All Ridgeline owners please read.. Possible defect, needs everybodies attention!

[Ohara19]

I would love to hear from all Ridgeline owners within or out of warranty? Are you sure you don't have a wheel shimmy in there somewhere?
I purchased an '08 RTX last year, the moment i drove it away from the dealership it suffered a noticeable wheel shimmy and alignment issue. To cut a long story short the vehicle has been road force balanced numerous times. The wheels and tires were swapped at 1200k miles. New tires in January and once again last week. In January the tires were swapped again and the vehicle was under instruction from tech support. The changed tires were even worse. The vehicle is now on it's eighth return to dealership. Honda engineers were called in this week and have spent two days just balancing tires for this truck...

Please read following carefully?
They removed tires from four different new ridgelines. They took tires from stock. They spent two days balancing the best four tires they could find to mount to my truck. I have found out that the engineers know that there are four new trucks on the lot that have wheel shimmy issues. My paperwork states my vehicle was one of the better. If those tires that were deemed not good enough for my truck have been mounted back on new ridgelines? My vehicle still has a wheel shimmy. Honda Customer service tell me that the engineers have rectified the problem. The service department know there is still a problem. I have taken legal action...

My question is do any of you out there, or have any of you experienced any problems with your LTX tires. I'm now in a situation where if i want to replace these tires I have to call in the engineers to come and find me a good set! I would say a good bet that this problem is with the trucks powertrain and not the tires.

I would love to hear your thoughts? Four sets of tires and only 21k miles. Same shimmy, same speed regardless of temp or road conditions. Never cured!

Please help.....

Additional notes: Thanks to everyone for there responses....

The vehicle has been out of service with Honda now for a total of 27 days. The second set of wheel and tires which were replaced at 1200k miles which Honda removed last month had only 19000k miles and were within 5000 miles of being replaced. I find it staggering that some responses state tire wear in excess of 45k. The allignment has been done three times. The tires have to be road force balanced everytime as normal balancing only increases the problem. Legal action has been submitted. I have had numerous discussion with customer care but there denying there is a problem. Service department contrary to engineers believe vehicle should be replaced and the manager of the dealership also says that tires are not a problem and the powertrain is to blame.

So how much more are Honda willing to do? The engine was unbolted and allowed to sit idle to try and allign, the drive shafts were swapped. Rear brakes have been changed. I also have a list of numerous other items which have failed in the first 12 months. What about collecting the vehicle new and while driving away from dealership i adjusted the seat height and the ratchet mechanism broke in my hands! Does anybody want me to go on.... Enough is enough. This is the fifth Honda I have owned since being in the US in five years. NO MORE!!!!!

[25 Year Honda Owner]

Three years with the 06 and OEM tires, no problems. Had the 08 about 9 months, steering wheel was a little off center, no pulling to left or right, no shimmy or vibration, adjusted tie rods to center steering wheel!! Everything is fine, super ride and drive!!

[meanmachine19]

My original Michelin stock tires lasted 62k (3 1/2 years) before replacing them last October with some Yokohamas. So far no problems with either set of tires.

There have been problems reported by other new RL owners about the tires 'cracking' after sitting on the lot for awhile. Those were defective tires that the manufacturer replaced.

[wrenrj1]

Sounds like a frame problem not allowing for the wheels to become aligned. I'm not a mechanic by the way. If your dealership is worth their salt, they'll make it right eventually through replacement, however you may want to brush up on the Lemon Laws iin your state if if comes to that. Try everything possible at the dealership level first as you may have legal fees in the end.

[nchinetti]

Sorry to hear about your problem. I don't have any shimmy problem. I run the OEM Michelins + OEM alloy wheels Spring-Fall, and Nokian SU 5 winters + OEM steel wheels during the winter. You mentioned replacement of tires, but did you replace/reposition the wheels as well? It is possible one or more wheel maybe defective?

I had minor vibrations at highway speed (at 100+ km/h) with my wife's 2002 Mazda MPV since new. I tried the RoadForce balancing and also checked all the wheel bearings. Mazda was initially helpful but gave up after a while, and said I just had to get used to the "sporty" nature of the van; pretty sporty for a minivan, documented with a skidpad grip of 0.80g. We didn't pursue the issue further because it never bothered my wife - she drove in the city 80% of the time and even on highways she always drove at only 90 km/h where the vibration was not apparent. The van has 17" OEM alloy wheels and the problem persisted with both the OEM Bridgestone and Michelin HydroEdge afterwards. After we moved to Quebec, we also drove on Nokian Hakka R on steel rims, and the vibration was still there, maybe worse due to the degraded ride expected with the winter tires. Last Spring, I replaced two HydroEdge on one side due to sidewall cuts (don't ask) and had to do some clever rotation and remounting of the tires so the new ones were on the front while still retaining the proper rotation direction. Afterwards, the minor vibrations were gone! Vibration problems can be very tricky, time consuming, and expensive to diagnose and resolve. I hope you get to the bottom of the issue soon.

[Carl]

No problems here 2008 RTL Drives like a dream smooth and straight and vibration free

[kwoodman]

No problems here.
Stock Michelins on alloys.
Toyo winter tires on original wheels.
45k miles.

[MDVE39]

I drove my '07 for 2 1/2 years and 49,000 miles without any vibration or shimmy. Never needed an alignment in that time either. Just rotate and balance every 7500 miles.

So far the, the '09 rides smooth and straight too.

[e_piph_a_ny]

'06 with 49K plus miles on original tires. Still tracks straight as an arrow. No shimmy.

[k757]

Originally Posted by Ohara19

I would love to hear from all Ridgeline owners within or out of warranty? Are you sure you don't have a wheel shimmy in there somewhere?
I purchased an '08 RTX last year, the moment i drove it away from the dealership it suffered a noticeable wheel shimmy and alignment issue. To cut a long story short the vehicle has been road force balanced numerous times. The wheels and tires were swapped at 1200k miles. New tires in January and once again last week. In January the tires were swapped again and the vehicle was under instruction from tech support. The changed tires were even worse. The vehicle is now on it's eighth return to dealership. Honda engineers were called in this week and have spent two days just balancing tires for this truck...

Please read following carefully?
They removed tires from four different new ridgelines. They took tires from stock. They spent two days balancing the best four tires they could find to mount to my truck. I have found out that the engineers know that there are four new trucks on the lot that have wheel shimmy issues. My paperwork states my vehicle was one of the better. If those tires that were deemed not good enough for my truck have been mounted back on new ridgelines? My vehicle still has a wheel shimmy. Honda Customer service tell me that the engineers have rectified the problem. The service department know there is still a problem. I have taken legal action...

My question is do any of you out there, or have any of you experienced any problems with your LTX tires. I'm now in a situation where if i want to replace these tires I have to call in the engineers to come and find me a good set! I would say a good bet that this problem is with the trucks powertrain and not the tires.

The RTX wheels are perfect. The OEM Michelin tires are perfect. I just swapped my '08 RTS wheels for RTX wheels and they are perfect.

With what the dealership is telling you....I find it highly unlikely that the Honda Engineers came to your dealership's lot and looked at the wheels/tires, not after hundreds of thousands of these wheels/tires have been on the road for years. For arguments sake, let's say Honda engineers came to the dealership and balanced tires over and over... they just aren't that mindless to keep doing the same thing over and over. I find it hard to believe that your dealership is that mindless as well to roll through so many sets of wheels/tires for your truck.

The problem is not the wheels/tires, not after multiple sets of each were tried.