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Not sure if this is the right place to post this.
At my first annual service last week (2010 2.5 non-sport #1117, purchased from inventory so I took delivery exactly a year ago last week) with roughly 3,600 miles on the odo, the ranger told me that my rear tire treads were at about 50% and suggested that below this they would not be safe in the rain. Based on his recommendation I bought two new rear tires from him. (I don't know enough about cars to feel comfortable deviating from Tesla's recommendations, so I'm sticking with their recommended tires, and I'm supporting Tesla by buying them from them, especially since he had them with him.) Since I'll be gone for a good part of summer, and getting tires switched is a hassle, I'll wait until it's time for winter tires before having the new ones installed, though I'll do that rather early than late.
My question is: What happens to the old tires? Do they have any value with 50% of the tread remaining, maybe for someone who only drives in dry weather? And if so, should I expect the tire place to give me something for them when I'm not buying the new ones from them? Or should I expect to pay them to haul the old tires to a tire recycler? Or is there a secondary market for them (e.g. Craigslist or eBay)?
At my first annual service last week (2010 2.5 non-sport #1117, purchased from inventory so I took delivery exactly a year ago last week) with roughly 3,600 miles on the odo, the ranger told me that my rear tire treads were at about 50% and suggested that below this they would not be safe in the rain. Based on his recommendation I bought two new rear tires from him. (I don't know enough about cars to feel comfortable deviating from Tesla's recommendations, so I'm sticking with their recommended tires, and I'm supporting Tesla by buying them from them, especially since he had them with him.) Since I'll be gone for a good part of summer, and getting tires switched is a hassle, I'll wait until it's time for winter tires before having the new ones installed, though I'll do that rather early than late.
My question is: What happens to the old tires? Do they have any value with 50% of the tread remaining, maybe for someone who only drives in dry weather? And if so, should I expect the tire place to give me something for them when I'm not buying the new ones from them? Or should I expect to pay them to haul the old tires to a tire recycler? Or is there a secondary market for them (e.g. Craigslist or eBay)?
1. The tire place won't give you enough to make it worth your while.
2. There is always someone who will purchase your 50% worn tires. (for track practice if nothing else, after all, racers typically shave the tread down to 50% or lower).
With that much more tire wear on the insides rather of the tires, I have to suspect some sort of alignment issue or Tesla specs too much toe-out in the rear - perhaps to get the car to rotate better? Getting the rear alignment more neutral should add a lot more miles to the tires and perhaps increase efficiency, too if it's caused by toe-out.
frequencydip
Sig 100 - #52
Put the tires up on Craig's list you should get a $40 or give them away for free. Someone can certainly use them.
The Roadster will always wear the inside of the tires out, this is normal and the expected behavior. The tires all have negative camber on them, this is designed to improve cornering, the Roadster is a sports car not just an EV.
The Roadster will always wear the inside of the tires out, this is normal and the expected behavior. The tires all have negative camber on them, this is designed to improve cornering, the Roadster is a sports car not just an EV.
Unless there is a LOT of negative camber, you shouldn't be seeing that much more wear on the inside. Looks like stock rear camber specs are -1.8. That's not really that much and maybe only slightly more than what you typically see on stock vehicles. Could have to do with how the particular car is driven - would be interesting to see if everyone's tires are wearing like that.
It's also quite likely that the wear looks more un-even than it really is from this one pic. Just seems like it could be a bit better.
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I agree with drees... I've never seen that kind of wear. If it's in spec then it shouldn't be that bad.
frequencydip
Sig 100 - #52
That tire was worn out 2000 miles ago thats why the tire looks like that. with -1.8 and all the weight from the battery the roadster will chew the inside of the tire out much faster. All sports cars if properly setup will wear the inside of the tire out under normal driving conditions both front and back. If you were really driving the car hard like a sports car or at a track the tire wear would be even. When a car corners hard it leans on the outside edge of the tire, with negative camber the tire will lay flat when cornering thereby making maximum grip. when driving strait the car is leaning on the inside edge causing what looks like excessive wear. The roadster has insufficient front negative camber thats one of the reasons why the car tends to understeer.
