Tire rotation

[whitEV3]

Hi everyone. I have a model 3 with 7000 miles and scheduled mobile tire rotation. The service tech came and asked if a maintenance prompt had popped up on the screen. He checked the tires and told me that with the new software updates the car will prompt when it detects uneven tire wear and that I can wait until that happens to rotate tires.

Does this make sense?

 

[Tam]

Hi everyone. I have a model 3 with 7000 miles and scheduled mobile tire rotation. The service tech came and asked if a maintenance prompt had popped up on the screen. He checked the tires and told me that with the new software updates the car will prompt when it detects uneven tire wear and that I can wait until that happens to rotate tires.

Does this make sense?

It does in theory.

The goal for rotation is to prevent uneven wears.

If they wear evenly then there's no need to rotate.

 

[UncertainTimes]

Buy a tire depth gauge ($3). Rotate when tread difference of 2mm.

 

[johnnycnote]

How does the car detect uneven wear? Is it just a mileage calc?

 

[The_Observer]

How does the car know the tread depth differences? I am not aware of any sensors that can do that, the only possible thing that would make sense would be wheel spin differences between the front and rear tires?

 

[gcardona]

How does the car know the tread depth differences? I am not aware of any sensors that can do that, the only possible thing that would make sense would be wheel spin differences between the front and rear tires?

You are correct. Spin differences between the front and rear tires.

 

[coleAK]

I don’t see that anywhere in the update notes or any place in the “service” menus.

I highly doubt the sensors are that sensitive. 2/32 is only a difference if ~0.6 rotations per mile. You have to get to 5/32 to get 1 rotation per mile difference. Your tires are almost always rotating at slightly different speeds, turning, on crowned roads, rain, snow,….

Just rotate them every 5-7k miles and call it good.

 

[Ciaopec]

Hi everyone. I have a model 3 with 7000 miles and scheduled mobile tire rotation. The service tech came and asked if a maintenance prompt had popped up on the screen. He checked the tires and told me that with the new software updates the car will prompt when it detects uneven tire wear and that I can wait until that happens to rotate tires.

Does this make sense?

I call "BS". I agree with post #7. I let Costco do mine; less expensive.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I call "BS". I agree with post #7. I let Costco do mine; less expensive.

Plus they won’t permanently attach them to your hubs like Tesla. I will never forgive them.

Anyway it would be pretty trivial for the car to detect uneven wear. All of the rotation differences around corners could be neglected; car knows when it is turning. 0.2% difference should not be an issue to pick up. Probably lots of tricks and “sophistication” that could be used.

Important for them to track this anyway, otherwise uneven wear would screw up the traction control unnecessarily (happens on older cars).

 

[T4M3]

Hi everyone. I have a model 3 with 7000 miles and scheduled mobile tire rotation. The service tech came and asked if a maintenance prompt had popped up on the screen. He checked the tires and told me that with the new software updates the car will prompt when it detects uneven tire wear and that I can wait until that happens to rotate tires.

Does this make sense?

Interesting information. Any other source to verify this? I am currently at about 5K miles and was thinking of rotating at 7.5K but if there is indeed a software update for this, then I will wait for the service notification.

 

[Chisale]

As glitchy as everything else is on the car: Windshield wipers, locks, Sentry, screen brightness, overheat protection, (did I mention windshield wipers...). I would not recommend relying on any automatic tread detection system. I agree with UncertainTimes above. Buy a tire gage and rotate when the front and back get to 2/32. It's about every 10,000 miles depending on how you drive and AWD vs RWD.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Interesting information. Any other source to verify this? I am currently at about 5K miles and was thinking of rotating at 7.5K but if there is indeed a software update for this, then I will wait for the service notification.

No idea. I would not rely on it in any case (was not suggesting that). Anyway you don’t even need a gauge - usually you can eyeball it. More than 1/16th of an inch is pretty to easy to see with these tread depths. But gauges are cheap! And they do make it easy if used properly.

 

[coleAK]

How does the car know the tread depth differences? I am not aware of any sensors that can do that, the only possible thing that would make sense would be wheel spin differences between the front and rear tires?

Any car that has ABS has sensors that monitor each individual wheel spin. Like I said in my other post I don’t think there is any way the ones on a model 3 are that sensitive. Even more so the braking system (master cylinder, reservoir, modules, calipers, pads,…) is the same one GM widely uses.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Any car that has ABS has sensors that monitor each individual wheel spin. Like I said in my other post I don’t think there is any way the ones on a model 3 are that sensitive. Even more so the braking system (master cylinder, reservoir, modules, calipers, pads,…) is the same one GM widely uses.

I have no idea how they do it, exactly.

But anyway seems like long-term averages could easily be used as long as there is a way to measure the number of rotations (they are not using motor rotations because they do this on RWD vehicles too presumably). It’s not like it has to figure it out in a couple miles.

Your Tesla can now detect your tire wear and tread depth - here's how

Tesla is well known for adding new features through free over-the-air (OTA) software updates. Most of the time these additions are included in the release notes, but sometimes the automaker sneaks something in without including […]

driveteslacanada.ca

 

[Casmium]

Don't trust your car, check your tires

https://imgur.com/a/bKQoDT2

 

[Casmium]

Don't trust your car, check your tires, didn't look at them all spring and summer, suddenly they got really loud on the highway

https://imgur.com/a/bKQoDT2

 

[T4M3]

Found below thread on the uneven wear detection. But isn't the aim of tire rotation to pre-emptively prevent the uneven wear; i.e., we should rotate so that we do not see this message is my understanding. At this point, I am still thinking of rotating every 7.5K miles.

2021.44.5 Uneven Tire Wear Detection

I see a new feature in 2021.44.5 to detect uneven tire tread depth. Question, it you run tires that are not factory specification (I have 245/40/19 and they exceed factory specs) will this cause false warnings?

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[Dave[N]]

I highly doubt the sensors are that sensitive. 2/32 is only a difference if ~0.6 rotations per mile. You have to get to 5/32 to get 1 rotation per mile difference. Your tires are almost always rotating at slightly different speeds, turning, on crowned roads, rain, snow,….

Not disagreeing on actually inspecting the Tire tread, but I am not sure of the math on your 0.6 rotations per mile.
I'm getting more like 3.6.

I think the formula should be:
Tr (tire radius) = Tw (tire width) * Ar (Aspect ration / 100) / 25.4 (mm/inch) + Wr (Wheel Radius) /2;
RpM (Rotations per Mile) = 63360 (inches / mile) / (2*pi*Tr);
The delta would compare RpM for Tr and Tr - 2/32.
I plugged the numbers for M3 tire specs (P235/45R18, P235/40R19, and P235/35R20), and get 3.655, 3.634, and 3.613.
I should think even a simple integer rotation counter, averaged over 100 miles of highway driving would be pretty good, or you could try voter logic on # of miles out of last N with difference in rotation count >= 2.

 

[akajester]

Hi everyone. I have a model 3 with 7000 miles and scheduled mobile tire rotation. The service tech came and asked if a maintenance prompt had popped up on the screen. He checked the tires and told me that with the new software updates the car will prompt when it detects uneven tire wear and that I can wait until that happens to rotate tires.

Does this make sense?

I checked my tires with a tread depth gauge at 5000 miles and noticed uneven wear on the rear passenger tire. I brought it to a reputable local tire shop for rotation and had them check alignment and it was out of spec so they fixed it. If you haven't already, check yours and request an alignment if needed. I personally wouldn't use the SC for this work.