My S was delivered with Continental tires. On the S.F. Peninsula, there plenty of highway sections with rain grooves that cause the vehicle to "wander" noticeably. I'm wondering if the Michelin Pilots have the same character. Has anyone driven both offerings on rain grooves?
Hard question to answer because it depends on the rain grooves. However, often times that's a sign that the alignment isn't quite right. I would try that before changing the tires (an alignment is cheaper than tires--assuming Telsa doesn't do it for free and you have to pay for it). Also play with the steering setting (sport, standard, etc.)
Since I've gotten my S, its tended to pull to the right. Tonight it was raining and not only did it do that, but it did indeed seem to sway about with the lines of the road. 21 inchers here.
I have not yet experienced that with our car (just picked-up today), but I have definitely experienced that with many high performance cars/ tires. The Roadster does this on its Yokohamas. My ex-Ferrari on Michelin Pilot Sports also did this. The rain grooves, I think, are designed with conventional block-tread tires in mind. Many high performance tires have a more circumferential tread pattern that tracks in an unstable manner in rain grooves.
I have definitely felt that in the past two weeks. I have 3k miles on my tires, and they felt bald when that happened. Tread and pressure are good.
Lower tread depth will actually reduce rain groove following because there is less tread to wiggle around. Besides alignment there are some car/road/tire combinations that just don't work well, but try the alignment first--you want it spot-on, not just within specs. In some cars, the addition of a stability plate fixes the problem. It's hard to see how that would help in a Model S as it's one of the stiffest vehicles out there. Because of the air suspension, it might be possible for Tesla to tune it to help with this issue. Try changing the steering setting as well.
This is an alignment problem. Your tires are riding on their outside or inside edge. It's called "toe" and you need to have it looked at before you ruin your tires.
Follow up to my report. I updated my firmware last night to 4.1, and got the TPMS error today. Well, low and behold, it was right! The pressure on my passenger rear tire was off and falling. That could have been the cause of the problem, but I am not sure, as I filled the tire properly at 7:30, and at 10:00 it was fully empty so it looks like I had a slow leak that turned into a big one.
Without the TPMS it's a good idea to check your tire pressures occasionally, especially on a brand-new car. There's always a possibility of a manufacturing defect in the tires, and it is most likely to make itself known in the early days.
True enough. I'd never had a puncture on my Roadster, unit a couple of months ago when I got a nail in my brand-new AD08's.
In my case, I had a "dagger" of a piece of glass stuck in the tire right in a tread groove. When the car was up on the flatbed, we saw the glass and heard the newly inflated air leaving at high speed. It's a good thing I decided to have the car towed rather than risk the 34 mile drive to Fremont. Car will be back with me tomorrow morning, with either a new tire, or patched tire.