The sv104s are on my short list. Mind sharing your tire and wheel specs? And how many miles do you have on this setup without the wear issue?
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Plaid 21” rear tire woes - factory defect?
- Thread starter KOL2000
- Start date
MFrunkerOG
Active Member
I’m in Georgia too. Be happy to show it to you sometime. Wheels
Front - 20X9.5 et 30
Rear - 20X10.5 et 35
Tires are 265/40R20 front and 295/35R20 rear - Michelin PS4 all seasons
Thanks for sharing specs.
I was thinking about 20" since first day of purchase, and liked sv104. Specs, exactly as I will probably install.
Time to order new tires. That is the dreaded separation and you can see the line of excessive wear. It may take a while to get them based on recent history. Is that an aftermarket link in the suspension?
HighPotential
Member
One perhaps informative bit of info is that on my worn tire, the wear was not even, it was sinusoidal as it went around the tire. Like pulsing. This tells me the tire is stretching and deforming. Maybe more info that the tire is structurally failing as opposed to even wear due to just bad alignment.
A 20" set of SV104s was my solution as well. I went with slightly different specs to get a little more rubber in the back and keep the front and rear tires the same diameter. I know, the OE Arachnid tires are different heights as well but that's always bothered me...
Front - 20x9.5 ET30 265/40/20
Rear - 20x11 ET40 305/35/20
I put another set of PS4S tires on there so we'll see how that goes. They're non-OEM so maybe that'll make a difference too.
Also worth noting, the 20" Signature rims are nearly 15 lbs *per rim* lighter than the Arachnids, for an overall reduction of about 55 lbs of rotating mass. It's probably my imagination but the car does feel a little snappier!
MFrunkerOG
Active Member
Definitely not your imagination. The steering responsiveness with the lighter wheels (and lighter rotors for me too) is very very apparent.
Yes, it does to me, a non-tire expert . . . .
I'd file a warranty claim with any Michelin reseller, but Discount Tire may be the best for this sort of thing. Good luck getting a replacement tire anytime soon, however, so best to begin this process now.
Thanks bro !
I opened case within Michelin, next is to visit right dealer, apparently costco is in list. TireTrack, DiscountTire are not close to me.
I do not have aftermarket link, but I used to drive in Low mode for last 8 months, since vibration is less pronounced in this mode. Less than 1 year & 10k miles only.
To all:
- Should I request replacement for both rear tires ? Also curious about front as well, they looks much better.
- Is it safe to keep driving ?
HighPotential
Member
Fronts do not have this problem. Since you have10,000 miles, I would ask Michelin to replace both back tires.
Concur. I suspect your other rear tire will have a similar tear/rip in the tread.
As for safety, well, what are your options? It's either drive it (carefully!), or park it, as there are likely none of the rear tires in stock (again) . . . .
There IS a message to Michelin in the inventory of these tires being so quickly absorbed by retail demand so I hope they'll gin up some production and generate a recall or buy-back program ASAP.
Please keep us posted on where (if) you find a replacement set.
While some have reported failures well before 10k miles, as MS Plaids approach and exceed 10k miles, I posit that these tires are coming apart all over the country and we're only catching a very small fraction of the total tire failures here on TMC . . . . Only Michelin and their retailers will know for sure, and I certainly hope that this problem is taken seriously, and corrected, before there's a headline about a highspeed Model S accident somewhere. I fear it's only a matter of time before that will happen if they (Michelin and Tesla) don't get serious about this issue.
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Sorry, but have to disagree. I feel it IS Michelin's fault for the following reasons, and this is based upon the very small sample size of the failures that we find here on TMC--there are likely hundreds of others that we'll never know about:
1. To the best of my knowledge, both the 19" and 21" wheels have the IDENTICAL suspension specs.
2. Thus, if it was a "Tesla" issue we would expect to see similar tread delamination with the 19" OEM tires. (Pirelli P4's IIRC?)
3. We have not seen even one Plaid OEM 19" tire failure, to my knowledge--not one--on this very long thread or any of the others.
4. These failures occur on tires with significant tread depth, all the way across the tire, all the way to the inner tread blocks.
5. Tires are not simple, they are highly engineered products and mistakes can happen. The above facts suggest there is a likely tire design or construction flaw that is causing chronic and widespread tread/inner sidewall failures on the OEM 21" Michelin tires, on tires with minimal to medium tread wear, and because, again, these failures do not appear on any other brand of tire . . . .
Your thoughts?
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Where did you get those? Are they the 21" Tesla OEM Michelins with the foam noise liners?For what it is worth, new T2 do exist ......... just got a set delivered .............. now if a rear adjustable camber arm comes before Christmas I'll be set
1) The 19" tires also have a much taller sidewall which allows for more flex when the pressure is applied to that thin strip of the tire. 20" aftermarket setups also have more sidewall flex.
2) see above
3) see above (again)
4) when the majority of the weight of the car is placed on a thin strip of the tire, obviously it is going to wear more. Do you think you will have even wear across the surface if the majority of the weight is placed in one area? If so, can you explain your thoughts on why all cars benefit from tire rotations to extend the life of the tires?
5) it doesn't happen to only Michelins, it has happened to other brands. I have a set of 21" goodyear F1's on my car now that has also started to wear down my left rear inside tire after just 1,000 miles or so, just like it wore down the left rear inside OEM 21" Michelin. - Ever stop to think on why almost every single person also only has an issue with 1 tire? and not both? It's a car alignment issue, that's why.
I'm in the process of ruining these goodyear F1's just to prove a point so people get over the 'blame Michelin' thing on here. I'm going to run it down until it cuts into the tire, but not to the point it has a blowout. But, I also reckon that people have already made up their mind that this is Michelin's fault, and they will write mine off as an outlier, so I have an extra set of rear F1's to do this not once, but twice to stop this ridiculous debate.
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Absent any data, how can you possibly know what you posit in Item 4?
You wrote:
4) when the majority of the weight of the car is placed on a thin strip of the tire, obviously it is going to wear more. Do you think you will have even wear across the surface if the majority of the weight is placed in one area?
IF this were the case, which I find absurd, it would create massive wear on the wheel bearings and we'd be hearing of wheel bearings failing left and right. It makes little sense, especially given the redesigned suspension on the Palladium MS. Likewise, the wear is NOT occurring at the tread face, even on the inside edge, with most/all tires showing consistent wear across the tire. Instead, we have many photographs of tearing and delamination at the inner sidewall and tread junction. (There were suspicions of scoring from the suspension suggested early on, that's how "off tread" the damage is.)
Tires are complicated, despite their appearance. Thus, I suggest we leave the tire engineering to the experts and just look at the facts we have before us:
1. Tires with significant tread left are coming apart at the inner sidewall and tread junction.
2. Thus far, there are no reports of this occurring with any OEM 19" Pirelli tires, despite identical (AFAIK) suspension settings.
3. There is a massive dearth of 21" Michelin replacement tires, likely because a LOT of tires are failing.
4. There appears to be minimal to no action by NHTSA or Michelin to replace these tires, thus far. We sincerely hope there will be a recall or service action before there's an accident, especially with the first Plaid shipments to Germany, for Autobahn driving, arriving about now . . . . Give them a year or two in service, combine with someone's very bad luck, and we'll see some horrific headlines if this problem isn't addressed.
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