Premature Tire Life

[SomeJoe7777]

Sorry to break this to you, but that tire wear pattern tells you the story. That's not the result of an alignment issue.

To get anywhere close to this kind of wear pattern as the result of an alignment problem, the rear tires would have to have massively excessive toe-in, perhaps combined with excessive positive camber. Your alignment might be off, but I can't imagine it would be severe enough to cause this type of wear in only 3500 miles.

The rubber is scraped from the outside edge of the tire to the inside edge (see the curled rubber and nylon strands in the picture). This indicates side slippage. Massively excessive toe-in might cause this, but not in 3500 miles.

Also, take a look at your second posted picture (the one with the rubber cord sticking up). Look on the sidewall of the tire above where it says "Inflation Pressure". See the circumferential band of mottled, dark rubber, whereas above that there is a lighter brown band, then it gets to the worn tread surface. That mottled, dark rubber is the result of over-flexion of the sidewall due to side loads.

If you combine this wear pattern with Tesla's claim of periodic bouts of hard acceleration (which for now we'll accept as factual), there is an activity that perfectly fits these facts.

This car has been doing donuts in the parking lot on several occasions.

I'll leave it to you to decide what to do about that.

 

[EV-lutioin]

View attachment 307711 Don’t have great pics but here they are.

My Model 3 (18" wheels) came with Michelin Primacy tires, your tires look like something else... did the 19" wheels come with a different model tire? I just checked my rear tires and after 6,000 miles they basically look new.

 

[rickjames]

Tread wear is equally bad across the tire. Looks like someone thought their 3800 lb Tesla was a toy. Accept the fact your kid is lying to you and pony up the cash, while you are at it make sure they get a job this summer to pay for it themselves. Nothing about "South Florida traffic" would require you to do donuts, burn outs and drift the car. Don't make excuses for them, it is clearly their fault.

 

[DR61]

My Model 3 (18" wheels) came with Michelin Primacy tires, your tires look like something else... did the 19" wheels come with a different model tire?

The 19" OEM tires are Continental ProContact RX, 235/40-19, 96W.

 

[EV-lutioin]

The 19" OEM tires are Continental ProContact RX, 235/40-19, 96W.

Thanks, I have those on my Model X (in a different size, of course) and they have 37K miles on them and still look like they have 10K left to go. I can't imagine how those tires could be worn down in 3,900 miles. The even wear pattern makes an alignment issue seem unlikely.

 

[Valore]

Looks like teenager in 192kW car.
For the rim cracking, he most probably hit some curb or something.

Sometimes you have to take responsibility for stuff like that. Sorry to tell you.

 

[jamnmon66]

Did the OP give up on this thread?

 

[Daniel in SD]

Did the OP give up on this thread?

What are the alignment numbers? Presumably the shop measured when they told you the alignment was off. Or was it so far off it could be seen by the naked eye?
Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[Fusion]

Those tires got abused. Can't believe people want to blame Tesla for that. The tread looks worn down pretty even. I know everyone wants to think their kids are saints, however ask for the truth. Maybe a few too many fast and furious movies and drifting episodes. Also to not notice tires like that beforehand, even Ray Charles could see it at a mile away.

Also the alignment is probably way off due to abuse. What's the name of the tire shop. They sound like crooks or worse, idiots if they told you it's due to alignment issues and no way tires could wear out this fast.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

The tread looks worn down pretty even.

As I noted earlier, it doesn't look even to me at all. The inside edges have about 2 mm of tread remaining (you can still see the tread pattern there), while the outside edges are worn to the nylon fiber layer, at least 1 mm below the tread bottom. That's at least a 3 mm difference between the inside edges and outside edges.

The frayed nylon fibers that are showing are all bent in an inward and with-rotation direction. This indicates that the wear was a shearing force from outside edge to inside edge, and was happening while the tire was spinning in the driving direction.

This is exactly consistent with donuts.

 

[Fusion]

As I noted earlier, it doesn't look even to me at all. The inside edges have about 2 mm of tread remaining (you can still see the tread pattern there), while the outside edges are worn to the nylon fiber layer, at least 1 mm below the tread bottom. That's at least a 3 mm difference between the inside edges and outside edges.

The frayed nylon fibers that are showing are all bent in an inward and with-rotation direction. This indicates that the wear was a shearing force from outside edge to inside edge, and was happening while the tire was spinning in the driving direction.

This is exactly consistent with donuts.

I meant even as to it NOT being an alignment issue. You would have full tread with one sided expanded wear if it's due to faulty alignment normally.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I meant even as to it NOT being an alignment issue. You would have full tread with one sided expanded wear if it's due to faulty alignment normally.

Ah, I understand you now ... yes, exactly. An alignment issue would cause a MORE marked difference between the worn edge and the non-worn edge.

 

[Lloyd]

I have a question...... How long is your son GROUNDED for??

 

[shrspeedblade]

If I had a tire shop and somebody brought in their teen's car with tires like that after only a couple of thousand miles-
I would lose their business from laughing so hard!

 

[insaneoctane]

In a car that you can't disable traction control, the tire wear seems inexplicable to me. I have wanted to light my tires up on countless occasions and Tesla slaps my hand and gives me just a tad of slippage and just sticks. Very safe. Very sane. Not overly exciting. Nothing that would result in removing the tread in such a short amount of mileage though! The only explanation I can offer is that maybe the ABS was disabled and that allowed the vehicle to be driven with traction control disabled. That would allow the opportunity to remove tread quickly.... I'd ask Tesla that very specifically: "Do the logs indicate the vehicle was ever driven with the ABS/traction control disabled?" If that wear happened with traction control fully engaged, then short of continuous high G-level drifting and high speed cornering (nothing I think you are likely to accomplish on the street), I can't explain it.

 

[Daniel in SD]

In a car that you can't disable traction control, the tire wear seems inexplicable to me. I have wanted to light my tires up on countless occasions and Tesla slaps my hand and gives me just a tad of slippage and just sticks. Very safe. Very sane. Not overly exciting. Nothing that would result in removing the tread in such a short amount of mileage though! The only explanation I can offer is that maybe the ABS was disabled and that allowed the vehicle to be driven with traction control disabled. That would allow the opportunity to remove tread quickly.... I'd ask Tesla that very specifically: "Do the logs indicate the vehicle was ever driven with the ABS/traction control disabled?" If that wear happened with traction control fully engaged, then short of continuous high G-level drifting and high speed cornering (nothing I think you are likely to accomplish on the street), I can't explain it.

One tire fire!
https://hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/videos/tesla-loop-2-1515775269.mp4

 

[DR61]

If that wear happened with traction control fully engaged, then short of continuous high G-level drifting and high speed cornering (nothing I think you are likely to accomplish on the street), I can't explain it.

Easily accomplished in any empty parking lot.

 

[Glamisduner]

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.

This is more along what I was thinking, the rim looks bent in the picture.

 

[Timmy T.]

C'mon?? Seriously??? This "story" stinks of irresponsibitity from the very first sentence....haha - ugh

 

[scott8659]

The OP has been absent from this thread for awhile now. I suspect either he is still in denial and stopped posting due to everyone pointing out the obvious or he accepted the fact that his kid lied to him regarding how he was driving the car.