MYP accelerated rear inner tire wear like MS Plaid - Texas example - check yours

[DayTrippin]

I was on the road the other day and tried to get a person to stop. I noticed a troubling wear pattern. The inner edges of the rear tires were worn to the cord, while the outer part was still pretty good. This is very common with the current gen Model S running 21" tires. My MS Plaid, with 21" wheels, wore out a set of rear tires in 5k. It is do to the excessive camber and/or toe many of them have. This is the first I've seen such a bad case on a MYP. Take a look at the photo below.

If anyone knows the owner of this MYP, please contact them and have them check their tires. I tried to get their attention but they kept on driving. A lot of people with a Model S have had them blow out on the highway at high speeds. I would go out and check your MYP right now to see if you have a wear issue like this. The driver side was almost as bad as the passenger side.

 

[gx9901]

I guess a fringe benefit to changing between three sets of wheels is that I get a relatively regular look at my tires. I just swapped on my winter set this past weekend and didn't see this type of excessive wear, but I can totally see getting this type of wear given the pretty obvious negative camber on the MYP. I will keep a closer eye on this going forward for sure.

 

[DayTrippin]

My Plaid had over 2 degrees negative camber. Pretty crazy for a street car. The stiffer sidewall of the very low profile tires with 21's on the S's seem to exacerbate the issue. I don't recall anyone with 19's have the issues as I assume the sidewall allows the tire to roll a bit more so not so much force concentrated in that small area. With 21's on the MYP, it might be a similar situation.

One thing I've learned is to have the alignment checked on all my Teslas. Their "in spec" specs are pretty loose and may not be what you need for optimum performance or longevity from your tires. Burning up a set of rears in 5k miles cost $1100 to replace the tires, plus what I spent to correct the camber issue. I spent 22 cents a mile on just rear tires for my Plaid. That is more than I spent per mile on diesel for my last truck, and that didn't even factor in the fronts which would have been gone by 12k miles.

 

[buckets0fun]

My Plaid had over 2 degrees negative camber. Pretty crazy for a street car.

It’s not. You should see the -3.2 some of us run on model 3s. Camber doesn’t kill tires, toe does. Tesla and many other manufacturers are big fans of loads of rear toe in to make their drivers not crash due to their bad driving habits in corners.

Get your vehicle aligned and set toe as close to zero as possible, understand that it won’t handle how it once did. Trade offs are aplenty.

 

[DayTrippin]

It’s not. You should see the -3.2 some of us run on model 3s. Camber doesn’t kill tires, toe does. Tesla and many other manufacturers are big fans of loads of rear toe in to make their drivers not crash due to their bad driving habits in corners.

Get your vehicle aligned and set toe as close to zero as possible, understand that it won’t handle how it once did. Trade offs are aplenty.

My toe was fine, and it wasn't excessive. Camber can accelerate wear on tires, too, but I did call out the toe as a possible culprit as some S's have had too much toe along with camber. I don't need track specs for a car that isn't tracked that often. My 3 is set up more for track days with MPP coilovers. As for my S, I also mentioned the camber from when the car was in the medium position of the adjustable suspension. In low it gets even worse, like adding an extra degree or so.

For the Plaid, a lot less camber will help it hook up better in a straight line anyway. Almost all Plaids are traction-limited on the street, and keeping the rear tire contact patch pretty close to flat is going to help that. Not nearly an issue with the 3.

As for the Y, I'd be even more careful if you are towing. I know with my Y and a 3k trailer behind it (~300 pounds of tongue weight), you could really see the negative camber. It made me think if I was going to tow a lot, I needed to do something about it.

Anyway it is a good idea for everyone to keep an eye on their rear tire wear, especially if running very low-profile tires like on the MYP.

 

[MrSlowEv]

It’s not. You should see the -3.2 some of us run on model 3s. Camber doesn’t kill tires, toe does. Tesla and many other manufacturers are big fans of loads of rear toe in to make their drivers not crash due to their bad driving habits in corners.

