Michelin tires on Accord 2002

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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,

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.

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

 

I replaced my Michelins with the new Continental Contiextreme, this tire
is getting rave reviews on tirerack.com's survey review. I have bought
many high end all season tires and these are the best I've seen yet, and
at a great price too.

I replaced my Michelins with the new Continental Contiextreme, this tire
is getting rave reviews on tirerack.com's survey review. I have bought
many high end all season tires and these are the best I've seen yet, and
at a great price too (and I've never liked continentals in the past).

 

I'll have to look in my glove box, but my impression has been that the
tires are not covered under the manufacturer's warranty, but rather
through a warranty directly with the tire company. I remember a
Firestone problems a number of years ago (not the Ford SUV problem)
where Firestone had to replace tires on a whole boatload of 1-2 year
old cars. My Passat came with a Michelin warranty book in the packet
with the owners manual. As I said, I'll check my Honda, but I'll be
surprised if there isn't something similar.

And different in what way?

So you saying that a MXV4+ Energy tire of the same size will be
different in the store than on a new car? That strikes me as urban
legend kind of material. As I recall with the Ford SUV fiasco, one
problem was that Ford wanted a softer ride and therefore recommended a
lower air pressure than the tire called for which according the tire
company led to blowouts. Now if they were getting a special tire, why
didn't they specify something different to produce a softer ride. And
why didn't this come out in the coverage of this problem.

My guess is that manufacturers get a hell of deal from tire
manufacturers simply because 1) they buy a boatload of tires, and 2)
it is likely to generate a large number of second set of tire sales as
many people will say, hey put the same tire on that came with the car.

 

It may be. Look up the specs for the Michelin Energy MXV4+ and
Continental CH95 on tirerack.com . In both cases, you may find
that the same size offers a few different varieties, some of which
are the versions made for specific OEM use. Sometimes the
difference is apparent in the speed, load, or pressure rating,
but not always.

 

Good catch, but I was assuming the same speed ratings etc. I replaced
the Michelin tires on my Passat with what I believe are the same in
all rating respects. The previous poster suggested that even when the
ratings are the same, the tires may be different. Or at least that's
what I understood from his post. Now if he was saying, the retail
version might be a V rating versus the OEM which is H, that's a
different issue. Clearly there is a difference between those two
tires. But the difference is the speed rating, not the fact that it is
an OEM versus a retail version.

I suppose it is possible that the OEM tire has a set of ratings that
do not match any available retail tire, but again that's another
issue. In my limited experience I was able to find a retail tire that
appeared to be same in all respects.

 

Well, to follow up on my own post, I checked the tirerack specs page.
There are some differences, but within a speed and weight range (ie,
94 VH) they are nearly identical. I did notice in the list of
Michelin MXV4+ Energy, there is a tire that actually includes "Honda"
in the name of the tire. Not true of others. Next to it is an
identical tire by name, but I notice the "Honda" tire has a 9/32 tread
while the other has 10/32.

Maybe there's more to this OEM variation than I thought.

 

In the U.S. there definitely is a warranty on tires - you get a separate
warranty statement, even going as far as a separate one for lightweight
spare where applicable. IIRC it explicitly excludes damage due to abuse,
misuse or road hazard but covers the carcass of the tire against abnormal
things such as bead or sidewall defects. Tread wear would be kinda
difficult to cover obviously and I believe it is usually pro-rated into the
coverage.

Yes even tread pattern can be different between the two but at the same
time, many of the discount tire places (is there any other kind of tire
shop?) will pick up a batch of surplus OEM tires so some of them do end up
in retail.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

On tirerack.com, the Continental CH95 has four varieties of
205/55R16 91H (44psi) and two varieties 205/55R16 91H (51psi).
Perhaps people who have that tire in that size as original
equipment on different brands of cars can compare the various
numbers and codes on the tires to see what difference there is.

 

Thanks for all the responses.

I have a Michelin XSE Radial tires on
the 2002 Accord LX (18,0000)

I called up the dealer and they say
that they don't warrant these tires since
they are the originals.

I also called up a Michelin authorized
dealer, NTB, and they neither want to
provide any "proration" on it.

The tires only have 18,000 miles.

I am just out of luck or is there
anything else to try?

Thank you!!

 

Yes, go to tirerack.com and buy some quality tires, your car will
handle, brake, and drive better, and you'll have a better chance of
avoiding an accident in the next near miss you experience.

 

When he asked for options, I assume he knows he could simply buy new
tires. My advice is 1) look in your glove box / original papers to see
if there's a Michelin guide and warranty book, and then 2) contact a
Michelin area / factory rep. If you have a warranty book, you may be
able to simply take that to the tire dealer.

Keep in mind, however, that even if you do get a prorated warranty,
you aren't going to get free tires and the prorated benefit will be
applied to a new set of Michelins. . If you like Michelins (though i
can't imagine you would want another set after this experience), it'll
give you a discount on a new set. However, Michelins are expensive.
You may find that purchasing a set of a competing tire that is less
expensive is not that different from a discount Michelin price. In
other words, unless you do want another set of Michelins, all the work
might not really provide much benefit to you.