Tire Wear experiences?

[anicolao]

I thought I'd post an update on this for other potentially frustrated owners.

The best response so far seems to be @vgrinshpun's which points out that the Michelin Latitude Sport 3 tires are garbage. Since they are different front-to-back their warranty is 30,000kms / 2 = 15,000 kms. I have yet to get Tesla to admit to the fact that these tires simply aren't fit for use; when they were put on the rep insisted that I should get a "season and a half" out of them (I actually should have listened more closely, even a "season and a half" sounds like awfully short lifetime to me).

My biggest issue remains why do my rear tires wear so much faster than my fronts? Everyone else seems to have even wear all around ... the difference for me is dramatic, with the rear tires showing their wear bars at 3-4 32nds while the fronts are still in good shape at 8 32nds.

In any event here's the lifetime that you can expect out of driving these tires gently - at > CAD $500ea save your money and buy some other tire.

 

[mikes_fsd]

My biggest issue remains why do my rear tires wear so much faster than my fronts?

My fronts went out ~12k before my rears.
I got just over ~30k on fronts and ~42k on rears.
But I also found out I was under-inflating my tires to ~42 psi, now all tires are around 47 psi.

 

[Xcelerator]

2016 90D with the 20" CrossContact LX ContiSilent tires. At 16k miles, I had my annual service. Although I had plenty of tread left, the front tires had to be replaced as they had worn nearly flat on the outside edge. The Dallas SC says they adjusted the camber to prevent this. I run my car at normal height all the time. However, probably 2/3 of my driving is highway time and the car automatically lowers itself at highway speeds and when it does, it appears it must also change the angle of the tire to the road and that changes the wear pattern. If the tires were the same size, this could be avoided with rotation, but, as we know, the fronts are smaller than the rears so rotation isn't possible. I'm sure hoping the adjustments take care of this bc those are some mighty expensive tires, especially if you are replacing them yearly! The back tires are just fine with lots of treat left on the original.

 

[vandacca]

2016 90D with the 20" CrossContact LX ContiSilent tires. At 16k miles, I had my annual service. Although I had plenty of tread left, the front tires had to be replaced as they had worn nearly flat on the outside edge. The Dallas SC says they adjusted the camber to prevent this. I run my car at normal height all the time. However, probably 2/3 of my driving is highway time and the car automatically lowers itself at highway speeds and when it does, it appears it must also change the angle of the tire to the road and that changes the wear pattern. If the tires were the same size, this could be avoided with rotation, but, as we know, the fronts are smaller than the rears so rotation isn't possible. I'm sure hoping the adjustments take care of this bc those are some mighty expensive tires, especially if you are replacing them yearly! The back tires are just fine with lots of treat left on the original.

I guess you could swap front tires, but that would require you taking the tires off the rims, which is not very convenient.

 

[MX416]

@anicolao I will soon have a brand new set of 20” OEM Contis available at a reasonable discount. Tires are coming off the new MX before delivery and getting swapped for snows. If interested let me know.

 

[BasementDoc]

We just blew out a rear tire driving on the highway with less than 30000 miles very frustrating

 

[Xcelerator]

Blow outs are not usually the problem for folks getting less miles than anticipated as far as I've heard. The issue is normally rapid tread wear. Blow outs can happen at mile 1 under the correct circumstances. Do you know why your tire blew out?

FYI, 30k isn't a terribly short time for tire life for Teslas - several have talked about getting less than 20k. I got 18k on my front tires dues to uneven treat wear. The rear tires still have plenty of tread left at 23k. The SC believe they've fixed it by some adjustments to the angle of tires, but, we shall see.

 

[Peteybabes]

i'll be replacing my tires soon...16,XXX miles.

 

[jimmythefrack]

With so few options available in the 20" size what is the general opinion another set of conti's? Does the noise foam actually make a difference in cabin noise in the X?

 

[Colby Boles]

With so few options available in the 20" size what is the general opinion another set of conti's? Does the noise foam actually make a difference in cabin noise in the X?

I put on a set of Conti DWS06s which have no foam and I find them quieter that the OEM Michelins with the foam. I'm really liking these new tires.

 

[K-MTG]

I replaced my continentals at 27k....probably could have made it further (like 30k) but one of my tires got a nail so I replaced them all.

 

[Peteski]

I thought I'd post an update on this for other potentially frustrated owners.

The best response so far seems to be @vgrinshpun's which points out that the Michelin Latitude Sport 3 tires are garbage.

Michelins are not actually garbage, they have tremendous grip in wet and dry summer conditions. They are just not the most hard wearing of tyre, but that's not my number one concern in any road tyre. Wooden tyres might last forever, but provide little grip or feel. It's all a compromise. No idea why your rears are wearing at such a high rate though. Given the weight distribution and all-wheel drive, you would expect much more even tyre wear. It's almost as if your rears are a different compound altogether.

 

[Peteski]

2016 90D with the 20" CrossContact LX ContiSilent tires. At 16k miles, I had my annual service. Although I had plenty of tread left, the front tires had to be replaced as they had worn nearly flat on the outside edge. The Dallas SC says they adjusted the camber to prevent this. I run my car at normal height all the time. However, probably 2/3 of my driving is highway time and the car automatically lowers itself at highway speeds and when it does, it appears it must also change the angle of the tire to the road and that changes the wear pattern. If the tires were the same size, this could be avoided with rotation, but, as we know, the fronts are smaller than the rears so rotation isn't possible. I'm sure hoping the adjustments take care of this bc those are some mighty expensive tires, especially if you are replacing them yearly! The back tires are just fine with lots of treat left on the original.

