04TLMan

I have heard that many people are replacing their OEM EL-42 very early (12K miles). For those of you that wore out the OEM's, what was the mileage when did replaced them?


<10K miles
10K->13K
13k->16K
16K->19K
19K->22K
22K->25K
25K->28K
28K->31K
>31K miles
Changed before worn out

04TLMan

I have heard that many people are replacing their OEM EL-42 very early (12K miles). For those of you that wore out the OEM's, what was the mileage when did replaced them?

yzfrebel

Mine were at the wear marks at 12.3

04TLMan

I ask this because I have 9000 miles in 6 months of driving. I was having a horrible time in the snow. So I assumed that it was just the crappy tires. I did not even think to look at the tread depth and bought new rims and snow tires (Mich Alpin PA2). The remainin depth was 1/8" in front and 3/16" in rear. They started at 10/32", so the fronts were more then half down!

If I thought to check the depth, I might have decided to just buy really good All Season tires instead of buying new rims and snows. I know in the long run, it is better to have the snows, but $1300 was hard to take right at Christmas.

Live and learn.

bluenoser

I'm trying to gather more information on tire wear situations. Were your tires ever rotated?
Thanks

04TLMan

No, I had not done a rotation yet.
I was due for my first rotation. The 1st service was mainly oilchange (4000 miles) and second was the 'B' service (9000) which is the first rotation.

cM3go

Changed mine before they worn out, hydroplaning on a simple wet road was enough for me to get rid of them

noose

I just replaced mine at just over 10K miles. They were completely worthless in any kind of snow or ice. I had to leave it in the garage for a week until I could get some new ones installed.

I bought some NOKIAN all season radials - 235 45 R 17 and so far I am very impressed, it was like night and day compared to the Bridgestones. They were almost $1200 so they should be good.

The dry pavement handling isn't quite as good so I am thinking I will buy another set of 18 inch rims and some summer tires so I can swap them each and hopefully make both sets last for a while.

04TLMan

After starting this poll a while back, I finally have to replace mine at 15K.

scrb09

I am @ 17,500 and they are significantly low on tread so will push it till 20K and change it before winter.

hwatkins

I am approaching 29K, still have some wear left. Have rotated tires with each oil change.

qali

have around 20K, tread seems fine, but I get a little nervous when it rains... looking to replace soon.

jefe57

I went in to a shop to get my oil changed and tires rotated at 12.5K miles and they refused to rotate the tires because they were down to the tread bars on 3 of the four tires, said they should be replaced not rotated. Has anyone tried to get these replaced under Acura or Bridgestone warranty or is this low-mileage lifespan part of the "design" of the tire?

scrb09

I tried 2 weeks ago unsuccessfully. So I called up ACS, they opened up a case and gave me a case # they recommended I call up bridgstone (they gave me the #) so I did that, the bridgestone people asked me to go see an authorized dealer in my area and get them checked out. The bridgestone dealer came out looked at my car, took the tread depth/mileage etc and got all the info like my VIN #, make model, and case # with Acura etc. I recieved a call few hours later and the guy said basically bridgestone is not ready to do anything and that they do not guarantee tread wear etc etc. I said OK and called back ACS and they said that there is not much they can do, blah blah blah...so...I dont know what else is there to do. If anyone else have any other Ideas and have successfully able to get their dealer to replace it I would like to know how as well.

Mak

noose

I had already bought a new set of Nokian tires at 9500 miles before I heard about how many other people had the same problem. I decided to call the local Acura dealer and complain - I figured I didn't have anything to lose. I was hoping for Acura to reimburse me for the $1200 I spent on the Nokian tires as the best result, but as expected they would not do this. When I was there on prior occasions for service I saw that on some of the '05 TL's they had Michelin tires installed and I tried to get the dealer to give me a set of those, but again they said they could not do this.

They did say they could give me another brand new set of the same Bridgestone Potenza EL42 if I had the old tires. (I had kept the bad tires - they were still O.K for summer, but completely worthless for Nebraska in the winter). I didn't understand why they wanted to replace them with obviously defective tires - which I discussed with the service manager in some detail. He said there was some sort legal reason they had to give me the same tires and that this was being done for "goodwill" reasons and that I could hopefully get 20,000 miles out of the two sets of tires. I have these in storage now, I was thinking I would put them back on when I sell or trade the car ( if I ever do ) or get desperate.