kgb
Member
I'm reviving this thread with an update:
I just replaced my rear tires again. To summarize the history of my rear tires:
Miles 0-3,100 = Yoko A048's (if I remember correctly, these tires were good but didn't last long)
Miles 3,100-7,100 = Toyo Proxes R888 (I liked these too, but also didn't last long)
Miles 7,100-16,200 = Continental ContiSportContact 3 (these were ok for just driving around town. they were very bad at the track. Mediocre grip taking off from red light)
I was noticing that my wet traction was getting really poor. More recently, my dry traction was poor too. Then I got a "low tire pressure" warning. I thought I picked up a nail, but when we took off the wheel, the tire was almost bald. Had to get something in stock, so this time I got the Hankook Ventus V12 evo. We'll see how that goes. So far, it's hard to test traction when the battery is low. (as for fronts, still on second set of A048's)
I just replaced my rear tires again. To summarize the history of my rear tires:
Miles 0-3,100 = Yoko A048's (if I remember correctly, these tires were good but didn't last long)
Miles 3,100-7,100 = Toyo Proxes R888 (I liked these too, but also didn't last long)
Miles 7,100-16,200 = Continental ContiSportContact 3 (these were ok for just driving around town. they were very bad at the track. Mediocre grip taking off from red light)
I was noticing that my wet traction was getting really poor. More recently, my dry traction was poor too. Then I got a "low tire pressure" warning. I thought I picked up a nail, but when we took off the wheel, the tire was almost bald. Had to get something in stock, so this time I got the Hankook Ventus V12 evo. We'll see how that goes. So far, it's hard to test traction when the battery is low. (as for fronts, still on second set of A048's)
After running AD08's on the rears for a while now, I have one additional comment. If you floor it from a standstill, the AD08's often produce one little chirp as you accelerate. The original AD07's didn't do that, even if the wheels did slip a little. However, I can see no other performance differences.
jory
Member
i recently got a rear flat tire on the SF bay bridge. ended up opting for the michelin pilot super sports. after a few hundred miles they are doing great.
I put Michelin Pilot Super Sports on the rear a while back, so I figure it's time to give an update. Please see my previous posts in this thread regarding traction control so you'll understand what I have to say next. I'm still running the original Yokos on the front, so the rear tires are .1" larger than they should be. I ran the calculations to determine what amount of tread wear would be required to get to the point where the rear tire size was what the Roadster expected (again, read up on my previous posts regarding TC). According to my calculations, that point would be 20% tread wear. So I've been watching for the startup TC issue to go away, because it will be a decent indicator of 20% tread wear. So far I've put about 4500 miles on these tires and the startup TC issue is still present, but just marginally. So I am confident that I'm just starting to get closer to the 20% wear point. At this rate, I'm estimating these tires may last as long as 25,000 miles (5X the point where the TC issue totally disappears).
Overall I continue to be pleased with these tires. They are sticky enough to launch without TC in most reasonably flat dry pavement situations. I would NOT be willing to give that up! Where I notice the biggest difference is in cornering. The AD07s and AD08s rarely broke loose and even when they did, they didn't really squeal and tended to grab again fairly quickly. The Michelins will squeal on fairly aggressive cornering and definitely break out much sooner than the Yokos. Fortunately, after putting over 13K miles on the Roadster, my juvenile desires to push corners really hard have faded and I've settled down into a more reasonable driving manner. I still do full on launches regularly, but I just don't try to nail the corners... especially now that I'm not running the Yokos. I don't track the car, so I feel very comfortable with the new limits I have on cornering. It's a small sacrifice for not having to replace the rear tires every 6-7K miles and in the end, I may actually be safer than before. Now I know fairly well where the cornering limit is. With the Yokos, I tended to be way overconfident because it took so much to break them loose.
I really like this thread! I never would have tried these tires if I didn't read about them here. Thanks all!
Overall I continue to be pleased with these tires. They are sticky enough to launch without TC in most reasonably flat dry pavement situations. I would NOT be willing to give that up! Where I notice the biggest difference is in cornering. The AD07s and AD08s rarely broke loose and even when they did, they didn't really squeal and tended to grab again fairly quickly. The Michelins will squeal on fairly aggressive cornering and definitely break out much sooner than the Yokos. Fortunately, after putting over 13K miles on the Roadster, my juvenile desires to push corners really hard have faded and I've settled down into a more reasonable driving manner. I still do full on launches regularly, but I just don't try to nail the corners... especially now that I'm not running the Yokos. I don't track the car, so I feel very comfortable with the new limits I have on cornering. It's a small sacrifice for not having to replace the rear tires every 6-7K miles and in the end, I may actually be safer than before. Now I know fairly well where the cornering limit is. With the Yokos, I tended to be way overconfident because it took so much to break them loose.
