Paul3637

Tires: You made the right choice. My H rated Primacy's 215/55/17's have 40,000 miles on them and will make it to 50 or 60K .......... this is the first time in my life a tire has lasted even close to 40K. The car has over 48K miles on it now. My OEM Bridgestones had to be replaced at 8,500 miles !!!!!!

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/15...-avalon-4.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...s-350-a-2.html

Alignment: Your car only has 27K miles on it and feels right. I wouldn't touch it either.

I do flawless PM ....... from Mobil1 poured into the engine with an AST screw in funnel to 15K air & cabin filters to annual wiper blades to new battery at 40K miles even though old one tested fine ...... but I would not waste the time (more important than the money) on alignment as PM if the car "feels right" and shows no sign of uneven or unusual tire wear at 5K rotations.

I think most Toyota/Lexus vehicles are easier on alignments than what people are used to. My 09 CamryV6 (same drive train and similar suspension to the ES350) just had its first alignment at 47K miles because I hit a crater .... aka pothole ..... and the car which once went straight ahead if you let go of the wheel ........ started pulling to the right. When I brought it to my (fantastic) Toyota dealer that lets you watch ... they charged $64.95 for 4 wheel alignment ..... and only the right front wheel alignment was out of spec ....... leading me to believe the car would have still been in proper alignment had I not hit the pothole.

Hey ..... I used to do all that stuff too but gave up with the advent of V6 cannister oil filter, transmission with synthetic "WS" fluid and no dipstick, 120,000 mile plugs impossible to get to, mandatory recycle of fluids yada yada. That being said, I hope you either had the oil line recall done by the dealer or did it yourself. There is no amount of PM that prevents this tragedy from happening:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...se-failed.html

And rest easy about the timing belt replacement .. . Your car has a timing chain that never needs attention.

[One disagreemnet however ....... I do proper PM on the body ...... annual physical, daily exercise, dentist 3x/yr]

cl206

phew, finally someone agrees with me. Thanks Paul!

BTW since we're on this again, I would invite people to read this:

http://www.mdxers.org/forums/18-main...ice-119-a.html

I especially agree with posts #6 and 10. The supertech in post #10 is an ASE certified acura tech and I also don't believe in preventive alignment. I thought it was interesting to realize too that sometimes if you don't have alignment issues getting an alignment can cause problems because if anyone bothers to do a search, you will see that not all shops truly knows how to do a correct alignment.

I don't know why some people get so bent out of shape b.c. I didn't get an alignment with new tires. I am not telling people to do the same.

LexBob2

Consumer Reports just released their tire ratings based on their testing. Here are the top 3 all season tires:

H Rating
Michelin MXV4 (70)
Continental PureContact (68)
Nexen CP672 (66)

V Rated
Continental PureContact (70)
Pirelli P7 (68)
Michelin MXV4 (66)

jcat_350

blegh, I'd never buy conti's. Never had good luck with them as far as ride/noise/treadwear.

xanderES

iTrader: (8)

I have been seeing raving reviews of the mxv4's on CL ever since they originally came on the ES, including my 07. I might be the outlier but I absolutely hate these tires. They only lasted a bit over 20k miles and were the noisiest set of tires on any car I have driven.
I recently replaced 1/2 of my 2nd set of tires due to a puncture - Kumho Solus KH1 $103/each at the time. Bought a mvx4 from costco ($230) and used it along with the full size spare in the fronts (terrible decision). My hate has been renewed as the mxv4's are annoyingly noisy at every turn. Turning at moderate speeds? Screeching. Making a u-turn? Screeching. Parking structures? You guessed it. Screeching. The looks I get while making turns and the screeching that ensues like I am the get away car from a bank robbery never fail to embarass me and make me laugh at the same time. I never had problems with the Kumhos and they cost 1/2 the price, rode great, and lasted for longer.
/rant
I had to give my 2cents as all the posts about the mxv4's seem to be drastically different to my experience.

Paul3637

Don't let the MXV4 get you confused.

