Back in June i got a flat on my new car and I thought I would save a few dollars by replacing the one tire with a similar tire that was the same size but differnet tread pattern. Shortly after this change my car started running badly. High RPM's at 55 mph. To be exact it would stick around 3800 RPM's and not break until the car went under 50 mph. I took it to the dealer and they finaly admitted that there was a problem, but they didn't kniw how to fix it. They gave the car back to me and said they would get back to me when they had a fix.

Not satisfied with this I went through the process and filed a lemon law with txdot and demanded that my car be fixed within 30 days or replaced. On or near the thirtieth day I recieved a call from Honda asking if I would meet with the regional manager so that he could drive my car. Upon showing up, he looked at my car and had the service people to replace the one tire with one of the original tire. Wham! No more problem. My frusteration was that I had to file a lemon law case in order to get my car fixed.

On a positive note Honda has agreed to pay one of my car payments for all the problems that I had to go through. Who would have thought that a single tire would make such a difference.

In short, if you have to replace a tire make sure you replace both tires.

 

All tires should be the same.

 

Now THAT is very interesting!!!

Anybody else have the same problems???

 

I don't know how simply having a different tread pattern could cause that kind of problem, but if the two wheels weren't balanced, I could see problems stemming from that.

 

Why in the world would a slightly different tread pattern cause your transmission to shift" funny"? CVT right?
Was it immediately after the tire switch, or shortly after?
Was it a front or rear tire?
This can't be the whole story. Charlie

 

Rear Tire. As for the person who wisely stated that all tires should be the same. Yea... The point was I made this mistake and the service department and Honda's Tech department were unable to diagnose the problem. My point was to keep others from making the same mistake.

 

I would be floored if the new different tire wasnt on the front.

Seems the only thing it could have been is that the new tire was not the same height and the computer was trying to assure both wheels were spinning at the same rate. A smaller tire would spin more/faster.

Maybe this had to do with traction control or something similar.

Tire tread difference is very unlikely the problem IMO.

Too bad the tire is gone now, BUT good thing the tire is gone now too.

 

Yes, this is the whole story. All of the service department and I were amazed that the car performed to specifications as soon as the tire was matched the other three. I replaced it with a Michelin instead of a bf goodrich or what ever came with the car. This isn't a made up story. Call Gilman Honda in San Antonio TX and talk to Jeff if you doubt my story.

 

I would be surprised if they dont produce a bill for you for their time

the rolling diameter would drive the computer haywire

 

The other three were BF Goodrich's? Well that explains it, it's a conspiracy to gang up on the French. Freedom Fries for all.