Honda Car Forum

Hello,
I've got a 2002 accord with 18,000
miles.

I've the original Michelin tires.
I've some uneven treadwear and a few
brown lines (look like stitch marks) going
around the tire.

Since I've had so little mileage,
does anyone have experience with
getting prorated on new Michelin
tires?

Any other recommendations?

Thanks,
c

On 2003-09-15, curious <corsica@ragingbull.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> I've got a 2002 accord with 18,000
> miles.
>
> I've the original Michelin tires.
> I've some uneven treadwear and a few
> brown lines (look like stitch marks) going
> around the tire.
>
> Since I've had so little mileage,
> does anyone have experience with
> getting prorated on new Michelin
> tires?

Hmmmm.... Don't know what to say. Of all the tires I've put on my
ol' hatchback Si, Michelin's were by far the best. I ran MXM4's and
they were excellent, especially in wet weather.

nb

You're better off getting a different brand of tire (try tirerack.com).
"quality" Michelin tires are almost twice as expensive as "quality"
tires from other manufacturers - Dunlop, Yokahoma, and Continental to
mention a few.



In article <33d29236.0309151351.71e04722@posting.google.com >,
corsica@ragingbull.com (curious) wrote:

> Hello,
> I've got a 2002 accord with 18,000
> miles.
>
> I've the original Michelin tires.
> I've some uneven treadwear and a few
> brown lines (look like stitch marks) going
> around the tire.
>
> Since I've had so little mileage,
> does anyone have experience with
> getting prorated on new Michelin
> tires?
>
> Any other recommendations?
>
> Thanks,
> c

"curious" <corsica@ragingbull.com> wrote in message
news:33d29236.0309151351.71e04722@posting.google.c om...
> Hello,
> I've got a 2002 accord with 18,000
> miles.
>
> I've the original Michelin tires.
> I've some uneven treadwear and a few
> brown lines (look like stitch marks) going
> around the tire.

Have you been rotating your tires every 5-7K miles? That may have reduced
the uneven treadwear. However, you may also have an issue with alignment -
have that checked before you put on a new set of tires.

But yes, even the OEM tires have some sort of warranty I believe, so you
could try calling up Michelin to see what they can do for you. I suspect
not much. Besides, the OEM Michelins (MXV4+ Energy) are pretty bad overall,
so I would actually be happy at this point as it would give me an excuse to
get rid of them. Dunlop SP A2 would be a good alternative. But before you
do invest in new tires, like I said, be sure your alignment and suspension
are all intact.

Cheers,

Pete

I had OEM Michelin MXV4+Energy tires on my 99 Accord EX. They were terrible
in the rain and light snow. I had them rotated at the recommended times and
they lasted about 25,000 miles. I had the alignment checked as they wore
uneven. I replaced them with Toyo Spectrums. I'm closing in on 60,000
miles. I'll get 65,000/70,000 out of them before I have to have them
replaced. They've been great on the highway, snow, rain, and they've been
quiet. They ran about $55.00 a piece. I was looking at Michelin X-Ones but
they were to expensive at the time. I'll probably investigate other tires
but will compare them to my all to my Toyo's. Most Toyo tires have a 500
mile or 45 day trail period in which you can return them for a full refund
if you're not happy with them. No I don' work for Toyo I'm just really
impressed with the tires.

Rick

"curious" <corsica@ragingbull.com> wrote in message
news:33d29236.0309151351.71e04722@posting.google.c om...
> Hello,
> I've got a 2002 accord with 18,000
> miles.
>
> I've the original Michelin tires.
> I've some uneven treadwear and a few
> brown lines (look like stitch marks) going
> around the tire.
>
> Since I've had so little mileage,
> does anyone have experience with
> getting prorated on new Michelin
> tires?
>
> Any other recommendations?
>
> Thanks,
> c

That's good information on the Toyo tires. I'll consider them next
time I'm in the market for tires. However, I disagree with your
assessment of the Michelin tire. I'm on my second set of MXV4+ Energy
on my Passat and have been extremely happy with them. They are quiet,
the handling is rock solid, and I've had no problems with snow here in
Minnesota. I also put these tires on my 95 Camry a few years ago, and
they have been great. They now have about 60,000 miles are in pretty
good shape. The Michelins on my Passat lasted about 40,000 which I
found a little disappointing. I'm not sure if the OEM version of this
tire is different from the retail version??. The Passat is a heavier
car than my Camry. Maybe that made a difference.

