Go to your local Firestone and have them do an alignment on their state of the art Hunter machine. Firestone offers "lifetime alignments" for around $200 which is much cheaper than Tesla. If you plan on keeping the car a longtime, I recommend you pay for the lifetime alignment, you pay a one time fee and every time after an alignment is free. You definitely have an issue with alignment It can be camber or caster that is causing your problem. Any service guy who thinks inner tire wear like that is normal after 6k miles is delusional and shouldn't be in the business.
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Horribly Disappointed in Tesla Service (Alignment Issue)
- Thread starter Swack
- Start date
Daniel in SD
(supervised)
I think either toe in or toe out in combination with negative camber (which the car is supposed to have and is not adjustable) can cause inside tire wear. Toe in makes the car feel more stable and would probably not be noticeable while driving the car.
Agreed.
Toe IN would not be noticeable, but too much will wear out outside shoulders. Which is not the problem here.
Toe OUT is extremely noticeable due to the induced straight line instability, though is great for initiating turns (e.g.: for autoX), and there is no way OP would not have noticed it.
That leaves too much negative cambers as a suspect.
Or the camber is within spec, but the OP is not carrying enough speed through the turns to even out the outside shoulder wear
a
Why exactly are you upset at Tesla service? You think they should have given you a free alignment and tires after 6k miles? I am confused on what exactly they did wrong that you think some other car dealer would have done differently/
Too much toe in plus too much negative camber will wear the inner edges. Think about it, the tire is riding with more pressure on the inner edge and it's being scrubbed while going straight, the direction of scrubbing won't matter as much, but negative camber will always make it worse on the inner edge.Agreed.
Toe IN would not be noticeable, but too much will wear out outside shoulders. Which is not the problem here.
Toe OUT is extremely noticeable due to the induced straight line instability, though is great for initiating turns (e.g.: for autoX), and there is no way OP would not have noticed it.
That leaves too much negative cambers as a suspect.
Or the camber is within spec, but the OP is not carrying enough speed through the turns to even out the outside shoulder wear
a
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Daniel in SD
(supervised)
It's really not that confusing unless you think that everyone should get their alignment checked right after buying a car. Did you get your alignment checked during the first 6k miles?
There's a very good chance that the alignment was bad when OP bought the car.
Daniel in SD
(supervised)
Exactly but I would say toe plus the normal (not excessive) factory amount of negative camber would cause this wear.
Thanks for some of the helpful feedback. The "tires are a wear item" comments from the peanut gallery are SUPER helpful too.
As an update, Tesla performed the alignment (results below) but the tech came out and told me that because of the tire profile, the alignment would be off again when I got new tires on the front. This doesn't sound right to me, but I'm not a mechanic either. The tech all but agreed that the alignment was likely out of spec origionally.
Thankfully, they didn't charge for the alignment, because I have to have it done again in a day or so once the new tires are on.
As to the questions on why I am upset at Tesla service, I feel like its pretty clear but I'll try to articulate it better.
In November, I spend $60k on a new vehicle. After under 6 months and under 6k miles, 2 of the tires are completely shot, and Tesla wants me to shell out more than a grand to fix it. I wasn't even to the recommended rotation before two of the tires on a brand new vehicle were worn so unevenly that they needed replacement.
Could I have checked the alignment after delivery of brand new vehicle? Sure. Could I get a pair of calipers and take detailed measurements every day before I leave for work? Of course. But that isn't exactly "reasonable" and if you think it is.... good luck. I have a hard time believing that many people would be OK with this, but again, maybe I'm just weird.
As an update, Tesla performed the alignment (results below) but the tech came out and told me that because of the tire profile, the alignment would be off again when I got new tires on the front. This doesn't sound right to me, but I'm not a mechanic either. The tech all but agreed that the alignment was likely out of spec origionally.
Thankfully, they didn't charge for the alignment, because I have to have it done again in a day or so once the new tires are on.
As to the questions on why I am upset at Tesla service, I feel like its pretty clear but I'll try to articulate it better.
In November, I spend $60k on a new vehicle. After under 6 months and under 6k miles, 2 of the tires are completely shot, and Tesla wants me to shell out more than a grand to fix it. I wasn't even to the recommended rotation before two of the tires on a brand new vehicle were worn so unevenly that they needed replacement.
