jrecufan

Just took my 04 TL into the dealer today. My front tires are balding on the outside. They didn't say anything about why - said possibly underinflation, but I keep them checked regularly.

Anyway - the odd thing they told me is that with the suspension on the TL (mine is not A-Spec), a set of tires on the TL is only expected to last about 24K miles.

That's just a bunch of hooey in my opinion. I drive the car very carefully because I've read so much about these crappy EL42s.

Does anyone else buy this? Thoughts? I'm probably going to have to get new tires & am going to try to find something better than the EL42s.

joed40

You would think you would see a symmetrical wearing pattern with under inflation (both sides of the tire, not just one). You would also see a pattern as you described with an alignment problem. 24,000 for tires? Doesn't seem like a practical number to me.

pufferfish74

i have a friend who is an acura tech. there is an inehrent design flaw with the suspension that causes this. he employs a method of simulating a 190lb person in the back seat of the car while doing the alignments to minimize this issue. the tire shops don't know about this and thus, i had to inform them of the procedure when i had my alignment done upon replacing my tires.

xedap1998

what if u dont usually take anyone in the back seats of your car???? would having a person in the back throw off the alignment (toe out) for your regular driving....i am really confused...usually i have me and my wife (155 lbs and 135lbs) in the front seats...would i have anything to worry????...i guess if i travel long distance (road trip) i should get a rental

ChuckDu

The design "flaw" is that the TL's rear suspension not only increases negative camber when compressed, but also toe-in.

I went through this with my dealer and Acura when I went through a set of rear tires in 7,000 miles after adding the Aspec suspension. The solution was the pro bono addition of an Ingalls rear camber kit to my car and an alignment to the new 0.0 deg rear toe-in specs with four 150 lb. sandbags in the car. And yes, that means my car has slight rear toe-OUT with only 1 or 2 passengers in the car. There is NO degradation in handling due to the new alignment specs. And after 5,000 miles the rear tires are wearing exactly even (I measured them today.)

However, this doesn't address the original posters problem as it is his front tires that are wearing on the outside. I'd suggest that he get his alignment checked ASAP.

jginnane

See this recent thread --

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129086

While it is TRUE that the Bridgestones will almost certainly be gone in less than 25,000 miles, and it is TRUE that Bridgestone offers no tread life warranty, and it is TRUE that the rear suspension design is at least partly responsible for the rapid wearing... this does not mean the financial burden for Acura's decision to put inferior tires on your car should be your responsibility.

If you do your research in this website and at tirerack.com, and present your materials to the appropriate party at the dealership, you may be rewarded for your efforts. I was. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the notion that I could really get medieval on the dealer's showroom on a busy selling Saturday.