wmahmud

Is the 4G TL FWD really sensitive to the road surface? I can feel the car and the slight shaking on certain roads (always feel it in the same areas on the same roads) but the road look so smooth.

Is the 4G really sensitve while driving?

N7Titan

not really, i think it feels just as a car its size should feel

on regular looking pavement i can only feel bumps and vibrations through the gas pedal

a lot of people consider the fwd a little on the squishy side

dtc5

It could be the tires. The MXM4 tires ride a bit loud and maybe contributing to the roughness you're feeling. I acutally like the FWD suspension tuning. The NJ roads are not the greatest in the world.

Kingmeow

I have the same thoughts. BTW, I have an AWD and that suspension is even stigger! I think it's the tires but I just did a long drive from NJ to Boston and there seems to be a high frequency minute vibration on the steering wheel and through out the car. When I got there, both my hands actually was tingling due to holding on to a vibrating object for so long (ok, no jokes here ). It's actually at the dealer today to address this and a few other minor warranty items. I'm not sure if they are going to find anything.

I'm having them check to see if the wheels are off balanced. Also, if the car was sitting on the lot for a long time, flat spots can develop. That's what the tech told me. When they get the car, they pump the tires up to 60 psi to prevent this. He said it will go away (about 1000 miles) as the tires wear.

Personally I think I feel the road too much. I recently drove over a freshly paved highway, so fresh it shines at night due the oil in the asphalt. It is on that freshly paved road that I felt the slight shaking that you talked about. I think most imperfect roads actually hide things. On a new road you feel EVERYTHING. That's just a guess on my part. I was actually concerned when it happened. It felt like one or more wheels lost a weight or something.

I'll let you know what the dealer says tonight.

BleuM&M

It's also called road feel. On the last few Acuras I've had and a Civic Si, there are stretches of road I normally travel that cause a feeling like either the tires are out of balance or the wheels out of round. I feel a glass-smooth ride on other stretches. It doesn't matter what the speed is or pavement condition, i.e., dry, wet, icy, etc. I firmly believe it's the way the road was surfaced and the car is picking it up.

I have also felt a slight shaking on some new pavement, not other, and guess what, it's still there a year later. Congratulations on your car that can detect imperfections in new paving below what DOT requirements are! To me this is a big advantage over most cars on the road. If you're tuned in to that connection, the sooner you become aware that something changed and could be a problem.

I like the sensitivity. I've driven many other cars with the same or more sensitivity, and they were mostly sports cars or track-tuned cars with a brutal ride.

Kingmeow

OK, report from the dealer. They had to keep my car overnight to fix all the minor warranty issues. Regarding the vibration in my earlier post, at first the dealer thought road noise too but was diligent enough to do some more thorough testing.

Low and behold they found the problem! One of the factory Michelins failed the ground force test and exceeded spec by 2.5x! They have this machine that simulates road force and detects defective tires (ok, I'm just paraphrase here so you experts can probably explain it better than me. ). They spin the tires and put a roller on it to mearsure the force back to the car caused by the tire. Within spec is less than 10 lbs. They mearsured a whopping 25 lbs. They tried to balance it out and only managed to get it down to 15 lbs. So they are replacing the entire tire.

My 200 mile trip back home on Friday will be the ultimate test. This kind of explains why I feel it more for freshly paved asphalt versus an older road and also at highway speeds versus local road speeds. The freshly paved stuff was actually accentuating the bad tire!

I will report back once again after driving it this Friday.

wmahmud

Thanks guys - the slight shaking just got me nervous a bit, but then i noticed it always always over the same stretch of road in my regular route, going slow or fast.