Get your vehicle aligned and set toe as close to zero as possible, understand that it won’t handle how it once did. Trade offs are aplenty.

That inner edge wear pattern is indicative of negative camber as most of the vehicle’s weight is riding on the inner edge of the tire.

Excessive toe (positive or negative) will create a “feather” type of wear pattern across the surface of the tire as the tire “scrubs” across the road surface.

My model 3 performance wore thru the inner edges of the rear tires (at around 15k) . It took a lot longer than my Model S plaid which was around 10k for the rear tires as well. Both cars run negative camber from the factory.

The Model S plaid definitely wears thru the inner edge faster, I suspect the weight of the car exasperates it more, their rear camber may be even more negative than the model 3 performance as well.

Feel free to Google the effects of negative camber and how to identify it’s tire wear pattern. Please don’t take my word for it.

 

[buckets0fun]

My toe was fine, and it wasn't excessive. Camber can accelerate wear on tires, too, but I did call out the toe as a possible culprit as some S's have had too much toe along with camber. I don't need track specs for a car that isn't tracked that often. My 3 is set up more for track days with MPP coilovers. As for my S, I also mentioned the camber from when the car was in the medium position of the adjustable suspension. In low it gets even worse, like adding an extra degree or so.

For the Plaid, a lot less camber will help it hook up better in a straight line anyway. Almost all Plaids are traction-limited on the street, and keeping the rear tire contact patch pretty close to flat is going to help that. Not nearly an issue with the 3.

As for the Y, I'd be even more careful if you are towing. I know with my Y and a 3k trailer behind it (~300 pounds of tongue weight), you could really see the negative camber. It made me think if I was going to tow a lot, I needed to do something about it.

Anyway it is a good idea for everyone to keep an eye on their rear tire wear, especially if running very low-profile tires like on the MYP.

I forget. Tesla suspension doesn’t work like any other car suspension in the world. My fault.

 

[Goobers]

I wonder how aggressive folks are during a turn.

The way I see it, during a turn we know vehicles like to lean outward and that’s part of the reason there’s negative camber. But as the outside wheel evens out with the ground the inside wheel gets even more angled to the ground.

Factor in just how absurdly easy it is to apply a ton of torque to the wheels at any instant due to the electric motor, I’d guess thats a big part of why the tires wear out like that for some folks.

 

[Occhis]

Zooming in on that pic, that tire appears way under inflated.

 

[MrSlowEv]

I forget. Tesla suspension doesn’t work like any other car suspension in the world. My fault.

Believe it or not, it does work like every other Macpherson strut style suspension in the world. This is very elementary knowledge. It’s even pretty well known on this forum too. There are aftermarket adjustable camber arms available that are tried and proven to extend the rear tire life of the Model S’. There are threads about it in the Model S section. You can read about it, if you care to educate yourself. It’s not going to hurt you.

Ah well, not here to argue, just trying to stop misinformation at the source. Carry on.

 

[Goobers]

Believe it or not, it does work like every other Macpherson strut style suspension in the world. This is very elementary knowledge. It’s even pretty well known on this forum too. There are aftermarket adjustable camber arms available that are tried and proven to extend the rear tire life of the Model S’. There are threads about it in the Model S section. You can read about it, if you care to educate yourself. It’s not going to hurt you.

Ah well, not here to argue, just trying to stop misinformation at the source. Carry on.

Eh…. it doesn’t have Macpherson suspension though. It’s double wishbone in front and even more complicated ”multi-link” in the rear.

 

[MrSlowEv]

Eh…. it doesn’t have Macpherson suspension though. It’s double wishbone in front and even more complicated ”multi-link” in the rear.

You’re absolutely right. I just fact checked it to verified it. I will shut up now. My apologies. Thank you for the correcting me.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

 

[MrSlowEv]

Believe it or not, it does work like every other Macpherson strut style suspension in the world. This is very elementary knowledge. It’s even pretty well known on this forum too. There are aftermarket adjustable camber arms available that are tried and proven to extend the rear tire life of the Model S’. There are threads about it in the Model S section. You can read about it, if you care to educate yourself. It’s not going to hurt you.

