Premature Tire Wear

[Nubo]

My wife's Subaru was in need of new tires. Tire Rack has nice choices but decided this time to go with something available at Costco, if they were suitable. Her first pick turned out to be unavailable, so we actually ended up going with the EP422 for her car; getting them installed tomorrow.

A bit of trepidation due to some of the experiences here, but so far they seem ok on our LEAF. Admittedly only just over 10K miles so far but just rotated them and they look good. Part of the secret may be inflation; I run the LEAF tires at the 44psi max on the sidewall. Seems to help the handling also. Will probably go higher than the Subaru recommendation as well. As far as the tire's quality and durability I do believe someone here indicated that the aftermarket version is superior to what Bridgestone is giving Nissan for the OEM. So I'm kinda' counting on that too . Anyway, should do much better in the quietness and mileage dept than what's on there now.

 

[adric22]

My tires are also nearing their end. I have 19,000 miles on them. I actually have replaced 2 tires already due to road hazards having punctured them on the side-wall. So I have two brand new tires and two original. I was looking at them just a few days ago thinking "how can these be worn so much already?"

 

[TRONZ]

Just made it to 2 years and 23,000! Getting new shoes tomorrow morning.

Allen got my Good Year Assurance FuelMax order today. It was the only All Season, LRR, 6year Warranty, high tread life tire I could find that only weighs 18lbs. Not sure if anyone else is running them. We shall see how they work.

 

[philip]

I have a 911 for that.

Have you seen this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOIAk8TA6b4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[ttweed]

I have a 911 for that.

Have you seen this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOIAk8TA6b4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ya, I was a Car and Driver subscriber when they did that test, but thought it was "apples and oranges." If they put the R-compound tires on the Carrera like they did on the Leaf, the gap between their performance would have remained the same. If they would have put a really sticky tire on the Leaf like a Kumho V710, a Hoosier A6, or a set of Avon slicks, they could have exceeded the skidpad numbers of a stock street-tired 911, but that only shows what a difference a set of race tires can make. Who is going to drive their Leaf around daily on a set of those, though? Not me.

The truth is, steady-state cornering ability on a skidpad is only one aspect of performance, and the Leaf happens to be fairly good at that for an econobox, considering the low CG from the battery pack placement in the floor. However, in every other performance aspect (high-speed acceleration, braking, transitioning) it is quite mediocre, and not even a match for a 40-year old 911 in all-around performance.

Have you seen this thread here on MNL? I actually took our Leaf out to an autocross at Qualcomm stadium in Aug. of 2011. Once was enough. Even making all the common "bolt-on" mods to improve the Leaf (lowering springs, shocks, swaybars, oversize R-compound tires w/ competition alignment--say $4K in improvements) I estimated that the Leaf could be made competitive with an average 944 Spec car in terms of lap times. Since you can buy a fully developed 944 Spec for $6-10K, my question would be "Why would you do that to a Leaf?" There are still some frustrating electronic "bugs" regarding electronic "nannys" (particularly in braking performance) that would be much more difficult to overcome in optimizing the Leaf for performance. It's just not worth it to try to make the car into something it isn't, except maybe for the novelty.

TT

 

[ttweed]

Just made it to 2 years and 23,000! Getting new shoes tomorrow morning.
[snipped image]
Allen got my Good Year Assurance FuelMax order today. It was the only All Season, LRR, 6year Warranty, high tread life tire I could find that only weighs 18lbs. Not sure if anyone else is running them. We shall see how they work.

Glad to see you got full use out of those OEM tires--you aren't replacing them too soon, Tronz! Mine are not even that bad after 26K miles and one autocross. I still have maybe 3/32" tread in the center, and none on the shoulder, but no cord showing yet. I was thinking I would bump the pressures up from 40 to 44PSi and get the last couple of thousand miles out of that center tread. :lol:

The Goodyear FuelMax was another tire I was considering. Please let us know what you think of them.

TT

 

[DaveEV]

The Energy Saver A/S has a 65,000 mile warranty--5,000 more than the Primacy MXV4. There is also a Michelin Energy MXV4 S8 tire that meets Michelin''s Green X standard* for low rolling resistance and has a 50,000 mile warranty.

I don't think the ES A/S is available in the stock LEAF size. Only the summer Energy Saver is and the warranty varies from 40-50k miles depending on the specific version - it comes in speed ratings from H to W.

I'm convinced the Kumhos couldn't be any worse than the Ecopias, so I may try them without any feedback.

Someone has to be the first. The only other tire you might consider at a similar price is the Fuel Max, but I'm not at all impressed with those on my Prius.

there are many far better street tires in the high performance category
...
The Leaf is not a sports car, by any stretch of the imagination, and doesn't get driven that way

Putting a good sports tire on the LEAF is probably a bit like putting lipstick on a pig. Though I think that Motor Trend showed it was possible to get the LEAF to corner at close to 1G with just a tire change... Imagine if they had adjusted the alignment, too!

 

[ttweed]

Imagine if they had adjusted the alignment, too!

I'm sure the Carrera could also have benefited from a more aggressive alignment--they tend to push pretty badly with the stock factory setup (to protect the uninitiated from the dreaded rear-engined "trailing throttle oversteer" effect).

