Fellow TLers,

I just took my 04TL with 18" A-Specs and Yokos on to the dealer. It seems that the car has developed a 'whinning' noise. The dealer came back and said that the tires are feathering - basically wearing out un-evenly. After having the tires & rims balanced three times and verifying the alignment and all the specs are correct - the dealer says that the car is not the issue. The Yokohomo rep says that they know of no issue as well. They tried to blame my driving and I told them that that was a poor excuse. The car is babied and mint mint even after 28K kms.

Has anyone experienced this 'whining' noise or un-even wear on 18" Yokos? I am waiting a reply back from the Acura rep to see how we proceed.

Thanks,

Demetrius

 

i have 17" yokos and have the whining noise. they kinda sound like crickets to me but it only occurs on my front, right side area and only happens when the car has been parked for a couple of hours. after 5-10 miles of driving the noise is gone. someone blames the heating shield for this. i can't confirm since i try to avoid the dealership unless it's time for service or a bigger issue. as far as un-even wear, i don't have a-spec to compare and my tires are wearing evenly

good luck, keep us informed on where the blame game goes next

 

It is not clear to me whether this was a factory setup you bought from the Dealer, or something you put together.

Feathering is almost always an alignment issue - either from improper settings*, or from a defective suspension part. Has this car ever been in a wreck, driven over a parking space bumper, etc? FWD cars are very sensitive to any misalignment, and problems can pop-up when deviation from the stock set-up occurs

*In this case, a tire/suspension setting mis-match seems to be occuring.

I would:

1) Be absolutely sure you obtaion the proper alignment specs for YOUR tire/wheel setup.

2) Have a 4-wheel alignment performed by an independent shop (nbot associated with the Dealer or the sellers of the tires/wheels)

 

Thanks for the reply.......

The 18" A-Spec factory rims and the 18" Yokohama AVS ES100 were also supplied and installed by the Acura dealer once they finally came in. I have ~ 10K kms on them and they just started making the noise out of the blue. No wreck, no accidents, no curbs..no nothing...car is babied. The dealer checked the specs, verified the alignment and have all four tires inflated to 32 psi (pretty sure of number, but all tires are balanced). They say that all is fine and have escalated this to Acura Canada as the dealer is crap. They identified the noise as feathering but did not inspect or investigate what is causing the issue until I asked for them to identify the problem. Any ideas on what could cause this would be appreciated.

Demetrius.

 

i have the db2s and after 10000 miles they are so loud one cannot hear the stereo. they get even louder as you reduce speed to stop. am getting a 75% prorate from discount tire bought them at tire rack who gave me the runaround until finally agreed to take to local dealer who was discount tire! strange. they arew really bad.

 

In that case, I would look to the tire mfr for remedy. I needed the background though. Do some research on those tires - are they multi-compunded, and is it perhaps that you have hit some "magic mileage" spot where things can go south? Do a Search on Google and see if others with those tires have had problems, including other cars, other Forums. Did the dealer buy a-stock - where did they source the tires?

This reminds me of the Nissan 350Z tire fiasco - that was a complex mess, but I think reading up on that will give you some knowledge, which you can use to offset any BS from Acura or Yoko. Acura needs to make good on this, but being armed with knowledge is always a good battle plan. Very best of luck with this. Keep us informed on the status.

 

I have learned that my front end it out slightly and since I have had the wheels rotated this summer, it looks like all four are feathering. The dealer still says that there is nothing wrong with the car's suspension though!!! Duh!!! The noise became more apparent after the vehicle sat for three weeks as I was out of town. Could this be related to the flatspotting/vibration issues that are known to Acura?

I have contacted my contact in Acura HQ to once again help me out.....will let you guys know.

As for the feathering issue on all Nissan 350Zs is being resolved by Nissan with a correction to the suspension..either toe-in or toe-out. There is nothing being performed by any tire mrf...which would indicate the problems sits with Nissan anot not the tite mfr. I haven't found anything on the Yokos except some folks have had their DB2s - completely different issue.

Demetrius

 

Are you experiencing the feathering on the front or rear axle?

AVS ES 100 tires are some of the loudest tires ever made, the more they wear, the louder they get.

 

Oooops. I just replied to a couple of other thread about this issue. SORRY. I'm a newbie.

I have the same problem! The difference sounds like mine is a full A-Spec versus just the tires. At ~10K I had the tires rotated and noticed the noise really bad. Alignment was out on all 4 wheels even though I had had it aligned when the A-Spec was installed and again at about 2K miles for a slight pull to the left.

Acura said it was probably the way I drive, but I don't drive hard. The dealer feels bad and said that I did everything I was suppose to and it should never have happened. I'm wondering if the dealer knows something, but can't say.

Demetrius, if you have the tires but not the A-Spec suspension and I have the tires with the A-Spec, does that mean it's the tires that are to blame?