Ah well, not here to argue, just trying to stop misinformation at the source. Carry on.

I stand corrected. I apologize.

 

[455dan]

My toe was fine, and it wasn't excessive. Camber can accelerate wear on tires, too, but I did call out the toe as a possible culprit as some S's have had too much toe along with camber. I don't need track specs for a car that isn't tracked that often. My 3 is set up more for track days with MPP coilovers. As for my S, I also mentioned the camber from when the car was in the medium position of the adjustable suspension. In low it gets even worse, like adding an extra degree or so.

For the Plaid, a lot less camber will help it hook up better in a straight line anyway. Almost all Plaids are traction-limited on the street, and keeping the rear tire contact patch pretty close to flat is going to help that. Not nearly an issue with the 3.

As for the Y, I'd be even more careful if you are towing. I know with my Y and a 3k trailer behind it (~300 pounds of tongue weight), you could really see the negative camber. It made me think if I was going to tow a lot, I needed to do something about it.

Anyway it is a good idea for everyone to keep an eye on their rear tire wear, especially if running very low-profile tires like on the MYP.

I need to look closely at the Michelin rears on my Performance Y. If they can be swapped on the wheels left to right, Right rear tire onto left rear wheel which keeps the rotation the same but should switch the high wear inside to outside of each tread. At about 7K miles. I think I am going to do it unless Michelin actually has an inside and outside marker in addition to rotation.

 

[ngng]

I need to look closely at the Michelin rears on my Performance Y. If they can be swapped on the wheels left to right, Right rear tire onto left rear wheel which keeps the rotation the same but should switch the high wear inside to outside of each tread. At about 7K miles. I think I am going to do it unless Michelin actually has an inside and outside marker in addition to rotation.

Michelins look like they can be flipped but they are actually directional

 

[ngng]

View attachment 1004767

Those are extremes. I'd wager most people can't tell the difference between toe and camber wear.

 

[Goobers]

Michelins look like they can be flipped but they are actually directional

Are you confusing directional with asymmetrical? Directional means they are designed to rotate one way for forward driving (look at Cross Climate 2 that do NOT come standard). Asymmetrical means there's an inside and outside of the tire, in relation to the car (Pilot Sport AS 4 that come with the car).

I need to look closely at the Michelin rears on my Performance Y. If they can be swapped on the wheels left to right, Right rear tire onto left rear wheel which keeps the rotation the same but should switch the high wear inside to outside of each tread. At about 7K miles. I think I am going to do it unless Michelin actually has an inside and outside marker in addition to rotation.

If you have the factory tires, they are not directional, so it doesn't matter about keeping rotation the same. They are asymmetrical, which means you can't swap what faces inside/outside.

If you have an "aftermarket" setup, such as the Cross Climate 2, then they are directional, but not asymmetrical.

 

[ngng]

Are you confusing directional with asymmetrical? Directional means they are designed to rotate one way for forward driving (look at Cross Climate 2 that do NOT come standard). Asymmetrical means there's an inside and outside of the tire, in relation to the car (Pilot Sport AS 4 that come with the car).

Think about what you just wrote

 

[Goobers]

Think about what you just wrote

I suggest YOU think about what you wrote instead.

You should look up their definition in regards to tires, before telling people to think about what they wrote.

Or maybe you're too lazy. These are from actual tire makers, not random forum sites.

Proper Mounting of Directional and Asymmetrical Tires | Goodyear Tires

Help maximize the life and performance of directional and asymmetrical tires by having them mounted properly. Learn more now.

www.goodyear.com

Which different tread patterns are there? Pros and Cons of different tread patterns

Find out more about the differences between asymmetrical and directional tyre tread patterns, and discover how Uniroyal has combined the best of both with the RainSport 3.

www.uniroyal-tyres.com