Worn out rear tires at 13000 miles?

[WattsHappening]

Wow, this is very interesting. I'll be sure to keep my eyes on tire wear and make sure to rotate.

How about AWD? Tires should theoretically wear more even, yes?

I know there are some tires being designed for EVs. Has anyone looked into those?

 

[John Beans]

I have 13,000 miles on my RWD 19" and I've already rotated them twice.
5,000-6,000 miles is a good idea with this car. My tire shop does it for free, just it just costs a stop at lunch.
They are wearing very evenly, with a slight amount of feathering.

 

[Thunder7ga]

Had mine rotated this past Monday for the first time at about 8500 miles. They were at 6/32 on rears and 7/32 on front, both even wear across the entire tread.

 

[banned-66611]

High tread wear is the norm for a 4000lb RWD car that can go 0-60 in under 5 seconds. Welcome to the club of buying tires every 20,000 miles or so. You can either rotate and replace all 4 tires in 20k-30k miles or not rotate and just replace the rears at 15k and the fronts at 30k. Or drive it like grandma and and get more.

The Leaf isn't much lighter and doesn't have this problem, except when there is a defect in the rear axel.

Unless people are doing a lot of hard acceleration the M3 shouldn't degrade this fast.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

Wow, this is very interesting. I'll be sure to keep my eyes on tire wear and make sure to rotate.

How about AWD? Tires should theoretically wear more even, yes?

I know there are some tires being designed for EVs. Has anyone looked into those?

I’m still on the OEM tires at 45,000 mi. I hope to make it through the winter and another 10,000 mi (all highway, since my Leaf is the in-town car). I specifically got AWD, S70D, because of all the horror stories of 15-20,000 miles before replacing.

 

[matto]

Why is everyone saying "Rotate your tires". If you're burning up rear tires it's not like rotating them is going to save you money. You'll just be burning up the fronts instead. Being diligent with rotations only helps if you're required to replace all 4 at once (so you don't waste the unused fronts), or you need to always keep the tires at similar diameter (such as with a 4x4 where the wheels rotate at the same speeds).

The real question is why are they wearing so fast? Yes, it could be that it's a RWD car with decent torque. But has anyone checked how much toe-in these cars have from the factory? Toe-in in the rear helps keep the car stable, but also eats tires because they are always scrubbing even when driving constant speed down a straight road. For optimal tire wear you want zero toe up front, and just a little bit in the rear for stability.

I'm going to measure the toe once I get my car and get it aligned if it's too aggressive. Tires are expensive. If I'm burning through them quickly I want it to be because I'm driving like an idiot, not because of an unnecessarily conservative alignment from the factory to keep lawyers happy.

Does anyone know the Model 3 factory alignment specs? How little toe will Tesla allow if you have them align the car?

 

[Uncle Paul]

You may be able to "get" more miles out of your worn tires (1/32) but they are no longer safe to drive. A little rain/snow/sand can put you off the road in a flash.

Because of the huge torque available on Tesla a heavy footed driver can short life them pretty easily.

At least one major tire manufacturer is developing tires specifically for the EV market.

Used to see competitive drivers at local track days going through a set of expensive high performance tires in just a couple days of lapping.

 

[timk225]

The Leaf isn't much lighter and doesn't have this problem, except when there is a defect in the rear axel.

Unless people are doing a lot of hard acceleration the M3 shouldn't degrade this fast.

The Leaf is also a slow wuss turdmobile that couldn't wear the tires hard if it wanted to, unlike Teslas, which GO!

 

[Daniel in SD]

This isn't rocket science. It's either hard driving or alignment. The rear toe is adjustable and I wouldn't be surprised if some cars leave the factory with it out of spec.

 

[gtmotor]

Is everyone that's seeing premature wear on the 18' tires? My 19" sport tires are wearing extremely well. I am at 8/32 after 9300 miles of hard use.

Rotating tires the factory way is incredibly easy on these cars. Minimal tools and time is required, I can do the whole job in about 10 minutes if I'm rushing.

 

[banned-66611]

This isn't rocket science. It's either hard driving or alignment. The rear toe is adjustable and I wouldn't be surprised if some cars leave the factory with it out of spec.

That is exactly the problem Nissan had with excessive rear tyre wear on the Leaf.

 

[woodisgood]

Is everyone that's seeing premature wear on the 18' tires? My 19" sport tires are wearing extremely well. I am at 8/32 after 9300 miles of hard use.

Rotating tires the factory way is incredibly easy on these cars. Minimal tools and time is required, I can do the whole job in about 10 minutes if I'm rushing.

Are you rearward crossing or just swapping front to back?

 

[Brentt]

A little over 16,000 on ours, rotated at 6500 and 14,000. Pattern was even with very little wear.

 

[BLKMDL3]

A little over 16,000 on ours, rotated at 6500 and 14,000. Pattern was even with very little wear.

Depth now?

 

[240W]

I’m slightly past 6.5k miles, haven’t rotated, but looks like a lot of tire is left, for those who wear it out fast, are you guys mashing the pedal every chance, hehe, what’s the avg wh/mi, >300?

 

[S3XY]

The Leaf isn't much lighter and doesn't have this problem, except when there is a defect in the rear axel.

Unless people are doing a lot of hard acceleration the M3 shouldn't degrade this fast.

What me? Accelerate fast?

 

[BLKMDL3]

Itching close to 350wh/mi over 9k miles. 4/32nd tire in back and 6/32 up front.

 

[MMBTUS]

With respect, I believe you are expecting too much of the tires. The braking forces (friction) they bear in the RWD model are heavily weighted to the rear owing to regen. Added to 250ish hp rear-only propulsion wear, that’s a lot of friction. All rolling on 110 degree pavement in So Florida.

I owned an SL550 before the M3 with 450hp propelling two rear wheels and more or less even four-wheel brake wear. Never got more than 10,000 miles out of any tire. Some only 8000.

The Michelin Pilots are very good tires with meaningful warranties — if you follow maintenance protocols and they have worn evenly, no misalignment issues. You’ll get a pro rated credit for the balance of guaranteed tread life from the tire vendor. At least that’s what Costco did for me when I was buying four tires more or less every year. They handled the credit with Michelin and saved me hundreds of dollars on a set of replacements. I bought the old set from them, of course. You can only do this every other set. The replacement set is not warrantied. Think about it. Not sure about the OEMs.

I’ll be happy to get 15K miles from ol’ Sparky’s tires. 13K seems realistic without rotation.

Plan for it. Forget about it being Tesla’s fault. Get to know the Costco tire guys.

 

[RFernatt]

The Leaf isn't much lighter and doesn't have this problem, except when there is a defect in the rear axel.

Unless people are doing a lot of hard acceleration the M3 shouldn't degrade this fast.

I'm replacing all four tires on my Leaf at 20K miles and that's with nonspirited driving. I think OEM tires are crap tires built for a contract price even if the tire model is sold separately. And, EV torque is hard on tires.

 

[RichXKU]

Has anyone gotten an alignment yet? My steering wheel was slightly off center since delivery, so I brought it in for service at somewhere around 1-2k miles. As it turns out, 3 out of 4 wheels were "in the red" on the printout and it needed a full alignment. It wasn't pulling left or right prior to the alignment, so if the steering wheel weren't off I never would have known.
Currently at 6200 miles, I'm at 6/32 R, 7/32 F on the Michelin Primacy 18s. I've run 45-48 PSI since new.