How are you using up tires in <20,000 miles?

[3sr+buyer]

Given the postings here, it seems like using up tires in under 20,000 miles is common around here. For those who use up tires that quickly, how are you driving that causes such tire wear, and is it any different from how quickly you used up tires on previous cars?

I still have at least 4/32" tread on the original tires after about 38,000 miles.

 

[Sellout]

Driving in a way that would upset miss daisy.

 

[father_of_6]

Flooring it often, especially if you're out of alignment, is one way to lose tires quickly.

 

[rayrevolver]

I bet its a bad alignment for most folks, whether from the factory or hitting pot holes.

My post on alignment with some data.

Control arm replacement, alignment ?

I had my upper control arms replace in July and August last year under warranty. I was told an alignment is not needed, speak to mechanics sounds like an alignment is required but Tesla says they don’t require it. Can anyone tell me if an alignment is needed, both of my tires are a mess. Are...

teslamotorsclub.com

Next guess is tire pressure. Not sure why, but my new front tires were showing signs of underinflation.

I check my pressure religiously with an actual gage. I was NEVER below 42 psi cold. In fact, more like 43-44 psi cold. I am now in the 45-46 psi cold club and the middle of the tire is wearing more evenly best I can tell.

My bet, if you have more camber than less, and you run 40-42 psi cold, your front inner wear is going kill your tires in shorter order than running higher pressures.

 

[father_of_6]

Next guess is tire pressure. Not sure why, but my new front tires were showing signs of underinflation.

Yeah - I had a slow leak for one week and drove just 2 miles each day on a very under inflated tire... it was unbelievable how quick that tire was eaten.

 

[Skavatar]

high HP/torque plus fast acceleration/hard braking

my first two vehicles were 2wd N/A 4 cylinder engines, 1990 Accord 120hp, and 2002 CR-V 160hp. the tires would last close to the warranty mileage. my third vehicle was an awd turbocharged 2014 Sportage SX 250hp, the tires would only last about 50-60% of the warranty mileage, but Discount Tires would give me a prorated refund of about $25-30 per tire towards the next set of tires(tires were about $100 each).

 

[afadeev]

Given the postings here, it seems like using up tires in under 20,000 miles is common around here. For those who use up tires that quickly, how are you driving that causes such tire wear, and is it any different from how quickly you used up tires on previous cars?

With passion and joie de vivre!

I still have at least 4/32" tread on the original tires after about 38,000 miles.

That doesn't really mean anything, unless you specify what tires you are rolling on, and how much you enjoy driving.
I'm on PS4S's. They last ~1.5 summers for me (~12K miles), then I switch to winter tires that last ~2-3 seasons for me.
With my last set of summers, I upgraded from 235/40 to 265/35 tires. With a bit of luck, they might last a little longer.

YMMV,
a

 

[Lindenwood]

I bet its a bad alignment for most folks, whether from the factory or hitting pot holes.

My post on alignment with some data.

Control arm replacement, alignment ?

I had my upper control arms replace in July and August last year under warranty. I was told an alignment is not needed, speak to mechanics sounds like an alignment is required but Tesla says they don’t require it. Can anyone tell me if an alignment is needed, both of my tires are a mess. Are...

teslamotorsclub.com

Next guess is tire pressure. Not sure why, but my new front tires were showing signs of underinflation.

I check my pressure religiously with an actual gage. I was NEVER below 42 psi cold. In fact, more like 43-44 psi cold. I am now in the 45-46 psi cold club and the middle of the tire is wearing more evenly best I can tell.

My bet, if you have more camber than less, and you run 40-42 psi cold, your front inner wear is going kill your tires in shorter order than running higher pressures.

High pressure with high camber will indeed wear the inners faster. But, toe is almost always the culprit with inner wear, rather than camber.

One can run well below factory pressures if using wider tires!

 

[afadeev]

High pressure with high camber will indeed wear the inners faster.

On modern tires, small changes in tire pressure (<5 psi) will have minimal effect on tire wear. Higher pressure will increase effective dampening rate, and your ride will feel stiffer. Your range may (or may not) receive a minor upgrade by bumping tire pressures from the recommended 42 psi to 47 psi. Ride was much worse, so I went back down to 42, then toyed with 37 psi. Handling got noticeably worse, so I've stayed around OEM recommended 42 psi on both summer and winter tires.

All my wore out perfectly evenly. On OEM suspension.
Now that I've upgraded to Ohlins S&T coil-overs, the date will need to be gathered from scratch.

