Wow, lucky for me I came looking on the boards for info on tires!
This comes just in the nick of time. Thanks to all who have provided information here on this.
I've got almost 43,000 miles on the Dunlops on my 06 HCH II, and they are nearly completely bald now. I did rotate them regularly.
I've to go get new tires this week. I really can't believe I let this get away from me.

Just a few weeks ago someone told me that it looked like I had extreme negative camber on my rears and badly needed allignment.
Obviously I must have the the bad "C" upper control arms.
I'd hate to put on a new set of decent tires and ruin them right away.

 

basically negative camber signs arent going to be covered under that tsb. they call it negative camber but if by negative camber you mean worn out on the inside thats not caused by the arms.

if your tires appear to have continuous flat spots all the way around the tire that is what the tsb is talking about.

if i were you what i would do is take your car to the dealer tell them you are buying new tires and want to make sure that your car does not need the new control arms before you purchase tires. if you are gonna buy the tires from them then they will make sure that they have it up to date. and just for conversation sake most dealers are only a few bucks off of average tire price. before anyone flames me for that comment im just speaking from experience where i work at but sometimes we even beat discount tire etc etc...you are still due the updated upper control arms and alignment even if you are out of warrantee for the prorate on tires.

hope this is helpfull feel free to ask any questions you may have about this issue and ill do my best to answer your questions

 

Great to have you on board!

I don't see any abnormal signs of wear, but both my HCHIIs wear snow tires 6 months of the year and my car only has 8k miles and my wife's 12k.

So that's like 4k miles on each on two sets of wheels and 6k on the other two sets of wheels. Too soon to see any abnormal wear, but in the meantime I don't want to slowly ruin 16 tires!

Advice? For full disclosure, I have not had any adverse handling or rumbling.

nf

 

I'm sorry, but I do not follow your logic. Excessive negative camber contributes to accelerated inside tire wear. An old school solid axle rear end has about 0 degrees camber. Most independent rear suspensions have some amount of negative camber. However, the -2 to -2.5 degrees of negative camber exhibited by most '06-07 Civics is excessive for a street driven car. Now, auto crossing Civic Si's might be happy with -2.5, but I am not going to accept that on my HCH. That's why I got the new arms put on my early build '08.

As the control arms are the only way to affect camber adjustment on the Civic, I fail to see how the incorrectly engineered arm is not the cause of the negative camber and excess inside tire wear. Sure, there are slight tweaks that can be made to the trailing rear control arm, but that's not enough to take out all that negative camber.

BTW, here are the specs on my '08 HCH
Prior to TSB --> Rear camber L & R, negative -2.0 degrees
After TSB --> Rear camber L -0.1 degrees, R -0.5 degrees

So yes, without a doubt the newly redesigned upper control arms fix the alignment. The only difference in opinion we have is whether a mundane commuter car requires -2.0 camber. I say it doesn't.

/rant

 

Honda Japan have refered the problem to honda australia.
Honda Australia do not acknowledge or recognise an issue and claim no relevance to any TSB's however they are aware of suspenion specs changes to 2008 models. Despite the same syptoms as per tsb to my vehicle

I will keep emailing them and am forced to bring public awareness to this situation

 

Well, my car goes in tomorrow for the TSB inspection, an oil change and a popping noise the front end seems to be making.....got it ready today, tires down to 32psi (should be like driving a car with the brake on) foam out of the grill, trip b set to 0 (well I will a block from the dealer) to see how far/hard they drive it....will post my results.

 

Well, they are replacing the tires & upper control arms, parts are on order & I will have to take it back when they come in. HOWEVER.....they found the ignition switch was cracked? They did not want me to take the car home for fear the ignition would break or the key woud stick. They kept the car overnight so they could replace it tomorrow.
They gave me a 2008 LX as a loaner, I did notice MUCH less roaring noise from the back end though the car is much noisier overall.
The oil change was free if I had selected regular oil, I went with synthetic so I have to pay about 50% of their regular charge, the tire rotation would have been free anyway but this repair includes a rotation and 4way balance. I have to keep Valley Honda in Spokane Valley WA. on my "good dealers" list.

Oh yeah, they took care of the brake light switch thing even though it is for 2006's & mine is a 2007 for "my peach of mind" since I got the warning in "my Honda" pages.

 

So Tony, shouldn't it be a simple matter to determine IF the control arms need replacing? (Rather than this VERY subjective "look at the tire wear patterns and judge"?) If people have replaced their tires already, or use separate winter tires, or simply don't drive enough for the abnormal tire-wear to be evident - the problems are not going to be seen on the tires for quite some time (I'm sure Honda's accountants like that idea!).
It seems to me that just doing an alignment and measuring the camber should be sufficient. Is it not? If not, why not?

 

unfortunately thats just not the way things work. they have to pay me to do the work and paying me to do an alignment that isnt needed isnt in their best interest. these types of recalls are very expensive for a manufacturer and the way them and any resonable person would see it, if you get 20k plus out of a set of tires your in good shape. and if you get 40k out of a set of snow tires and a set of factory tires your still in just as good of shape. and there usually are signs much sooner if there is going to be a problem with your alignment. it basically comes down to the specific technician working on your car to notice it in time

 

Thanks for the reply. I get your points
I understand Honda's reluctance to perform unnecessary alignments (and fork the bill for it). And 2 of them if the numbers aren't in spec. But in this case, it sounds like nearly ALL Civics until sometime in the 2008 model year really DO have the wrong control arms. I have 32K miles on my HCH2, so no new tires for me (fine by me, too), but I certainly want the proper control arms EVEN if my tires exhibit no evidence of having the incorrect ones. But it sounds like I may be out of luck unless they are sufficiently cupped. And for people that have already changed tires, how will they ever get the proper control arms? (That seems quite unfair for them.)

I am a reasonable person (sometimes), and I think 20K is too few miles out of most any tire, unless it is the high performance super-soft tread tires I put on my Benz. Especially for a (relatively-speaking) lightweight vehicle. I expect 15-20K out of these super-high performance tires, and 30K (or more) out of normal tires, including LRR tires. Heck, the factory tires on my Tribute are still going strong, after 63K miles. And I'm not one to look for 80K rated tires, as sometimes they have poor traction. I don't skimp on new tires, but any regular tire should last more than 20K.