CT5-V Rear Tire Shortage - Acoustic Technology

[TK42ONE]

Nice. Sewell took care of me and got one in and swapped out the regular PS4S

 

[shbox]

Today I went into Discount Tire and they did find some rear TPC tires (58841) for my 5BW. Ordered two that should arrive mid-week. Price was $430 each. Pretty decent price from what I’ve seen.

It give me pause when I hear $430 is a decent price for a tire, LOL.

 

[KurtJ]

what is TPC please and are these letters actually embossed on the sidewall?

From Google: "TIRE PERFORMANCE CRITERIA SPECIFICATION (TPC SPEC) Most OE tires designed to GM's specific tire performance criteria have a TPC spec code molded onto the sidewall. GM's TPC specs meet or exceed all federal safety guidelines." This is a GM criterion and suggests that a vehicle is assured to perform as GM has designed it as long as that specific TPC coded (OE) tire is installed. Yes, they are embossed.

 

[MatthewAMEL]

I had to replace my fronts yesterday and the tires the Tire Rack lists as OEM weren't available but I ended up buying a set in the same size with a different part number that were TPC Spec. They look the same but I did notice a lot of road noise on a trip I made down I-81 a couple of weeks ago. I wonder if I got the non-acoustic ones and that is the issue? On some pavement types it was quite loud inside the car.

I love that you are driving the car in a manner that requires new fronts already.

 

[rubberduck]

It give me pause when I hear $430 is a decent price for a tire, LOL.

These days I’m just happy when I can find a part for my car. I love lighting up the rears.

 

[Daijoubu]

I've been watching tirerack for a while now to see when the FRONT tires might come in, and so far nothing. A while back, I put in an order anyway, just to have my name higher on the list for when they actually do get a batch in. Tirerack calls me once a month or so to update that there is no update to the backorder status.

Until this thread, I didn't realize that you could get a TPC spec tire (front or rear) that wasn't OE for the 5BW. It seems the difference is the OE version is TPC+acoustic technology and the non OE version is just TPC. Is there another car at GM that also uses the front 275/35/19 tire TPC, but WITHOUT acoustic technology?

A while back when the tirerack guy called me, he mentioned the acoustic technology part was what was holding Michelin back in getting these tires out. I didn't really think anything of it, but now it makes sense. The acoustic technology part is the problem, and Michelin decided to go ahead and make the fronts without it, but it can't technically be a GM OEM part since it is different from stock.

Also, I learned a while back that when auto manufacturers partner with OEM tire manufacturers, they can have pretty long contracts to produce an exact tire so that customers can get OE tires for say 10 years. That's why you see so many outdated versions of tires still produced (like all the older versions of the Pilot Sport), sometimes in weird sizes. It's for that 1 model that they agreed to keep producing tires for.

 

[rubberduck]

So is it a different TPC other than the OE TPC SPEC 3162?

 

[Daijoubu]

So is it a different TPC other than the OE TPC SPEC 3162?

That's a good damn question. Probably only Michelin could answer this.

 

[MatthewAMEL]

When the retail locations don't have OEM tires, I have had good luck going through dealerships. Took a bolt during a track day at Daytona. The local Chevy dealership had the 285 Goodyear SC3 in stock and I was back up for the afternoon session.