Premature Tire Life

[Uncle Paul]

If tesla logs show aggressive driving, then maybe the kid had something to do with the excessive tire wear.

Way off alignment should have exhibited strange handling that could have been noticed by the driver.

Need more information to get to the bottom of this issue.

One hour on an autocross track could also have done this.

Everyone seems to be blaming someone else. Unless someone stands up to accept the blame it will continue to be a mystery.

 

[adaptabl]

Interesting that big brother is riding along recording your driving habits. Ready for them to download at any time they like.

 

[gaswalla]

Our model 3 is down to less than 1 mm of thread in the rear tires after 6000 miles. It is not driven aggressively. I believe there is a issue with premature tire wear with that high torque to the rear wheels.

 

[Julie's MS]

Like in the 80's with the 5.0 Mustang and young driver.

Tyres wear depends how the car is driven.

Sorry to see the damage caused. It's a powerful car for any new driver

Would be great if you could get Tesla could add parental controls so one could limit power for teenagers.

Maybe insurance companies could also offer cheaper insurance if performance is down graded for teenagers / New Drivers.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Our model 3 is down to less than 1 mm of thread in the rear tires after 6000 miles. It is not driven aggressively. I believe there is a issue with premature tire wear with that high torque to the rear wheels.

You know there's a pedal on the right that adjusts torque
Seriously though you might want to check the alignment. Is there toe in (or out) on the rear? That's really the only way to wear tires that fast other than aggressive driving.

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

Here's what happens with -1.9 camber with a Model S.
...

that is what happens with 'Toe out' and negative camber. not just the negative camber. if you have as much rear toe in as you can put on the S the tires actually wear mostly even if you drive really hard. like I wore out a set of RE71R staggered tires in a few hundred miles with the tread completely smooth across the entire tire- looked like a racing slick when I was done.

 

[flashflooder]

Our model 3 is down to less than 1 mm of thread in the rear tires after 6000 miles. It is not driven aggressively. I believe there is a issue with premature tire wear with that high torque to the rear wheels.

That's crazy to me. Even when I punch it, the cars on my M3 barely even chirp. Unless you're literally driving around town like it's an autocross track, I can't fathom how this could be happening.

 

[MP3Mike]

That's crazy to me. Even when I punch it, the cars on my M3 barely even chirp. Unless you're literally driving around town like it's an autocross track, I can't fathom how this could be happening.

If you disconnect one of the ABS sensors you can do burn-outs. That is my guess as to what happened here.

 

[snakeopus121]

The M3 cannot spin tires even in snow:

If the ABS/traction control was disabled, wouldn't Tesla know that from the logs?

 

[Zaphod]

How in the hell would you not notice tire wear like that? That didn't just happen over course of few miles. Could see the steel wires sticking out 20ft away. It would have to be seriously out of alignment to have that much accelerated wear. Surely should have noticed some extra tire noise or something that would have made question if something is wrong.

 

[gaswalla]

Not sure why folks are intent on blaming the drivers here...

 

[Daniel in SD]

Not sure why folks are intent on blaming the drivers here...

I guess you were never a teenage driver? haha.
Seriously though the only way you could get that much wear on the outside of the tire in that short of distance and have it not be the driver's fault is to have both toe and positive camber. It just seems very unlikely for that to happen. I'm also curious how you break a wheel just by having a tire blowout. I've personally never seen that happen. Another theory is that car slid in to a curb both messing up the alignment and weakening the wheel. The OP should definitely get the alignment checked.

 

[FlyNavy01]

Yeah 45psi of tire pressure isn't anywhere near enough to "break" an aluminum alloy wheel. Based purely on the very limited information and photos, I'd agree with the post above and speculate this is some combo of donuts/burnouts that ended up sliding into something to damage the wheel and knock the alignment out of spec.

 

[ltgfrk]

I have no doubt that he has a lead foot. I have my entire life. However, even on my S I can get a minimum of 10K miles out of my 21 inch tires. Also never gotten less than 10k on the 22 inch on the X. I have spoken with several people at the tire shop who looked at the car. They also looked at the alignment. They said it was severely out of alignment. I also have Teslafi set up for his car so I can see by the energy consumption what type of driving he’s doing. It’s not all hard driving as it’s really impossible to do with the traffic here.

 

[Daniel in SD]

I have no doubt that he has a lead foot. I have my entire life. However, even on my S I can get a minimum of 10K miles out of my 21 inch tires. Also never gotten less than 10k on the 22 inch on the X. I have spoken with several people at the tire shop who looked at the car. They also looked at the alignment. They said it was severely out of alignment. I also have Teslafi set up for his car so I can see by the energy consumption what type of driving he’s doing. It’s not all hard driving as it’s really impossible to do with the traffic here.

What were the alignment numbers? I would have Tesla inspect the suspension for damage. It could be bent from hitting curbs or potholes.

 

[Uncle Paul]

If the alignment was off when it came from the factory, and not caused by you or your Son from hitting something, then Tesla should realign your car and put on fresh tires.

Tire tread does not have that rough wear pattern you get from over heating a tire when sliding around a race track.

 

[brkaus]

I don’t see blowing a tire causing a rim to crack. Something else happened here imho.

 

[MP3Mike]

Does Teslafi log when remote access had been disabled?

As a teen I would have disabled big brother before I showed off to friends.

 

[M109Rider]

The rim is bent and the tires are totally worn out.
The alignment would likely be out because the car likely hit something. Thus the bent rim.
I don’t know how this wasn’t noticed earlier, unless it happend in a feed days or something.
My guess is your teen had a great day in the model 3.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

My teenager blew a tire (19 inch rims) a couple of days ago in his Model 3. When it happened, it cracked the rim. The car has 3,900 miles on it and both rear tires were worn to the steel but only on the outside edges, which is where the tire failed. I hadn’t noticed it and obviously he hadn’t either. When this happened he happened to be right near a tire place, so we left it there. The next day they called and asked if it was under warranty. Of course, it is. They said that the car was severely out of alignment and that this should be a warranty issue. They also told us that there’s no way and no how that the tires could be that worn out that quickly in any other way, except according to Tesla. They pulled the logs and said there were “bouts” of hard acceleration. Yeah, fine. It’s a Model 3 being driven in South Florida traffic! Not like it’s happening every single time as it’s impossible to not be behind people most of the time. The bottom line is that Tesla has offered to take a few bucks off of the alignment, but nothing else. They’re saying that it’s 100% the driving that wore the tires out, which given that they were to the steel belts, must have been 2,500-3,000 that they were actually worn out. I call BS, the tire shop says absolutely BS but I’m not sure what to do. My question, can anyone fathom how a tire could wear out that quickly on a 3 by simply driving it hard? I drive my S hard, m wife here X hard, but we always get 10-13k miles out of our tire, always. And our cars have a lot more power.

Sorry this happened,
I've been trying to encourage people to get the 18's for this reason and many others, range reduction, unsprung weight increase, road noise, road hazard potential, tire expense, increased acquisition costs, etc.
18 vs 19 inch wheels? Help please

Pre-mature wear could be due to, your teenage son driving it like he stole it or just poor alignment from the factory - some early model S's had this issues from the factory and it was later corrected. If I was your teenager, there wouldnt be "bouts" of hard acceleration, there would be constant hard acceleration so that my Tesla grin would become glued to my face from the G forces..

Did Tesla pull the video from the interior camera?

When I broke a rim on my dads car back in my teenage years, it was because I was doing burnouts in a parking lot and slid a little too far out and clipped a sidewalk...broke a control arm, wheel and pinched the tire...