Frequent Tire Punctures (4 in 7 months) Killing My Love For My Model X- Avg Every six weeks

[UncaNed]

Perhaps a good security camera system where you park to see if it's vandalism?

 

[mongo]

I had 10+ years no flat in my pre-Tesla car. Then I got a Tesla and suddenly the other car had two flats and then I got another Tesla (lemon the first one) and withint 1.5 months had two flats... Things just happen I guess.

the first one was (a very gentle) bump against curb that completely ripped out a section in sidewall that immediately killed the tire, TPMS gave me warning of flat withing 10 seconds of the event.

The second one is a mystery. The tire is melted and the cord is exposed and I am not sure what caused it, but it was a relatively slow leak so I was able to pump it up and go to a tire shop all by myself. The first warning appeared pretty soon after the event it appears too.

View attachment 350719

Gonna go with manufacturing defect, air void or contamination in the rubber when the tire was made. Held together barely, then the chunk detached.

 

[JPP]

A few thoughts:

As cities and states cut back on road maintenance, there is a whole lot less street sweeping going on. I have had an escalating number of nails, screws, bolts in our tires in recent years (latest was last Saturday with both a bolt and a nail in my wife's 2015 S with the OEM Michelins). More construction (as the Bay Area economy heats up), more FOD (like the pilots worry about).

I always buy the America's Tire warranty on my new cars/tires--just bought it for my P3D+. The special Tesla TO version of the 20" Michelin Pilot 4S with the Acoustic Technology are like $330 at Tire Rack. I paid about $200 for the warranty for all 4. And I get free rotation and flat repair. Plus my local AT sees lots of Teslas and knows how to jack them up and torque the lug nuts.

Consider getting a FoboPLUS TPMS system (FOBO Tire Plus (For Heavy Duty Pickups) - FOBO). This sends alerts to your smartphone (and anyone who also is allowed on your account). You can set low and high pressure ranges (so you get alerted for a slow leak well before the Tesla TPMS fires off).

 

[BluestarE3]

Being somewhat of a cynic, I'm in the "sabotage" camp. It's happened too often to have been coincidence or bad karma. Maybe you never had this problem in the past with other cars because those other cars weren't Teslas? As with Prius and BMW, there are some people who hate Tesla. Before driving off in your car, you may want to do a quick walk-around to see if there are any foreign objects wedged under any of your tires?

 

[DAEMON_5646]

Of the 3 tire punctures I've gotten over the past 5 years with various vehicles, 100% can be traced back to a visit to a recycle yard.

 

[mongo]

OK, this is sort of out there, but I can see one way (beyond tire selection) that a Tesla might have a higher rate of punctures.
Note, this is pure a spit ball theoretical premise, so feel free to ignore.

When under acceleration (positive or negative) a tire has a sliding component with the road surface (10% slip is reported to be max grip). It seems like a tire that is slipping slightly would have a higher likelihood of getting an object embedded than a tire that was passively passing over the object. Similar to getting a sliver by sliding your hand over a piece of wood verses a rocking motion with your palm. A nail laying down will not normally embed until flipped up for instance, but could if the tire pushes into the point due to the slip component.

Teslas are prone to having more acceleration/ slip and they also have more deceleration events due to regen, so it seems that they could have a better chance of an object getting embedded than other cars.

Note, that this still requires running over an object in the first place, and that is purely a driving environment issue.

 

[HandleX]

By punctures, I mean debris in the tires. It has been glass and nails. I have the 20's bc I thought I would have fewer issues with this size. Previous vehicle was a Yukon and the tires were much bigger

All on the left so far...

My wannabe Sherlock Holmes theory: Your previous vehicle is a Yukon and only the tires on the left were punctured. The Yukon sits higher than the X. Maybe you're driving closer to the median to see farther ahead in traffic, thus picking up more debris. It could be something you do without even realizing it.

 

[Peteski]

3 pages in and we still don't even know what tyres he has on this thing! Could be some cheap Chinese knock-offs for all we know, lol.

 

[Brian's ReX]

I've been driving my X much more than any of my previous cars because I love it so much! I've noticed that, during wet weather, my X gets much dirtier than any of my other vehicles. Maybe it's because I'm driving it more? But it's probably a defect in my Tesla. I'll contact my SC to get it fixed.

Seriously though... this is either: a) very bad luck; or b) someone is messing with your tires.

This is not a Tesla issue.

 

[Peteybabes]

Yea sorry I caught that! A spare tire, plus a jack, plus all the tools and supplies weighs close to 100lbs. 100lbs, of what should be unnecessary equipment will have an impact on range. I don't care how minimal it is, the fact of the matter is, the more weight you add to these vehicles, the worse the range.

i weigh 420lbs. and report the same wh/mi as all users here. in fact my wh/mi with 4 people or 7 people sees almost no change.

my wh/mi efficiency boils down to how fast i'm driving to be honest.

i drove to indianapolis from Columbus OH at 79mph and arrive at 0% after only 186 miles...on the flip side i've driven to Cleveland and back down to the Mt Gilead Supercharger with 10% remaining because i drove at only 75mph (3 passengers each time)

 

[Suuz]

I am having very frequent tire punctures and tire issues in general. It has gotten to the point that it is really ruining the experience of owning this vehicle. I have had 4 tire punctures since April. I am averaging a tire puncture about every 6 weeks. My wife and I can't remember the last time we had a tire puncture or issue. We can't think of a single tire problem between the two of us in the last 15 years. Nothing has changed about the way we drive or where we drive, the only thing that changed was the vehicle, which makes it feel like it is a problem specific to the Model X or the tires.

