Put some air in those tires!

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Volusiano said:
Nubo said:
RLewisCA said:
...Overinflation will often result in additional cabin noise, as well as inferior cornering, stopping, acceleration and wet performance. Both conditions will likely produce uneven and premature tire wear. Over-inflation in particular will produce premature wear on the center 1/3 of the tread. This can be especially dangerous in wet weather because the car owner may look at the outer tread, see there is sufficient depth to drive safely, however the center of the tread could be almost fully worn, and because the tire is over-inflated, the center of the tread is supporting the most weight and making the most consistent contact with the road.

If driving in wet weather, if the center of the tread does not have sufficient depth to evacuate the water on the road from the tire's surface, this will result in hydroplaning.

The point is - follow the recommended PSI from the vehicle manufacturer, found inside the driver's door jam - not the psi molded onto the sidewall of the tire. Not doing so will most certainly void your tire warranty.

Interestingly, I've read a number of reports of the LEAF OEM tires, at Nissan-recommended pressures, which experienced excessive shoulder wear.
I can back this up. My LEAF's tires barely lasted me 17K miles before I had to replace them due to excessive shoulder wear. I don't drive my LEAF aggressively at all. Had them rotated at 7.5K and 15K per mfg recommendation.


I hear what you're saying, but shoulder wear can result from a number of possible factors, underinflation/overloading being one of them. Other factors include improper alignment (toe in or out, camber positive or negative) or tires being out of balance. So, without an inspection of the tires it would be impossible to determine which was the primary factor, or if it was a combination of two or three of these things. Additionally, the tires on my SL are 'V' speed rated tires. Why, I don't know, since V rated tires are represent a bit of overkill (rated for 149 mph). So, I would not expect them to last much beyond about 20,000 miles if they wear nice and even.

Also, it would not be difficult to calculate the proper tire inflation for an OEM tire to check if the manufacturer's recommended pressures are correct. All you would need is the curb and max weight at each wheel on the Leaf (service manual maybe?), and the tire manufacturer's load chart for the tire (which shows how much weight the tire can support at a variety of pressures).
 
I am not a tire expert. I am just a person who has run my PSI at 42 for 15 years over 5 different vehicles. During this time i never replaced tires before their rated mileage or have i ever had a tread depth vary by greater than onemillimeter
 
RLewisCA said:
I hear what you're saying, but shoulder wear can result from a number of possible factors, underinflation/overloading being one of them. Other factors include improper alignment (toe in or out, camber positive or negative) or tires being out of balance. So, without an inspection of the tires it would be impossible to determine which was the primary factor, or if it was a combination of two or three of these things.

Out of all of those factors, which would result in high wear on both shoulders but not on center tread?

My approach is to bracket the inflation pressures, drive for awhile and decide by handling. I've done this on other cars and sometimes ended up within 2 or even 1 PSI of the recommendations. In the case of LEAF, however, I ended up at 44 PSI. I do agree that wear should be taken into account. That takes longer to assess, of course. It took me about 2000 miles to settle on 44psi, and I'm still under 12000 miles, so not a lot of miles but so far the treadwear seems pretty even. If I saw evidence of excessive center tread wear I would indeed back off the pressure and for all of the reasons you gave.

The LEAF is a heavy car, and the Ecopia sidewalls are quite supple.
 
Agreed. On most cars I would usually wind up at 4 pounds above the recommendation. The Leaf is the only car I have ever owned where I wound up 8 pounds above the recommendation... Regardless, I never exceed the maximum pressure stamped on the sidewall.

Nubo said:
My approach is to bracket the inflation pressures, drive for awhile and decide by handling. I've done this on other cars and sometimes ended up within 2 or even 1 PSI of the recommendations. In the case of LEAF, however, I ended up at 44 PSI.
 
All these discussions made me inflate from 36 to 38 PSI over the weekend on my Leaf.

44? I am worried it is going to blow up on my face right when I am inflating it. 38 will do for now..
 
mkjayakumar said:
All these discussions made me inflate from 36 to 38 PSI over the weekend on my Leaf.

44? I am worried it is going to blow up on my face right when I am inflating it. 38 will do for now..

if you are *that* concerned. set the PSI to 44 lbs now and then come June, lower it to 40.

keep in mind, Summer time heat will put your PSI over 50 on warmer days. still well within the tire's capabilities
 
38 is a very good number for 44 tire. You could go higher (39-40) in winter but in summer 38 is perfect because in summer as tire heats up at freeway speed the pressure increases to 41-42 or higher. (Measure hot tire and then the same tire in am and you will see the difference.)

