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webb14leafs

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Mar 27, 2017
Messages
287
I need to replace the tires on my leaf for the first time. Can I just get any tires that fit, or are there other considerations?

Also, how does the mileage warranty work for a Leaf? I understand that the Leaf wears out tires much sooner than most cars.

Thanks
 
webb14leafs said:
I need to replace the tires on my leaf for the first time. Can I just get any tires that fit, or are there other considerations?

Also, how does the mileage warranty work for a Leaf? I understand that the Leaf wears out tires much sooner than most cars.

Thanks

The stock tires are very low rolling resistance, and getting similar tires will help you not take a big hit on the range. (though all new tires have higher RR than old tires.)

How does the mileage warranty relate to the tires?

No, the Leaf is no different on tire wear than any other car.
 
The recommended tire pressure on the Leaf is a little too low which results in increased wear on the outer edges of the tires. Many Leaf owners add a few lbs of pressure to each tire to help the tires live longer.

Mileage warranties on tires are normally not worth the paper they are printed on as the manner in which the car is driven is the biggest factor in wear. If your tires wear out before the warranty period is over, they will just tell you that you drove too aggressively and deny the claim. The warranty is really only from defects not related to wear. Uneducated consumers still buy tires based off them being 60k miles or whatever but that is a basic estimate and inconsistent between manufacturers. You are best served looking at tire reviews and remembering that your tires are the only thing that connects you to the road and are the determining factor in how quickly you can turn or slow down before you lose control. I.e. Don't buy the cheapest tires you can find if you value safety. A car's brakes do not determine how quickly the car can stop, the car's tires do. If you buy junk tires, don't be surprised when your stopping distance is increased and you rear end someone during an emergency stop.

Low rolling resistance tires will increase your car's range but at the cost of traction. Everyone needs to decide for themselves where they want to fall in that trade off. Personally, I much prefer good rubber to an extra five miles of range and happily make the trade off but if range is an actual issue for you, you may not be as willing as I am to forgo low rolling resistance tires.
 
4CloverLeaf said:
Low rolling resistance tires will increase your car's range but at the cost of traction. Everyone needs to decide for themselves where they want to fall in that trade off. Personally, I much prefer good rubber to an extra five miles of range and happily make the trade off but if range is an actual issue for you, you may not be as willing as I am to forgo low rolling resistance tires.

If the LEAF was an ICE, I would agree with slightly higher rolling resistance, but with the LEAF, there are really only two wear items adding to the cost per mile, the battery (oh, I had to mention it) and the tires. Those extra miles will result in slightly less wear and tear on the battery, which is the by a far margin the major cost of driving the LEAF.

As far as the tires, I'd say Nissan did an excellent job choosing the Ecopias. The OEM ones lasted 45K miles for me, and yes, I kept them at 42 psi, and drove around corners like an old lady. Now with owning the LEAF, I've also concluded that tires will last a lot longer going at 48 mph as opposed to 60+.

I got a replacement set from Tire Rack, and you can then choose a local installer from their website too. I was extremely happy with Cannon Buick here in Lakeland, but of course that only helps somebody close here in Central Florida.
 
For my second set of LEAF tires, I bought another set of Bridgestone Ecopias from Discount tire when my car had 25,000 miles, and even with increased pressure of 45 psi to avoid front wear, they only lasted until 50,000 miles.

Discount Tire gave me pro-rated warranty credit when I bought my third set of tires. I did have to pay standard installation costs, which would have been the same at 25,000 miles of wear or 50,000 miles of wear. So from that standpoint, it does cost the customer a little extra money to buy new tires even under warranty...

But to counter the post above, they made no effort to deny my warranty on the tires. I had them rotated promptly and wear was even on all 4. While the Ecopias do provide that low rolling resistance that we enjoy for maximum mileage, they just don't last that long on the LEAF....
 
The Ecopias suck if you like twisty roads and taking them at speed. The shoulders wear down in just a few thousand miles on rough, twisty CO mountain roads.

There are other LRR tires with better durability.
 
sub3marathonman said:
If the LEAF was an ICE, I would agree with slightly higher rolling resistance, but with the LEAF, there are really only two wear items adding to the cost per mile, the battery (oh, I had to mention it) and the tires. Those extra miles will result in slightly less wear and tear on the battery, which is the by a far margin the major cost of driving the LEAF.

The cost of the small percentage extra wear on the battery can't ever come close to the cost of fixing me if I am ever in a crash. I value my safety much higher then some additional wear on my battery. Plus, my battery came with a warranty where my neck does not.

