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Let's talk about tires...

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tires
15K views 28 replies 11 participants last post by  JeopardE 
#1 ·
We've only put 1,300 mi on our 3 so far, but as my wife's daily driver it gets at least 550/mi per week. She's not an aggressive driver but no light-foot either. If the life of the tires truly ends up being ~20k, we're looking at yearly tires.

I know there probably aren't too many people out there who have changed their tires, but do we know if there is truly a significant noise difference between the OEM tires and their non-acoustic counterparts? Is there any other reason other than noise to go with OEM/foam-filled?

I'm just trying to plan ahead a little and get this aspect of TCO figured out.
 
#3 ·
I'm at 10k miles on 6 months and hoping the tires last longer than 20k. We'll see...
and I'm now at 15k miles and 8 months and I'm quite sure they'll get to 20k miles. But maybe I'll try and get a tread depth measurement and let you know? I'll be switching to snow tires likely end of September, I'm curious about the difference in tire noise too! Stay tuned.
 
#9 ·
Interesting discussion.
I wonder what we all have on our cars?

I have Continental ProContact Rx 235/40/19
It has a pretty good set of specs.
Rating 400
Temp A
Traction A

The Continental site has very little info on it.
But Tire Rack (great way to buy tires) has this info. and shows them as Tesla tires.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tire...reModel=ProContact+RX&partnum=34WR9PCRXXLCOSI

Theoretically it is a long ride tire, 45K mile warranty (V rated). I don't know that anyone can make a claim on them depending on Tesla's deal but 45K warranty means they should last a long time. Maybe 35K-40K? That would be great.
 
#12 ·
As I only have 1,500 miles on the car, I am sitting at 7's on all 4 tires at 45 pressure....

These are the 18's on the LR/RWD.
 
#15 ·
The upside for wearing down your tread: it reduces rolling drag ;)
... and I think I can confirm that with the numbers my car is giving me. I'm about to report out my overall numbers having reached 15000 miles and the efficiency keeps getting better and better. For the last 3000 miles I'm around 200 now (and I DROPPED the cold pressure in my tires to 42 psi) which equates to an overall range of around 375 miles! (It wasn't that good earlier in this Spring.)
 
#16 ·
I've just done a bit of research (Internet, Michelin's website). Typical new tire tread depth is 10/32 inches and replacement (wear bars showing) is at 2/32 inches. Dunno is this is true for 18" Model 3 tires or not but assuming it is? I've worn off 5/32 inches of tread in 15000 miles. If this trend continues in a linear fashion (big assumption), I'll get another 9000 miles on these tires before I'll see wear bars (or about 25000 miles). Can someone go measure the initial tread depth on a new 18 inch Michelin tire?
 
#19 ·
May I suggest folks provide Tire details. Not just name of brand, all the specifics as to sub-nomenclature. Like Tx, Rx, Pro, etc.
Car OEMs may use multiple kinds of tires in a model year. So tread depth on just a brand name means little.
 
#20 ·
These are the original equipment 18" tires on the Model 3 aero wheels (at tire rack). The price might be one reason some (like me) might be looking at other tires when these wear out. If the noise difference is negligible, and the range difference is negligible, I'd be interested in a cheaper tire. Depending on how much one of those two items is increased/decreased, I might be forced into getting these again. With that in mind, I'm going to do frequent rotations, and try to drive sanely to help increase tread life, especially since these tires only start with 8/32", which is less than a lot of other tires.

Wheel Tire Automotive tire Tread Font


One question I have is, is it absolutely necessary to get tires with the same speed rating as OEM? Would a 98V tire not be "good enough" on the Model 3, especially if I never plan on driving over 90mph anyway?

There are two General tires that sound really good and have good ratings. One is a 98W tire and the other is a 98V. The V tire has a higher treadwear rating and is "lower performance." But even the W tire has a 50K treadwear warranty, which isn't bad at all (original has 45K).

I read an article saying that the foam inside the Tesla tires (on an X, I think) made very little ear-noticeable difference in sound level. The main difference was in hitting things like expansion joints, I believe. They said that just steady-state cruising was basically the same sound level with or without the foam. If that's true, then the only other thing would be the range. And I'm guessing we're not going to know that until somebody puts other tires on their 3 and reports back on their findings.
 
#23 ·
W is a speed rating of 168 MPH. V is a rating of 149 MPH.

That might be the lower performance.

Michelin Tire’s are my preference historically. Been using them for years and they last almost as long as the warranty. Credit is applied. Had a problem last January with my Lexus GS and the corporate customer service folks set me up with a local shop and took care it. That alone speaks volumes.
 
#24 · (Edited)
By the way, assuming my factory 18 inch Michelin tires start out at 8/32" and I'm down to 5/32" for 15k miles, that means (if linear wear) I'll get another 15k miles out of them or 30k miles total before I get down to wear bars. That's gonna take me another 8 months of driving---and I'm switching to snow tires in September or early October.
 
#25 ·
By the way, search engines are great. You can discover all sorts of cool stuff on the internet. Is treadwear really linear? I had no clue. I posed that question to the search engine and came up with the webpage linked below (answer is YES, at least for the tires tested by this person). I'd venture to guess it's probably nearly linear for most tires. That said, I have quite a few more months before I wear out the original Factory Michelins. But having a blast doing it. :)
http://www.randomuseless.info/tires/tires.html
 
#26 ·
30K would be a bit more reasonable. I went to a local Costco two weeks ago just to chat and see what tires they might carry that I could look at in the future.

The 3 wasn't even in their system (kept asking me if I had a S or X), and once the guy realized I had OEM acoustic/foam tires, wasn't even willing to quote me any other 235/45/18 until I called Tesla and confirmed I could get non OEMs. "We don't have access to the foam tires."
 
#27 ·
Huh- I looked up what the OEM acoustic/foam tires and wonder if I got something different. The only real complaint I have had with my car is the amount of road noise transmitted by the tires. On some roads (rain grooved concrete freeway and five year old but good quality freeway) I have so much tire noise I have to turn the stereo up. I'm on the 19' wheels, if that matters...
 
#28 ·
I sold my stock 18" and rims and bought Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus Tires 235/40R19 96V. Tires are at least as quite as the OE Michelin ones. I made sure the 19" rims were light so that the total unsprung weight was about the same. I run the tires at 42 lbs. My range has not been effected, usually 550 - 560 km. I drive conservatively. Average over 7,000 km is 140 wh/km (224 wh/m). The nice thing about these tires is that they have a 110,000 km warranty. I plan on rotating the tires regularly and if they wear early, great, warranty claim. Just a note to those thinking of running a staggered I had considered it), staggered setup reduces tire warranty by 50%.
 
#29 ·
I sold my stock 18" and rims and bought Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus Tires 235/40R19 96V. Tires are at least as quite as the OE Michelin ones. I made sure the 19" rims were light so that the total unsprung weight was about the same. I run the tires at 42 lbs. My range has not been effected, usually 550 - 560 km. I drive conservatively. Average over 7,000 km is 140 wh/km (224 wh/m). The nice thing about these tires is that they have a 110,000 km warranty. I plan on rotating the tires regularly and if they wear early, great, warranty claim. Just a note to those thinking of running a staggered I had considered it), staggered setup reduces tire warranty by 50%.
On my previous car I used the Pirelli Cinturato P7 tires. I loved them - much quieter than other tires I had used. And they were smoooooth. I'm planning to switch to them once my OEM sport 19s wear out.
 
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