I've got these on my 03 Accord. I think there's a lot of road noise,
but I'm inclined to believe that it says more about the insulation in
the car than the tires. I don't have road noise in either my Camry or
Passat.


On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 08:38:09 GMT, "razingkane"
<razingkane@adelphia.net> wrote:

>I had OEM Michelin MXV4+Energy tires on my 99 Accord EX. They were terrible
>in the rain and light snow. I had them rotated at the recommended times and
>they lasted about 25,000 miles. I had the alignment checked as they wore
>uneven. I replaced them with Toyo Spectrums. I'm closing in on 60,000
>miles. I'll get 65,000/70,000 out of them before I have to have them
>replaced. They've been great on the highway, snow, rain, and they've been
>quiet. They ran about $55.00 a piece. I was looking at Michelin X-Ones but
>they were to expensive at the time. I'll probably investigate other tires
>but will compare them to my all to my Toyo's. Most Toyo tires have a 500
>mile or 45 day trail period in which you can return them for a full refund
>if you're not happy with them. No I don' work for Toyo I'm just really
>impressed with the tires.
>
>Rick
>

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 08:38:09 GMT, "razingkane"
<razingkane@adelphia.net> wrote:

>I had OEM Michelin MXV4+Energy tires on my 99 Accord EX. They were terrible
>in the rain and light snow. I had them rotated at the recommended times and
>they lasted about 25,000 miles. I had the alignment checked as they wore
>uneven. I replaced them with Toyo Spectrums. I'm closing in on 60,000
>miles. I'll get 65,000/70,000 out of them before I have to have them
>replaced. They've been great on the highway, snow, rain, and they've been
>quiet. They ran about $55.00 a piece. I was looking at Michelin X-Ones but
>they were to expensive at the time. I'll probably investigate other tires
>but will compare them to my all to my Toyo's. Most Toyo tires have a 500
>mile or 45 day trail period in which you can return them for a full refund
>if you're not happy with them. No I don' work for Toyo I'm just really
>impressed with the tires.
>
Had another point / question I forgot to include in my previous post.
I'm curious about the snow capabilities of the Toyo. One of the
reasons I originally went with the Michelins on my Camry was that they
were rated somewhat higher for snow than the Dunlap A2. My local
dealer told me he liked the Dunlap as a tire, but agreed that in his
opinion they were noisier than the Michelins and did not do as well in
snow.

One problem with Michelin is that they are much more expensive than
their competition. The Toyo sounds like a good alternative based on
your experience.

> Since I've had so little mileage,
> does anyone have experience with
> getting prorated on new Michelin
> tires?

As far as I know, there is no warranty on the OEM tires. They are sold with
the car without any wear warranty. That's one of the reasons for which the
car makers get their OEM tires for cheaper, they buy them with no warranty.
A friend of mine had his tires wear to wear out really quickly on his VW
Golf and his dealer replaced them for him, but it was VW and/or the dealer
that did it, not the tire manufacturer.

I'm an engineer and when I was at school, I did 2 workterms at a Goodyear
plant. So I know that the OEM tires are different from the ones you can buy
at the store. They don't seperate the tires into OEM and for individual sale
once they are made, they are OEM since the beggining of the manufacturing
process.
That means that, for example, a Michelin MXV4+ Energy sold at the store will
be different from the OEM one on an Accord, and both tires will be different
from the one sold OEM on another car.

