Denied Tire Warranty due to uneven wear

[wcfinvader]

We have 2 sets of tires for our Classic S. One All Season set and one Winter set. The All Season we bout last year at the end of August. Today we were told they needed to be replaced when we went in to have them rotated. The tires have 24k miles on them and the tread life warranty is 35K miles. The tire shop refused to prorate our tires claiming that it's out of alignment and the evidence for that was bad tire wear on the inside of the tires.

My wife took it in today as I work nights and sleep during the day so I haven't yet looked for myself at the tires. We will be replacing them with Cooper tires which I've always had good luck with on my previous car. Not a high performance tire but a well made economical tire so we will see how they perform.

Is there any way to prevent this from happening again? We usually inflate to 50 psi but admittedly outside of summer we do pay as close attention to keeping it at 50psi. It never gets below 40psi or at worst 35 psi.

Any suggestions? I will be calling the tire manufacturer to discuss this with them.

 

[Tam]

...The tire shop refused to prorate our tires claiming that it's out of alignment and the evidence for that was bad tire wear on the inside of the tires...

It sounds like they want you to do alignment checks more often?

 

[wcfinvader]

It sounds like they want you to do alignment checks more often?

We typically have the alignment checked every year when we have our annual done by the Kansas City Service Center. We had it done today to prove or disprove their theory that the car was out of alignment. I called the service center and they said it's typical that there is uneven wear on the tires. The technician said he sees inside tire wear as a common thing on old tires.

 

[kev1n]

pics of tires?

 

[jerry33]

I called the service center and they said it's typical that there is uneven wear on the tires. The technician said he sees inside tire wear as a common thing on old tires.

This is BS. If the alignment is correct, there won't be any. It's very important that there is no toe-out on the rear tires, or inside wear will happen.

1. There is nothing mysterious about Tesla alignment. Take it someplace else--preferably someplace that either does race cars or frame alignment. A proper alignment should cost about $250. A $79 alignment is basically a waste of $79.

2. When you get new tires, do the first rotation around 1500 miles. The first early rotation can make a large difference in preventing uneven wear later in the tire's life (mainly applicable to RWD Teslas). It's actually the most important rotation.

3. Only a few miles at 35 psi can reduce tire life dramatically--that's over 20% reduction from the vehicle placard pressure. Check with a quality pressure gauge. I'd suggest paying the money to get the new style pressure sensors that will show the psi on the display. Whether they are totally accurate or not doesn't matter, you get to check every single day with little effort and you'll soon know the difference between their reading and the reading of your quality pressure gauge.

 

[jelloslug]

This is BS. If the alignment is correct, there won't be any. It's very important that there is no toe-out on the rear tires, or inside wear will happen.

1. There is nothing mysterious about Tesla alignment. Take it someplace else--preferably someplace that either does race cars or frame alignment. A proper alignment should cost about $250. A $79 alignment is basically a waste of $79.

2. When you get new tires, do the first rotation around 1500 miles. The first early rotation can make a large difference in preventing uneven wear later in the tire's life (mainly applicable to RWD Teslas). It's actually the most important rotation.

3. Only a few miles at 35 psi can reduce tire life dramatically--that's over 20% reduction from the vehicle placard pressure. Check with a quality pressure gauge. I'd suggest paying the money to get the new style pressure sensors that will show the psi on the display. Whether they are totally accurate or not doesn't matter, you get to check every single day with little effort and you'll soon know the difference between their reading and the reading of your quality pressure gauge.

Paying for an expensive alignment is just getting you an expensive alignment. The proof is in the readout after the fact.

 

[jerry33]

Paying for an expensive alignment is just getting you an expensive alignment. The proof is in the readout after the fact.

That assumes A) the system is actually calibrated and B) the technician understands alignment. The print out is only as good as the calibration. In general, a shop that does race cars or frame alignment has a much better chance of having calibrated equipment than the ordinary shop or car dealer. You are paying for A and B.

 

[jelloslug]

That assumes A) the system is actually calibrated and B) the technician understands alignment. The print out is only as good as the calibration. In general, a shop that does race cars or frame alignment has a much better chance of having calibrated equipment than the ordinary shop or car dealer. You are paying for A and B.

Modern laser alignment racks self calibrate at the start of every job.

 

[wcfinvader]

Rear Driver

Driver's Front

Passenger Front

Rear Passenger

 

[Tam]

...usually inflate to 50 psi ...

Thanks for the pictures.

If I can count the treads from outer to inner, there would be 5 rows.

The very middle row, row number 3 are consistently worn out in each of 4 tires.