The OEM tire is the Michelin Energy MXV4 S8 - V rated. Look at tirerack.com and everywhere else .... it often gets poor reviews.

The tire we are talking about here is the H rated Michelin Primacy MXV4 which is a completely different tire and which gets top reviews on tirerack.com as well as being rated number 1 tire by Consumer Reports magazine since 2009 ..... including as noted above ... in their November 2012 issue.

The V rated Primacy MXV4 has less tread depth but is otherwise a similar tire. The V rated Primacy MXV4 became OEM on 2012 Camry insted of the Energy MXV4 S8. On the Camry SEV6 with 18" wheels, OEM is Michelin Primacy MXM4 - V rated.

Expect to see Primacy as Michelin OEM tire on 2013 Lexus ES and Avalon vehicles.

garsarno

I have used the Kumho Platinum Ecsta on my 2007 in the past. Okay tire, rides well when new and cost per mile is way better than the OEM Michelins (V rated). My 2011 is going to be due new tires this coming next year (Bridgestones on car now) and I will try the H rated Michelins upon their demise.

cl206

+1 to what Paul said. Xander, are you sure you're not confusing the
Michelin MXV4 S8 with the Michelin Primacy MXV4?

I really believe you are because you mentioned $230 for one tire and that is about how much the S8 cost at Costco, I know because my face was all over the tires in Costco recently The h rated primacy costs 165+tax. Also when I called costco, they initially tried to sell me the S8, and I was like, NO WAY! Give me the primacy.

This is the second set of primacies I have used b/c I was so impressed when the first set went on my accord. The oem that came with the lexus were the S8 and they were, let's just say no where near as good as the primacy. BTW I have heard that sometimes the OEM tires might start off with 7/32 tread. I forgot to check, but that could explain why mine wore out so fast. The H rated primacy starts out at 11/32 which is one of the best I believe. The V rated starts at 9/32. Go figure?

BTW as it neared the end of its life (or maybe even halfway) my S8 also made ALOT of screeching sound especially when I turn, even at 3 mph. So I kinda know the look you're talking about Xander.

garsarno

I remember hearing years ago that OEM tire tread is not a thick as their replacements. Manufacturers can save major money per car specifying tires at a lower tread level (9/32" versus 11/32"). A buck here, a buck there an pretty soon, on a years run of cars, they have netted big money.

jcat_350

mine has the S8s on it right now. When it comes time to change them, I'll be looking at the Nitto Motivo. $150 per tire theyre cheaper than the michelins, and when I replaced the MXV4s on my E500, it rode better, handled better, and was much quieter. Definitely check those out also if you're looking for a better/cheaper alternative.

flowrider

iTrader: (9)

Just got my Consumer Reports yesterday. Article on tires. See attached. They like the Primacy MXV4 in the "H" Rating. Thought you guys might like to see this.

Lou

cl206

Wow my sister is up for new tires too on her civic and I did try to convince her to get the primacy but it was too expensive. We were going to get the exaltos for her but Costco doesn't stock those and guess what she is thinking about? Bridgestone Ecopias
Those are the lowest rated!

I might try to special order the exaltos. The instant rebate of 70 is still good until 10/7

Thanks for posting Lou,

-charlie

SteveCraig

MXV4 is a nice tire. OEM on our '05 V6 Accord, we've replaced them twice with the same tire.
We'll average about 30k miles on a set & we always get the car aligned when purchasing tires.
Just as important is maintaining proper inflation & regular rotation.
We find the tires very sticky on the road, never had a road noise issues with the tires but Honda is noted for road noise on their cars.

Michelin just introduced their Defender. I've heard great reviews about it.

xanderES

iTrader: (8)

Upon recieving my car back from the dealership for a warranty issue I can verify that you guys were correct . I do not have the primacy mxv4s but instead have the mxv4 energy s8's . I apologize for the mixup. I did not realize there were soo many different versions of the michelin mxv4 tire.

cl206

Hey no problem. I know exactly how u feel about those. I don't know why they are so expensive yet stinks!