New 18" tires needed after only 30K Miles, normal tread wear?

[Watts_Up]

How much of a toe range is there for adjusting? Can more toe be dialed in?

The technician was able to correct the toe, but informed me that in the future there might be a need to use a shim kit.

Note: I was wondering if towing mode would be use to perform the alignment to allow free rotation of the wheels.
One issue I know is that the transport mode lasts only 20 minutes, so you would need to reactivate it quite often.
Otherwise, Neutral would requires to have a person sitting on the driver seat seat.

However, here are the instructions for keeping the car without getting in Park mode:

1. Buckle the driver's seat belt before sitting in the seat.

2. With the key fob inside the vehicle, sit in the driver's seat and press the break pedal to turn the vehicule on.
The speedometer and PRND are now displayed on the instrument cluster.

3. Shift the vehicle into neutral. This release the parking break.

4. Without leaving the seat, and with the brake pedal still depressed, open the driver's door
and use a pen or a small screwdriver to engage the door latch to its fully closed position (second detent).
This causes the vehicule to behave as if the door is closed.
(To release the latch, pull the interior door handle.)

5. Exit the vehicle, it can now remain in neutral with the parking brake off.
(To engage parking brake, shift back to Park.)

 

[Watts_Up]

I’m at 24k miles since August ‘18 on my 19” Michelin’s and other than a reddish tinge to the rubber when dry, my tread has minimal wear.
I rotated my tires once at 12k miles so I’m due for another (although it’s recommended at 5-6k intervals).

Not sure how I keep track of my tire pressure monitors.

I would recommend getting one of those tire pressure gauge and thread measurement, or a combination of both.
Note: I have also an old style pressure gauge but if you are parked in a garage, there is often not enough light to read the displayed value.

$9 AstroAI Digital Tire Pressure Gauge 150 PSI 4 Settings Car Truck Bicycle Backlit LCD Non-Slip Grip

$9 Preciva Tire Tread Depth Gauge, LCD Digital Tire Tread Depth Gauge Tool 0-25 mm

$15 Measurement Limited Accutire MS-48B Digital Combination Tire Thread Depth Gauge and Tire Pressure Gauge

 

[ammulder]

Anything less than 40K is terrible IMHO. They are not cheap to replace. And eat whatever you think your saving in fuel. I’ve always come close to the rated distance on tires.

Rotate, watch your pressure and go easy on the accelerator.

Sorry, you lost me there.

 

[mswlogo]

Ah yes. Finances over safety.

Your tires are the biggest factor in your ability to safely use the car: braking and turning. You can have long life or you can have good traction.

Me? I’ll take traction every time.

Of course, I also have a heavy foot because enjoyment is more important than tire lifespan, too.

Trying to remember for sure but I don’t think I’ve ever had a set of tires make it past 20,000, but I also tend to replace before absolutely needed as well. My motorcycle front tire needs replacement every 2,500 miles or so and the rear makes it around 5,000... car tires are almost immortal in comparison.

Speaking of safety, I don’t drive it like I stole it at every red light either. And no, I don’t buy race track tires for my cars either. I have better things to piss my money away on.

 

[mswlogo]

Sorry, you lost me there.

The car is not recommend for children or those with substance abuse issues.

 

[Msjulie]

Others have mentioned but rotating tires, given everything is working properly and no alignment or other suspension woes, keeps the car's handling more predictable all around.. imagine even a little bit of marginal traction with the rears having less tread than the front: more propensity for the rear to 'come around' on turns etc. Yeah the Tesla will intervene but there are limits to corrective behavior..

When I went to skid control school (fun and educational! ) the student vehicle was a big old Ram truck with essentially bald rear tires, sized too small. Really exaggerated the difference in how front and rear stuck to the ground, add to that like 90/10 front end weight bias and of course, a wet track. Fun! Reverse that (low tread up front) and your car doesn't want to steer so much anymore..

You get the idea, also skid schools are fun and really educational. Recommended for all but especially new young drivers in areas with slippery winter road conditions.

On point to the thread, 30k sounds pretty good on a car with such power and weight.

 

[Knightshade]

Speaking of safety, I don’t drive it like I stole it at every red light either. And no, I don’t buy race track tires for my cars either. I have better things to piss my money away on.

That's great, but ignores the safety issue they were raising.

Even if you accelerate like Grandma, stickier tires can knock 20-30% off your braking distance in an emergency stop from highway speeds.

One avoided accident potentially pays for a lot of sets of tires.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

I'm doing my seasonal swap next weekend.....I have about a week to smoke the Primacys off my car....

Challenge, accepted.

