Managed to use up a set of rear tires in 5400 miles...

[NigelM]

I'm down to the bars on the rears, 12k miles and they're being replaced tomorrow. Fronts look fine still. Never bothered to rotate the Roadster AD07s as they wear out too fast and so I expected this to happen on the S and didn't rotate them.

 

[strider]

Yea, the default 21s are really sticky. I'm definitely going to find a longer lasting tire next time, though I know I'll sacrifice some performance for it. Mostly poorer cornering I guess, but I'm not as wild there as on straight launches.

It will affect your straight launches too. Computer will notice slipping and reduce power. Only lights the TC light if the slipping is egregious. So you can have reduced power w/o the light.

 

[ckessel]

It will affect your straight launches too. Computer will notice slipping and reduce power. Only lights the TC light if the slipping is egregious. So you can have reduced power w/o the light.

I can't imagine it'd be worse in stickiness than the 19s. Is launch performance worse with the 19s?

 

[lolachampcar]

Yes, and in short......

Tesla engineered the roughly 2 degrees of negative camber in the rear of MS to control transient response. That is a fancy way of saying they want the tire to catch the back of the car when you violently whip the wheel from left to right then back again trying to avoid some lunatic that just pulled out in front of you.

I was comfortable reducing the camber in the rear of my MS have done the same thing on several other cars in an attempt to control inside should wear. I also am perfectly happy with the stability of the back of my car following the change but that in no way means its the right thing for other people.

Lastly, one of the Tesla engineers told me that there is some tolerance between the bolts and the inner sleeve of the bushings. It is possible to loosen the bolts on the upper suspension arm then load the upright in the desired direction and retighten them. This provides for a small amount of adjustment. He mentioned this when we were talking about a 0.6 degree camber difference between the right and left side of my car.

 

[Doug_G]

The alignment is like that on purpose to prevent lift throttle oversteer.

Here's a demonstration of throttle lift oversteer. The driver gets nervous about the traffic in front of him and lifts off while still in the corner. S2000's in particular really don't like that!

What happens is the weights shifts to the front, and that reduces the grip on the rear wheels. They then attempt to pass the front wheels... in this case, successfully.

Now you can see why Tesla might be a little concerned about that, especially given the strong regen.

 

[dadaleus]

Either I have a much lighter foot than you (which would seem surprising, I love flooring my P85) or it varies by car. I just replaced my rear 21" Continentals after 20k miles. I did rotate the tires once at 12.5k miles. My wear pattern looks just like yours (the inside edge is where the wear is).

This time I plan to have my rear tires swapped between the left and right wheel at my upcoming 25k service and again at my 37.5k service in hopes that will stretch out the life.

 

[herbvdh]

I'm no expert, but that wear looks wrong to me. Is that the outside edge of the tire?
The center of the tire still has good tread depth and isn't quite down to the wear bars.

Your observation is correct. These are the Continental DW or Dry Wet tires the wear bars show different depths as the tires are designed to tell you Do not use when wet, etc. The center indicates he can still drive provided it is dry out. I have the Dry/Wet/Snow tires on my SUV (RX400h) these will have three different depth marks. So when I wear out the snow section I still can drive in wet or dry situations. For me I have to replace before November if my snow section is worn out.

 

[Oreo]

Rotating the tires won't help - you would have to have them dismounted and remounted on the other side wheel for two reasons. 1) the tires are directional, and 2) if you took the left rear tire and moved it to the right rear the same part of the tire would be to the inside so you would still be wearing the same part of the tire.

Am I lost, or isn't this a contradiction?
If you do place them rolling the same direction, wouldn't the inside part of the tire be on the outside when swapped from left to right and vice versa?

I agree in 2) if you didn't dismount the tires, and then the rolling direction would change as well.

 

[dflye]

The 21" tires on my S definitely have an inside vs outside orientation. So there is no way to reverse the tire on the rim and get wear on the mostly unused outer edge. You can definitely reverse the rotation of the tires (as that was the recommendation of the service tech when he rotated my tires a few months ago) by swapping left/right when moving the rears to the front.

