Uneven tire wear…

[ellisina4]

Hi,
My wife has 2019 MX dual motor… 22” staggered wheel setup… car has 22k miles… had oem tires swapped at the delivery in favor of all season conti DWSs that usually lasted 40-45k miles on the rest of the cars in the family.
Recently started getting low tire pressure on front right (passenger front) tire… looked to see if there is a nail and saw that the inner part of the tire was so worn out that I could see and feel the metal tire belts (first tire picture posted - after the alignment printout)… I checked out other 3 tires and all of them were unevenly worn out with left rear showing tire belts also.
I replaced all 4 tires immediately with Michelin Pilot all seasons 4s and took it for alignment… the strangest thing is that the tire that was worn out the most (right front) had the best alignment…
I understand that MX is heavier than most vehicles in its class and I could never rotate front/back due to staggered setup… plus all tires were unevenly worn out on the inside.

Any insight on why these tires lasted so little and alignment/tire wear observation?

 

[ngng]

Search is your friend

 

[sorka]

High negative camber on the rear is typical of S/X. Your -2.0 and -2.3 will only give you have the tire life you could have if you had it corrected to -1.3.
You can buy third party products to correct the camber. Do so and get it dialed into -1.0 to -1.3 on the rear and -0.6 on the front. If you don't do any aggressive driving in the corners, should for -1.0 on the rears.

Also, rotate every 5K miles left to right and vise versa.

 

[CuriousM3]

What height was the X alignment done on? What height do you drive on?

 

[ellisina4]

You can buy third party products to correct the camber. Do so and get it dialed into -1.0 to -1.3 on the rear and -0.6 on the front. If you don't do any aggressive driving in the corners, should for -1.0 on the rears.

Also, rotate every 5K miles left to right and vise versa.

Thank you for your reply… never thought that this is a known issue… this is first set of tires after almost 3 years and 22k miles… a couple of follow up question…

• any explanation why the camber, on the front right wheel that had the tire with the worst worn out inner edge, was close to what you mentioned as recommended camber (mine was -0.9 before alignment vs -0.6 you mentioned)?
• based on reading further on TMC, the only way to adjust OEM aggressive camber, I would have to purchase aftermarket camber/toe kit… is that correct? I am not sure about the actual alignment process, but can the tech be asked to try to make chamber closer to -1.3 sweet spot or there is absolute limit for camber and it can’t be reached using OEM suspension?
• also, based on before and after camber values, my front camber is -0.7 and -0.9… rears are over -2… would I assume correctly that front camber is in “good shape” for tire life?

 

[ellisina4]

What height was the X alignment done on? What height do you drive on?

Good question… I will check with the shop tomorrow… this is Raven and we drive in Low suspension setting so need to make sure that is the setting they used… at least I hope so…

 

[teacher]

very common problem almost every x made has this issue. here is a link for the suspension kit.

Eliminate Inner Tire & Premature Half-Shaft Wear On Tesla X/S!

Finally you can properly align your Tesla Model S or X to completely eliminate inner rear tire wear and premature half-shaft wear!

n2itive.me

 

[sorka]

Hi,
My wife has 2019 MX dual motor… 22” staggered wheel setup… car has 22k miles… had oem tires swapped at the delivery in favor of all season conti DWSs that usually lasted 40-45k miles on the rest of the cars in the family.
Recently started getting low tire pressure on front right (passenger front) tire… looked to see if there is a nail and saw that the inner part of the tire was so worn out that I could see and feel the metal tire belts (first tire picture posted - after the alignment printout)… I checked out other 3 tires and all of them were unevenly worn out with left rear showing tire belts also.
I replaced all 4 tires immediately with Michelin Pilot all seasons 4s and took it for alignment… the strangest thing is that the tire that was worn out the most (right front) had the best alignment…
I understand that MX is heavier than most vehicles in its class and I could never rotate front/back due to staggered setup… plus all tires were unevenly worn out on the inside.

Any insight on why these tires lasted so little and alignment/tire wear observation?

It looks like the left front tire is overall worn a lot less than the right but that the evenness across the tires inside to out is about the same. The real question is why did the right front tire wear so much more?