There is no way around the trade off. If you want the highest possible range, you are going to sacrifice traction. How much range and traction a person wants is their own decision and there is no right answer that applies to everyone. I do know that most of the time EVs go out to drive they don't need their maximum range or the maximum traction so...
 
If you have an ECO, LRR focus and want every mile you can get out of your battery then here are a few things I pay close attention to on the LRR tires.

List in no particular order:
1. The weight of the tire, the lighter the weight the better.
2. Look for the narrowest tread pattern. The larger the contact patch on the ground the more resistance, and also a larger frontal area increase the aero drag.
3. Look for tires that will allow higher max PSI. I tend to run my tires at the max sidewall pressure for the lowest resistance and better tire wear.
4. Pay attention to the tire diameter. If the tire you are looking at is larger in diameter than the stock tires then your speed and odometer readings will be affected and it may appear you are getting more or less miles per charge than before. It is a good idea to use a GPS and known distance mile markers to evaluate how close your speed and distance are with any new tire.
5. Of course look for tires that advertise they are a LRR tire, however that does not mean they will measure up to the stock tires in miles/kilometers per charge. The other factors we just listed will come into play.
6. Look for larger numbers for the UTQG which will typically indicate longer tire wear as well as possibly better performance.

Right now just based on the specs I can see on Tire Rack for my 2013 SL and tires with an ECO focus so far the specs would lead me to believe that the the Ecopias are still at the top with a 6.8" tread width, 22lbs per tire, 50psi max tire pressure, and a UTQG of 640 which isn't great, but given it's competitors it looks like it will be good enough. Next behind that it appears the Firestone Champion Fuel Figher may be a decent LRR challenger with a 6.9 tread width, 50psi, 22lbs, 817 rpm, and a UTQG of 600 which isn't as good as the Ecopias. But it looks like that tire should come very close in ECO performance to the Ecopias.

Most of the other tires in the list have a much wider tread pattern, some weigh more, and there are other clues that they are probably better performers than the Ecopias or the Champions, but they appear to be sacrificing that ultimate fuel economy badge. So based on what I can see so far it appears the Ecopias still have the lead for fuel economy. At least of those tires that Tire Rack is spitting out for tires that fit my SL.
 
I had LRR tires on my Volvo up to a year ago when I sold it.

The Volvo weighed about 3,232 lbs (wikipedia)
The Volvo used 195/60 15 tires

My SV Leaf weighs 3,291 lbs (wikipedia)... I'm too lazy to go to the garage.
The Leaf uses 205/55 16 tires

Comparing the two cars that are similar in weight and a little different in tire size are not apples to apples, but I cannot say that people should feel unsafe driving the Leaf like a commuter car. If you treat it like a "Hot Hatch" you will have issues beyond tire life. Are the factory Ecopias the best tires out there? I don't know, because I have 31,000 on mine and I think they will last to 40,000+ before the wear bars are exposed.

If you do "spirited" driving you will wear the all tires down.
 
There are different sizes of tires based on the trim level of the car. I don't know if there were any specific changes to the cars over the years regarding wheel and tire sizes. On the 2013 SL trim the wheels are 17". The OEM tire size for the SL in 2013 is 215/50R17.

So when looking up and choosing your tire make sure to look it up by model.
 
4CloverLeaf said:
sub3marathonman said:
If the LEAF was an ICE, I would agree with slightly higher rolling resistance, but with the LEAF, there are really only two wear items adding to the cost per mile, the battery (oh, I had to mention it) and the tires. Those extra miles will result in slightly less wear and tear on the battery, which is the by a far margin the major cost of driving the LEAF.

The cost of the small percentage extra wear on the battery can't ever come close to the cost of fixing me if I am ever in a crash. I value my safety much higher then some additional wear on my battery. Plus, my battery came with a warranty where my neck does not.

There is no way around the trade off. If you want the highest possible range, you are going to sacrifice traction. How much range and traction a person wants is their own decision and there is no right answer that applies to everyone. I do know that most of the time EVs go out to drive they don't need their maximum range or the maximum traction so...

I don't think that anyone should be suggesting that the stock Leaf tires are unsafe, and that you should buy "better' traction tires. Every Leaf on the road came with the Ecopias, and they do not have a problem with the cars crashing because of bad tires.

Those that want to drive their car FASTER than they should (with an EV) - - SHOULD get tires with more traction for YOUR safety. I will continue getting the Ecopias for the life of the car unless a better alternative pops up...
 