 

[Lasairfion]

Discounting the changing from summer tyres to winter tyres at the appropriate season (although I'm looking at these new all-weathers for next time), I've usually had new tyres either every year or every other year (depending on use and whether it's the drive tyres or not). I don't do massive mileage either: probably 15-20k miles on a busy year, 10k miles on one that's not so busy.

Driving a front wheel drive vehicle I get through more tyres on the front end than I do on the back, If the backs are more worn than the fronts when I get them checked (which is every 6 months or so), I have them rotated. I get mid-range priced tyres because I know I'm not going to take them all the way, so the cost isn't as high as if I were putting premium rubber on every time. Also with the amount of potholes in the roads these days, and the soft verges in rural areas (which aren't as soft as the term suggests) there's a good chance I'm going to lose a tyre every so often anyway.

Interestingly with a front-wheel drive vehicle it is more important to have your good rubber on the rears (a tip given to me by the skid pan instructor). If you lose the front end you can do something about it, if you lose the back end you're scuppered. Run the Joules is right in that you're far better off spending some cash a little more often in order to be safer. Your car's grip is counting entirely on 4 patches of rubber about the size of the palm of your hand. Don't feel like you have to run your tyres to the end of their life.

As a side note: accelerator, which is what we Brits use to talk about the pedal you push to make the car go faster, seems to be the best term to use for EVs since obviously they don't use 'gas'. Now I just need to get you all to use the other correct terms for vehicle parts

 

[Twiglett]

If you lose the front end you can do something about it, if you lose the back end you're scuppered

In my experience its the other way around - assuming you can drive.
Lose the front and you're going straight into whatever is in front be it the hedge or the car coming the other way. Lifting off just gets you lift off oversteer and you're just off the other side.
Lose the rear and you simply turn into the slide and have a bit of fun still going round the corner, more power equals tail hanging out more, less power brings the tail back in, but the end result is you still get round the corner in one piece.

 

[Silicon Desert]

Rotate your tires. You! And you too! No really, it's stupid to throw away money and add to the growing pile of used tires in the world just because you didn't bother to rotate them. Do it. It's easy and cheap.

yea, I usually do that, except, I never rotated my tires on the MX before they needed to be replaced at well over 25K miles. I measured them about every 5K miles. So, I guess I am just lucky. My policy is I have a reminder in my calendar to check them about every 6 months (for my typical mileage) to make sure all is well. If not, I swap them around.

 

[jdcollins5]

On my LR-RWD, at 5k miles the rear tires were 7/32” and the fronts were still the original 8/32”. I am coming up on 10k miles and, all things being equal, I am expecting all four tires to be 7/32”.

If you do not rotate tires, and lose 1/32” every 5k miles, then you should be down to minimum 3/32” (NC) at 25k miles on the rear tires.

 

[afadeev]

Speaking of safety, I don’t drive it like I stole it at every red light either. And no, I don’t buy race track tires for my cars either. I have better things to piss my money away on.

I can't think of anything I would rather spend money on more, then the best tires I can buy for my car.
By best I mean the drippiest, those that will maximize my chance of avoiding an accident by out-braking and out-handling and average ass-clown on the road.

If you do not rotate tires, and lose 1/32” every 5k miles, then you should be down to minimum 3/32” (NC) at 25k miles on the rear tires.

You loose a LOT more than 1/32" in RWD car if you drive with passion and joy.
If you puss around, then yeah, it will even.

Lose the front and you're going straight into whatever is in front be it the hedge or the car coming the other way. Lifting off just gets you lift off oversteer and you're just off the other side.
Lose the rear and you simply turn into the slide and have a bit of fun still going round the corner, more power equals tail hanging out more, less power brings the tail back in, but the end result is you still get round the corner in one piece.

Absolutely true.
Assuming equal tread tires all around and mildly competent driver, loosing the rear axle is a lot easier to recover than the front.

If the above doesn't make intuitive sense to the reader - please do yourself a favor and sign-up for a Driver Education (DE) event with a local car club, SCCA, or similar. It will change your life, and possibly save it down the line.

a

 

[VT_EE]

Discounting the changing from summer tyres to winter tyres at the appropriate season (although I'm looking at these new all-weathers for next time), I've usually had new tyres either every year or every other year (depending on use and whether it's the drive tyres or not). I don't do massive mileage either: probably 15-20k miles on a busy year, 10k miles on one that's not so busy.

Driving a front wheel drive vehicle I get through more tyres on the front end than I do on the back, If the backs are more worn than the fronts when I get them checked (which is every 6 months or so), I have them rotated. I get mid-range priced tyres because I know I'm not going to take them all the way, so the cost isn't as high as if I were putting premium rubber on every time. Also with the amount of potholes in the roads these days, and the soft verges in rural areas (which aren't as soft as the term suggests) there's a good chance I'm going to lose a tyre every so often anyway.