It was better than nothing and somewhat unexpected since I had already replaced the tires. I don't know if all dealers are doing this, but it can't hurt to try.

Good luck.

NorCalAl

Mine were bald @ 12,700. I replaced them with Falken 512's and now they are going bald after 12,000. I believe there is something seriously wrong with the suspension on this car - I only drive freeways, no tight turning, etc. The Falken's we're all seasons (which I took to mean not as soft as the EL-42's. They handeled much better in wet weather (which we had a lot of last winter (45"+)), but I had them rotated about 4k miles ago, and hey, now the rear tires are nearly bald.

It has to be the car, as I have had 2 sets of shoes on this car, witht eh same result. I'm on a 4 year lease, looks like I'll need 2 more sets, before I get to the end of my lease! I never would have bought the car had I known I was going to have to dropan extra $1-2K in tires. I love the car otherwise, but, WOW , I'm thankful the Falken's are reasonably priced!

NorCalAl

NorCalAl

Yep, been there, they told me to get lost

There is no mileage warrenty for these tires. That means if they go bald after 2,000 miles, you have no leg to stand on. Seems the majority of folks get between 10-15K miles per set of EL-42. Mine were bald @ 12.7K, and the Falken 512's I replaced them with are bald @ 12K, as well. I don't think it's the tires, I think it's the cars suspension. I think we are playing the price for having a car that has a nice, tight suspension. using the struts to force the car to hold the road, with extra pressure, I believe has contributed to the high wear and tear on the tires.

But, right or wrong, Acura will never admit it, or likely do anything about it.

Just my

NorCalAl

avddreamr

Ok maybe I'm wierd but I have 26k on my tires, and I have about 65 percent left.

I think driving style has alot to do with it. The TL however nice and fast, has next to nothing in driver communication compared to say an rx8 or the m roadster I was driving today. So I'm always very hesitant to do anything that pushed the tires to their limits.

I'm actually suprised that they have lasted this long, I was under the impression that I would be replacing them with potenzas 10k miles ago.



ok incase your wondering average mpg i'm getting is 24.
I get 34 on the highway.

Nes

TBone2004

24k and the tires are about halfway - easily make it until next Spring. Then gonna throw on some Proxes.

TLyoung'un

Had to change them at 5000 miles because one of them popped on the freeway.

A blessing in disguise.

dsc888

I'm at almost 18K and the ELs are about 50% worn with more wear on the shoulder due to aggressive cornering . This is with 90% city miles. I too am surprised they have lasted this long. I'm looking into the Toyo Proxes 4 either right before winter or next spring.

dsc888

jefe57

Update: Called Bridgestone customer service, they basically would not give me a straight answer and said I had to go to a corporate store for an inspection and that only then would they be in a position to offer any kind of warranty.

Went to that location and the tire manager confirmed that the tires were definitely in need of replacement and there was nothing he was obligated to do since they were a V rated performance tire and thus had no mileage warranty. He said last week a BMW came in with the same tires with 45K on them. They can last 1K or 50K, all depends on driving style and tire maintenance. I confirmed that I can be an aggressive drive most of the time (not reckless, just aggressive).

I asked why Bridgestone would not just tell me that on the phone. He said Bridgestone customer service wants someone to physically inspect the tire to check for manufacturer defects such as bubbling or what not, to give a proper diagnosis of the tire condition. He did offer $160 toward Bridgestone H rated tires to give me a new set of tires with a mileage warranty. He did not try to upsell me on a proper performance tire for the vehicle, probably because a line had formed behind me.

I left and did some shopping around. When you pull up to a tire shop in a Zaino'd TL, don't expect them to offer you any discounts or tires that would do well on a Civic or Accord. The Goodyear guy flat out refused to offer a tire that had a mileage warranty since it would too dramatically change the way the car handled. He had a Kelly H-rated performance tire, no warranty, but was really pushing their top-of-the-line, an Eagle F1 I think. He was a little pushy, and did not give me any confidence I could get any more than the 12.5K I got out of the Bridgestones. I was warming up to keeping performance level tires, but wasn't convinced these would last any longer than what I had.

I went to Discount Tire and eventually bought the Z-rated Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. I talked through it with the tire rep and the Z-rated pilots were of a similar design to an H-rated set of pilots. They were within $5/tire of each other, but the H-rated came with a 45K warranty while the Z came with none of course. Given the simialr design, it stood to reason you could potentially get the same mileage out of the Pilot Z that the Pilot H was offering.