Thanks for all of the comments.

I was just confused because I didn't realize that the originally installed Ecopias were different than those you buy from a dealer. Most people I know with a Leaf reported needing new tires after 20-25K miles. I assumed that was typical for all Ecopias. I now know it's not. Costco is having a deal on the Ecopias and their installation costs are much lower than most. I'll go with them.

I'm surprised Bridgestone lets Nissan install inferior versions of tires. My confusion is an example of how this can hurt their reputation.
 
webb14leafs said:
I'm surprised Bridgestone lets Nissan install inferior versions of tires. My confusion is an example of how this can hurt their reputation.
I was kind of thinking this also, but in the end if people end up needing to replace their tires much sooner, Bridgestone will end up selling more tires. Sure some people might purposely avoid them because the OEMs had such a short life but many others will probably just replace the tires with the same as OEM and not really think about it. Still others like me or people on this forum will read and find out the OEMs were built specifically to be cheap and the aftermarket equivalents are much better, so they'll still go with the Ecopia's(albeit the +'s). Bridgestone and especially Costco do make the Ecopia +'s very price competitive and while maybe if someone were giving me the tires or they would have been the same price as the comparable Michelin's I'd have gotten the Michelin's but in the end I ended up with the Ecopia's and have been happy.
Oh and it's not just Bridgestone that does the cheapo OEM tire game, I've had new vehicles with Michelin tires that wore out before 40k and the Michelin's I installed after that got 80k+. Just another example of cost cutting measures that get implemented when selling a $30-40k vehicle :(
 
Since Phoenix has heavy rains separated by long periods of hot, dry weather there is an accumulation of oil on the streets so wet traction is critical to me. The 16-inch OEM Bridgestone Ecopias on the 2011 were actually quite good in wet conditions (with oil residue) if they were inflated to 44 psi. The higher inflation pressure also improved handling and tread life. They would hydroplane and slide easily in the rain at 36 psi (probably because the weight of the Leaf caused the tread grooves to close under load).

The 17-inch OEM Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires that came on the 2015 were the worst radial tires I have ever driven on. I tried inflation pressures from 36 to 44 psi and wet traction was always bad. I ultimately chose to run them at 44 psi for best dry handling and tread life. They did not last any longer than the Ecopias and I gladly replaced them.

I put Michelin MXM4 tires on the 2011 with excellent results except for about 10% reduction in range. The Continental sport performance tires I put on the 2015 are great, but range reduction was about 15% overall (more loss on highway, less on city streets). After driving Leafs on a total of four different sets of tires, I recommend Ecopias inflated to 44 psi if range is a concern. I recommend sport performance tires of your choice if range and cost are not concerns. Michelin passenger car tires are prone to premature sidewall cracking in hot dry climates so their performance tires are OK as long as you drive enough to wear them out in a couple of years. Note, I was happy with the MXM4s on the 2011 and considered them for the 2015, but they were not in stock and I needed to replace the OEM tires on short notice.
 
webb14leafs said:
Thanks for all of the comments.

I was just confused because I didn't realize that the originally installed Ecopias were different than those you buy from a dealer. Most people I know with a Leaf reported needing new tires after 20-25K miles. I assumed that was typical for all Ecopias. I now know it's not. Costco is having a deal on the Ecopias and their installation costs are much lower than most. I'll go with them.

I'm surprised Bridgestone lets Nissan install inferior versions of tires. My confusion is an example of how this can hurt their reputation.

The version you buy have deeper treads. Almost all OEM tires have shallower tread depth; from all makers.
 
The heck with all of that. I put Bridgestone DriveGuards (Run Flat) on about 4 months ago and love having some solice that I wont need to tow it home or get hold of a spare due to a flat. My summer range is about 4.3kw p mi in 100*+ heat. I'll gladly take the range hit.
 
I recommend the Ecopia+ tires. I just went back to Ecopia after 23,000 miles on Michelins, and I'm instantly back up over 4.2 miles/kWh, and they're not even broken in yet. With the Michelins i struggled to get 4 miles/kWh.
 
Anyone with experience with OHTSU tires? They are cheap, but have decent reviews - which is OK for my driving around the burbs. I'm going with new 17" rims - P205/50R17 match the original tire diameter quite close.
 
Great thread, my vehicle is going to need new tires soon. They are Ecopia but only 20,000 miles and they look pretty worn. Previous owner has tons of record where she rotated them when they were do so they all have very even wear.
 
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