On the other hand, I used to own a 2001 Civic and now have a 2002 CR-V. In
both cases the OEM tires were pretty poor. On my Civic, the firestones
lasted less than 20000km, roughly one summer. While my winter tires, lasted
3 winters and were still good for another year when I sold them with the car
(I bought them when I had a Mazda 626, same tire size, used them 1 winter on
the Mazda and 2 winters on the Civic). I was unsuccessful in getting any
compensation from my dealer or Honda.
Now, on my CR-V, I have 31000km. Around 20000km driven on the OEM
Bridgestone Dueller. I think that I'll have to change them sometime next
summer. Once again, my winter tires show almost no wear after one winter.

> Had another point / question I forgot to include in my previous post.
> I'm curious about the snow capabilities of the Toyo.

IMO there is no four season tire that offers any performance in the snow.
Especially when the temperatures are very low.
We call them summer tires around here.

I'm glad you get good mileage out of your Michelins. Mine mileage was
terrible. I follow Honda's severe maintenance schedule religiously and had
my Honda mechanic rotate the Michelins using Michelins rotation schedule.
The snow here in Colorado Springs during the Autumn and Winter is this
powder that when compressed turns to a snow/ice mixture. In the late Spring
we get the wet slushy stuff. I dreaded driving in the Autumn and Winter it
was better in the Spring. The Toyo's grabbed the Autumn and Winter powder
much better than the Michelins in Spring. The Spring snow was absolutely no
problem with the Toyo's. Honda Accords are notorious for there light front
ends resulting in the occasional tire spin. I'm sure that does not help
matters in the Winter. Yes I've heard something to the affect that retail
and OEM Michelins are different but I was not the mood to try a tire I
already was very unhappy with so I went with the Toyo's. If you check out
the Toyo web site they give a great shot of the Spectrum tread pattern. I
may try the Toyo Proxes or 800 Ultras next time as I drive 2-3 trips to
Southern California every year. I've heard good things about Yokahoma tires
as well. In any case my Toyo Spectrums have been excellent in all weather
conditions and have been quiet on the highway.

Good Luck

Rick


"TL" <tlehman@visi.com> wrote in message
news:bfbemvophh35ronuphjam053nn04rmorvc@4ax.com...
> That's good information on the Toyo tires. I'll consider them next
> time I'm in the market for tires. However, I disagree with your
> assessment of the Michelin tire. I'm on my second set of MXV4+ Energy
> on my Passat and have been extremely happy with them. They are quiet,
> the handling is rock solid, and I've had no problems with snow here in
> Minnesota. I also put these tires on my 95 Camry a few years ago, and
> they have been great. They now have about 60,000 miles are in pretty
> good shape. The Michelins on my Passat lasted about 40,000 which I
> found a little disappointing. I'm not sure if the OEM version of this
> tire is different from the retail version??. The Passat is a heavier
> car than my Camry. Maybe that made a difference.
>
> I've got these on my 03 Accord. I think there's a lot of road noise,
> but I'm inclined to believe that it says more about the insulation in
> the car than the tires. I don't have road noise in either my Camry or
> Passat.
>
>
> On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 08:38:09 GMT, "razingkane"
> <razingkane@adelphia.net> wrote:
>
> >I had OEM Michelin MXV4+Energy tires on my 99 Accord EX. They were
terrible
> >in the rain and light snow. I had them rotated at the recommended times
and
> >they lasted about 25,000 miles. I had the alignment checked as they wore
> >uneven. I replaced them with Toyo Spectrums. I'm closing in on 60,000
> >miles. I'll get 65,000/70,000 out of them before I have to have them
> >replaced. They've been great on the highway, snow, rain, and they've
been
> >quiet. They ran about $55.00 a piece. I was looking at Michelin X-Ones
but
> >they were to expensive at the time. I'll probably investigate other
tires
> >but will compare them to my all to my Toyo's. Most Toyo tires have a 500
> >mile or 45 day trail period in which you can return them for a full
refund
> >if you're not happy with them. No I don' work for Toyo I'm just really
> >impressed with the tires.
> >
> >Rick
> >
>