Here is what my rear left tire looks like after 12.5k miles (of which it spent the first ~6k as a front tire)

 

[lolachampcar]

Manufacturers make directional tires of which these are examples. I have moved tires across the car (dismounted and remounted) effectively running the "Outside" marking on the inside. I could not tell a lick of difference in the performance wet or dry. I'm not saying it is the right thing to do for everyone but it certainly worked for me.

 

[strider]

Am I lost, or isn't this a contradiction?
If you do place them rolling the same direction, wouldn't the inside part of the tire be on the outside when swapped from left to right and vice versa?

I agree in 2) if you didn't dismount the tires, and then the rolling direction would change as well.

Sorry, I should have said "wheel". The OP was talking about "rotating the tires" which to me meant swapping the wheels (without dismounting the tires).

 

[Lyon]

You didn't duck quite fast enough: I nailed you between the eyes with a solid groan. Surprised that no one else did, actually.

Well the conversation got serious, I suppose, which is okay with me. I was just trying to find a little humor in having to spend an extra $800+ for two new tires.

As far as bad puns though I thought it was pretty good. :biggrin:

 

[lolachampcar]

If they were Pilots, it would have been $1050 plus M&B. More humor please!

 

[ddenboer]

So my car is currently in for service, and they want $900 for new rears at 13k miles. I haven't seen the tires to check wear, but I am not paying that when I can save 300-400 having it done elsewhere (heck, Sears will do all four tires for $896).

 

[dflye]

So my car is currently in for service, and they want $900 for new rears at 13k miles. I haven't seen the tires to check wear, but I am not paying that when I can save 300-400 having it done elsewhere (heck, Sears will do all four tires for $896).

Dropped my car off for 12k service since we're out of town in wife's ICE for a long road trip in the SC-deprived southern US; got similar news about 0mm tread on inside, 2-3mm in center, recommend replace all 4 (had them rotated at about 6k)... but they want 1500 for a set of 4 Yokohama Extreme Contact 245/35R21, pllus 200 labor!! So maybe slightly cheaper per tire than what you were quoted, but not by much.

Replied to the email quote that they can either come back with a realistic price quote or I'd get the tires done at Sears, which claims a set of 4 Continentals would run me about 950 including installation before unspecified shipping costs to the local Sears service center (which I can't imagine would bring it even remotely up to the price Tesla wants)

 

[lolachampcar]

I need to start keeping track as there are a good number of owners saying they are getting great milage from their tires. It could all come down to the right most pedal but somehow I do not think so.

Also, someone on another thread mentioned Hankook as a VERY good option. I've not tried them myself but a few other forum members chimed in that they had good success with them as well. You would have to do all four at once (versus the Contis) to keep the rolling diameter and handling characteristics but it may be worth it. They should out perform the Contis.

 

[dsm363]

I don't know if this varies by service center but they may install tires you buy from tirerack.com and ship to service center. I had that done on my Roadster.

 

[StephenM]

Also, someone on another thread mentioned Hankook as a VERY good option. I've not tried them myself but a few other forum members chimed in that they had good success with them as well. You would have to do all four at once (versus the Contis) to keep the rolling diameter and handling characteristics but it may be worth it. They should out perform the Contis.

And on TireRack the Hankooks are also 42% cheaper after the mail-in rebate. If there isn't a large performance trade off for running Hankooks I'm going to go that route.

 

[dsm363]

And on TireRack the Hankooks are also 42% cheaper after the mail-in rebate. If there isn't a large performance trade off for running Hankooks I'm going to go that route.

Found this review
Tire Test: Nine Affordable Summer Tires Take On the Michelin PS2 Comparison Tests - Page 10 - Car and Driver

It seems to get mostly positive reviews on tirerack but more negatives than others. I guess not bad for the price at least as a daily driver.

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

I just got 4 new 21" Hankooks from tire rack and the local placed waved the mounting and balance :biggrin: 800 out the door -$80 mail in rebate!
not bad. ride pretty good, quieter than the DW's were.

Felt sooo much better than when I went in to get them put on, my inner edge of 1 tire had about 2-3 inches of cord showing!

I haven't pushed these tires hard yet (since I want them to last 20K ? haha) but they ride well and I can floor it now without spinning up to 45 mph+