They say not to go over maximum which would be 44 hot. That's why 38 cold is a good number.

My Ectopias lasted 30,000 miles but by the time we got to that number they were illegal. I have immediately switched to low resistant Michelins (can't think of the name right now) and the cornering got better. Very solid tire. Total bill about 800 bucks at Costco - special order. 50,000 mile tire with mileage warranty. I'm hoping to stretch them to 60,000 at least.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
I am not a tire expert. I am just a person who has run my PSI at 42 for 15 years over 5 different vehicles. During this time i never replaced tires before their rated mileage or have i ever had a tread depth vary by greater than onemillimeter

Same here----I couldn't have said it any better. I'm running 44psi cold, very little noticable wear after 11,000+ miles. No problems whatsoever with noise, handling, etc, etc.
 
RLewisCA said:
Volusiano said:
Nubo said:
Interestingly, I've read a number of reports of the LEAF OEM tires, at Nissan-recommended pressures, which experienced excessive shoulder wear.
I can back this up. My LEAF's tires barely lasted me 17K miles before I had to replace them due to excessive shoulder wear. I don't drive my LEAF aggressively at all. Had them rotated at 7.5K and 15K per mfg recommendation.
I hear what you're saying, but shoulder wear can result from a number of possible factors, underinflation/overloading being one of them. Other factors include improper alignment (toe in or out, camber positive or negative) or tires being out of balance. So, without an inspection of the tires it would be impossible to determine which was the primary factor, or if it was a combination of two or three of these things.
I also experienced excessive shoulder wear on my OEM tires over similar miles at Nissan's recommended pressures and the recent alignment check at the time of replacement found only the right front slightly off. (I don't remember what it was at last rotation.) Upon asking, the installer suggested the shoulder wear might be due to the main highway around here being fast and windy (highway 17 between Santa Cruz and Silicon Valley) but I don't see that kind of wear with my RAV4 (also at vehicle's recommended PSI).

I think I may try adding just a couple pounds of pressure. I wonder if Nissan screwed up their calculations on the recommended PSI for the LEAF.
 
The Michelins I bought to replace the junk tires are Energy Saver(s). Good solid tires, a lot of surface rubber. Not much (or at all) noisier than the Ecopias. They are low resistance tires and they were not cheap. They are 51 psi type and have 50,000 tread warranty at Costco. It was a special order. Not all Costcos stock them.

I run them at about 47, I believe. Great cornering tire. Grips well (more rubber). They look illegal (they're not, of course).
 
The first thing I did was toss the tire sealant. It ruins the sensor, and probably the tire. I bought some rubber plugs and installer. I can't think of the last time we had a flat - even tho I was a mechanic, and the amount of metal stuck in tires is scary!
Besides - it's my wife's car. If she gets a flat, guess who she will call?
 
jjdoe said:
The first thing I did was toss the tire sealant. It ruins the sensor, and probably the tire.

My used leaf came w/o the repair kit, so I bought a Slime kit from Amazon; the instructions /claim/ that the goo can be removed and that it won't ruin the sensor ...
 
sandeen said:
jjdoe said:
The first thing I did was toss the tire sealant. It ruins the sensor, and probably the tire.

My used leaf came w/o the repair kit, so I bought a Slime kit from Amazon; the instructions /claim/ that the goo can be removed and that it won't ruin the sensor ...

Good luck using the Slime to seal and inflate a tire without damaging the sensor. If it is sticky enough to seal a leak in the tire, it will "seal" the small hole in the sensor. The compressor that comes with the car works great without using the sealer--I used the 2011 and 2015 compressors several times, but will never use the sealer. I carry two tubeless tire repair kits--one with mushroom-shaped rubber plugs and installation tool; the other is a cheap kit with long strings of rubber for plugs.
 
GerryAZ said:
Good luck using the Slime to seal and inflate a tire without damaging the sensor.
I know, I'm very skeptical, but Slime says:
TPMS COMPATIBILITY
In order for a tire sealant to be accepted by leading sensor manufacturers, it must pass three product tests.
After each test, the sensor is reinstalled on the vehicle and checked for proper functionality.
A sensor must be functional after all three tests in order for the sealant to be endorsed by TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems) manufacturers.
shrug - who knows, better than being stuck on the road, I guess. Two of my sensors fail temporarily after highway speeds anyway, so I'm not terribly concerned... :)
 
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