Could I have checked the alignment after delivery of brand new vehicle? Sure. Could I get a pair of calipers and take detailed measurements every day before I leave for work? Of course. But that isn't exactly "reasonable" and if you think it is.... good luck. I have a hard time believing that many people would be OK with this, but again, maybe I'm just weird.
Daniel in SD
(supervised)
I think most people expect their cars to be delivered without 1 degree of toe in. Is that really an unreasonable expectation?
nope and they did his alignment for free. Are yoyu implying no other car ever has alignment problems at purchase? because you would be wrong....
I am not trying to say Tesla is perfect by any means. Just seems like people expect more from them than they do from other car makers. It makes no sense to me.
I am not trying to say Tesla is perfect by any means. Just seems like people expect more from them than they do from other car makers. It makes no sense to me.
I've gone through a lot of cars in my time and it is possible that some have been out of alignment from the factory but not to a degree that would prematurely wear tires. I would be irritated too. On the bright side, those alignment readings are definitely the cause of the wear issues you experienced so you should not have any more problems.
That's exactly what caused my inner tire wear. Nothing noticeable to the driver - tracked straight.
To be fair, our 2012 VW Passat also had a bad alignment from the factory. Volkswagen fixed it for free but did not cover the additional tire wear.
It sounds like there's a lot of Tesla apologizers here. At only 6,000 mi and one tire rotation this situation is ridiculous.
I'm now finding myself in a similar situation, albeit much farther on in the life of my tires. Shame on me for not checking more closely sooner.but I was following Tesla's recommended tire rotation interval and I've just done my second rotation at 24,000 miles on my Model 3. This time, inspecting much more closely than the first time; I've noticed all four tires inside treadband is worn down to the wear bar indicators. I don't know if the fact that it's on all four tires indicates that there was something out of adjustment in all four positions, or if this happened on all four because of my first rotation. what I do know, is that I did not look closely at the tires when I rotated them the first time. My TSC is only quoting $112 for a wheel alignment. but it sure seems like something wasn't right when this car was delivered to me at the end of March. And just like the OP since it looks like I'll need new tires soon and have to pay for a wheel alignment then. It sure would be good to not have to pay the money now just to get this car back to good while I still have some life on these original tires. No reasonable amount of curb shot can explain the entire inside band being worn that uniformly on 4 tires while the other bands are fine (my current conditions).
Msjulie
Active Member
The requirement for alignment is largely influenced by the driving environment - weather and road conditions etc; given it is delivered properly setup in the beginning I don't see why it would deviate hugely without outside influence.
My 3 was re-aligned by Tesla for free a month or so into ownership when I was convinced the steering wheel was ever so slightly off, they did it as a warranty claim.
I recently had it done again after (my fault) hitting something and knowing I'd likely knocked it about. They were less expensive (surprisingly) than some other local shops. Even though it was still just within spec, they dialed it in more so and I could tell (I'm obsessive about that stuff it seems).
Outside that, I rotated the tires 2x, the rears made it to just about 27k miles and I swapped them out though I think I could have gotten a little more it was really rainy around here and they were not confidence inspiring. The fronts have some good life left.
I have not found the alignment or tire wear to be that much different than other heavy cars (Audis) we've owned. The heavier wear in the rear tires is not that surprising as they spent the first 6k on a RWD Model 3 before ending up on the AWD (that's another story)
My 3 was re-aligned by Tesla for free a month or so into ownership when I was convinced the steering wheel was ever so slightly off, they did it as a warranty claim.
I recently had it done again after (my fault) hitting something and knowing I'd likely knocked it about. They were less expensive (surprisingly) than some other local shops. Even though it was still just within spec, they dialed it in more so and I could tell (I'm obsessive about that stuff it seems).
Outside that, I rotated the tires 2x, the rears made it to just about 27k miles and I swapped them out though I think I could have gotten a little more it was really rainy around here and they were not confidence inspiring. The fronts have some good life left.
I have not found the alignment or tire wear to be that much different than other heavy cars (Audis) we've owned. The heavier wear in the rear tires is not that surprising as they spent the first 6k on a RWD Model 3 before ending up on the AWD (that's another story)
Now on our third set of tires. We seem to be getting about 25,000 miles per set. The alignment was off a bit this time, too, so we had our local reputable tire shop correct it. It took them two tries to get it right. We’ll see. How things go with this set of tires, which are Continental DWS. So far, they’re loud but have good grip.
