Acura RL Tires and Wheels
Planning on purchasing a new RL with Tech Pkg. I was also thinking about the Pax tire pkg. Today I was reading a forum about them on the Honda Odyssey page. Owners claim they last less than 25,000 miles, dealers don't have the machinery to mount new Pax tires on the rims. Many were forced to purchase new tire and rim combos already mounted for exorbitant costs. Wondering if Acura owners/dealers are having the same problems?
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- None of the 3 Acura dealers have the equipment
- 2 Honda dealers have the changer but they don't carry Acura RL tires (245/680's)
- 1 Tire Kingdom has tires and the machine
- All want about $300 per tire plus about $100 to install
Bottom line; I don't think it's as bad as it has been in the last couple years (be careful a lot of postings you read on the web might be old). However, it's definitely not a good situation. Honda/Acura is being stupid to not make the PAX an option by itself. I'm sure they're loosing sales. In fact a class action suit was just filed in March against Honda and Michelin over these tires. It's a mess. I've decided to stay away until I see if the '08 models get "de-paxed". if so, I'll buy the CMBS package.
I've used the CMBS on the RL and the M35- not impressed. The M sales rep was very specific on how to turn it off- apparently Infiniti receives many complaints about all the false warnings.
Of course, here in Boston, prior to buying the snows: Almost 2.5 feet of snow. Since buying the snow tires: less than an inch of snow. Now that I've made the large, unexpected purchase it may never snow in Boston again... :sick:
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
No spare tire kits are available at the dealers here in the San Joaquin Valley--they don't even have a part number to order it...America's Tire Company has four tires available mounted, balanced, etc., for $1875. Hell, the Car is barely worth more than that.
"Run flat" tires are supposed to be able to carry the vehicle up to 100 miles on a flat tire. Gee, some shortsighted emngineer somewhere seems to think that there is a PAX tire busting station within 100 miles of anywhere.
Anyhow, some wiseguy lawyer firm has gotten Honda Acura to agree to the following tentative settlement (after you have put out the money, it's a maybe): $110.00 if you show proof that you paid $108.00 for a spare tire kit for the PAX. $300 to $400 if you purchased another Honda Acura vehicle.
Such a deal! I wanna buy another RL....
I will NEVER again buy a run flat tire system in my life--more because of lack of a spare than the higher price--I always picture myself out in the middle of nowhere--with--a flat tire and no spare. BOO on Acura and Honda for this boondoggle.
But, I'm so disgusted with the road noise, I'm ready to shell out >$500 for some quite driving. Here are my questions:
1. Are the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S and Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus the tires of choice on this car as a replacement (I will be driving in a little winter snow)?
2. What else will give me a quite and fairly responsive ride without breaking the bank?
3. Lastly, has anyone tried to add more sound dampening materials to either the outer wheel wells or inner wheel wells (trunk space and/or behind rear seat carpeting)? I did a search for sound dampening and it looks like there are a number of people who are into audio sound that have experimented with increasing the sound dampening in the wheel wells and trunk with some success. Should this be necessary on a $50,000 (new) car?
Thanks for the reply. As you can tell, I'm looking for peace and quiet in a performance tire. The reviews at tirerack.com (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Turanza+- Serenity&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&partnum=45VR7TS) give it very good ratings on ride and noise comfort, with decent snow capabilities. Tread design doesn't look as aggressive as the Pilots but that might be a good thing regarding road noise.
Chris
I actually didn't get new tires. I made some adjustments in the air pressure of my tires and that made a huge difference. Very bearable now. The manual says to run 30 psi in the fronts and 32 psi in the rear. I'm running about 32 all around and it's much quieter than before. I'm going to go as long as I can before I shell out $700.00 for tires.
Good luck to all and stay safe.
jensad
JJ
After the original stock tires that came on the new RL wore out, we replaced them with Bridgestone Turanza Serenity. I noticed just a little improvement, but mostly we both considered it almost as noisey as the 1996 Honda Accord we use a a backukp car.
The Bridgestone tires are a bit more sensitive to road vibration. We took it back to dealership a couple of times for balancing. We're pretty sure now that the tires are more sensitive to road vibration. Increasing the tire pressure a little seemed to help some. Good tires otherwise.
Bottom line, I don't think we'll buy another RL until the reports from other drivers indicate that Acura has really fixed the problem. It's such as easy thing to do; the technology is out there and at the price Acura asks for RL's, one would think noise would never be an issue.
Maybe in other countries in the world, their highways don't have these awful grooves created by people who drive on studded tires ~6 months out of the year. So drivers there won't notice the road noise as much. In Washington, however, studded tires are used by a lot of drivers (not us) and within a few years, those tires can ruin a highway.
We find ourselves driving on edge just outside of the grooves and just inside of the lane lines. It's a bit more precarious but quieter, so one has to be very alert.
Hope this helps.
As for road noise - an Acura will never be a Lexus - they simply aren't designed that way - same with BMW - you will hear road noise - it is part of the "driving experience" - not being wrapped in a cocoon like Lexus - which I call the Japanese Buick.