Jackass

I am about done with dealing with Costco as well since they aren't willing to do too much overall....then again, it really isn't their fault but more of the manufacturer's fault....then again they are the one's who recommended the Pilot Sports for my car. They are willing to give me credit from when I first reported the issue which is around the 15k mark, but that still leaves me with a $625 bill to put Turanza Serenity+ on my car.

I did call Michelin again and spoke with a very nice lady for a bit. She said until I take it somewhere else for a 2nd opinion, they can't discuss any other options with me. I am going to try to take it to my local NTB which is less than a mile from my house to see what their take is on it. I am not hopeful at all that Michelin is going to be too helpful. Their stance flat out is that the tires are perfect and I either did something to them or Costco did to make them wear that way.

Getting my MPG back is without a doubt a goal I am after. I could care less about the "performance" of the tires. The EL42 did just fine when they were new for me.

Goals
- Quiet
- Smooth
- Wear
- MPG
- Winter
- Performance
- Price

That pretty much sums up the order of importance to me which leads me to the Grand Touring over the UHP A/S tires.

Jackass

2nd opinion has been completed by my local NTB per the instructions from Michelin. They had an even more negative opinion about the condition of my tires than Costco had. The tire tech came back inside with a little piece of rubber he pulled off the tread stating the tires appear to be somewhat self-destructing. They checked my alignment and it was spot on. They called Michelin and sure enough we were told 25% credit which I said was not acceptable. They kept telling me that abnormal tread wear is not covered by the warranty.....my response was that my car is not abnormal which therefore means their tire is abnormal and should be replaced. She put me on hold for about 10 minutes and came back with 52% credit based on goodwill instead of tread wear.

So assuming the costs that NTB comes up with in the morning are reasonable, I should have a set of MXM4 on my car very soon. Not sure if the 52% credit comes from the price of the old tires or the price of the new tires?

avs007

Do yourself a favor, and choose something other than the MXM4... Those tires a POS. Perhaps you can try the Bridgestone RE970AS or something? I hated the MXM4 that was on my car, and was glad to get rid of them.

Jackass

Not sure how the 970AS will be any different for me than the Pilot Sports were. I do not have any interest in Performance tires and would much better prefer to go back to Grand Touring tires.

AndrewA

iTrader: (3)

Here are some pictures of mine at about 21 months old and about 28K miles.

Center tread is about 5mm or 6/32.



Edge tread is about 2.5mm or a little more than 3/32.

Jackass

Michelin is a royal PITA to deal with. The guys at NTB and myself were given a constant run-around by their customer service telling me to go back to the store to get my tires done, but then the store getting told they can't do anything without a claim form. After three days of back and forth, Michelin suggested that I pay full price and then once the paper work is submitted, they will mail me a check....Not a chance. Right now waiting for Michelin to mail the claim form to NTB so they can get the discount done properly.

Talk about being extremely frustrated.....I for sure give props to the guys at my local NTB. They aren't going to make a dime on this and have put in probably a good 10-12 hours of work going back and forth with Michelin for me. Guess I will update this in 3-4 weeks once the paperwork shows up.

Jackass

Looks like you are having slightly similar issues. Mine were at 6/32 in the center and 1/32 on both edges as well as the rubber starting to chunk apart on the inner tread.

LaCostaRacer

Yes, those pictures are a 1000 words. That was exactly what happened to my tires except mine were worse at similar mileage. I would dump Michelin and go with a different brand- I have been pretty happy with my Yokohama YK580s so far. Seems like a nice tire- but that was what I also said about the Pilot A/S Plus tires at this time too. I cannot imagine that these Yokohama tires will be that bad in 28k.

Jiggy2dmax

iTrader: (1)

sub'd I have the same tires but even wear all around, 15k on them

SpiderX1016

From my experience almost every Pilot Sports (on the 3G TL) I've seen get severely torn up on the edges. They could have 5-7/32 in the center but the edges will have cords showing.

I'm not really a fan of the MXM4 but they wear pretty evenly and that's what we stock here at the dealer.

tlman2006

Just like SpiderX says - took mine in for a rotation today with 36K miles. the cords are showing on the inside front. Still plenty of tread on all four in the middle, but no tread around the edge. Costco wouldn't even touch them. Don't buy these for a TL, but if you have them prepare to file a warranty claim.

zexi

Michelin will NEVER admit there is a wear issue on the Pilot Sport A/S for the 3rd Generation TL's.

I did have Sam's club step up to plate and replace my Pilots 80% covered cost. My tread wear in the center was a 7 and the edges were almost bald.

