Hi all, a few days back I posted a prob with my car and holding rpms high at interstate speeds. Was redirected to a post with someone having the same prob after replacing one tire (which I have also done) I have tried to explain to the "techs" at Honda that I have jacked the car up and measured the circumference of all tires, and there is almost 4" difference between the one new one(back passenger) and the other 3. The guy says, yeah, we still think it is your satellite radio, so you need to have Circuit City pull it out. This is an ongoing fight between myself and the dealer, who says that the radio can void my warranty, and blah blah blah. I have also caught this guy lying to me several times about conversations that I was present for. Anyway, took it to CC and told the guy what the car was doing and he immediately said traction control. He also said unplugging the radio would do the same as completely uninstalling. It is now spliced into the ignition switch, it uses the cigarette lighter, and I assume it is connected to the battery(not sure). After the disconnect, the car is still doing the same thing-will not drop rpm's until the car gets below 50mph. I called another Honda dealership, who said they had probs with an 06 after Best Buy installed Sirius. The original dealership said if I am to replace the tires, I HAVE to put Dunlops back on them, b/c thats what Honda says and blah blah blah void warranty. I really feel this is a tire issue, and I am almost willing to pay for 4 new tires just so I can call Honda and tell them.

So I guess my questions are:
1)Does anyone successfully have Sirius in their car with no probs?
2)Do I have to put Dunlops, which are difficult to get here, on the car, or can
I put whatever tires I want.

 

2 things.
1) In that thread I linked you to last time, the original poster gives the name of the dealer and the name of the tech who helped him solve his problem. Calling that technician and perhaps putting your dealer in touch with him would be a very good idea. They may not listen to you, but they WILL listen to another certified Honda technician.

2) If your dealer is implying that putting any other brand of tire other than Dunlop on your car will void your warranty, that's BS. Frankly I think that they are grasping at straws and don't have any idea how to help you. Their threatening with the warranty is just an attempt to keep their butts out of the fire in case something major happens. You may end up having to go to another dealer with more of an interest in helping you. Some service departments just aren't run well.

Generally speaking, putting one different tire on a car is not a good idea. In addition to being a possible cause of this problem, it tends to degrade the handling since that corner sticks to the road differently from the other three corners. The way I see it you have two viable options: get a tire that matches the three that you already have on the car, or get a second tire that matches the Michelin (I think that's what you bought?) that matches your replacement tire and put it on the same axle. Again, call that other tech and discuss the problem with him. He should be able to tell you if your problem sounds like the one that he already helped to solve.

 

I'm curious, did this problem ever get resolved? It would be useful to know if the wheel was really the cause, or if it's a different problem.

 

isn't it pretty much common knowlegde not to mix tire brands on a car?

 

I'd say so... for handling issues... but not for driveability! I still have my doubts that a small difference in circumference could cause the computer to mess with shift points and engine RPM. I haven't measured the donut spare, but it's got to be significantly different, yet no one has reported this condition while using the spare. It might cause an ABS fault, but this other condition still seems "way out there" for me.

 

Unless they did it on purpose to keep people from driving the donut spare at more than its rated 50mph. Seems like a wild thing to do but you never know.

 

ok guys-here's the deal. I did not take out the Sirius radio, despite what the certified technicians said......and they would not listen to me about a 4" circumference difference and traction control and if there is a sensor on each tire or whatever. So I took it to a tire place, ordered 4 of the oem dunlop tires, and as soon as I pulled it out of the parking lot I noticed a HUGE difference in the car. It has been on the interstate at 80mph and I ran it up to 6000rpm trying to get the tach to stick and it wouldn't. Car is driving like a dream and I am getting 57mpg on over 100 miles with the new tires, generally I get around 50-52. And I have my sirius, despite Honda owning stock in XM and only wanting you to put in XM or it voids your warranty blah blah blah. So, it appears that the tires do make a difference.

Oh, and the tires cost $395

 

congrats on your fix.
so, on our cars, if we have a blowout and have to replace the tire, will we have to replace the other 3 as well?

 

I hope not-I did because my other 3 tires had close to 20,000 miles on them and the dealer said they were only 25-30,000 mile tires, so it didnt make much sense to only replace one, and I went with the original b/c supposedly they are low rolling resistance or something like that that works with the hybrid

 

be sure and show your dealer how the problem was fixed. otherwise, they'll keep blaming things on the sirius unit.