To add to the stress of this, the TPMS sensors don't tell us the pressure in the tires until we are a mile or two down the road. So by the time we get the low pressure signal we are well on our way to work or to drop kids off at school, at which point we have to turn around and go back home to the compressor. As a result, I have to go out and manually check the tire pressure, every time we want to drive, which makes driving this car feel more like a chore than something I enjoy. My daughter and wife have been significantly late for school and work twice now bc of this issue.

Another issue is that we no longer feel confident traveling long distances in this vehicle without having some tire troubles. As a result, I have purchased the Tesla spare in a can, a full sized spare, and a full tire changing kit. This adds quite a bit of weight to the vehicle, taking up precious cargo space and depleting the battery more quickly due to the added weight.

This is getting really frustrating and it makes this car no longer enjoyable or dependable for us. We wanted the larger wheels but opted for the smaller ones bc we didn't want headaches with the tires. Well we are still having headaches with the tires. What do we do? Is anyone else dealing with this? Is this normal?

Mate, I've had the exact same issue. Bought my model 3 a year ago. Within the space of 11 months, I've had to change 3 tires. All 3 have had a nail in them. I'm beginning to wonder whether the tesla only 'Acoustic' tires (mine are the michelin run flats) are softer / more prone to getting punctures from debris or nails. It's costing me a fortune.

I know it's most likely down to misfortune, but seriously beginning to wonder whether the foamy acoustic tires are worth it or not?

 

[ngng]

Mate, I've had the exact same issue. Bought my model 3 a year ago. Within the space of 11 months, I've had to change 3 tires. All 3 have had a nail in them. I'm beginning to wonder whether the tesla only 'Acoustic' tires (mine are the michelin run flats) are softer / more prone to getting punctures from debris or nails. It's costing me a fortune.

I know it's most likely down to misfortune, but seriously beginning to wonder whether the foamy acoustic tires are worth it or not?

I'm not spending extra money on foam in my tires when I can hear everything outside of the car driving on the highway.

And no, the tires have nothing to do with how likely you are to pick up a nail.

 

[brkaus]

I went non foam on my replacement S tires.

 

[richmich15]

I had 6 flats over 4-5 months. I thought it was chance, but this has me thinking. All were in the oem contisilents. I had the nonfoam version and they never had a flat.
On another note, the inside wear is crazy! I go through tires way faster than any car. Alignment helped, but I've never got 20k on a set. Ready for my 4th set now and I have a 2020!

 

[ngng]

I had 6 flats over 4-5 months. I thought it was chance, but this has me thinking. All were in the oem contisilents. I had the nonfoam version and they never had a flat.
On another note, the inside wear is crazy! I go through tires way faster than any car. Alignment helped, but I've never got 20k on a set. Ready for my 4th set now and I have a 2020!

If you want to know why your tires wear faster:

Breaking down the excessive rear, inner tire wear

I had a bunch of warranty work done at the dealer, some of which included replacement parts for the shudder. The entire front end of the car was apart. After I picked the car up I noticed that it was pulling right and immediately suspected an improper alignment (or, in this case...no alignment)...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[richmich15]

If you want to know why your tires wear faster:

Breaking down the excessive rear, inner tire wear

I had a bunch of warranty work done at the dealer, some of which included replacement parts for the shudder. The entire front end of the car was apart. After I picked the car up I noticed that it was pulling right and immediately suspected an improper alignment (or, in this case...no alignment)...

teslamotorsclub.com

Yeah, I've been following that one, along with the shudder and other alignment threads. Wish that it could be set at 0 so it didn't get drug sideways. I wear way too fast on this car.

 

[ngng]

Yeah, I've been following that one, along with the shudder and other alignment threads. Wish that it could be set at 0 so it didn't get drug sideways. I wear way too fast on this car.

You can, but you need an aftermarket toe kit for $$$

 

[Harvey Danger]

OK, so I get the aftermarket camber arm thing since the stock ones are totally non adjustable , but the stock *toe* arms *are* adjustable on the model X. They use eccentric bolts, maybe not as precise as an adjustment as one might like, but a person who has time equipment and experience can get it to within a fraction of a degree, is this not true? Why do you *need* to replace them?

 

[ngng]

OK, so I get the aftermarket camber arm thing since the stock ones are totally non adjustable , but the stock *toe* arms *are* adjustable on the model X. They use eccentric bolts, maybe not as precise as an adjustment as one might like, but a person who has time equipment and experience can get it to within a fraction of a degree, is this not true? Why do you *need* to replace them?

OEM is adjustable, but the range is limited.

 

[Richbot]

Michelin and Continental both tend to build very light (as in, low mass) tires for OEM applications. The OEM 20's for this car are no exception, they're very light for their size. There are lots of reasons light tires are good. But puncture resistance is not one of them.

I've not had any punctures yet on the X, but I carry a BMW mobility kit and a plug kit with me everywhere. That takes care of everything that isn't a huge gash in the tire.