Ok, this has become the epic frustrating moment in my life right now. I have an 08 TL-S, with 54k on the odo right now. The OEM Pilot's that the car originally came with finally gave up the ghost. I went into my local Discount Tire, and decided on a set of Yokohama YK520's. Although they were not a Z rated tire, I felt that these would be a good fit for that car, as I would never be traveling faster than 80-90 mph anyway. And they had a decent wear rating. I had these put on on Feb 12. I was back at the store on the 16th, to check the balance of the new tires, because there was a pretty bad vibration from 30 mph on up. Ok, tires are rebalanced and I'm back on the road. What do you know, the vibration is still there, but it is now to late to go back to the store because they are now closed for the day. So, the next day, I decide to go to a different location, and have the tires rebalanced. They tell me that instead of just doing a rebalance, they are going to put it onto a machine that is going to put some king of "load" on the tires to make sure that they are perfectly round. Bad news... Three of the four tires are, out of round, and have to be replaced. Not a problem, because they have them in stock. They go ahead and replace all four tires, as defective. So, now I am back on the road, thinking everything is all good and dandy. I drive the car for almost two weeks, but that damn vibration is back, but not as bad. It only occurs now from 50 mph on up. So I take it back, and they tell me that they will replace them, again, but with some other comperable tire. The tire of choice now, is the Goodyear Eagle GT. Nice We are now about two weeks into the Goodyear's, and the damn vibration is still there!!! This car is on its third set if new tires in a month's time.

 

Accidentally posted before I was doneHere's the rest:

When I took it back to Discount, they told me that "Some cars just have to have the same tire's on, that came OEM". Does this sound right to any of you? Or am I the only one with an 08 TL-S that has no choice, but to use an OEM tire? The alignment is right on. The balance supposedly is right on. What else is there to do? Oh, and these tires are on the stock wheels. Any ideas would really help.

 

Are your wheels in good shape? no bent? I dont know if this apply to 07-08 TL but i believe there is a STB about vibration that only occur @ 50-60 mph on fifth gear.

 

TL's are very difficult to balance perfectly. Have them done on a Hunter Road Force machine:
http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/findgsp9700.cfm

If it didn't vibrate before, they shouldn't vibrate after the installation of new tires.

Good luck

 

The wheels are in excellent shape. There are no bends, or any curb rash.

There was no vibration before with the OEM tires at all. The vibration only came, after the installation of the first set, or every set, of tires. Discount said that they are checking the tires with the Road Force machine, and they checked out fine. The manager even told me that it is really hard to get tires, on these cars, balanced spot on. I've never had this problem before on any cars that I've had in the past. Very frustrating.

 

do u have good axles?

 

Eagle GTs are kind hard to balance. Pick another tire

 

Do you have a link to the TSB? I have the 55MPH vibration issue as well.

 

Axles should be fine. There is no sign of leakage, and no issues have come up before.
The Eagle GT's were put on only after two sets of Yokohama's were tried. Same result with all three sets.
Yes. A link to this TSB would be very beneficial.

 

when traveling above 50mph, put the car in "N" and coast. If it still vibrates, it's more than likely, your wheels, tires, axles, etc. The 5th gear drone/vibration should not occur when coasting out of gear.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. At this point, I'm willing to try just about anything.

 

here:

http://www.in.honda.com/Rjanisis/pubs/SB/B05-017.PDF

 

I think this calls for me making a trip to my Dealer tomorrow, and requesting that P/N. The symptoms that are described, are the exact thing that I feel in the car right now. I'm definitely looking into this. Thanks

 

I have an 04 TL and have had that same problem. I have had that vibration from the day I bought the car back in 08. I thought maybe the stock wheels were unbalanced. I got them rebalanced and still the vibration from 55mph on. I got a new set of rims and tires and still the same vibration. I read a post on here about 6 months ago with people having the same problem, they had suggested that is was the lower control arm bushings. I have not had the time to go down to the dealership and fight with them on replacing them. From the post I read, it was going to be a fight casue the bushings are considered a wear and tear part. I only have 60k on my car, it shouldn't be worn out by now! Also, a few guys on the post went and had the bushings replaced with some aftermarket bushings and said that it got rid of the vibration and made the car feel nice and tight in the steering. I haven't taken care of the problem myself but as soon as I do I will let you guys know.

 

Any idea on which bushing (brand) that were used? Or a link to said thread that stated that it may be attributed to the LCA bushings? I'd like to get as much info on this as possible, before I head out to the dealer and start picking up parts.
Any vendors on here that sell these LCA bushings, or the Subframe Dynamic Damper Kit? I would rather purchase from a vendor here, than to go to a Dealer.

 

Tell me what you all think. Why would this problem arise after the OEM Pilot's were removed and replaced? The car never shook, or shimmied, ever, with the stock tires on there. Only after we purchased new tires did this problem show its face. Could this really be an engine damper, or the LCA bushings? This is just not making any sense to me. Or am I just putting to much thought into this, and really missing the real problem at hand

 

Well, I just got back from my local Acura Dealership, and they told me that this only applies to the 04 TL, and not the 08 TL-S 5AT. Does this sound right to you guys? Personally, I'm thinking of buyng the kit, and doing it anyway.

 

Yes the TSB only applies to 04 TL's. Too bad the problem is still there on 05's.

I have an 05 with the vibration/drone, and the dealer wont do anything about it. I too have considered buying the kit myself, but haven't gotten around to it. If i recall correctly, its about $80 for the kit.

 

Are your break rotors in good shape?

 

Brakes are fine. The problem doesn't occur when I'm on the brakes, rather when I'm going 50-80 mph.

 

Loosen each of your wheel lugs, then tighten by hand/manual torque wrench to 80 lbs. each and see if that gets rid of your shimmy/vibration.

