TSX tire noise

Hmmm, I have not had any problem of the sort with my '06 TSX. Freeway speeds around here range from 65-85 mph, well in the ~75 mph range suggested by what I assume is your 120 kph number. I've put about 5,500 miles on the car and have not found the road noise to be anything objectionable at all. No need to talk loudly to passenger and no trouble using the hand-free cell phone link.

I wonder if your car has some bad tires on it or something. Can you get your dealer to lend you another copy of the TSX to do a back-to-back test drive comparison? When I had a minor problem with my car one of the first things the tech did was to drive mine and a TSX loaner car back to back with me along to see what was different.

John

"David Vincent-Jones" wrote in news:17NFg.2325$Te.841@trnddc07:

Follow the steps in the manual. Go up the management chain at the dealership, then to Acura, then to the BBB. The BBB will have a independent tech drive the car.

The absolute first thing you should do is comparison drives with the service manager. I suspect you're looking at a bad tire.

It's unlikely it's specifically the car. It is most likely one of the tires. I've driven at least three of the TSX's and they are all pretty quiet. I've also owned two TL's and now own an RL. All have been extremely well made vehicles.

Take it to your dealer and have them check out the tires. It isn't something that you should live with. They'll make it right.

Have you been on that road in other cars? Some aggressively surfaced concrete roads do cause a lot of noise, but it's going to be present on anything this side of a Rolls Royce. Though, I suppose you could buy softer tires (Dunlop used to be famous for such), at some cost to either or both handling or durability.

Is the car OK on those old smooth roads?

J.

You may find yourself replacing the tires yourself the best option rather than dumping the car. Sounds like your dealer is not interested in solving the problem, so a letter to Acura might help. When I tested 06 Accords, I found that the first one I drove the noise was quite high. On testing another with the same tire the level was a lot lower.

Acura seems to put a lot of crap tires on their cars as OEM. The stupid Micheline MVX4 come to mind. It's a touring tire! I couldn't wait to get rid of those. My TripleTred are great.

Then there was the whole Turanza fiasco. For the money you pay, you think they'd put something decent on there.

Concur. Honda does the same. Some years ago I bought a Civic for one of my kids. The OEM Firestones were awful -- out of balance from day one. Firestone dealer tried a balance but it did not help much. Honda referred me to Firestone --- and so forth. Wound up replacing the tires out of frustration at about 1000 miles -- and solved the problem. The OEM RE 92s on my Prelude were also crap. But. you would think Acura would do better. The original poster would lose too much if he sold or traded off just for tires. Spend $500-600 or so and it would be worth the money for decent replacements.

Maybe the OP was simply trolling. He/she/it has never responded to this thread once it started. The Michelins on my TSX are excellent tires for all around use and certainly aren't noisy.

John

You may be right about OP. But IMHO you're not too right about the OEM Michelins fitted to TSXes, at least the 2004 variety. The OEM tires do indeed wear well, and aren't awfully noisy. But that's about where the good news stops.

Try some research at a place like Tirerack or other tire sites, and you'll discover how truly mediocre the Michelins are (Pilot HX MXM4 P215/50VR17 just so we're on the same page).

It would be difficult to find a tire the performs as poorly as the original equipment Michelins, at least within the basic category; I suppose you could, but why?

Whether one is concerned about dry handling, wet handling, ice & snow response, braking, noise, compliance ... virtually anything related to vehicle dynamics ... there are many, many better tires than the Michelins ... at a fraction of the price. Better in each and every category. Markedly.

Replacement Michelins go for a stiff $175 or more per tire at TireRack, and are upwards of $225 from other vendors.

After parsing through a lot of info, I wound up buying some Pirelli P Zero Nero M+S in P225/45WR17 as replacements. Ultra-High Performance All-Season tires, superior in every way (perhaps save wear rating), for *way* cheaper ($125 per tire). Quieter, more compliant, safer.

Why in the world people believe Michelin's marketing, and continue to pay a premium for a lesser tire is beyond me.

So, I guess I'm trying to say that the TSX Michelins are indeed not "excellent tires for all around use". They are over-priced and subpar.

And, anticipating comments concerning "all around use" versus performance tires, I'd have to mention that the element of safety is much higher with higher performance tires, hands down. And, we're talking about an Acura TSX here, not a Buick, so performance

I'm certainly not about to buy another set when mine wear out as I agree that Michelin tires at retail are overpriced. However, the original post claimed that the tires were noisy, and that simply isn't the case on my '06 TSX. I'm sure that better value tires are out there and I will look for them when the time comes. I went through a similar process when replacing the OE Michelins on my wife's '03 Accord. I ended up with Yokohama Avid H4S. Indeed the Yokohamas have are a great handling tire, but a tradeoff has been much higher noise levels compared to the factory tires.

That said, the handling, ride and noise balance of the TSX is a big part of why I bought the car and I bought it with the OE tires in place.

By all around use I mean never driving the car past about 7/10 of it's performance envelope. Doing so on public streets would be irresponsible.

As far as Tire Rack user comments go, take them with a big grain of salt. I've read thousands of the things and the user ratings are neither consistent nor well founded. Much more interesting are the test results for those cases where Tire Rack actually did extensive comparison testing.

John

Speaking of which, have a look at these Tire Rack tests:

I have the same loud road noise problem at 75+ MPH. I live in Arizona. The voice recognition doesn't work at all at those feeway speeds. I haven't had the tires checked yet but it's a 6 month old TSX 2006.

OK .. so finally I find somebody with a like problem. No I was ot just "trolling"!

What I find interesting is that my Michelins are XSE P215/50 R17 93V but the reference provided by others appears to be for a Michelin Pilot HX MXM4

I assume that appart from the nomenclature difference the rim size is going to make some real change in sound transmission. How many out there are running on R16 rims? Maybe that is the real problem.

Someone is confused somewhere, maybe here ... The only " reference provided by others ..." is mine, and that reference was, as follows: "Pilot HX MXM4 P215/50VR17 just so we're on the same page".

There was no reference to 16 inch rims, and no reference to a 225/50 size. Please note the "R17" and "215/50" in the above excerpt.

So, trying once again, my OEM tires were P215/50 VR17 in size, and Pilot HX MXM4 in model designation. Yours might have been a different model, especially if we're comparing 2004 with 2006. But the size would very likely be the same, and the 17 inch rims would definitely be consistent. I don't think Acura puts a 16" on a TSX.

In terms of your original post, I realize one person's threshold for "noise" is different than anothers. I found my Michelins, and the TSX, to be quite quiet. Not having experience driving a Rolls, and not wishing to be entombed in a Buick, maybe I am more accepting of "noise" than you, or my hearing could be poor (there's certainly a chance of that).

But I myself sure as heck wouldn't summarily dump the TSX over noisy tires. I'd be getting new tires, and asking about for opinions such as you were.

Hope you discover an acceptable resolution to your dilemma.