This might indicate over-inflation, not alignment.

When a tire is inflated too much, row number 3 would bear more work than the rest of the other rows.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

That and both rears are worn on the inside due to excessive camber - I solved this issue with adjustable camber links in my P85+ wear has been great since..

See this link Negative Camber in the Rear and Expensive Tires

This link is shorter and gets to the point: Proof of tire wear benefits of accurate alignment and rear camber

 

[wcfinvader]

That assumes A) the system is actually calibrated and B) the technician understands alignment. The print out is only as good as the calibration. In general, a shop that does race cars or frame alignment has a much better chance of having calibrated equipment than the ordinary shop or car dealer. You are paying for A and B.

Alignment was done at a different shop and was verified by Kansas City Service Center as being within the tolerances of the alignment. I completely agree this is ridiculous and unacceptable. Our car has been checked yearly for alignment issues and has been put in alignment if there was ever any issues. I completely think this is just their way of getting out of paying the claim. I called the tire manufacturer and we will have to take the tires back there sometime next week to have them inspect the tires again. Discount Tires has a contract with Yokohama that they will process all claims so Yokohama could only help little. I will be pushing this up the ladder within that company and have cancelled my order of new tires and any more business with them because of this.

We are getting new Cooper tires from a Local shop (T.O. Haas) here in Aurora, NE. I'm still stunned that they are pulling this stunt. The Front passenger tire is balder on the inside but that is the only tire that I could tell that had noticeable difference in tread depth. The rest of the tires were said to have 4/32 depth.

Thanks for everyone's input on this. Jerry33 thanks for your input we will keep a closer look on the inflation from now on. I didn't consider the exponential wear due to this.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

Here are settings on a 2014 P85+ Also make sure they drop the car to the lowest air suspension setting and do the alignment

 

[Xenoilphobe]

Note the excessive rear camber which are in spec for Tesla rear wheel drive cars.... this will eat the inner side of your rear tires.

Here are the modified setting I used and have had awesome results..

Total Front Toe 0.4
Total Rear Toe 0.18
Rear Camber -1.00

 

[wcfinvader]

Note the excessive rear camber which are in spec for Tesla rear wheel drive cars.... this will eat the inner side of your rear tires.

Here are the modified setting I used and have had awesome results..

Total Front Toe 0.4
Total Rear Toe 0.18
Rear Camber -1.00

It's odd that our Front tires are the ones with the worst inner tire wear. Rear tires didn't have nearly as noticeable inner tire wear as the front.

 

[jerry33]

Note the excessive rear camber which are in spec for Tesla rear wheel drive cars.... this will eat the inner side of your rear tires.

Here are the modified setting I used and have had awesome results..

Total Front Toe 0.4
Total Rear Toe 0.18
Rear Camber -1.00

It's the camber combined with toe-out that eats the tires, just the camber alone won't do it. It's similar to speed. Speed doesn't cause accidents, but it makes them worse should you have one.

Note that you want alignment to be spot-on, not just "within specs".

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I had some scalloping on my tires earlier this year after going with a non-OEM tire. Developed a road humming noise as well. Discount Tire took them back and gave me a warranty credit. They didn't ask me for any proof of alignments or rotations.

 

[jerry33]

I had some scalloping on my tires earlier this year after going with a non-OEM tire. Developed a road humming noise as well. Discount Tire took them back and gave me a warranty credit. They didn't ask me for any proof of alignments or rotations.

That's why you purchase tires from Discount Tire, Kal Tire, or some similar chain.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

Or Costco - get all my Michelins there.. 19 and 21's

 

[wcfinvader]

So I went to Discount Tire to discuss why this was denied. He explained it to me very extensively and stated that, like many of you stated, it was due to the was was designed. Tesla specs this car in a way that causes premature tire wear and uneven tire wear.

I looked on the "Proof of Tire Wear..." link posted and vaguely understand what everyone was discussing. Do I have to buy adjustable BBC links or can an alignment tech adjust the ones that come on the car?

Note the excessive rear camber which are in spec for Tesla rear wheel drive cars.... this will eat the inner side of your rear tires.

Here are the modified setting I used and have had awesome results..

Total Front Toe 0.4
Total Rear Toe 0.18
Rear Camber -1.00

Xenoilphobe have those settings allowed the tires to evenly wear? Would this work on a regular coil suspension car?

Thanks again all. This is irritating that I'm just now discovering this. Manager at the Discount Tire store we usually go to suspects the 2 or 3 sets of tires we went through before this set had the same issue but that his techs just didn't catch it though times.