However, they would not honor any further warranty issues and it would be up to Michelin to cover any warranted issue on the new tires. I wish there was a better tire offered at Sam's Club, but in my research the Snow rating on the Pilots Sports was still superior among the brand choices they offer.

Jackass

Finally this is resolved and my car has brand new tires. Pricing didn't exactly work out in my favor by any means, but I at least do have new tires. NTB was amazing to work with. I am still not a fan of their various fees when buying tires there, but the guys did a great job of helping me with dealing with Michelin.

Out the door costs were the same if not a bit higher with the 52% discount from Michelin as it would have been if I would have stayed at Costco with the 25% discount with Michelin or Bridgestone. Costco was going to charge me the $15 per tire install fee and that was it. NTB I had to pay road hazard and lifetime balance fees which adds up quick.

Guess I will see if I made the right choice on switching to the Primacy MXM4 instead of staying at Costco and going with the Serenity+. I am hopeful my MPG will return to normal and be back at 30+ on the highway again. We went with P235/45/17 94H instead of 94W due to availability. Don't think it will matter too much to me other than my mileage warranty is 55k instead of 45k.

Jackass

Since this topic has come back up recently, how about an update from a year later...

I don't do a good job of tracking mileage anymore, but pretty sure we have about 15-20k miles on the new tires now. Extremely happy with the Primacy MXM4 without a doubt. My car is very smooth and quiet on the road, handling is good enough, dry/wet traction is more than adequate, and snow traction is acceptable. We rarely drive the TL in the snow since I work from home and the wife is a teacher. If she has to drive in the snow, she takes her AWD Equinox instead.

- Wear appears to be even at this point in time
- MPG went up 1-2 (I lost 3-5 with the A/S+, but still not back up where I was with the EL42)
- Road noise is zilch

So anyone that doesn't drive their TL like a race car, I would still highly recommend the Primacy MXM4 tires if your priorities are on noise, wear, and MPG over flat out dry performance. These are Grand Touring class tires and are not meant for track days.

sleeper22

My MXM4's have been great. Still quiet and even wear after approx 36,000 miles. Highly recommended. Not sure how much tread is left but I would say about 40%.

solutions_explorer

I have the same issue. Edges has more wearing than the center. I bought and installed 2 new Michelin Pilot A/S plus tires on my 06 TL in Sept 2011. Currently tires have only 23K on them. In my last service Acura dealer told me to replace the tires saying secondary rubber is visible and excessive inner and outer wear out. I went to NTB with the issue, measured the outer edge as ~1/32 and center as 4/32. He is not willing to assist me with the warranty saying its result of poor maintenance and blamed it on misalignment. He said recommended alignment is 2 times a year and tire rotation at every 50K. (I am not sure If this is a real recommendation).
With this info I called Acura dealer, they seem to agree with the tire dealer. Dealer didn't recommend alignment earlier and only time he did was at last visit. Then I called Michelin to start the claim, they are not willing to listen to me and asking me to go to an authorized dealer for measurements and file the talk to them.
Just when I was thinking to give it up on this. I found this thread, I see that many other ppl have the same issue and some were actually successful in getting the tires replaced or got good discount.
I would really appreciate if someone can provide some info and tips on getting out of this issue. I really dont want to pay full price for new tires and change them so early within 23k miles Especially my old set BS Pole PS 950 are still doing good even after 45K.

Thanks in Advance

Jackass

Michelin won't help you directly without having a local authorized dealer to look over the car. If NTB is where you bought the tires, then that is the place to start. If you don't like what NTB has to say, ask Michelin to identify another authorized dealer you can take your car to for another opinion. Costco was where my tires were from and I didn't like the options they presented so I took my case to NTB to work with instead.

If you have no proof of alignments and rotations, you are probably SOL. I had proof that my alignment was fine. I brought NTB the two previous alignment records from the dealer as well as they checked the alignment themselves and confirmed it was perfect. I also brought my records from Costco regarding rotation and inflation.

Scottwax

Just curious what your thoughts are now on the YK580s. Had them on my Accord, like how quiet they were and that I got 46k miles out of them on my 7th gen Accord. Could have got more if I let them get to 2/32 tread depth (they were 3-4/32 at replacement) but really don't like the tread getting all the way to the wear bars. One thing I did not like about the YK580s was their tendency to spin off the line whether it was wet or dry. Could be that my size (205/60/16) being an H rated tire contributed to that. But if you like a quiet, long lasting tire with a good ride, its hard to beat.