I wasn't completely buying his argument, and I am certainly no tire expert that could call BS on him, but I remembered several posts on this board about the Pilots and that my dad had put Michelin Pilots on his CL-S 6MT and raved about them. I decided to go ahead and spend the money, keep a tire appropriate for a sports sedan of the caliber of the TL, and rotate more frequently (every oil change instead of every other). If I burn through the tires again, I may have to consider stepping down in a performance rating. I later checked the Michelin website and the Pilot Sport A/S have a Tread Life score of 8 out of 10, so hopefully they'll do better than the Bridgestones.

My next step would have been to try the Acura dealer, but given previous experiences with them, I did not think they were likely to do anything for me. I had wasted most of whole day anyway.

And yes, the Pilots are awesome. Cornering, wet weather trackion, etc. are all as promised. It may be hard to step down to a lower tire after this....

richrath

I changed mine at 26,700-odd. They were getting scary in wet conditions, getting louder each week, and less comfortable at the same time. They had a fair amount of legal tread on 'em, but they'd become worthless to me and I'd been itching to replace for some months. I rotated them regularly between 6,000 & 7,500 miles.

Some of us are writing about asking the dealership to replace them -- without success. I'm not too surprised, but in the Temple of V-Tec forums, there are users there who were able to get their dealers to replace the B'stones with the Michelin Pilot HX MXM model (used on TSX and on some of the '05 TLs), so it must depend on whether the dealer is "inclined" to do so (ie, how good is their attitude). I guess it's within their power but they have to want to have good customer service and to have their customers come on the forums and say "Boy they were nice folks"... Seems like a no-brainer to me but I've heard some purely horrifying dealer tales!

smr2112

Well, I really haven't had any problems at all with the EL42s.
I have 13k now and plenty of life left on them. Even seemed to
do OK in a few inches of snow. I keep waiting for them to
slide me off the road, but it hasn't happened. I never think
there was any problem with them if I didn't read these
forums. I don't push the car that hard, but I can tell the
handling is average at best, must be something better, right?

I finally recently started to think they weren't doing well in the wet.
I think reading all the damning posts about the EL42s really
got to me and I just decided to replace them. Have a fresh
set of Pirelli PZero Nero M+S that will go on this weekend.
I expect a big difference and wasn't willing to wait until
winter. I don't mess around with anything tires or brakes,
so it's not wasted money to me as long as the replacement works.

I couldn't get any dealer to fess up to having replaced these tires
for anybody, but that readily agree they aren't great tires. My
coworker, did get his replaced @ 17k or so by a dealer. When
he failed a PA state inspection, he complained and they gave him
a set of Michelins Pilot Sports. So there probably is no Acura
sponsered replacement, but I bet they can wrangle it in the
computer to bill it (at least partially) back to Acura as a warranty
repair if they really wanted to.

Heck, after the Mercedes dealer screwed up an oil filter on
my wifes ML350 (filter cracked) and leaked oil all over
my driveway, I bitched and they easily paid to retop my
driveway ($700!) - and totally did all the work on the car for
free after flatbedding it back - then I saw the bill
and they billed it back 100% to Mercedes, they didn't
bat an eye! So I think the dealers
can do alot when they actually want to. Is that nuts or what?

richrath

smr2112 -- Hey, I grew up just down the pike in Broomall, right around the same time too, assuming you grew up around Springfield!!

And I'm with you on rating the Turanzas. I call 'em crappy, but it's really relative to the capabilities of the car vs. the tires. I don't hate on 'em near as much as many posters, but then I really don't think they do the car justice and since I had to pay $230 retail for one to replace a flat last year, plus the mounting/balancing/etc -- they just are nowhere near worth that price. They got me safely through a moderate but icy snowfall last winter, driving cautiously, expecting the worst but they were OK.

But I LOVE my P-Zero's!!!

Dvus555

Took my 04 TL in today for an oil change and tire rotation (3rd time) with 21,000 miles and wound up with 2 new front tires. They were worn terribly on the inside. The rest of the tread was good. Probably about 40% left. I asked if I could just rotate the tires (put the "bad" ones on the rear and the OK one up front) but they recommended against that. I thought with a front wheel drive car, it would be OK to have the better tires on the front and get along with the worn tire on the back for a couple of months and then get 4 new tires around November.

Anyway, I had a choice between Toyo and Perelli and went with the Toyo Proxesa. So now I have these on the front and the ELs on the back. Maybe in November I'll balance the car.