Put on new tires, now the car is handling weird.

[timk225]

I have 16,000 miles on my 3, with its original 18 inch wheels and tires. The rears were down to 1/32" (the fronts are at 5, they will make it through the winter), so I got a new pair of Michelin X-Ice 3's in the original 235-45-18 size for the rear of the car, and had them put on at a tire shop that does a lot of Tesla's, they are a mile from the local service center..

The tires are ok, they ride nice and quiet, but the handling is weird. The car's ass end is all over the place! Going down the highway, it shifts from side to side erratically, like I'm driving in a strong crosswind or something. It's got nothing to do with alignment, that was not touched. The old tires ran nice and straight and stable.

Is this just from new tires having to run in, or a characteristic of winter tires or something?

In the spring it will get 4 new tires, I'm considering finding a used set of OEM 19 inch wheels to buy new tires for. But I'm not paying the ridiculous $1500 for 4 wheels that Tesla charges, $100 per wheel in perfect condition is more realistic. A set of 4 tires alone for the wheels will be $1000. THAT will equal out to the $1500.

 

[kbecks13]

Uhh you're sure that everything is mounted correctly right? Like no other sounds or vibrations in the car?

Could just be the mold release wax on the tire, i'd give it ~50 miles and see if it continues.

 

[Tam]

...It's got nothing to do with alignment, that was not touched...

Because alignment was not done, it's more reason to do it!

They did all the wheel balancing and add weights to the wheel as needed, right?

 

[Glamisduner]

I have 16,000 miles on my 3, with its original 18 inch wheels and tires. The rears were down to 1/32" (the fronts are at 5, they will make it through the winter), so I got a new pair of Michelin X-Ice 3's in the original 235-45-18 size for the rear of the car, and had them put on at a tire shop that does a lot of Tesla's, they are a mile from the local service center..

The tires are ok, they ride nice and quiet, but the handling is weird. The car's ass end is all over the place! Going down the highway, it shifts from side to side erratically, like I'm driving in a strong crosswind or something. It's got nothing to do with alignment, that was not touched. The old tires ran nice and straight and stable.

Is this just from new tires having to run in, or a characteristic of winter tires or something?

In the spring it will get 4 new tires, I'm considering finding a used set of OEM 19 inch wheels to buy new tires for. But I'm not paying the ridiculous $1500 for 4 wheels that Tesla charges, $100 per wheel in perfect condition is more realistic. A set of 4 tires alone for the wheels will be $1000. THAT will equal out to the $1500.

where have you seen 19's for $100 per wheel? Even Tsportline cost more than that and they are heavier?

 

[N54TT]

You’re mixing snow tires with all season tires....snow tires have rubber compounds that are much softer and likely the reason why your rear feels looser than the front. Snows should be matched on all four corners.

 

[stonelance]

I have experienced something like what you are describing when getting lower profile tires with stiffer sidewalls as it caused the tires to prefer to travel in the lower grooves in the road from the road deforming from the weight of all the cars and trucks that have gone before. Maybe the sidewalls are stiffer even though the size is the same?

 

[dmd2005]

You’re mixing snow tires with all season tires....snow tires have rubber compounds that are much softer and likely the reason why your rear feels looser than the front. Snows should be matched on all four corners.

I agree. You should never mix different tire types especially snow tires and all-seasons because the traction will be different for each brand of tire. The winter tires are also much softer and that’s why your rear feels looser. The tire shop should have discussed informed you about properly replacing your tires.

 

[timk225]

The tire shop did mention that new tires should go on the rear, and they knew what tires it already had, no one talked of mixing winter and all seasons. Even the Tesla service center people didn't say anything about having to have 4 winter tires, not just 2.

If I had 4 winter tires, wouldn't the front be loose also?

Maybe I can run the front tires at 32 psi or so and "soften" them up to match the rears?

 

[timk225]

where have you seen 19's for $100 per wheel? Even Tsportline cost more than that and they are heavier?

That's my going market price for USED rims, plus I just ain't gonna pay $1500 for ANY wheels. Especially when they need new tires.

 

[Glamisduner]

That's my going market price for USED rims, plus I just ain't gonna pay $1500 for ANY wheels. Especially when they need new tires.

I would buy them in a heartbeat for that price. Especially since I would get them powder-coated anyways.

I can find a single used 18" wheel for 349.97 on ebay. 19's are nowhere to be found.

