Greetings,

I’m a few weeks away from my first anniversary with my ’05 TL, 6spd, No Navi. I have 18.5k miles on the car and up until very recently it hasn’t given me any trouble. Beginning Saturday, I discovered a strange vibration, almost a shimmy, in the back end of the car. The problem would subside after a few minutes, but when it was going, it wasn’t subtle. The whole car shook. I took it to the dealer. They rebalanced the tires and machined the discs, claiming they were out of spec. When I picked it up and pulled out of the parking lot and got up to 50mph, the vibration returned. I turned around and dropped the car back off at the dealer and told them to have another look. They drove it and didn’t discover anything wrong. They suggested my tires may be flatspotting and that the symptoms should go away after driving a few miles once the tires warm up. I have the Bridgestone EL42s.

On my ride into work today, the vibration appeared and than disappeared after a few miles.

I know this was a problem with the first batch of EL42s, but that the tires were reformulated. I was assured by my dealer that I got the new EL42s. I searched the forum and discovered that others are complaining about flat spots, even on the Michelin Pilots. I’m surprised, however, that I’m first noticing this problem after driving 18k on my tires and now that the weather is getting warmer in NJ. I thought this was primarily a cold weather problem. Have others noticed this problem during the tires’ mid life? And if so, have you been able to get the dealer to replace them?

Thanks,

Greg