TT

 

[Valdemar]

You guys must be driving your Leafs pretty hard. At 23k miles and 17 month of ownership I expect mine will last at least 35k miles, and likely more, that is if my driving habits don't change.

 

[mwalsh]

You guys must be driving your Leafs pretty hard. At 23k miles and 17 month of ownership I expect mine will last at least 35k miles, and likely more, that is if my driving habits don't change.

+1. They noted 6.5/32 rear and 7/32 front at my service two weeks ago (I'd just rotated). That's at 25k/2 years.

 

[ttweed]

You guys must be driving your Leafs pretty hard. At 23k miles and 17 month of ownership I expect mine will last at least 35k miles, and likely more, that is if my driving habits don't change.

Well, I did drive it hard for 15 miles or so at Qualcomm in 2011, but my wife is the primary driver of the car and she drives like the little old grandma that she is. I probably put less than 20% of the miles on the Leaf and don't really run it hard at all--no jackrabbit starts or hard braking, although I may occasionally push it a little harder through a cloverleaf or sweeper than the average driver, I suppose. Not white-knuckle, tire-squealing hard, though, because my wife is usually with me when I'm driving her car and she won't put up with that.

Most of the difference in wear may be due to individual use and weather/road conditions. We probably drive less on freeways than the normal driver, and it is generally warmer down here in Lo Cal and rarely rains. We had mwalsh's level of wear at the second rotation I did on the tires at about 17K miles.

YMMV,
TT

 

[Nubo]

I wonder if there's just some variance in the tires, or perhaps alignment issues? pic of ours below, at just over 10,000 miles over the last year. I think these will be ok for the remaining 2 years of the lease at this rate. While I do drive conservatively on longer trips, many of those miles are from a commute where I have enough reserves to drive as fast as I care to, and also enjoy a good jackrabbit start often enough -- for educational purposes . The only thing I do try to avoid is heavy acceleration while turning. FWIW, I've always ran these higher than the Nissan sticker. Started at 40psi and soon went to 44.

 

[dgpcolorado]

A general question: what sources do you use to research tires? In the past I've looked at Consumer Reports, but they tend to be limited in brands and models. Any comprehensive sources of info on tire performance that you care to recommend?

My sense in reading the tire threads here at MNL is that running stock LEAF tires at 36 PSI leads to premature outer tread wear, an obvious sign of underinflation. And that makes me glad I've always been running mine higher than that. But, if true, why didn't Nissan choose a higher recommended tire pressure? Softer ride? I don't get it.

 

[DarkStar]

My sense in reading the tire threads here at MNL is that running stock LEAF tires at 36 PSI leads to premature outer tread wear, an obvious sign of underinflation. And that makes me glad I've always been running mine higher than that. But, if true, why didn't Nissan choose a higher recommended tire pressure? Softer ride? I don't get it.

That's exactly the reason, a more comfortable ride.

From the driver's perspective, the difference between 36 PSI and 44 PSI is huge. If you aren't used to the stiff feeling that 44 PSI would give, you might think something was wrong.

 

[TRONZ]

Ran the past year at 50psi on the stock tires. Made no difference. I drive like I drive and thats a 3.4 average. I reset my energy history about every six months and its been 3.4 every time.

After a couple of days on the FuelMax's, so far its two thumbs up. They seem to be a much better match for the LEAF all around. A very rounded shoulder and lighter, they spool up a bit faster stop light to stop light (most of my driving). Have very good grip and (so far) not made them sound off during my "spirited" daily driving. Have no clue about LRR efficiency yet. The most noticeable improvement though is highway stability. Our special brand of grooved south OC 405 had the Bridgestones wandering everywhere at 65+. Almost a little scary at times. The Goodyears are so far very stable on the same highway up to 80mph. I will be carefully paying attention to wear as the months go by.

 

[ttweed]

Have no clue about LRR efficiency yet.

Thanks for the report. Let us know if your 3.4 number drops, but the handling side of the Fuel Max tires certainly sounds promising.

TT

 

[Herm]

The only thing I do try to avoid is heavy acceleration while turning. FWIW, I've always ran these higher than the Nissan sticker. Started at 40psi and soon went to 44.

+1

Heavy acceleration or braking while turning are death on the tires of heavy FWD cars like the Leaf, especially on under-inflated tires.

 

[walterbays]

I know tire warranties are usually worth much less than they seem on the face, but has anyone ever before seen one like the LEAF/Bridgestone warranty that specifically excludes mileage wear? I looked around a little and couldn't find any other new car warranty that excluded tire mileage.

 

[TomT]

I now have about 20,000 miles on the Michelin MXV4s... Extrapolating from the current wear and tread depth (9/32), I expect them to go about 75,000 miles before they would need to be replaced.

What a difference from the Ecopias!

 

[RonDawg]

I know tire warranties are usually worth much less than they seem on the face, but has anyone ever before seen one like the LEAF/Bridgestone warranty that specifically excludes mileage wear? I looked around a little and couldn't find any other new car warranty that excluded tire mileage.

Every car I owned (including a few Nissans) that had a tire warranty specifically excluded mileage as well as road hazard. They were strictly for defective workmanship only (tread separation, for example).