4,700 miles on my Model 3 and my tires are on the wear bar

[dhrivnak]

My Model 3 rear are wearing exceptionally fast. They are measuring 3/32 in the middle and 5/32 on the edge. The pressure has been very close to 45 psi for the entire time I have owned the car. The guy at the tire shop said they would not be covered under warranty because of the uneven wear. Is anyone else having this accelerated tire wear? I admit that I floor it at every light and use regen to its fullest extent, but 4,700 miles is ridiculous! These are supposed to be 55,000 mile tires. I have the 18" rims. These are the Michelin PRIMACY MXM4 - SIZE: 235/45R18

We are at 18,500 miles and still have plenty of tread. Now we rarely stomp it at redlights. So that could be the difference.

 

[Krugerrand]

That's not half of life left. You shouldn't ride them down to the cords [for street tires]. At 2/32" Tesla service will recommend tire replacement, incessantly. And they'll put the "recommended tires" on the service page you sign. Exact laws will vary by jurisdiction but at that point in tire wear you risk the grooves getting overwhelmed and losing traction, with even very modest amounts of water/rain. I know you're SoCal, but still.

BTW I've reduced my tire pressure to 41 PSI cold, 44 PSI operating. Not for road noise but 45PSI cold is too much I think, I'm getting a bit of uneven center wear.

P.S. Pretty sure my factory front passenger toe was completely out of wack. Way above spec and it ate that tire up on the inside. Got Tesla to fix it.

Car was just in for its 25k service and included a fourth tire rotation. Tires are fine. Perfect even wear. Still enough tread. New tires by end of spring-early summer. I’d have to check, but I’m pretty sure I’ve been running 41ish cold all along.

 

[SammichLover]

Car was just in for its 25k service and included a fourth tire rotation. Tires are fine. Perfect even wear. Still enough tread. New tires by end of spring-early summer. I’d have to check, but I’m pretty sure I’ve been running 41ish cold all along.

My point is they are "fine" as in "fine for now, one step away from time for replacement". Not anywhere near "half" left, that's long past.

You should be able to get 30K out of them, though. You've run through 5 of the 6 32nd's of an inch tread to use up the vehicle starts you with. For some reason Tesla's version of the MXM4 only has 8/32" to start with, rather than the 9 or 10/32" the generic ones do. Not sure why?

 

[Kenz]

Maybe try driving with CHILL mode on to reduce the fast starts and excessive wear from acceleration.
Flooring it at every light is dangerous and as you see will reduce tire life. After replacing the tires and seeing the cost you might slow down to save some money.

 

[dfwatt]

My Model 3 rear are wearing exceptionally fast. They are measuring 3/32 in the middle and 5/32 on the edge. The pressure has been very close to 45 psi for the entire time I have owned the car. The guy at the tire shop said they would not be covered under warranty because of the uneven wear. Is anyone else having this accelerated tire wear? I admit that I floor it at every light and use regen to its fullest extent, but 4,700 miles is ridiculous! These are supposed to be 55,000 mile tires. I have the 18" rims. These are the Michelin PRIMACY MXM4 - SIZE: 235/45R18

This reminds me of Steve Martin's statement about how he only smokes marijuana in the early mid-afternoon and occasionally in the early mid-morning, and sometimes in the mid evening but never in the late evening. If you're flooring it at every light it's a miracle you've gotten four thousand miles out of the tires. Consider yourself lucky

 

[BM3B]

I have 4-5/32 on my MXM4, LR RWD @ 22k, I plan to replace at 30k.

 

[cybergates]

AWD 3 at 10K - the rears seem to be running lower than the front 4/32 vs 6/32 front. I didn't have this issue on my S AWD - I've never rotated them and they lasted about 22-25K. I drive both cars the same (leadfooted). I'm at 45 K on the S and only on the first set of replacements

Gonna take the 3 in for a rotation to even out the wear. Even still I don't think they will make it to 20 K miles.

 

[mobilesuit818]

Toe settings is what make tires wear as faster.

I would get an 4 wheel alignment done to rule that out.

I am at 24k and I don't lift for turns and my tires are kosher.

 

[804son]

Maybe try driving with CHILL mode on to reduce the fast starts and excessive wear from acceleration.
Flooring it at every light is dangerous and as you see will reduce tire life. After replacing the tires and seeing the cost you might slow down to save some money.

I will give you a good reason to not use "chill" mode. I narrowly avoided getting hit from behind this afternoon. The only thing that saved me from getting hit was the Tesla's quick acceleration. I was able to get accelerate off the to the shoulder of the road, the car behind me slid into the vehicle that was in front of me. If the Tesla hadn't been able to move quick I would have gotten smacked.

 

[artsci]

My Model 3 rear are wearing exceptionally fast. They are measuring 3/32 in the middle and 5/32 on the edge. The pressure has been very close to 45 psi for the entire time I have owned the car. The guy at the tire shop said they would not be covered under warranty because of the uneven wear. Is anyone else having this accelerated tire wear? I admit that I floor it at every light and use regen to its fullest extent, but 4,700 miles is ridiculous! These are supposed to be 55,000 mile tires. I have the 18" rims. These are the Michelin PRIMACY MXM4 - SIZE: 235/45R18

Have you installed lowering springs? That’s a sure path to extreme and uneven tire wear (especially on the rear tires), unless you also install adjustable camber and toe links (like those made by Mountain Pass Performance), and reset the wheel alignment to spec. If you lower the car without resetting the wheel alignment, tire wear and adverse effects on handling will be the result.