Interestingly with a front-wheel drive vehicle it is more important to have your good rubber on the rears (a tip given to me by the skid pan instructor). If you lose the front end you can do something about it, if you lose the back end you're scuppered. Run the Joules is right in that you're far better off spending some cash a little more often in order to be safer. Your car's grip is counting entirely on 4 patches of rubber about the size of the palm of your hand. Don't feel like you have to run your tyres to the end of their life.

As a side note: accelerator, which is what we Brits use to talk about the pedal you push to make the car go faster, seems to be the best term to use for EVs since obviously they don't use 'gas'. Now I just need to get you all to use the other correct terms for vehicle parts

British roads are terrible for tires. The 6 roundabouts I used to drive through getting to work near Milton Keynes shredded them.

 

[mswlogo]

I can't think of anything I would rather spend money on more, then the best tires I can buy for my car.
By best I mean the drippiest, those that will maximize my chance of avoiding an accident by out-braking and out-handling and average ass-clown on the road.

I’m not sure how or why you twisted this thread from the discussion on the longevity of the all season 18” tires to your preference for high performance summer tires. My comments were in the context of the OP All Season tires that are rated for 55K miles. Sure I would expect summer tires to get a lot less. Everyone makes there own choices. I chose to get AWD which I could argue is safer than RWD. But that would be just as off topic.

I expect some owners will get 40k or more on their Primacy tires even on RWD. And I’m sure they can enjoy their car too.

 

[afadeev]

I’m not sure how or why you twisted this thread from the discussion on the longevity of the all season 18” tires to your preference for high performance summer tires.

My comment was not restricted to summer tires only.
My minivan has the best all-season tires money can buy (not summer performance tires are offered in that size). I am pretty sure they will not last as long as the "long mileage special from PepBoys", but the extra margin of performance and safety they offer is well worth it for me.

My comments were in the context of the OP All Season tires that are rated for 55K miles. Sure I would expect summer tires to get a lot less. Everyone makes there own choices. I chose to get AWD which I could argue is safer than RWD. But that would be just as off topic.

Fair point.
Alas, 18" wheels come shod with Michelin Primacy MXM4 tires. Incidentally, so did my mini-van - I kid you not!
The original set lasted me 28K miles, which I thought was exceptionally decent. Different car, similar expectations.

OP got 30K miles out of his set. I think that's pretty reasonable.

Michelin tread-ware "warranty" does not apply to OEM tires, and is purely a marketing gimmick (though a Michelin employee on this forum will gladly point out that their warranty is still theoretically awesome ). I had zero expectations that MXM4's would last 50+K miles on my van, nor would I assume that they would do so on OP's TM3.

More info here:
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=50#treadlife

I expect some owners will get 40k or more on their Primacy tires even on RWD. And I’m sure they can enjoy their car too.

Tires longevity is inversely correlated to how much fun you are having with the car.
If you are carrying speed through the turns and making them "sing", you are having fun, but also wearing them off at an accelerated rate. If you take your car to a driving school to learn how to drive properly, you will wear them off faster.

I've had tires that lasted longer than I cared to keep them on the car (yes, I threw away crap tires before they were worn out), and I had paid extra for tires that barely last me one season.

Then again, I'm sure something here thinks that I'm insane, and buying anything other than 100K mile warrantied rubbers is a waste of money. For those folks, there is Consumer Reports recommended "Pirelli P4 FOUR SEASONS ":
How to Buy Long-Lasting Tires

a

 

[israndy]

Thanks, everyone for the explosions of thoughts.

I have been running the car in Chill Mode and mostly letting the car drive so I am not racing around. Yes, I do have a tread gauge, I was just assuming I didn't need to check yet, as others have echoed. It seems early.

I am curious about the comment on the dash pressure gauge not lining up with which tire is which. I had no idea there was no correlation. It does seem that I have had luck putting air into the tire matching the low air indication. Am I the only one that expects this to match?

How are others rotating their tires? I just did it myself with a DIY jack adapter (puck), I assumed no one would rotate them for me since I didn't buy tires from anyone yet.

If I am changing tires soon does it make sense to shop for wider tires so I rub my sidewalls on the curb, not my rims?

Is there a good tire that will have better tread life? What did Consumer Reports like in an 18" tire? Any Whitewalls?

What about going to staggard wheels? Sure would make it more difficult to rotate but would look cool:

Apparently, these rims have the same bolt pattern as the Model 3, I could keep my Aero Wheels for snow tires.

