Rear Tire Wear on XP90D

[Zac C]

View media item 115956Has anyone experienced abnormal wear on inside of their rear tires? We just got back from driving on our "X-Country Road Trip" from Massachusetts to San Francisco and back (8,000+ miles) which we vlogged daily on our YouTube channel: Now You Know

Luckily a viewer commented upon seeing a shot of the back of our car in Montreal that our rear tires were really worn on the inside. I've included a photo

that I hope loads into this post. We have air suspension and rode in "Very Low" for much of the trip to help with range - could this be the culprit?

 

[goneskiian]

Can't see the photo but it's highly likely that it had some affect since "Very Low" would increase the negative camber putting the majority of the load onto the inside of the tires.

 

[Diavel]

That is absolutely the reason why the inside of the tire are worn down. As Goneskiian mentioned, when the vehicle is in a lowered setting (low or very low) the tires tilt inward causing negative camber.

This is good for handling, cornering, range, lower center of gravity, appearance at the cost of premature tire wear.

 

[Zac C]

Thanks for that info. I did confirm with my SC that this was the cause of the tire wear (camber change when in Low and even more in Very Low), I just wish that Tesla would add a sentence or two to the Owner's Manual about this so I would have known before driving 8,000 miles in Very Low

 

[Nader]

I like the look of very low mode but the ride quality is horrible. Not much upward suspension travel left at that point. I just leave it set to low always instead.

 

[Kurt'sX]

Speaking of tires, Im disappointed to find my front and rear MX tires are different sizes. Ive had this configuration on two other high end cars and have experienced early tire wear, especially on the front, which I attribute to the fact that I cant rotate my tires. Because the rims are the same size, Ive wondered if I could put 4 same size tires on the car without consequences. Anybody have ideas about matching up the tires?

 

[lolachampcar]

This was a reasonably well documented (in many a post) problem with early Model S. I even made slightly longer upper arms for the rear to remove some of the negative camber. Check toe in on the back to make sure you are at the low end of the spectrum (least amount of allowable rear toe in) as toe in exacerbates the negative camber problem.

 

[MP3Mike]

Speaking of tires, Im disappointed to find my front and rear MX tires are different sizes. Ive had this configuration on two other high end cars and have experienced early tire wear, especially on the front, which I attribute to the fact that I cant rotate my tires.

But since the X is AWD you shouldn't need to rotate the tires to avoid uneven tire wear. (Or if you do it would be a very long time between rotations.)

 

[lolachampcar]

unless geometry causes uneven wear on one end at which point having a staggered set up precludes front to rear rotation. I have rotated tires across the rear on cars where I did not drive enough to warrant modifying the suspension. The difference on uni-directional tires is typically one extra groove on the "inside". I'd rather have one less (deep) groove on the inside then one extra groove but 1/3 the thread depth.

 

[goneskiian]

Thanks for chiming in with your experience lolachampcar.

 

[Diavel]

Speaking of tires, Im disappointed to find my front and rear MX tires are different sizes. Ive had this configuration on two other high end cars and have experienced early tire wear, especially on the front, which I attribute to the fact that I cant rotate my tires. Because the rims are the same size, Ive wondered if I could put 4 same size tires on the car without consequences. Anybody have ideas about matching up the tires?

Rims are not the same size and neither are the tires. Rims in front are 9" with a 35mm offset and the rears are 10" with a 40mm offset for both the 22" and the 20" setups.

You can change the rears to 9" and be able to rotate if you want but will lose some traction capabilities which is of consequence, affecting performance slightly but I don't see it as a problem. I don't know if the fronts will fit 10" rims but that setup may work as well.

 

[Kurt'sX]

Thanks Diavel.......I was under the impression the rims were all the same. Good to know, guess Ill just follow directions!

 

[Diavel]

If you're concerned about tire wear, you can be conscientious about ride height. Putting the x on the "high" setting will save the most tire wear due to having the most positive camber. It will also give you the most plush ride (especially over imperfections on the road) vs all other settings, the highest setting seems to be stiff as the air suspension is maxed out it feels like. lowest setting gives the x a very Car-like feel. It's also likely that the higher the suspension, the more positive its camber will be.

