Mismatched Tires for P85D?

[Nashville P85D]

My P85D came from factory with ContiSportContact 5's - 21" Wheels and non-staggered set up.

At 5K miles I had to replace rear tires and replaced them with the OEM ContiSportContact 5's. Currently at 8K miles and now time to look at replacing other two tires.

Looking at making a change to something with a longer wear rating like the Conti DW. I have never mismatched tires before as: 1. It would bother me to have different tires on the car 2. In my other AWD cars I was always under the impression that mismatching is bad for the differential. I am considering just ordering two Conti DW's and putting them up front and leaving the recently replaced ContiSportContract 5's on the rear as they are only 7/32 worn.

Thoughts? Feedback?

Thanks In Advance!

 

[AWDtsla]

Likely to induce either disappointing or dangerous handling characteristics.

Pictures of wear and build date?

 

[mkspeedr]

5k??? Sounds like you enjoyed the miles with some spirited driving.

 

[Nashville P85D]

Car is a Jan 2015 Build. I've pushed it hard a fair number of times but nothing outrageous (from my perspective) - I drive to and from the office every day and that's in a fair bit of traffic. When I replaced the rears the dealer seemed to think this was totally normal and nothing out of the ordinary. I've had plenty of high performance cars including a GT3, R8, GTR, M5 etc. and never had to replace so quickly.

Based on the input here I may just purchase 4 new Conti DW's. I just hate to 'waste' the fairly new rear tires with 7/32's.

 

[mkspeedr]

I agree. 5K is very low. Mine P85D did about 10K. I had an EVO for some reason would get less than 2,500 miles on a set of tires (on the street) but that probably was not the car/tire fault :smile:

 

[Gizmotoy]

I agree. 5K is very low. Mine P85D did about 10K. I had an EVO for some reason would get less than 2,500 miles on a set of tires (on the street) but that probably was not the car/tire fault :smile:

My Evo's now at ~30k on its set of Z1 Star Specs (HUGE tread blocks, about as close as you can get to a DOT-legal race tire) from 2008. I agree that the cause likely sits *behind* the wheel. :biggrin:

The Tesla responds pretty well to frequent rotations. I've been swapping mine every 2500 miles and am up to ~20k, but I have the advantage of having all-seasons and coil suspension. Low on the air suspension really blows out the camber in the rear, causing the car to chew through tires pretty fast, making frequent rotation even more important.

Regarding the mismatched sets: you're right, they ARE bad for an AWD car's differential. The thing is, the Model S has two independent motors in place of a single motor with a center differential, so among AWD cars it's uniquely able to support mismatched sets.

That said, it's still not a great idea. You want predictable handling, especially in a 4000+lb car, and a mismatched set won't help. On the other hand, with vastly different wear front/rear, you're essentially already running "mismatched" tires, so it's hard to say if the result of changing to a different model tire will be better or worse than your current situation. Certainly the safe thing to do is to swap them all out and start rotating them as frequently as possible.

 

[mkspeedr]

20K - that is great. I need to rotate the tires more and see if that helps. I am pretty sure there is no hope to fix the cause behind the wheel. BTW - my family has a special love for EVOs.

 

[Nashville P85D]

Thanks all - based on the feedback I think I'll buy 4 new tires all the way around and start to rotate them frequently. I may start driving in valet mode also!

 

[bradhs]

My understanding is mismatch side by side is important, front to back not so much.

Thanks all - based on the feedback I think I'll buy 4 new tires all the way around and start to rotate them frequently. I may start driving in valet mode also!

 

[mobe]

What's an EVO?

 

[mkspeedr]

A Mitsubishi Evolution is an AWD with rally car heritage. Awesome go cart...I mean track car...I mean street car.