How does the Tesla deal with changing the wheel size in relation to the odometer?

Lots of questions, hopefully, there are lots of answers

-Randy

 

[mswlogo]

My comment was not restricted to summer tires only.
My minivan has the best all-season tires money can buy (not summer performance tires are offered in that size). I am pretty sure they will not last as long as the "long mileage special from PepBoys", but the extra margin of performance and safety they offer is well worth it for me.

Fair point.
Alas, 18" wheels come shod with Michelin Primacy MXM4 tires. Incidentally, so did my mini-van - I kid you not!
The original set lasted me 28K miles, which I thought was exceptionally decent. Different car, similar expectations.

OP got 30K miles out of his set. I think that's pretty reasonable.

Michelin tread-ware "warranty" does not apply to OEM tires, and is purely a marketing gimmick (though a Michelin employee on this forum will gladly point out that their warranty is still theoretically awesome ). I had zero expectations that MXM4's would last 50+K miles on my van, nor would I assume that they would do so on OP's TM3.

More info here:
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=50#treadlife

Tires longevity is inversely correlated to how much fun you are having with the car.
If you are carrying speed through the turns and making them "sing", you are having fun, but also wearing them off at an accelerated rate. If you take your car to a driving school to learn how to drive properly, you will wear them off faster.

I've had tires that lasted longer than I cared to keep them on the car (yes, I threw away crap tires before they were worn out), and I had paid extra for tires that barely last me one season.

Then again, I'm sure something here thinks that I'm insane, and buying anything other than 100K mile warrantied rubbers is a waste of money. For those folks, there is Consumer Reports recommended "Pirelli P4 FOUR SEASONS ":
How to Buy Long-Lasting Tires

a

Plenty of folks get over 50K miles on Primacy's. Perhaps they know they aren't on a race track on public roads.

https://www.tirerack.com/survey/SurveyComments.jsp?&category=tire&additionalComments=y&commentStatus=P&tireMake=Michelin&tireModel=Primacy+MXM4&fromTireDetail=true&partnum=345WR8MXM4PXL&tirePageLocQty=&partnum=345WR8MXM4PXL

I'm sure that minivan took corners great too.

 

[C141medic]

Michelin tread-ware "warranty" does not apply to OEM tires, and is purely a marketing gimmick (though a Michelin employee on this forum will gladly point out that their warranty is still theoretically awesome ).

I see that you love to continue spreading misinformation in this forum. Anyone can check Michelin’s web site and see that they do have a warranty that covers OEM tires. Please reference some actual sources as to how Michelin’s warranty is a “marketing gimmick” as you call it. Perhaps you work for a competitor?

 

[mswlogo]

Thanks, everyone for the explosions of thoughts.

I have been running the car in Chill Mode and mostly letting the car drive so I am not racing around. Yes, I do have a tread gauge, I was just assuming I didn't need to check yet, as others have echoed. It seems early.

I am curious about the comment on the dash pressure gauge not lining up with which tire is which. I had no idea there was no correlation. It does seem that I have had luck putting air into the tire matching the low air indication. Am I the only one that expects this to match?

How are others rotating their tires? I just did it myself with a DIY jack adapter (puck), I assumed no one would rotate them for me since I didn't buy tires from anyone yet.

If I am changing tires soon does it make sense to shop for wider tires so I rub my sidewalls on the curb, not my rims?

Is there a good tire that will have better tread life? What did Consumer Reports like in an 18" tire? Any Whitewalls?

What about going to staggard wheels? Sure would make it more difficult to rotate but would look cool:

Apparently, these rims have the same bolt pattern as the Model 3, I could keep my Aero Wheels for snow tires.

How does the Tesla deal with changing the wheel size in relation to the odometer?

Lots of questions, hopefully, there are lots of answers

-Randy

I've never seen TPMS not match on any car and I know mine match. They might act a little strange when switching tires or rotation until it settles down. The sensors are very close to each wheel.

I rotate my tires myself too. But I tend to do it as a by product of changing wheels seasonally.
I'm always puzzled when people have to schedule appointments and pay people to rotate tires.
If anything, it's one less opportunity for someone to F up my car or wheels.
It would be more work putting my tires in the car and bringing them than it would be to swap them.

I just put 19" Pirelli P7+ All Seasons that are "rated" for 70K miles. It doesn't mean I'll get that but the reviews on TireRack were fantastic on quietness and tread life. I don't think they make the right size in 18".

What do is look on TireRack for a potential tire and when you look at reviews you can filter it by reviews with high mileage.
Some tires you won't see an high mileage reviews because they never made it that far. Just seeing how many reviews at each mileage is a good hint on their tread life.