Model X 75D run flats Recommendations

[Ruchna]

Just had an incident on a highway overpass where my tire went from 22psi to 2psi in a matter of seconds. I pulled over and the tire was flat as could be and wouldn’t hold air. I had a portable compressor and a couple Good Samaritans stopped with a huge compressor and tried as well. No luck.

No run flat tires and no spare. Seriously Tesla?
Changing all my tires to run flats. I may not be as lucky next time.

Recommendations?

 

[glide]

Run flats are garbage.

Get a compressor and slime kit.

 

[Ruchna]

Interesting. Can you share your experience?

 

[glide]

Interesting. Can you share your experience?

I had them on my BMW 5-Series. The ride was harsh and loud and they blew out constantly.

Switched to non-run flats and never had a single problem after that. I can’t think of any reason why anyone would recommend them on a Tesla.

 

[Ruchna]

Well if you were stuck in my situation today with a baby in the car and my husband out of town, you may feel differently.

It was terrifying to see 18 wheelers slamming on their brakes to avoid smashing into us.

I use this car daily to drive my kids to school so the peace of mind would go a long way for me.

 

[henderrj]

I am sorry for your trouble. I have a model S and have 220,000 miles on it. I've never had a good tire go bad yet. (I let a couple of them run too low, was busy with things and wasn't paying attention.) But my point is that I've never had a tire with decent tread go flat on me in the last 30 years. There are obviously going to be occasions, my son running over nails for instance. But that doesn't normally happen. I think the idea with all these new cars without spares is that it's so rare to have a flat tire nowadays that one just calls whatever roadside service they have and says forget it.

by the way, if it's flat anyway, and doesn't look like it can be repaired, drive on it until you get to a safe area! Who cares if you tear it to shreds. You do take a chance of ruining your rims, but even that may be worth it to avoid an accident.

 

[Hblick48]

Purchase a Modern Spare. If you can't change it yourself, at least you have something for road service to use.

 

[glide]

Well if you were stuck in my situation today with a baby in the car and my husband out of town, you may feel differently.

It was terrifying to see 18 wheelers slamming on their brakes to avoid smashing into us.

I use this car daily to drive my kids to school so the peace of mind would go a long way for me.

Well picture that happening every few months with runflats. Sure you can drive about 30 miles on them at 30mph but I can assure you that would be equally as scary if you are on the highway.

Runflats aren’t the solution to your problem that already happened.

A compressor, can of slime, and AAA membership are.

 

[Bigriver]

I had run flats on my 2005 Honda Odyssey. They sounded like a great idea. When the tread was totally gone before 20,000 miles, I wanted them off. I also had learned that changing them requires special equipment that not many places have. The service manager at my local Honda dealer said they couldn’t keep the equipment working and he proactively helped me move to conventional tires (required wheel change along with tires) and Honda even kicked in money to help. Unless the technology and support has changed dramatically, I would never consider run flats again.

 

[henderrj]

Just had an incident on a highway overpass where my tire went from 22psi to 2psi in a matter of seconds. I pulled over and the tire was flat as could be and wouldn’t hold air. I had a portable compressor and a couple Good Samaritans stopped with a huge compressor and tried as well. No luck.

No run flat tires and no spare. Seriously Tesla?
Changing all my tires to run flats. I may not be as lucky next time.

Recommendations?

22 to 2 psi? 22 PSI is half the amount of pressure that you should have in that tire. That is probably why it died. With that extremely low pressure the tire is over flexing constantly and overheating. That will always cause a catastrophic failure. I'm surprised the car wasn't yelling at you long before that about having too low tire pressure. You must keep your tires properly inflated if you want them to last.

 

[Richbot]

First of all, that sounds like it sucked, a lot. But it's curable with a little preparation.

Complete Spare Tire Kits | Tesla, BMW, Camaro, Corvette, Dodge...

Just say no to fun flats

I have done 132,000 miles and counting in a car with no spare and no runflats. I have never been stranded. I have had to use the tire goo once, and have had to plug a couple of slow leaks here and there along the way with a plug kit. Kids came home from the hospital in this car, they get driven around in it almost daily.

