WilliamG
Hinge Fanatic
Many of us have T2, - been fitted for the last 3-4 months or so. Mine was delivered early June.
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Plaid 21” rear tire woes - factory defect?
- Thread starter KOL2000
- Start date
So my June 2021 plaid was delivered with the T1 rear tires. I currently have 8500 miles on them and this is what they look like. Fairly even wear and the inside edge doesn't look anything like some of the worn out/damaged tires in this post. I do a lot of spirited driving and street racing with plenty of launches. I have always driven with the default of low suspension. I'm not lowered and always kept them between 40-42psi.
Anyway, the reason I took this one off today is because after a night of racing I noticed it started to drop a few PSI. Sadly, I picked up a nail. My new local discount tire patched it for free but now I have to find a place to order them from as there is no way I'm going to trust a repaired/patched tire at high speeds. Discount tire couldn't find them in their system so I'm waiting for them to call back to see if they can get them directly from Michelin. Anyway have luck finding some in stock?
Anyway, the reason I took this one off today is because after a night of racing I noticed it started to drop a few PSI. Sadly, I picked up a nail. My new local discount tire patched it for free but now I have to find a place to order them from as there is no way I'm going to trust a repaired/patched tire at high speeds. Discount tire couldn't find them in their system so I'm waiting for them to call back to see if they can get them directly from Michelin. Anyway have luck finding some in stock?
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It's a SHARED responsibility to provide an OEM tire, with plenty of supposed testing required prior to launch.
Obviously, the testing was either done too late, or the results ignored, or there is a latent tire defect that wasn't exposed in their accelerated testing, or some combination of these.
That said, not one complaint to be found on the Pirelli OEM 19" tire also used on the Plaid, thus suggesting that an increasing percentage of the blame shifts to Michelin given that there are also NONE of these tires available globally, or so it appears . . . .
The cars become an accident waiting to happen, or just bricks, with a tire failure.
That’s good to know. I’m on 21 inch p101 hre 21x10.5 rear with ET 35 on Michelin 4s 295/30/21 the “T2” subtype. Hopefully it won’t be an issue. I have the n2itive adjustable rear camber control arms on preorder as well….
MFrunkerOG
Active Member
I do have a full set of spare 19” wheels waiting for someone who’s going to die on the 21s to save themselves with
It won't be someone reading these threads who will be killed, but the 95%+ who don't, and that have no clue that the inner sidewall of their rear tires is showing steel and is going to come apart on their next high-speed run . . . .I do have a full set of spare 19” wheels waiting for someone who’s going to die on the 21s to save themselves with
Wish Michelin and Tesla would give a damn but crickets so far. Odd.
MFrunkerOG
Active Member
Camber me this
problen solvedAttachments
Any reply from Discount Tire yet?
Curious if yours has any supply as the locations near me have nothing, and don't expect any, for "six to twelve months" which is, of course, insane.
Discount tire called me back today and said Michelin told them to check back in 4 more weeks to see if any stock is available lol. They could get the regular ps4s tires but not the T2 tesla specific version. Found some T2 tires on ebay and T Sportline... both claimed to have stock. Just before I ordered from them, my local Tesla service center confirmed they had the T2 tires in stock and my appointment is set for next Tuesday. Their price closely matched ebay and T Sportline.
Hayseed_MS
Spreader of "Endless Non Sequitur"
Michelin now has the Pilot Sport EV in the 21" sizes to match OEM. Wonder if any of this was addressed for those versions.
Daniel454
Member
Very interesting, at first I thought they might have just taken the ones they engineered for Tesla / Lucid and created a new line but I see a different tread wear warranty on those so that leads me to think they are a different compound....
DaBean
Member
FWIW I checked my tire pressures after 1,200 miles and found that they were all at 35. Door sticker said 40 so bumped them to that.
Where does this group get the direction to pump up to 42 or 45?
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I think it depends on the tires that are on the car. This is the door sticker from my first Tesla (85D) and I kind of stick with that.
DaBean
Member
Looks like that's the older version of the car, which happens to be heavier and on 19s -- agreed that they make it dependent on the tire size.
I'll keep to 40-42, with 40 being recommended
Pay attention to how your tire wears.
If the outer edges are wearing out faster than the center then you need to increase the pressure.
If the center is wearing out faster than the outer edges then you need to decrease the pressure.
I view the number on the door jamb as a starting point. After watching how my tires wear, I always end up adding a few psi.
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Michelin update, as of 22 Sep 2022; mid-day.
Finally, some potentially good news after a phone call with Michelin HQ that lasted just under a full hour.
Now that we're approaching ~3 weeks from my initial input to Michelin on this issue, and over two weeks since I filed a formal email reply with photographs and links to this thread (and others), I had had enough with their "crickets" response.
I called the Michelin support number for warranty claims (866.866.6605; which ALSO works for sending them texts apparently) for follow up and to see what was going on. Their "Radio silent" reply was just plain rude.
First level CS reported replacement 21" Tesla spec tires coming in, you guessed, "about four weeks." (It's the answer for any and all questions at Michelin;-)
I explained there was a massive "Firestone Level safety issue here" and requested a supervisor as this greatly needs some escalation. Finally reached a nice guy "A," a 20-year+ veteran of Michelin, who started by looking into the tire supply issue (they always begin there). He reported that many, many Tesla tires are coming into the US by early October, and to consumers by mid-October, assuming all goes well.
I thanked him for his efforts on that end of the issue, but then redirected our conversation to the safety aspect of what is going on here, particularly the "ticking time bombs" of what I'll call "pre-accident tires" that are on the cusp of exploding at high speed, without notice or warning. He finally stared digging into my photographs, and possibly some on this thread (and there are many, many scary tire photographs here; please feel free to add yours!), and realized that this is an inner sidewall wear/defect, and NOT a treadwear issue per se.