Sometimes shop power wrenches are set for higher psi, so the lug nets are overtightened by the excess pressure, resulting in a vibration.

 

Hmm, that's something that I didn't think of right there. I will try that today, and let you all know as soon as I can take her out for a drive.

 

sorry to hear man. dont ever go discount tire ever again. from my exp. discount tire suck suck ass big time. ballance my $2k rims (+$400 custom paints) with no air preasure which is crew up the paint when reballance and lug nut not tight enought that one of them come loss/ missing when i check it. had to re tight all of them. wht i could thinks of our problems right now is take ur wheels to custom shop let them recheck ur wheels ballances and tighten ur wheels lugs properly. hope this helps. TL = no discount tire

 

English?

 

Thanks for your suggestion, but I must say, your post was really hard to read. Or even really understand. It seems that you had a pretty bad experience at Discount Tire, and almost lost a lug nut. I hope that you got that all resolved. I'm still in the process of resolving my issue, and hope to get it taken care of soon.

Please, no text talk on a forum. Old guys like me just don't understand, I guess.

 

please hold on the thought of buying the part and do it yourself. i brought my car to the dealership and same thing happened. This problem only applies to 04 TLs but the tech tried to put the dampener on but he failed to do so because the design of 06 and later year are different than 04 ( said the acura tech). i'd would advise you guys to do some more research on this before buying the part and doing it urself.

 

Well, here's how it stands right now. I took the car to the Acura dealership, and left it there this morning so that they could help diagnose the problem. When they called me back this afternoon, all they could tell me was that it felt like the tires were out of balance. So I picked it back up, and went straight to Discount Tire, again. I told them what the dealership told me, and this would now be the second time that Discount balances the tires that are on the car. They are the Goodyear Eagle GT's. After the rebalance was done, I took it out for a quick drive, and what do you know, the vibration was still there. What a surprise. Frustrated, still, I went back to Discount to report the news of no change. As we talked, I asked them if they carried the OEM Michelin's. I was surprised when he said yes, they have them in stock. So I said what the hell, put those on, and hopefully it will alleviate the problem. I mean what else could I try. I already tried the dealership. Nothing that could be done there. So, let's try another set of tires, right? I mean, what could it hurt. 60 minutes later, the car was done, and now had on a nice set of Michelin shoes. Off I went for a short test drive. Viola!!!!!!! That did it. No more irritating vibration. So all I had to do was, not deviate from what the factory put on to begin with. Finally, I can drive again without there being an annoying vibration at 50+MPH.

To eveybody that offered suggestions, thank you.

Now all I have to do is lower it, install intake, TB spacer, J-Pipe, and exhaust. Or, maybe I'll just leave it stock, and drive the hell out of it

 

Please keep us updated Sinistr. Sounds like many of us share a similar symptom. I'm really curious to see if this holds up to the test of time. And just to be clear, did you put on the Michelin Pilot HX MXM4's?

 

The Michelin tires are a bit softer, and one BIG thing about them is that they don't need to be "high mounted"

High mounted refers to the amount of pressure needed to create a good seal between the tire and rim when it is first mounted. Continental tires for example need a High Mount Seal with nearly 70-90PSI to ensure a good bead. If this is not done with a High Mount Seal, the tire will have high and low spots on the bead and cause vibration. I had to have my Continental DW's mounted 3x to make sure they were mounted properly since the first 2 times there were high/low spots.

 

Sorry, but this is a new one on me. Manufacturer's don't recommend using high air pressure when mounting tires, in fact, I know Yokohama has it imbedded on the sidewall that air pressure is not to exceed 40PSI when mounting on the wheel. In fact, if any tire does not seat with the 40 lbs, it should be deflated, rotated and tried again. That high pressure is old school and not to be used by today's standard. Also high/low spots would be quite hard to have after installation and with the car being driven, so chances are they dismounted the tire and rotated it to try and compensate for the vibration.

In most all cases, vibration is caused by improper balancing, and not the tires. There is no reason why the Michelin's would perform any better than any other if done properly. It's just operator error or the balancer that is out of calibration.

 

This may be true, as I had them attempt to rebalance the Yokohama's, and the Michelin's, twice. With both tires, nothing changed, and the vibration was still present. The Michelin's may very well be a "softer" tire, but they certainly appear to have resolved the issue. The vibration is still gone, and the car is still riding very smooth. Thank you for suggesting yet another issue when mounting tires. I will definitely keep all this in mind, when I get any other tires mounted, on any car.

Improper balancing. I guess that that could be blamed for all of my issues with the different sets of tires I tried. But could it really be the exact same problem for three sets of tires, two manufacturers, and different people working on it each time? I suppose that it very well could be, but would most definetely be strange. Each set of tires were even run through the Hunter Road Force machine and found to be fine. Whether or not there was an issue with the Yokohama's, or the Goodyear's, the Michelin's are riding very smooth. The car feels great again.

 

Many years ago I had a custom shop balance new AR wheels and tires on their brand new Hunter machine. Installed them, vibration, took them back and rebalanced, perfect, but still a vibration. The next day another fellow complained about a vibration after installation. Had the rep come in and the machine was out, but after calibration everything fine. Another shop couldn't get the vibration out on a set of Bridgestone's, Dunlop's, then we tried Michelin's, and still the vibration. After the last try I had the owner change the weight setting from inside to outside just to give it a try, and what do you know, they were out of balance. Took it to their other shop, balanced with the weights on the inside and tey were go to go. This actually happened on 2 units at different shops, couldn't balance the assemblies properly when weights placed in inside, but balanced fine if weights were to be placed on outside. Just calibration error.

In the future if the tires won't balance properly, have the operator set it on the simpliest setting, which is the weights on the outside, just to give it a try and see if both read the same.