I really like this thread! I never would have tried these tires if I didn't read about them here. Thanks all!
Tesla 940
Member
Thread Depth Measurement
Curious why you don't just buy a thread depth measurement tool - they are only a couple bucks - and stop "guessing".
Like you I like this thread so I know what tires to buy. I'm only on my first replacement set - Toyo's. The Michelin's sound like a good option for my current type of driving.
Curious why you don't just buy a thread depth measurement tool - they are only a couple bucks - and stop "guessing".
Like you I like this thread so I know what tires to buy. I'm only on my first replacement set - Toyo's. The Michelin's sound like a good option for my current type of driving.
dj905
Member
Michelin Pilot Super Sports
After burning through three sets of AD07s on the rear (@47,000km), I decided to make a change. I switched to the Super Sports on the rear a week ago, and so far they are great. For the front tires, I still have the original AD07s. I am not seeing any issues with TC on either acceleration or regen. I have also noticed some improvement in energy economy in highway driving (seems to be at least 5%), and I will keep an eye on this to see if it continues.
Thanks to others on the thread for suggesting these tires.
David
Radiant Red 909
After burning through three sets of AD07s on the rear (@47,000km), I decided to make a change. I switched to the Super Sports on the rear a week ago, and so far they are great. For the front tires, I still have the original AD07s. I am not seeing any issues with TC on either acceleration or regen. I have also noticed some improvement in energy economy in highway driving (seems to be at least 5%), and I will keep an eye on this to see if it continues.
Thanks to others on the thread for suggesting these tires.
David
Radiant Red 909
I've also noticed an increase in range with the Mich Pilot Super Sports of at least 5% and more like 10% or more when it's raining. The tires are lighter and have lower rolling resistance than the Yoko's.
Wow my experience is just the opposite. After 5,000 miles I'm almost at the wear bars. They aren't wearing as unevenly as augkio's tires that he corded but I'll be surprised if I get 8,000 miles out of them. I'm kind of disappointed with the tread life but they're guaranteed for 15,000 miles so maybe I'll get some money back. I didn't think I drove that aggressively!
Once again, my experience is just the opposite (except I agree about the launch performance and squeal). I find it virtually impossible to break the rear tires loose before the front AD07s. I don't find them to have any less grip whatsoever in corners compared to the AD07. There is a very slight difference when you first turn the wheel but not much. The ultimate cornering grip is very strong and predictable. When it's wet, they're stronger than the AD07.
Vger
Active Member
Hmmm, sounds like you could have an alignment issue. Perhaps excessive toe-in. Guys up here in the Pacific NW commented on that on our local email list.
Good point Tesla 940. Never trust theory and mathematics without verifying with direct measurement! Although I did like the idea of being able to monitor from the comfort of the drivers seat. I think I'll take your advice and go buy one though, since the Roadster is requiring me to keep an eye on tire wear like no other vehicle I've owned.
Ok, I don't have a gauge yet but I did take a quick measurement of the tread depth which I think is about as accurate as I can get without having a gauge in hand at the moment. It turns out I'm at about the 50% point rather than the 20% wear point which I had hoped. I also checked my actual miles on these tires and it's 4,600 miles (I was only off by 100 miles).
So I would like to officially restate my estimate for the Michelin Pilot Super Sports to be around 9,200 miles. I'm sure I'll run them down until all wear bands are hit all the way across, so I'm now estimating I may be able to get somewhere around 10K miles. The warranty will help in that regard, so I'm still pleases with the tires overall.
Now.... Anyone have any theories on why I still have a slight startup (first few minutes of drive) TC issue??? The tires were supposed to be just .1" larger in diameter than the stock tires. With 1/4" of wear so far, the tires now have 1/2" trimmed off the original diameter. So these tires (in theory) are now 24.5" diameter vs the stock tires which start out at 24.9". Yet I still see a slight startup TC issue. Hmmmm.....
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