Runflat tires are also not going to get you home on a big heavy car if you keep driving at 0psi for more than 40 miles or so. There's a reason pickup trucks, which weigh about the same as Model X don't usually offer a runflat option. Internal friction and physics make fools of all tires eventually, even runflats.

Also, and I can't stress this enough, DON'T STOP ON THE SIDE OF A ROAD WITH A FLAT TIRE. Destroy the rim if you have to (though if you keep your speed down, you won't), get the heck off the road to the nearest parking lot or exit ramp or anywhere but the side of a highway. Roadside stopping on a highway is just about the most reliable way to end up dead on the road. I've spent a lot of time in Houston, I know the highways and divided 6-lanes and such there are not always easy to ge toff of quickly when you have a problem, but please, just, don't.

 

[Ruchna]

Thank you all for your input.

to address a few of the comments...
-that morning the tire was at 38psi, no issues. It was even fine when I started the trip then the tire went flat within seconds. I have the air pressure screen up all the time.

The car came with continentals, would y’all suggest sticking with those or something else? My car only has 22k miles on it but the original tires look like they need to be replaced already.

 

[VikH]

they blew out constantly.

What? This seems like a specific issue to your wheels and not representative of run flats overall. I have done +50k miles on 2 sets of run flats and never had a blow outs or the tire go flat.

 

[VikH]

Thank you all for your input.

to address a few of the comments...
-that morning the tire was at 38psi, no issues. It was even fine when I started the trip then the tire went flat within seconds. I have the air pressure screen up all the time.

The car came with continentals, would y’all suggest sticking with those or something else? My car only has 22k miles on it but the original tires look like they need to be replaced already.

It doesn't look like run flats are an option for the stock 20" wheels. I would recommend getting a Modern Spare and a AAA membership. If you have a flat again, you can call Tesla or AAA and they can install the Modern Spare for you.

 

[glide]

What? This seems like a specific issue to your wheels and not representative of run flats overall. I have done +50k miles on 2 sets of run flats and never had a blow outs or the tire go flat.

That is probably true. I did have the 19” sport rims so there was not much sidewall.

But the X has either 20 or 22” rims. Coupled with the fact it is a significantly heavier vehicle, I don’t see it faring much better with run flats.

 

[Lpeterson]

Just had an incident on a highway overpass where my tire went from 22psi to 2psi in a matter of seconds. I pulled over and the tire was flat as could be and wouldn’t hold air. I had a portable compressor and a couple Good Samaritans stopped with a huge compressor and tried as well. No luck.

No run flat tires and no spare. Seriously Tesla?
Changing all my tires to run flats. I may not be as lucky next time.

Recommendations?

We have a Tesla Model X and the tire blew out yesterday on the highway. We didn’t even hit a hole. It just did a major blow out. No spare no run flat tires. Had to have the car towed 75 miles, Tesla only helps within 50 miles, to a tire shop that could help us. It was a huge inconvenience and cost to not have a spare tire. Paid so much for this car, so frustrated. Checked on the run flat tires. Over $400 for each. Uhg

 

[brainhouston]

Consider used. Plenty of them on eBay for under $100. Sometimes you'll have to mix n match...
I've used 2 sets of Continentals from eBay for my BMW with about 6-9/32nds and they lasted about 50k miles (interpolated). No issues at all and drove without air couple of times to get to the pump.
OEMs were Bridgestones and lasted about 50k as well.

For stock 20s there seem to be a lot more options for 275/45R20, so consider going 275 all around.
I'd persoanlly go with Pirelli Scorpion Verde A/S MOE or Continental CrossContact LX Sport SSR or Bridgestone Alenza Sport A/S RFT.
These are good brands with good thread pattern.
I can't find anything for stock 22s...

FYI, RunFlat=RFT=SSR=MOE (different abbreviation for the same thing)

Another note, i've been told before that Runflat rims have a lip on the inside to keep the flat tire in place when driving but i just looked at BMW and Tesla rims (and others) pictures and they all have similar lip on the inside. So, possible that manufacturers started making universal rims at some point back in time or it could just be wrong info and all rims are the same...