The lower you put your suspension will result in tighter handling characteristics and more stable controls in high speeds but increase the inside tire wear tremendously (significant in the turns at the lower settings). being fastidious with the ride height and when to use it prolongs life.

I set mine to auto-low at 80mph, I then lower my S & X manually when I know what's coming or when I feel like spirited driving.

Apologies for reiterating a few of the same thing again but hopefully some people will find this useful.

 

[Troy]

Check out this video. It looks like @goneskiian was spot on.

 

[TesTreks]

Hi,
These are important points and I'm sorry I didn't see them sooner. During our orientation to the car, the sales associate told me he always kept his in "very low" and recommended I do the same to get better energy efficiency due to the improved aerodynamics. However, I ignored those instructions and let it auto-adjust because I figured it must have that setting for a good reason. I do a lot of highway driving, and as the other users reported, the front tires are fine, rears are not. In fact, my rear tires are completely shot after just 12K miles- a few bumps, some of the next layer of the tire showing through. So I think even the auto-lowering is not ok. This is definitely something that Tesla should fix, since I don't imagine many owners are going to want to replace the (very expensive) tires every 10K miles.

 

[FarmerDave]

Hi,
These are important points and I'm sorry I didn't see them sooner. During our orientation to the car, the sales associate told me he always kept his in "very low" and recommended I do the same to get better energy efficiency due to the improved aerodynamics. However, I ignored those instructions and let it auto-adjust because I figured it must have that setting for a good reason. I do a lot of highway driving, and as the other users reported, the front tires are fine, rears are not. In fact, my rear tires are completely shot after just 12K miles- a few bumps, some of the next layer of the tire showing through. So I think even the auto-lowering is not ok. This is definitely something that Tesla should fix, since I don't imagine many owners are going to want to replace the (very expensive) tires every 10K miles.

That's outrageous wear. Do you have the 22" wheels?

I have 20" wheels on my P90D with OE ContiSilent All Season Continentals. I have almost 17,000 miles with good tread remaining. I have auto-lowering set to 55 mph, and normally run at standard height.

You should have your alignment checked when you replace those tires.

 

[TesTreks]

That's outrageous wear. Do you have the 22" wheels?

I have 20" wheels on my P90D with OE ContiSilent All Season Continentals. I have almost 17,000 miles with good tread remaining. I have auto-lowering set to 55 mph, and normally run at standard height.

You should have your alignment checked when you replace those tires.

No, I have the 20" wheels. I think it's outrageous too. And I ran at standard height with autolowering at 55 MPH except on one long trip where I kept it in very low because I was trying to get better range (didn't notice a difference). And I do have almost all highway miles. Anyway, when I brought it in about the tires they did check the alignment and told me it was off. I feel they owe me a set of tires.
Here are some pictures of the tire edges.

 

[K-MTG]

How many miles will the stock 20's last before being replaced? I have my suspension go down at 65 normally but leave it on 55 for road trips. Does it go to low or very low??

 

[Gwgan]

How many miles will the stock 20's last before being replaced? I have my suspension go down at 65 normally but leave it on 55 for road trips. Does it go to low or very low??

I had wear down to the tread bar only on the inside right tire after 5000 miles on the Michellins. Just went in for an alignment—hope that helps. I was using low only on highway and only above 65 or 70 but plan to use low more often now because of the front suspension vibration issue. BTW, it seems "standard" is higher now by the looks of it; have to get out the tape measure.

 

[eHeyMan]

I too recently discovered (and not pleased) that due to the negative camber on the rear alignment the tires wear out on the inside edge faster than normal. I have a P90D Model X with 16k miles on the odometer in 9 months since new (with moderate to conservative driving, and yes, some occasional fast launch mode acceleration). I have Michelin 275/45R20 110Y Latitude Sport 3 tires and they have been properly inflated since delivery. Since the front tires are a different size (255/45R20 105Y), I can't rotate them. The tire manufacture documentation states that these tires are only rated for 20,000 miles. I'm going in for an annual service appointment early next week and will probably have an alignment job done. I'm also noting that the automatic lowering setting can cause premature tire wear. Mine was set to go low at speeds above 50 mph. Last summer we took a trip from WA to NE and back - about 4200 miles. Today I changed it to only lower at speeds above 80 mph to see if this helps with the next set of rear tires. Thanks for the info and discussion on this topic.