I am rapidly approaching 60,000 miles on my 2015 Fit. (See previous posts)

My biggest complaint from the first week I bought the car new, was that at speeds 45 mph + the Fit would drift to the left. Not a sharp pull, but a constant gentle drift to the left. Not matter what type of roads I traveled on. (Mainly Interstates, Turnpikes, Freeways, etc., etc).

The dealer said an alignment might solve the problem $80.00. It did not.

They rotated the tires and even that did not solve the problem.

Anyway, last week while finishing up a delivery in Michigan (235 miles from NE Ohio) I noticed a bulge in the driver side front tire sidewall.

I drove much slower back home, and replaced the original Bridgestone tires with 4 new Michelin A/S Premiers. (60k tread guarantee)

Problem solved immediately.

How long had I been driving with the bubble in the tire ?? Not sure, but the tire technician said it probably popped after hitting a chuckhole this past brutal winter.

Forgot to mention the Honda dealer wanter $670 for 4 Bridgestones OTD installed price. The cost for the Michelins was $591 OTD installed price.

 

Funny how we tend to take the tires for granted, when they're one of the most important components on the car.

 

Good catch. I rotated my tires this weekend for the first time. Inspected the tires and other than a few small rocks caught in-between the treads, no abnormal wear. I've changed the rear shocks to air shocks a few thousand miles or so and while I didn't have any pulling issues, always concerned about wear issues, which I found none.


Something tells me these Bridgestones are going to be dead way before I would expect them to go. Their tread wear rating is 300.

 

I thought I could get 60k from the originals, but after closer inspection, the tire dealer pointed out how the wear bars were starting to appear. This with about 55k on them.

 

I barely got 44k on my 2011 stock tires. You did good on your milage.

 

It sound like the first time you took the carin for an alignment an rotate tha the tires were not rotated. If that now bad tire was the problem, the original pulling problem should have switched sides. Even if you have directional tires that can only be rotated front to rear, the problem should have moved when the tires were rotated front to rear.

Have you ever rotated the tires again after that first time?

Pulling tires are not all the uncommon I have had a few of them over the years on various brands.

 

No. That was the only time.

After the new Michelins were installed the tire dealer said they checked the alignment afterwards.

???? They said they have new equipment that allows them to check alignment on any passenger vehicle they put on their rack(s). They said it only takes a few minutes and eliminates future warranty problems as well.

I've been dealing with this company for about 15 years and they have many stores in NE Ohio. I've found them to be refreshingly honest and accurate.

 

Whenever I have a "pulling" problem the first step in diagnosis is to swap wheels side to side. The tricky bit is to ID the bad tire as most of the time it isn't obvious. That's where having a full-size spare is handy. I usually try to get one soon after buying a new car as they are nice to have for multiple reasons.

Normally, radial tires are not swapped side-to-side but I don't know what Honda's current recommendation is.