The only thing I can think of assuming that you don't have some sort of pathological addiction to left handed turns on on and off ramps is that the ride height calibration is not symmetrical. If the front right and rear left are evenly too high compare to the front left and rear right, then you might not even see it when measuring and would need to measure the weight at each wheel. I suspect you'd find that the front right and rear left show several hundred lbs more than the front left and rear right.

Edit: I take it back. Both our right tires both look more worn than the left tires. Do you take a lot of left handed turning on and off ramps at speed?

 

[ellisina4]

I had a Tesla CV boot replacement appointment scheduled under warranty and also added a clicking noise issue that keeps coming back and acceleration… they are now also replacing front halfshafts (Raven)… Tesla will be doing alignment anyways so I will make sure to ask to have it done in Low setting as this is the setting we drive the car in… and also provide before and after report.

On a different note, has someone ever tried to have Tesla reimburse owners, at least partially, for new tires as this is obviously a known issue due to aggressive camber and limited OEM adjustment for camber and toe? Once I got more info about this and also saw that Tesla document all my tires being at 7/32 (middle, outer and inner edges) at 16k miles and now wore out to the belts at 22k… I am getting pissed about this. That is considering I had brand new Conti DWS installed after delivery (these lasted on my other cars for at least 35-40k)… my wife drives like a grandma… so no crazy cornering.

 

[ngng]

I had a Tesla CV boot replacement appointment scheduled under warranty and also added a clicking noise issue that keeps coming back and acceleration… they are now also replacing front halfshafts (Raven)… Tesla will be doing alignment anyways so I will make sure to ask to have it done in Low setting as this is the setting we drive the car in… and also provide before and after report.

On a different note, has someone ever tried to have Tesla reimburse owners, at least partially, for new tires as this is obviously a known issue due to aggressive camber and limited OEM adjustment for camber and toe? Once I got more info about this and also saw that Tesla document all my tires being at 7/32 (middle, outer and inner edges) at 16k miles and now wore out to the belts at 22k… I am getting pissed about this. That is considering I had brand new Conti DWS installed after delivery (these lasted on my other cars for at least 35-40k)… my wife drives like a grandma… so no crazy cornering.

Good luck. They have far more catastrophic failures that they have not owned up to.

 

[rustybh1]

How about this one - left hand rear of my 2020 Model S. Tire has about 30k on it. Inner edge is in this condition, outer edge still had 8mm of tread left. All other tires were evenly worn down to 4-5mm. Took it to my local service center and apparently this is normal! I've attached the alignment readings as well.

 

[sorka]

That alignment sheet makes no sense. First, the rear left negative camber is very mild at only -1.37 which could not explain that kind of tire wear. Secondly, not how every single graphical marker left/right symmetrical. i.e. a positive or negative reading on both sides for an alignment measurement results in both markers either moving out or moving in.

But your rear camber markers both move to the left which looks like a bug or there's some issue with the alignment that isn't reflected in the numbers correctly.

 

[DCGOO]

One other thing I noticed, the tire that is ripped up is a 265. The 265’s are supposed to be on the front, not the rear. 275s on the rear

 

[mxnym]

One other thing I noticed, the tire that is ripped up is a 265. The 265’s are supposed to be on the front, not the rear. 275s on the rear

Nice catch. Unfortunately, I think it's possible for 265 and 275 to mount to both rim widths, so it's difficult to say if the wrong rim was on the back or the wrong tire was on the rim (except a 275 on the front on either rim would rub AFAIK). It also may be possible that they are running square even though the wheels aren't. Regardless, the location of the damage is often blamed on the fixed camber while there are arguments that toe has a much bigger effect (but again, the reading appears to show more toe on the right rear). I also wonder if the alignment readings are relevant, the screen says "alignment complete" and how it's aligned now wouldn't necessarily have anything to do with how the tires wore regardless.

Actually, looking at the camber closer, I think the left is more out (-1.37 is much further from target than -1.87, so it may be necessary to reach -2.0 or more to find the other side of target), and since that is fixed, it could be relevant.