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Summer tire reccomendation
- Thread starter Mike_Schlechter
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- Driving Dynamics Model S
mknox
Well-Known Member
Had my new 19" Primacy MXM4 tires installed yesterday. Man, are they quiet compared to the Goodyears. So quiet that my drivetrain buzz is bugging me more than ever now. The old tires used to drown most of that out. As best my tire guy can figure the belts in one or more of my old tires must have "shifted" (his words) causing the noise and vibration even at slow city road speeds. There was no exterior evidence of "cupping" and they still had at least 50% tread life left. Costly, but happy now.
Cyclone
Cyclonic Member ((.oO))
Good to know the Primacy tires are much quieter. I am on Goodyears now, but I'll have to keep those in mind when the time comes.
If the belts actually "shifted" the tires would be destroyed in a few miles*. It just doesn't happen, not ever, never. The belts can be damaged by water from being cut, but these days that's just a local damage because the cables that make up the belts are filled so they don't act as pipes. Same thing with interior bead damage.
What actually happens is:
1. Tires get louder as tread depth reduces. A lot louder in the case of some tires.
2. Tires set up a very minor wear pattern that causes noise. (This can sometimes be mitigated by doing a first early rotation so each tire gets a turn on the drive axle--assumes not AWD).
3. Some alignment angles or the start of mechanical issues (e.g. bearings) can cause these small kinds of wear patterns. Unless you know what to look and feel for, you won't notice them.
* To have the belts actually shift the tread compound would have to get hot enough to devulcanize. I'd expect the tires to catch on fire before that happened.
mknox
Well-Known Member
What happened with mine is they got extremely loud... even at 25 MPH there was a kind of "grinding sound" that you could even feel in the steering wheel. I rotated them, and you could still "feel" and hear them in the car. Passengers immediately would ask "what's wrong with the car?" almost as soon as we'd get underway. At highway speeds it was a very loud "drone" or what I might expect from knobby off-road tires. I took the tires and rims in over the winter and the tread depth was perfectly uniform across all 4 tires and there was no visible evidence of "scalloping" or "cupping" as far as the tire shop could tell. I was there while he examined them, and he was carefully rubbing his hand over the tread surfaces I assume trying to feel for these problems. I forgot to note the tread measurement, but they were about 50% of the way to the wear bars. They re-balanced all 4 but they were just as bad when I put them back on in the spring.
Tesla has done alignments on my car when it's been in for service (twice recently because I got it back with the steering wheel off-center the first time).
I've never experienced anything even close to this in 40+ years of driving. The new Michelin Primacy's are as smooth and quiet as can be.
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Remember that I seemed to have had some freak "failure" with the Goodyears. Others have reported them to be just fine, and they are about half the price of the Michelins.
Cyclone
Cyclonic Member ((.oO))
It should be a good while before I need them anyways. As part of my CPO reconditioning, Tesla replaced all four tires.
Stock Goodyear, to Primacy MXM4, was the best thing I did to our Volt. Those tires were louder and scalloped w/in 20k, under harder driving. So, Tesla's "$1,000" primacy upgrade used to made sense to me (stock on 85s). CPO buyers will be lucky if they see new Michelins. A recent ride on Conti Sport Contact 5 21's was very nice, as well. No other 21 to compare to, there, except generally feeling "21's shouldn't ride this smooth". Good luck.
Cyclone
Cyclonic Member ((.oO))
This sounds promising. My CPO had new Goodyears, but on all my other cars, I always switched to Michelins at the first tire replacement. That said, the way I drive, that was the ONLY tire replacement in my 8+ years of ownership in each car. Crossing my fingers I don't burn through tires in my S!
Olle
Active Member
speaking of quiet tires, I switched to Continental with ContiSilent (the foam tires) this week and just came back from the first drive with the new tires. OMG are the silent! Before I always heard a mixture of wind and tire noise. Now it's mostly just wind noise. If you are looking for quiet I don't think you can go wrong with ContiSilent.
Olle
Active Member
On a slightly different topic, what kind of high performance tires do you choose for 19 inch? I have OEM Michelin PS3 (yes we were lucky) but feel a little unstable at higher speeds and especially rain and slippery conditions. This is my first time with PS3.
Don't care about noise and tire life. Just dry/wet grip and stability. Has somebody tried Bridgestone Potenza?
Don't care about noise and tire life. Just dry/wet grip and stability. Has somebody tried Bridgestone Potenza?
There aren't many tires better than the PS3. Maybe the Michelin PSS or PS2, Continental Sportcontact 5 or 5p, Pirelli P-zero or Goodyear Eagle F1 assymetric 2.
For what it's worth the Michelin PS3 have a A-rating (highest possible) for wet braking performance in the EU-marking label.
Thank you, @matbl! Jave tried Pirelli P-Zero many times and I like them. Birdgestone no good for you?
Over the years, I've found that Bridgestone's quality is good if you purchase real Bridgestones made in Japan. Here in North America Bridgestone mostly markets rather ho-hum tires-nothing spectacular (other than the Blizzak for winter use, which I would use if I couldn't get Xice or Nokian). I suspect the situation, in regards to ho-humness, is different in Japan but here they really only sell "mass market" type tires.
dj905
Member
For 19", I have the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3, which I am using as my "summer" or 3-season tires. I've found them to have very good grip in wet and dry conditions. My traction is very similar to the 21" OEM Continentals. These tires were recommended by someone else on the forums.
Since the contisilent tires aren't available in 19", does anyone know what dimensions the Pirelli run-silent tires are available in? Jerry33?
Thank you, @jerry33! It seems PSS is the best bet for me, or try Potenza , which in Japan is synonymous to high grip tires. I also know Potenza is one of the noisiest.
One of the complaints I have re Model S tires is that they have very long life with 19" rims. Could be because of regen.
My winter tire is Blizzak VRX (asymmetrical).
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