Small changes in tire pressure (< 1 psi) can and do have meaningful impact on handling on track, but most consumer tire pressure gauges and not accurate enough to measure those. Track pressure have more to do with tires construction, sidewall flex, temperature management, driving style, track layout, and how fast you are pushing the car. Typically, you start with way colder starting pressure (e.g.: ~25 psi), and optimize to hit desired hot pressure values (e.g.: 38 psi). Yes, tires heat up that much. It's an entirely different ball game.

But, toe is almost always the culprit with inner wear, rather than camber.

That would be net toe OUT, which is highly unlikely to go unnoticed as the car will be unstable and dart-y going straight.
Excessive toe IN would have the opposite effect, wearing out the outside of the tires. This one can go unnoticed for a long time, since there is no adverse effect on handling for regular folks.

Significantly higher than stock negative camber (above -3.0 degrees) will absolutely accelerate inner tire wear. But it will even out overall tire wear after a few track days. YMMV.

One can run well below factory pressures if using wider tires!

Tire pressures are all about shaping tire contact patch.
While I could run lower tire pressures with wider tires, running much lower will start distorting the sidewall and elongating the contact patch. That will not be optimal for handling. But again, it can be done.
And the effect will be observed in ride harshness way before you get to observe any meaningful tire wear changes. In my case, going with appreciably stiffer and significantly better handling Ohlins, I clearly value handling over comfort. So I'm good with factory pressures, until such a time that I get data to tell me that I can optimizer traction with a different setting.


YMMV,
a

 

[Lindenwood]

On modern tires, small changes in tire pressure (<5 psi) will have minimal effect on tire wear. Higher pressure will increase effective dampening rate, and your ride will feel stiffer. Your range may (or may not) receive a minor upgrade by bumping tire pressures from the recommended 42 psi to 47 psi. Ride was much worse, so I went back down to 42, then toyed with 37 psi. Handling got noticeably worse, so I've stayed around OEM recommended 42 psi on both summer and winter tires.

All my wore out perfectly evenly. On OEM suspension.
Now that I've upgraded to Ohlins S&T coil-overs, the date will need to be gathered from scratch.

Small changes in tire pressure (< 1 psi) can and do have meaningful impact on handling on track, but most consumer tire pressure gauges and not accurate enough to measure those. Track pressure have more to do with tires construction, sidewall flex, temperature management, driving style, track layout, and how fast you are pushing the car. Typically, you start with way colder starting pressure (e.g.: ~25 psi), and optimize to hit desired hot pressure values (e.g.: 38 psi). Yes, tires heat up that much. It's an entirely different ball game.



That would be net toe OUT, which is highly unlikely to go unnoticed as the car will be unstable and dart-y going straight.
Excessive toe IN would have the opposite effect, wearing out the outside of the tires. This one can go unnoticed for a long time, since there is no adverse effect on handling for regular folks.

Significantly higher than stock negative camber (above -3.0 degrees) will absolutely accelerate inner tire wear. But it will even out overall tire wear after a few track days. YMMV.



Tire pressures are all about shaping tire contact patch.
While I could run lower tire pressures with wider tires, running much lower will start distorting the sidewall and elongating the contact patch. That will not be optimal for handling. But again, it can be done.
And the effect will be observed in ride harshness way before you get to observe any meaningful tire wear changes. In my case, going with appreciably stiffer and significantly better handling Ohlins, I clearly value handling over comfort. So I'm good with factory pressures, until such a time that I get data to tell me that I can optimizer traction with a different setting.


YMMV,
a

Very comfortable with adjusting pressures in accordance with tire size and desired handling .

That said, one can be several tenths of a degree out of toe alignment before it becomes really apparent, especially on narrower tires that are less prone to tramlining, and especially with stock bushings up front. Moreover, with our advanced driver assist features that tend to mask alignment issues on the highway (compared to a manual-rack twitchy Miata ), it’s easy to go a while without noticing an alignment that will tear up tires in 10k miles.

Running higher daily pressures will exacerbate edge wear on a bad alignment, though.

 

[rayrevolver]

I was curious so I went and checked my Left Front tire:
Inner 6/32
M-In 6.8/32
M-Out 7.2/32
Outer 7.2/32

Last tire rotation was 7015 miles ago and I usually wait until the front inner wear is at least 1/32nd more than the rear tire inner. I am there right now but might wait until I hit 8000 miles.

When I had 1 tire pressure gauge I knew my pressures. Now that I own 4, I am less sure.