Stock 20” Tire Question

[NathanielHrnblwr]

According to Tire Rack, the stock 20” PILOT SPORT 4S - SIZE: 235/35ZR20 tire has a 500 AAA treadwear rating. Usually performance tires have a lower treadwear rating (such as the Nitto NT05’s I currently have on one of my cars). Any insight as to how fast these performance tires will wear?

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Michelin&tireModel=Pilot+Sport+4S&partnum=335YR0PS4SXLAC&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&autoMake=Tesla&autoYear=2018&autoModel=Model 3&autoModClar=Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive

From reading Model S forums, it seems the 21” owners go thru tires much faster than 19” owners. Will this be the case with the 3 also?

 

[grommet]

We don't know how they'll wear on the Model 3 P, yet... but Sport 4S is very popular, and their lifespan is notably better than many performance summer tires. It has an excellent balance of performance and wear, and many see over 24K miles on them.

 

[Knightshade]

Those are tesla-specific versions of the tire- so likely longer wear and lower rolling resistance- but also inferior traction to the 300 AA tread-wear version that I'd replace em with when they wear out.

 

[NathanielHrnblwr]

That's what I was wondering. People talk up this tire but at a 500 treadwear rating, that doesn't seem to be a very grippy tire.

 

[Knightshade]

That's what I was wondering. People talk up this tire but at a 500 treadwear rating, that doesn't seem to be a very grippy tire.

Yup, as Elon mentioned on twitter

We gave up some grip & width in exchange for range. Would recommend stickier tires & wider on rear for best performance.

 

[NathanielHrnblwr]

Thank you.

 

[P85_DA]

From reading Model S forums, it seems the 21” owners go thru tires much faster than 19” owners. Will this be the case with the 3 also?

Correct on staggered S you can easily burn thru stock 21s in less than 8k miles ..there is a negative camber ...and the inners of the rears wear out...I’m not sure if the P M3 has similar staggered setup with neg camber ,.but other thing was 21s are not common size and actually cost more than 22s I ride on now in X

 

[Knightshade]

None of the model 3 configs come with staggered tires at all.

FWIW I disagree with Elon about staggered wheels as a way to improve the (from the factory square) tire setup on the 3.... wider? Absolutely. But staggered is generally more useful for RWD, or to deliver more understeer for safety at the limits.... in an AWD car with excellent traction control I want wider tires on both pairs of wheels and a more neutral steer.

My plan is to put 265/40-18s on the stock aeros (PS 4 S, the non-tesla version) as soon as I get the car

But he's the genius billionaire and I'm just some idiot on the internet, so there's that.

 

[EV-by-the-Sea]

Has anyone who's seen a P3D with the 20" wheels up close verified that the treadwear rating is in fact 500? Someone who's in the biz on Twitter said that a Michelin rep told them that it must be a Tire Rack typo, as there's no 4S tire with a 500 treadwear rating.

FWIW, I dug up the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S spec sheet and every tire listed there has the regular 300 treadwear rating: https://www.michelinman.com/upload/michelin_us/specifications/specs-pilot-sport-4s.pdf

 

[Daniel in SD]

None of the model 3 configs come with staggered tires at all.

FWIW I disagree with Elon about staggered wheels as a way to improve the (from the factory square) tire setup on the 3.... wider? Absolutely. But staggered is generally more useful for RWD, or to deliver more understeer for safety at the limits.... in an AWD car with excellent traction control I want wider tires on both pairs of wheels and a more neutral steer.

My plan is to put 265/40-18s on the stock aeros (PS 4 S, the non-tesla version) as soon as I get the car

But he's the genius billionaire and I'm just some idiot on the internet, so there's that.

Staggered will help with 0-60 though which is the only performance metric Tesla owners care about
265 is probably too wide for the 8.5" stock wheels. I plan on getting a set 18x9.5" wheels and keeping the 18x8.5 for road trips and snow. I'd like to see a few more people verify that there's no rubbing in the front with 265 width tires.

 

[Knightshade]

Staggered will help with 0-60 though which is the only performance metric Tesla owners care about
265 is probably too wide for the 8.5" stock wheels. I plan on getting a set 18x9.5" wheels and keeping the 18x8.5 for road trips and snow. I'd like to see a few more people verify that there's no rubbing in the front with 265 width tires.

265 is likely fine on the 8.5s... it's "officially" out of spec, but poke around on pretty much any sport sedan forums (bmw, wrx/sti, lancer, acura, G35/37, etc) and you'll find plenty of folks who ran them on 8.5s with no issue, including track use.... I suppose there's a chance of rubbing in front, biggest I've seen "confirmed" with no issue front is 255s, but don't know if anyone has tried wider yet