Aware of tire noise dampening?

[Mikial]

I ran over a nail and had a slow leak with one of my tires this week.

In getting it repaired at Discount Tire, they brought the tire into the waiting room to show me that Tesla has added inch thick foam to the inside of the tires (over the tread portion) to assist with noise suppression. They all seemed very impressed that a manufacturer would do such a thing, and it turned into a nice little promo for Tesla to the others waiting.

Was anyone aware of this? Just one of the reasons that my new 2016 90D is so much quieter than my 2013 85...

 

[jerry33]

Yes. This started over a year ago with the Continental tires, and now Michelin has it as well.

 

[Mikial]

Yes. This started over a year ago with the Continental tires, and now Michelin has it as well.

How did I miss that?!? Ha.

 

[Gr8pursuit]

Had a few flats fixed at America's Tires and they always comment on how it takes awhile longer to buffed the inside layer down to put in the patch.

 

[cab]

Basically, all Teslas have the sound deadening foam in them now. The Michelin PSS 21s have it as do the Goodyear Touring 19s. It's not Tesla specific technology as each tire manufacturer has its own tech, but Tesla seems to be on the forefront of including it in new car tires. Of course given how relativley loud these cars are compared to other cars in this price class, they need all the help they can get.

 

[Shorty]

I don't think that it is anything that Tesla has done, a couple of tire manufactures have been offering these tires for a while now. They can be fixed by grinding or removing the sound deadening material but a lot of tire shops still won't touch them for repair.

 

[uberanalyst]

Had my first flat tire this week in our Model S. Fortunately it was a slow enough leak that I had about 2 hours for the tire to go completely flat, and thus allowed me to pump the tire back up and make it to a gas station for repair.

The flat was caused by a big screw with hexagonal head that neatly found its way into the valley between tread blocks of the Continental "ContiSilent" 21" tires with foam inside for noise suppression. About 15K miles on these tires since car was new.

The gas station didn't even have to take the wheel off. They quickly yanked out the screw and inserted a plug from the outside. Repair was checked for leaks by spraying tire with soapy water. The repair has been been holding up perfectly.

So it wasn't necessary to remove wheel, de-mount tire, cut out foam inside, plug the leak, and glue new foam back into the tire casing.

 

[jobrien70]

The gas station didn't even have to take the wheel off. They quickly yanked out the screw and inserted a plug from the outside. Repair was checked for leaks by spraying tire with soapy water. The repair has been been holding up perfectly.

So it wasn't necessary to remove wheel, de-mount tire, cut out foam inside, plug the leak, and glue new foam back into the tire casing.

That sounds like the old school DIY way of plugging a tire puncture. All auto stores and Walmart used to sell these types of tire plugs many years ago (20+). But just be aware these patches are not performance tire rated. They'll work fine for pickups and junker cars that maybe max out at 80 MPH, but are liable to blow out anytime. I think it was due to all the liability issues, but eventually all stored stopped selling these plugs (or maybe it was due to the rise of "fix-a-flat").

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Just took my car to Les Schwab Tire Center. Tire has a nail in it. They said that it's not repairable because of the sound dampening foam. I can't imagine this is true. Who would buy tires that would have to be replaced every time you picked up a nail or screw in them? I sure as heck wouldn't. I'm going to be a little pissed if Tesla installed unrepairable tires on my new car.

 

[Snerruc]

Just took my car to Les Schwab Tire Center. Tire has a nail in it. They said that it's not repairable because of the sound dampening foam. I can't imagine this is true. Who would buy tires that would have to be replaced every time you picked up a nail or screw in them? I sure as heck wouldn't. I'm going to be a little pissed if Tesla installed unrepairable tires on my new car.

BMW run flats cannot be repaired and no one will try. I picked up a screw and had to replace the tire. No tire store here carried the tire and I had to get it from BMW.. Not only that, but if you have more than 5,000 mi on the tires, you should replace all 4. My daughter found out that with her MB the hard way. The car went crazy and damn near killed her.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Just took my car to Les Schwab Tire Center. Tire has a nail in it. They said that it's not repairable because of the sound dampening foam. I can't imagine this is true. Who would buy tires that would have to be replaced every time you picked up a nail or screw in them? I sure as heck wouldn't. I'm going to be a little pissed if Tesla installed unrepairable tires on my new car.

Update:
I ended up calling eight tire centers including the local Tesla Service Center. Only two Les Schwab Tire Centers were familiar with this kind of tire and were willing to repair the tire. Even the Goodyear tire center I called wasn't familiar with sound deadening foam inside of tires and they are Goodyear tires. I ended up taking it to the Lake Oswego Les Schwab, thinking that a tire center located in a town of rich people, might have a significant amount of experience with Teslas. When I arrived there was even another Model S there to help reassure me. They repaired my tire in about an hour and even though I didn't buy my tires there, didn't charge me for the repair.

The Tesla service center said it would be $50 to repair the tire. And if the nail was in the outer most tread ring that they wouldn't repair it. I've never heard that one before. Sidewall damage of course, but not outer most tread ring. Also I would have to drop the car off for three or four hours and they didn't have any loaners available. Either Tesla is really lame or they are trying to discourage people from bringing their cars in for non-warranty work that can be done elsewhere (which I think is a good idea). I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say it's the latter.

 

[Jashev]

That sounds like the old school DIY way of plugging a tire puncture. All auto stores and Walmart used to sell these types of tire plugs many years ago (20+). But just be aware these patches are not performance tire rated. They'll work fine for pickups and junker cars that maybe max out at 80 MPH, but are liable to blow out anytime. I think it was due to all the liability issues, but eventually all stored stopped selling these plugs (or maybe it was due to the rise of "fix-a-flat").

Yes it is old school, but if done correctly with the right kind of material, it works great. I don't know why you think that stores don't sell this. I can buy these at all my local auto parts stores and Walmart (though the ones at Walmart are not nearly as good). I have repaired many tires this way by myself. My local auto shops also use this method of tire repair. I have never had this type of repair fail and I've used it many times.

 

[jerry33]

The point about not repairing in the outside tread rib is 1) That rib may flex a lot depending upon the specific tire. 2) It's not uncommon for a penetrating object to score the inside sidewall causing sudden deflation sometime down the road. Both of these are less likely to happen on the more central ribs.

It used to be that you could purchase sidewall patches for radial tires that reinforced the cords and could patch that area. But the liability laws and the lack of trained tire technicians more-or-less forced those off the market.

 

[FlatSix911]

That sounds like the old school DIY way of plugging a tire puncture. All auto stores and Walmart used to sell these types of tire plugs many years ago (20+). But just be aware these patches are not performance tire rated. They'll work fine for pickups and junker cars that maybe max out at 80 MPH, but are liable to blow out anytime. I think it was due to all the liability issues, but eventually all stored stopped selling these plugs (or maybe it was due to the rise of "fix-a-flat").

Incorrect ... the tire plug is fine for performance rated tires as long as the sidewall is not impacted.