Decided that I'd rather not look like a 16 year old spinning my tires all the time so I didn't go with the YK580s again, I got the new Goodyear Eagle A/S Sports in 215/55/16 size. Ended up with 1.4" more tread width without any weight penalty. And its a 50k mileage warranty tire. So far I really like them. Outstanding grip in curves or a straight line. With the YK580s my traction control would fight the wheel spin to at least 20 mph. With the Eagles, I can leave traction control off and maybe get 10' of wheel spin now.

You had much better luck with them than I did on my Maxima (225/50/17 size). Got barely 25k miles on them. Wear was even all the way across too. Ended up replacing them with Bridgestone RE760s. About the same wear rate but much grippier.

nkeen07

Glad I found this thread. When I bought my 08 Type S it had Pilot HX MXM4's. If I had inspected the car well, I would have realized that the inside were almost bald. 3k miles after I bought the car I had slow leaks on 2 from holes on the insides and had to replace them.

I swapped to the Conti DWS's others have referenced, and here I am 26k miles later with completely worn outers and inners with good middle and looking for a different set. I thought the Pilot Sport A/S 3 was the solution reading reviews on TireRack, but now I am heavily questioning that.

I drive too spiritedly to swap to a grand touring tire, but I can't stand to get this low of mileage out of 50k warrantied tires (gotta see how that goes w/the tire shop I use and if Conti will pro-rate). It's not an alignment issue (aligned when installed the DWS's and recently confirmed still in spec) and I rotate my tires every 4500-5000 miles. I could maybe get another 5k miles before cording, but I have a sidewall bulge (as seems to be the common trend with all Conti tires) with which I am not ok tempting fate...as I prefer to avoid blow-outs.

Has anyone had any luck with any UHP A/S's, or do we just have to deal with the poor tire life on our cars?

Will Y.

I've gotten 40K+ miles from a set of Yokohama Advan S.4, but prefer the Bridgestone Potenza RE970 AS Pole Positions, which are wearing evenly despite autocrossing and will probably last 40K+ miles as well.

Since your TL tires are wearing on the outer edges, try running cold pressures of 35-38 lbs. in front and 33-35 lbs in back.

nkeen07

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to look into them. I have run 35-37 psi cold on them since new, so it definitely isn't due to pressures, especially as I'm one that keeps a close eye on them with ambient temperature swings. I have buddies who have sedans that never pay any attention to tires and their cars have never worn tires like the TL does, not even the most aggressive of drivers.

sockr1

iTrader: (5)

I drive spirited and the Bridgestone re970 ties are the best I've ever had. Great grip and very stiff sidewalls. Mileage went down a bit but I'll take that trade off for the performance I get from them

nfnsquared

Sure sounds like an alignment issue, most likely rear toe. Are you slammed? Post the sheet from the last alignment check you had done.

What trend? This is news to me....

Jackass

Update from 2+ years later....still happy as can be with the MXM4. I "think" I have about 40k miles on them now and drove in the snow for the first time this season today....and this is the first time I have had any concerns about my tires. Very wet, heavy, slushy snow and I couldn't get up my driveway without a good run at it.

- Wear appears to be even still across all four tires
- Have had no issues driving in the rain
- Snow performance is not too great this year after ~40k miles
- Still smooth and extremely quiet

I am guessing on my mileage here. I bought the car with 44k miles, EL42 lasted for almost 45k, Pilot Sport AS+ for about 25k, and now have about 150k miles on the car with the MXM4.

triax37

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the update! I really appreciate hearing the back end of what happened, especially with tires. Everyone posts about initial impressions, but most new A/S tires will be fine in snow - the real question is what happens at 10k / 20k / 30k miles. The Continental DWS on my TL have actually held up pretty well - I'm at 30k miles, third season, and they've done OK on the snow so far this year...

Jackass

Seeing tire threads again popping up again....update on the MXM4 for those that care about the Grand Touring type tires more than UHP.

- now have 157k miles on car
- tires are around 45k+ miles
- this past winter, they were not wonderful at all
- this spring and summer, they are getting around just fine in the rain
- I will need new tires before winter for sure

I do not have anything to measure tread depth, but I am not at the wear indicators yet. We generally avoided my car if there was snow or risk of snow and instead took my wife's AWD vehicle. We did get caught out and about in a snow storm once and we made it around well enough. It was for sure some slow driving, but we made it better than many other drivers/cars did.

RenoTL

A thread gauge like this costs $5 - $10 bucks and is well worth it to monitor your tires with. I bought mine after loosing a rental car to the ditch on a slightly icy road only to find out the tires were almost bald. (No, I didn't have to pay the claim after I immediately went to a Tire Shop to get a signed statement of the tires' thread depths and gave that, along with pictures to my Insurance adjuster.) Now, we always check before accepting a rental car.