Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

P85+ Rear Tire Wear at 7400k Pictures

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Looks like my alignment is really bad. At about 7400 miles I noticed that my driver rear tire is toast.
Scheduled a service appointment for later this month at the factory to get the alignment inspected.
Meanwhile have to use factory 19s.
It's a shame how poorly the wear on the back tire is. Majority of the tire is fine, but it's riding heavy on the inside edge (specially driver rear).
First picture is driver rear, second passenger rear and the other two are front tires.

DR.jpg
TiresPR.jpg
Tires2.jpg
Tires4.jpg
 
agreed, this is classic alignment either being bad from the start or going out due to some sort of manufacturing issue, IMHO. If you have not done anything to cause the alignment to go out, this should be covered under warranty. if we don't start putting up a good fight, they will just keep putting the expense of this problem on the owners.

Edmonds got their tire's replaced free of charge, chances are, so should you!

http://www.edmunds.com/tesla/model-s/2013/long-term-road-test/2013-tesla-model-s-tire-wear-post-mortem.html
 
When i got my P85, the car drove squirly when it was pushed. I brought it in for alignment after 1k in miles, and the tech said it was out of whack. I don't know what they do at the factory, but this is a common issue. This was for a March '13 delivery. They may or may not have corrected it since then... Feel sorry for the hundreds or thousands of cars misaligned and wearing those tires out. Continental and Michelin must be having a good quarter. :)

agreed, this is classic alignment either being bad from the start or going out due to some sort of manufacturing issue, IMHO. If you have not done anything to cause the alignment to go out, this should be covered under warranty. if we don't start putting up a good fight, they will just keep putting the expense of this problem on the owners.

Edmonds got their tire's replaced free of charge, chances are, so should you!

http://www.edmunds.com/tesla/model-...2013-tesla-model-s-tire-wear-post-mortem.html
 
When i got my P85, the car drove squirly when it was pushed. I brought it in for alignment after 1k in miles, and the tech said it was out of whack. I don't know what they do at the factory, but this is a common issue. This was for a March '13 delivery. They may or may not have corrected it since then... Feel sorry for the hundreds or thousands of cars misaligned and wearing those tires out. Continental and Michelin must be having a good quarter. :)

I admit to having a lot of fun showing off the acceleration to friends early on with our P85 (pre P85+). For what it's worth, and I'm no expert, I remember the day I'm pretty sure it went out. I gunned it down the street I live on, something I'd done many times before, but this time, the back end wavered heavily for the first time... I got the distinct feeling that if I didn't let up on the accelerator that I would have ended up in my neighbors front yard. from that point on I didn't trust the back end, it could be that I got "skidish", there are other potential explanations for it, but it's also entirely possible that the car threw it's self out of alignment with the intense repeated hammering of the peak torque. With our P+, I had the alignment corrected early on when I first could measure inside wear and have never felt this squarely back end.
 
This is one of the reasons I traded the car so early. Outline of my experience:

- The P85 I purchased used had 4,000 miles on it, and on delivery the inside 2" of the rear tires were bald to the metal braiding
- Even after new tires, the P85 was squirly as hell under heavy throttle
- Brought to car to service dept, they said that's how a P85 feels based on "all the torque". They instructed me that nothing on the suspension or alignment was out of spec
- Drove it another couple days, and traded in the P85 for P85+ hoping to see a fix
- Drove the P85+ with a smile, as it drove very straight and solid
- As the weeks went on, I noticed that when the car was driving straight, the steering wheel was cocked 10-15 degrees to the right. I also noticed under full throttle, the car started to wobble a bit back and forth instead of driving dead straight
- A month later, I took off my stock wheels/tires to upgrade to aftermarket, and noticed the inside 2 inches of the tires were wearing way heavier than all the other surfaces
- Fearing the worst, I called Tesla in Cali and had a long conversation. The summary of the conversation - they are aware that the car does not hold alignment, and they suggested that I get the alignment rechecked every 60 days on my own dime. There was admission that the problem was being consistently reported, but no willingness to help pay for tires or alignment.

I hung the phone up, drove to Audi, and traded the car that afternoon.

Loved the P85, loved the idea of the car, and loved the forum here - but that stuff is not for me.
 
- Fearing the worst, I called Tesla in Cali and had a long conversation. The summary of the conversation - they are aware that the car does not hold alignment, and they suggested that I get the alignment rechecked every 60 days on my own dime. There was admission that the problem was being consistently reported, but no willingness to help pay for tires or alignment.

I hung the phone up, drove to Audi, and traded the car that afternoon.

Loved the P85, loved the idea of the car, and loved the forum here - but that stuff is not for me.

Wow that's the first I've heard of Tesla admitting the car doesn't hold alignment. FWIW I have 33k miles on mine now with original tires and I'm only halfway through the treads and no inside wear... I feel like I'm a loner here as it seems everyone else is having tire wear issues, even on 19s.
 
- Fearing the worst, I called Tesla in Cali and had a long conversation. The summary of the conversation - they are aware that the car does not hold alignment, and they suggested that I get the alignment rechecked every 60 days on my own dime. There was admission that the problem was being consistently reported, but no willingness to help pay for tires or alignment.

I hung the phone up, drove to Audi, and traded the car that afternoon.

Loved the P85, loved the idea of the car, and loved the forum here - but that stuff is not for me.


Wow. Not too thrilled at that response.
 
In the same boat here guys. Got my rear tires replaced yesterday. Looked IDENTICAL to the posted pics.

The Service guy (great guy) convinced me thats just the way it is and replaced the tires. They added a bolt to improve camber wear but I do feel RAPED having to buy new tires for $1500 after 7000 miles. But I love the car so much and I had my kids with me and was in a rush. Didn't feel like starting a screaming match and making trouble.

BUT I DO FEEL RAPED.
 
this issue potentially effects/is effecting far more folks than the couple of fires. Tesla needs to stop the bleeding ASAP or a whole bunch of folks are going to get pissed enough to make trouble, IMHO. I would think a consumer protection agency or some such other is going to eventually get a hold of this and it's not going to be pretty. at the very least it's hurting customer satisfaction considerably. what a relief, now that I've switched to 19's while Tesla gets this sorted. I have much longer lasting tires on the car now, a little narrower and less prone to this issue and they came with an actual warranty. Until I found a solution to this, I was actually limiting how much we drove the car, now I'm back to happy and confident. the BS line that "this is expected with performance cars and tires" is just not going to cut it much longer. I recommend everyone with 21's get a tire wear gauge and watch the inside rear wear like a hawk. if you see it wearing uneven, I suggest getting an alignment done even if you have to pay for it out of pocket (which you shouldn't, IMNHO!). I recommend continuing to watch for that inside rear wear even after the alignment till it's better understood what is truly causing this. rotating front, evenly worn tires to the back when it's out of alignment simply leads to having to replace 4 tires prematurely and can simply give a false sense of adequate management.
 
This whole thing to me was an immediate red flag. Having a performance based model that doesn't hold alignment, gets squirrelly under hard acceleration and tears through tires way too fast is a enthusiast's nightmare. Then to be told that until they get a long term fix, I am responsible for alignments and replacing tires is insane.