 

[Kilotango74]

Saw this earlier this year about tires designed for EVs:

Goodyear unveils new tire for electric cars to reduce wear from powerful instant torque

Looks like a BMW i3 tire. Practically motorcycle.

 

[dfwatt]

Have you installed lowering springs? That’s a sure path to extreme and uneven tire wear (especially on the rear tires), unless you also install adjustable camber and toe links (like those made by Mountain Pass Performance), and reset the wheel alignment to spec. If you lower the car without resetting the wheel alignment, tire wear and adverse effects on handling will be the result.

Guys installing lowering springs and coilover kits and do not run Michelin Primacy tires!

 

[EV-by-the-Sea]

AWD 3 at 10K - the rears seem to be running lower than the front 4/32 vs 6/32 front. I didn't have this issue on my S AWD - I've never rotated them and they lasted about 22-25K. I drive both cars the same (leadfooted). I'm at 45 K on the S and only on the first set of replacements

Gonna take the 3 in for a rotation to even out the wear. Even still I don't think they will make it to 20 K miles.

Same experience on my AWD 3. I also floor it everywhere all the time, and just had a tire rotation done at about 10k miles. Like you, I'll be shocked to get 20k out of this set.

Was funny -- at the service center, the advisor was like, "let me measure the tread before I write it up, because AWD cars don't usually need rotation." He came back pretty quickly to say that they did need rotating.

Also, FWIW - stock suspension, no uneven wear. Pretty sure this a matter of driving style, plain and simple.

 

[dfwatt]

Have you installed lowering springs? That’s a sure path to extreme and uneven tire wear (especially on the rear tires), unless you also install adjustable camber and toe links (like those made by Mountain Pass Performance), and reset the wheel alignment to spec. If you lower the car without resetting the wheel alignment, tire wear and adverse effects on handling will be the result.

This is a lot of misinformation. Unless you slam the car you're not going to generate enough negative camber to really require adjustable camber arms. Secondly you do not need to install rear or front toe links to adjust toe in. That's already built into the factory suspension. What's not adjustable is camber and caster. Even with lowering the car an inch, you're not going to get more than typically about .8 to 1.2 degrees negative camber on the front and 1.2 to 1.5 degrees negative on the rear assuming you started in an average range and were within factory-spec to begin with. Those values ( and the extra half degree negative camber either front or rear) are not enough to cause accelerated tire wear as long as you don't toe the car in excessively. And since tow-in is adjustable both front and rear, you should be aiming for close to zero toe in anyway to improve range and turn in. Your post makes it seem as though even modest lowering it's going to chew up your tires and this just isn't true

 

[dfwatt]

Same experience on my AWD 3. I also floor it everywhere all the time, and just had a tire rotation done at about 10k miles. Like you, I'll be shocked to get 20k out of this set.

Was funny -- at the service center, the advisor was like, "let me measure the tread before I write it up, because AWD cars don't usually need rotation." He came back pretty quickly to say that they did need rotating.

Also, FWIW - stock suspension, no uneven wear. Pretty sure this a matter of driving style, plain and simple.

Yes that pedal (that used to be called the loud pedal!) whispers to many of us well, for lack of a better, loudly. It says STOMP THE CRAP OUT OF ME!!! People are fond of quoting their watt-hours per mile. Perhaps we should require that everybody also puts up their grins per mile number as well. These look to be seriously inversely related to each other.

 

[cybergates]

Same experience on my AWD 3. I also floor it everywhere all the time, and just had a tire rotation done at about 10k miles. Like you, I'll be shocked to get 20k out of this set.

Was funny -- at the service center, the advisor was like, "let me measure the tread before I write it up, because AWD cars don't usually need rotation." He came back pretty quickly to say that they did need rotating.

Also, FWIW - stock suspension, no uneven wear. Pretty sure this a matter of driving style, plain and simple.

Yep we have the same experience! Very strange awd needing rotating....3 must favor the rear motor more. I didnt have this problem on the S awd

 

[Hank101]

Another cause for high tire wear, and the need for regular rotation, especially with the LR RWD, is that when using highest Regen setting, the rear tires, in addition to doing all of the excelleration, do most of the braking/slowing - if I understand correctly.

 

[ljbad4life]

As a counterpoint, I have over 9k miles on my LR RWD. I made an appointment to have my tires inspected and rotated by Tesla. My tires were rated by tesla as a 8 out of 10. Plenty of tread life left. I drive with the highest regen on at all times. I almost exclusively stop with regen braking unless it's a hard stop.

 

[Hank101]

As a counterpoint, I have over 9k miles on my LR RWD. I made an appointment to have my tires inspected and rotated by Tesla. My tires were rated by tesla as a 8 out of 10. Plenty of tread life left. I drive with the highest regen on at all times. I almost exclusively stop with regen braking unless it's a hard stop.

Yes

 

[Marty2018]

Only got 11k on first set of tires on the 3.. No spirited driving.
There is a service alert for early builds that apparently was causing early tire wear, but I'm not sure hope much it will help

How did you handle it I got 12000 and the car went in yesterday with wear bars showing and almost no tread on rear 2 tires. They want me to pay for tires and seek retribution from continental how do I tell service alert