

The Pilot MXM4 that came stock on the TL-S is incredibly over-priced and exteremely poorly rated.

At a cost well in excess of $200 each, they ranked 23 of 29 in their catagory: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey....jsp?type=GTAS

Michelin is replacing (I think) that tire with a new Primacy MXM4. It rates much better, BUT has very low survey miles; it's #3 in the survey link above. And it's still very pricey ($211/tire at TireRack.com). Personally, I'd be leary - low survey miles, high cost, bad model history.


I think you can do much better value-wise.

 

I agree the Pilot MXH4 (?) is over priced but the Primacy isn't I don't think. Michelin offers $70 rebates all the time and so did the local tire dealer. I ended up paying $791 without taxes and disposal fees. Even the tire dealer said you just can't beat a Michelin and I discussed several tires with him because they carry quite a few brands. Just saying. Personally I think most of the "top mfg's" make good tires and its a personal choice.

 

Sorry I meant to say Pilot HX MXM4 not MXH4 Pilot.

 

Well, I certainly wouldn't recommend Yoko's if in a cold climate. I have the S.4's on the TL, 245/45-17, great tire with a wide tread at 8.7", decent ride, great handling but they are just plain terrible after the car sits. The flat spotting at times lasts for miles, and I mean miles every time the car is driven after sitting. Four of the cars in the household have Michelin's, but I wanted to give the S.4's a try rather than sticking with the Pilot A/S. Learned my lesson, next time around the Pilot A/S 245/45-17.

 

I had similar issue. Only mine was vibration plus what is called radial pull. I too had basic same reaction from discount tire. Luckily i started singing Lemon to the dealer that I had recently purchased from. the tires were warrented and two of four newly installed tires were replaced. the brand is Capital. So cheap big box stores won't stock them

 

If you can get new tires from the dealer great go that route. If not and you are stuck with the tires or the bill for new ones... I'd first try the road force balancing before dropping loot on new tires. That gsp9700 machine makes a "world of a difference" ... so don't underestimate it. That machine catches things that other machines dont. Call the stores around and ask them how much they charge to balance. Stock wheels should be able to be road force balanced for abou $10-15 a wheel.

Even crappy tires might not handle well, or be noisy and wear faster and all sorts of stuff.. but vibrations at your speeds usually don't happen and is always a result of balancing. So try that first.