Running the car in low or very low would actually increase the negative wheel camber and cause more relative wear on the inside edges, not the outside edges as you appear to have experienced. You would get more wear on the outside edges with higher ride height and less negative camber.

Obviously your camber may have been well out of spec, but just thought I'd mention the effect of ride height on shoulder wear. Low ride height loads up the inside edge of the tyre, high ride height loads up the outside edge (relatively speaking).

 

[Xcelerator]

Running the car in low or very low would actually increase the negative wheel camber and cause more relative wear on the inside edges, not the outside edges as you appear to have experienced. You would get more wear on the outside edges with higher ride height and less negative camber.

Obviously your camber may have been well out of spec, but just thought I'd mention the effect of ride height on shoulder wear. Low ride height loads up the inside edge of the tyre, high ride height loads up the outside edge (relatively speaking).

True - but, I have never adjusted the ride height from the factor presets. Makes me assume the camber was initially out of spec, but, I had to learn what camber was when they told me about it, so my opinion is relatively worthless in this area!

 

[Peteski]

True - but, I have never adjusted the ride height from the factor presets. Makes me assume the camber was initially out of spec, but, I had to learn what camber was when they told me about it, so my opinion is relatively worthless in this area!

Yes it sounds like your car did not have enough negative camber to start off with. Running it lower in your case would have actually helped a little, but only because your camber was out of spec.

What I want to know is what ride height actually gives even tyre wear when camber is set as per the factory spec. My car came as default set to low, not standard - presumably due to the reported driveshaft issues. If the factory camber setting gives even wear at standard ride height, then I might ask the service centre to reduce my static camber slightly at the low ride height position to compensate (presuming there is suffficient adjustment range). Or maybe they have already made this adjustment at the factory (pretty unlikely).

 

[mrpseudonym]

Just replaced my Michelin latitude sport 3’s after only 11000miles. Rears probably could have gone 1 or 2k longer but once the car was up on the hoist I couldn’t not replace the rears as well. Went to replace the Michelin’s with continentals but they don’t make a ‘Y’ rated tire in the size for model x, and given the car was supplied with Y rating you “have to” replace with same. I could have pushed the tire dealer but didn’t. So unfortunately back with the Michelin’s and resigned to annual replacement.

 

[Devy12345]

I just went for my 2 year service at 22,000 miles and was advised that the LR tire needs replacement as they are reading 4/32. Incidentally, both the fronts are at 8/32 and the the RR is at 7/32.All readings were at the center. Upon further inspection, I have found out that there is excessive wear on the inside of the LR and is showing the threads. My vehicle came with the continental contisilents and the alignment was checked at delivery(demo car) and again at the recent service and showed that no adjustment was necessary. I drive about 50K miles a year, mostly on highways, back and forth from work at @70mph. Since I never adjusted the height of the suspension, it was at the factory delivery setting of lowering at highway speeds and probably leading to the excessive wear on the inner side of LR due to the camber change. The question is why is there no wear on the insides on RR? Is only one side lowering? The alignment was always off on LR leading to excessive negative camber?Any other culprits? pictures are attached.

I have currently set the suspension to high and "Never" so it starts the car at high and lowers to standard height at highway speeds and stays there. Would that wear the outside edges out since the camber is factory adjusted to allow for the lowering of vehicle at highway speeds?

With my driving mostly on highway thought, can they adjust the camber so that I can set the car to standard height and Never so when it lowers to low at highway speeds there is either zero or a slight negative camber? I don't drive hard on ramps and curves anyway.

BTW, the car is going in next week at SC to get the two rears replaced and all points checked and torqued.

Apologize for the long post but my thought was the more detail the better.

 

[Colby Boles]

Check my Michelins out. These were at about 22k mi. Right rear was through two layers of steel belting on the inside. Vehicle was set to go to low above 50mph. Will be installing camber adjusting bushings to avoid this with the new Conti DWS06s
.

 

[Devy12345]

Update on my earlier post.
I had my two rears replaced in May 2018.
The tires are holding up fine and the fronts are holding up amazing.
This is what I have done.
Set the suspension to standard and never lower.
Keep tires inflated at 45psi or better at all times.
For anyone having a question whether to use the contisilents, my front tires are original, still will give about 4K more and I am at 45K miles on the X now. Taking it in for service in December when I will replace them again with the contisilents.

 

[vrykolas]

Update on my earlier post.
I had my two rears replaced in May 2018.
The tires are holding up fine and the fronts are holding up amazing.
This is what I have done.
Set the suspension to standard and never lower.
Keep tires inflated at 45psi or better at all times.
For anyone having a question whether to use the contisilents, my front tires are original, still will give about 4K more and I am at 45K miles on the X now. Taking it in for service in December when I will replace them again with the contisilents.

I'm just chiming in to agree. Also have an X. Had fronts replaced from an accident, but tear contisilents should get about 40k miles which is better than I expected from the forums.

I also try to keep air pressure above 43-44 psi and NEVER lower suspension