 

[mswlogo]

The tire shop did mention that new tires should go on the rear, and they knew what tires it already had, no one talked of mixing winter and all seasons. Even the Tesla service center people didn't say anything about having to have 4 winter tires, not just 2.

If I had 4 winter tires, wouldn't the front be loose also?

Maybe I can run the front tires at 32 psi or so and "soften" them up to match the rears?

You really want to match tires, so that traction control, abs etc. and braking in general are optimal.
You'll save wear on your non winter tires.

That said the Xi3 are a little squirmy. I think they have improved a lot since it cooled off more and they are "seated" in.
Or I'm just getting used them

 

[N54TT]

The tire shop did mention that new tires should go on the rear, and they knew what tires it already had, no one talked of mixing winter and all seasons. Even the Tesla service center people didn't say anything about having to have 4 winter tires, not just 2.

If I had 4 winter tires, wouldn't the front be loose also?

Maybe I can run the front tires at 32 psi or so and "soften" them up to match the rears?

Traction especially in snow, will be drastically different between the front AS and rear winters....and is the bigger reason not to mix as it’ll throw off the handling balance...where limits are reduced. If you had 4 winters the car would be more balanced. X-Ice 3’s are studless winter tires...and will def be squishier than the original tires you have. A performance oriented winter tire would better match the handling of an AS tire. Do you have awd or rwd? If you must mix whatever you do...especially if rwd....don’t put the snows on the front and AS on the rear....unless you want to drift lol. But imo if running snows you really should run all 4....no reason to cheap out and risk getting into an accident.

https://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=123

Wouldn’t suggest runnning 32psi....as that is way too low for these cars....and will reduce the load capacity of the tire.

 

[SMAlset]

Recommendation from Tesla:

As a teen living back home in snow country my dad always made sure my car had a set of 4 winter tires on the car I drove. I found they really made a difference and gave much better traction in the snow.

 

[DrDabbles]

Recommendation from Tesla

Reading the manual is out of fashion.

 

[Snow Drift]

I have the same X-ICE, on all four, with zero issues on my AWD. Are you RWD?

Are the tires mounted in the right direction? Check the arrow on the sidewall.

How did the tires wear that fast? Drag racing weekly? haha.

 

[GoFaster]

To the original point: most likely a significant part of this is going to be tramlining (google it!). Some tires are more prone to it than others.

Also, new tires need no less than 50 miles before they feel like they should and usually a few hundred. Give them some time to break in, then judge.

As others have pointed out; mixing tires in any way is a bad idea. And, if you’re putting on winter tires you *really* want four of them.

Last: i have four X-Ice 3s that I haven’t put on so Murphy’s Law says it would snow. Took a trip from MA to VT a few days ago and hit a bunch of snow on the way back. The stock all season tires were nothing to write home about. Definitely a bunch of slipping on ice.

 

[timk225]

To answer one question posed a few times - my 3 is a LR RWD, I got it on May 8. There were no AWD cars then.

These tires have about 120 miles on them so far, I'll drive them more and see how things change. I can say I've noticed no increase in road noise, and I felt the tires by hand, they are definitely a softer rubber.

I wouldn't have a problem with putting on 4 tires, except they cost twice as much. It makes me think back to the "good old days" of the late 90s and early 2000s with my 1971 Plymouth Valiant I had at the time. I was making less money then. I'd go from worn out tires (tires were considered worn out when I got to the second layer of steel belts) to LESS worn out tires. Buying 4 new tires was something that could only possibly happen at tax refund time. Worrying about if the tires I was able to get were regular, all season, or winter tires wasn't a concern. Whichever tires were the right size and cheapest were the ones I got. Some of that old cheapness (or just plain lack of money, as it was at the time) remains, even if I can now whip out the credit card and get tires put on.

 

[Vitold]

My formula for when to get new tires is: when I think I will have to replace them next year - I buy a new set right away.

As to OP, my guess is that the biggest issue is that front and rear tires are not the same diameter which is causing traction problems.

 

[Johnny Mac]

Come on you can’t mix winter with all season tires anybody knows that

 

[MountainPass]

It has already been said, but always install 4 winter tires on our car - any car!

My last set of winter tires were REALLY squirmy. I had to avoid the highway because a crosswind would make me fight with the steering wheel to stay in my lane. It looked like I was a drunk driver all the time. As soon as I switched back to my summers in spring, it was gone. There are definitely squirmier tires than others.