I explained that it IS NOT AN ALIGHNMENT ISSUE either as the rear camber on a Model S is fixed/not adjustable, despite the number of people here paying big money ($300?) for alignments which do absolutely nothing to address the issue.
I emphasized that the average Tesla Plaid owner is NOT going to be on his/her hands and knees every other day looking at their inner rear tire sidewalls, and that only SOME of the tires manifest impending failure with a slow air leak. Furthermore, running an already defective tire at low pressure only exacerbates the problem as heat is the enemy of tires, accelerating tire degradation and failure.
I dare say that he was the first employee at EITHER Tesla OR Michelin to "get it" when it comes to how much danger is laying in wait for an unexpecting MS driver . . . .
The net result was that he was going to escalate this to his supervisors at Michelin, although it would have been far better to send a straight-to-Michelin's-Safety-and-Legal-Departments memo. (I don't think he quite understands just how expensive a punitive damage claim can be when a company has repeated inputs regarding a major product defect, yet does nothing to investigate further. There's no malice needed, just a normal yet grossly incompetent internal communication process will do it . . . ).
Net result: he'll escalate the issue to his supervisor, but who knows if he or she will "get it" either.
Haven't followed up yet with a NHTSA safercar.gov safety filing yet, but will do so later this week.
If only Tesla had a safety input system perhaps they might care a bit, but the two SC's I've visited just shrug and suggest an alignment, and they don't have any tires anyway. So it's "Next customer in line please!"
Sigh.
Suggestions:
1. A call or text to Michelin (866.866.6605) for EVERYONE one on this thread. Emphasize that absent knowledge from this thread, there is almost no way for the average Tesla owner to know how close they are to a high-speed tire failure.
2. Safercar.gov filing to see if perhaps the NHTSA can reach a human at Tesla that might get the risks posed here.
3. Sadly, we'll all be on our hands and knees looking at our inner rear tire sidewalls for a long time to come.
Finally, some potentially good news after a phone call with Michelin HQ that lasted just under a full hour.
Now that we're approaching ~3 weeks from my initial input to Michelin on this issue, and over two weeks since I filed a formal email reply with photographs and links to this thread (and others), I had had enough with their "crickets" response.
I called the Michelin support number for warranty claims (866.866.6605; which ALSO works for sending them texts apparently) for follow up and to see what was going on. Their "Radio silent" reply was just plain rude.
First level CS reported replacement 21" Tesla spec tires coming in, you guessed, "about four weeks." (It's the answer for any and all questions at Michelin;-)
I explained there was a massive "Firestone Level safety issue here" and requested a supervisor as this greatly needs some escalation. Finally reached a nice guy "A," a 20-year+ veteran of Michelin, who started by looking into the tire supply issue (they always begin there). He reported that many, many Tesla tires are coming into the US by early October, and to consumers by mid-October, assuming all goes well.
I thanked him for his efforts on that end of the issue, but then redirected our conversation to the safety aspect of what is going on here, particularly the "ticking time bombs" of what I'll call "pre-accident tires" that are on the cusp of exploding at high speed, without notice or warning. He finally stared digging into my photographs, and possibly some on this thread (and there are many, many scary tire photographs here; please feel free to add yours!), and realized that this is an inner sidewall wear/defect, and NOT a treadwear issue per se.
I explained that it IS NOT AN ALIGHNMENT ISSUE either as the rear camber on a Model S is fixed/not adjustable, despite the number of people here paying big money ($300?) for alignments which do absolutely nothing to address the issue.
I emphasized that the average Tesla Plaid owner is NOT going to be on his/her hands and knees every other day looking at their inner rear tire sidewalls, and that only SOME of the tires manifest impending failure with a slow air leak. Furthermore, running an already defective tire at low pressure only exacerbates the problem as heat is the enemy of tires, accelerating tire degradation and failure.
I dare say that he was the first employee at EITHER Tesla OR Michelin to "get it" when it comes to how much danger is laying in wait for an unexpecting MS driver . . . .
The net result was that he was going to escalate this to his supervisors at Michelin, although it would have been far better to send a straight-to-Michelin's-Safety-and-Legal-Departments memo. (I don't think he quite understands just how expensive a punitive damage claim can be when a company has repeated inputs regarding a major product defect, yet does nothing to investigate further. There's no malice needed, just a normal yet grossly incompetent internal communication process will do it . . . ).
Net result: he'll escalate the issue to his supervisor, but who knows if he or she will "get it" either.
Haven't followed up yet with a NHTSA safercar.gov safety filing yet, but will do so later this week.
If only Tesla had a safety input system perhaps they might care a bit, but the two SC's I've visited just shrug and suggest an alignment, and they don't have any tires anyway. So it's "Next customer in line please!"
Sigh.
Suggestions:
1. A call or text to Michelin (866.866.6605) for EVERYONE one on this thread. Emphasize that absent knowledge from this thread, there is almost no way for the average Tesla owner to know how close they are to a high-speed tire failure.
2. Safercar.gov filing to see if perhaps the NHTSA can reach a human at Tesla that might get the risks posed here.
3. Sadly, we'll all be on our hands and knees looking at our inner rear tire sidewalls for a long time to come.
Is the Michelin EV tire warranty better (more miles) or worse than the OEM Pilot Sport 4S tires? (I don't know what the OEM tires are warranted for in the first place.)
Daniel454
Member
DaBean
Member
Wow thanks for (1) taking the time to work with Michelin, and (2) spelling out steps for us to take
Please keep us posted here if/when they get back to you. Definitely curious to know whether it's a manufacturing defect with the tires, or something wrong with the cars.
I'm at 1k miles and no apparent issues yet, but this thread has me crawling on all fours regularly now
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