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

Low Tread Life

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I put new Yoko AD07's on my Roadster 1.5 exactly 5000 miles ago, and the Fremont SC tells me the 17" rears are completely worn and must be replaced.

Honestly, I'm a VERY conservative driver and these tires have been carefully 'babied'. Sorry. But this seems to be extremely low tread life. Any thoughts?
 
Aligimet of the suspension
I think it's the rear tyres thats worn out

Put in less camber and less toe in

Use camber that are 1.3-1.5 degree and a toe in of 2-3mm

I have done on mine

And it's much better to drive on slipry condision
 
Unfortunately these tires have no mileage tread warranty.

I've had 3 EVs now and all of them, including the lowly Nissan Leaf, are terrible on tires. It's the torque at 0 rpm that's the major factor here. Even though we're all being gentle on the go pedal from a stop, we're still applying often far more torque than our old ICE used to. So each time we accelerate, we're using up more rubber than we used to, especially from a stop. I don't know about the suspension mods I've seen mentioned, that may help some in this department, but in general EVs chew through tires far more than you'd expect.

The really good news IMO is that these tires are about a hundred bucks each. My model S blew a tire shortly after I got it and the tire was $350. And of course, you can install one axle at a time to save money too on the Roadster (i.e. just the rears)
 
Did you have your Roadster realigned and have what the old numbers were?

I was able to get 12.5k out of my original rear AD07's. My AD08's yielded 15.5k. Front AD07 around 30k. My current AD08R's have 14.5k and still going. They have about 2-3k left in them, I better get an order going via the TireRack soon. Majority of the Roadster miles are 49% straight highway, 49% twisty 2 lane mountainous roads and 2% around town.

I have my rear camber at -2.5/-2.3 and before that -2.2/-2.0. My first alignment I ever had done on the car the rear camber was -2.0 and -2.6, I don't know how the heck that passenger side got so out of tolerance or if it was set like that from the start by Chiltons. Was a full +/- 6 degrees away from each other! Not good. My passenger side rear inner tire definitely showed the wear compared to the driver. I do see many US Roadsters that eat up their inner rear tires and believe many were set wrong or something shifted to throw it way off like that. The rear camber my Roadster is dialed in where I get nice flat wear happening in the middle and a nice even wear on the inner side of the tire. I always look as my inner tire for the master wear marker.

If you haven't had your Roadster aligned yet, you might want to find a place you trust and see if its off and by how much.
 
Last edited:
I put new Yoko AD07's on my Roadster 1.5 exactly 5000 miles ago, and the Fremont SC tells me the 17" rears are completely worn and must be replaced.

Honestly, I'm a VERY conservative driver and these tires have been carefully 'babied'. Sorry. But this seems to be extremely low tread life. Any thoughts?
That's normal. The tires are cheap. Replace them and go have fun.

I got about 8,000 miles out of my AD08's on the rear.
 
Tangent - but is an alignment included in the Roadster's annual service? (And is it a flat $600 like the Model S?)

No on the alignment with the annual. Only if you for some reason had front/rear suspension work done would they consider it. Even with that, they don't re-align after dropping the battery. I personally would since you're removing a suspension part and things will as well do shift when bolting back on.
 
I think that the original owner of my car must have a world record for the most miles driven on the original set of tires. He put 45k miles on them. He said that the front tires still had half the tread on them, but he replaced all four tires. His commute was basically a 60 mile straight road with the cruise set at 65mph. From looking through the logs, I don't think he ever applied more than like 25% throttle.
 
I think that the original owner of my car must have a world record for the most miles driven on the original set of tires. He put 45k miles on them. He said that the front tires still had half the tread on them, but he replaced all four tires. His commute was basically a 60 mile straight road with the cruise set at 65mph. From looking through the logs, I don't think he ever applied more than like 25% throttle.

That sounds incredibly boring!
 
I think that the original owner of my car must have a world record for the most miles driven on the original set of tires. He put 45k miles on them. He said that the front tires still had half the tread on them, but he replaced all four tires. His commute was basically a 60 mile straight road with the cruise set at 65mph. From looking through the logs, I don't think he ever applied more than like 25% throttle.

In theory a tire in colder climates should last longer than those in warmer, less wear. I know when the temps reach 90F+ and after a drive my Yokos are as soft as a rubber cement blob.

If you have the adjustable suspension are certain settings worse for tire wear than others?

No, not really unless you have the shocks set so soft that when you sit in the car it drastically drops the body which then throws off your camber settings.
 
Last edited:
The first set of Yokohama laser 4200 miles on the rear. I changed to Continental DWS and jumped to 9000 miles. An alignment got me to 10,000 And now can break 14,000 with the Michelin Pilot Super Sport. But I see no way to get 45k out of tires.
 
Not included. My car is there for annual service now. $150. If not having issues is it worth checking anyway? Been a few years.

Annual service for $150? Really? That's less than an hour's labor worth. A car wash, maybe. Full dig-into-the-PEM-and-pick-out-the-lint annual service, no.

What do they think they are covering?
 
Annual service for $150? Really? That's less than an hour's labor worth. A car wash, maybe. Full dig-into-the-PEM-and-pick-out-the-lint annual service, no.

What do they think they are covering?

No, he means that's the cost of an alignment.

Not included. My car is there for annual service now. $150. If not having issues is it worth checking anyway? Been a few years.

Should you do it? Well first, have you ever had the Roadster aligned before you bought it? If not I'd do it. If you did do it 1-2 years ago, did you hit any pot-holes, curbs, or anything that could have thrown it out? If non of those things happen, I'd do it every two to three years to keep things in line and as insurance that your handling is top-notch as well as you have the most ideal wear for your tires.
 
No, he means that's the cost of an alignment.



Should you do it? Well first, have you ever had the Roadster aligned before you bought it? If not I'd do it. If you did do it 1-2 years ago, did you hit any pot-holes, curbs, or anything that could have thrown it out? If non of those things happen, I'd do it every two to three years to keep things in line and as insurance that your handling is top-notch as well as you have the most ideal wear for your tires.

Thanks. I edited the post.

No pot-holes or any abnormal wear but don't think it's been done in many years.
 
Last edited:
Thanks. I edited the post.

No pot-holes or any abnormal wear but don't think it's been done in many years.

Hmm... At first I was going to say "It's been a few years, you should do it." But if there's no abnormal wear and no pot-holes, you might be OK. How many miles? $150 is reasonable for all 4 wheels IMO. If I were you I'd at least have it checked.