How Many Miles Do the Tires Last?

[MDM]

Regarding tyre life, I fit in the greatly disappointed camp.Mine is a BEV on 19's and has covered just 6700 miles.I was getting a little concerned at the tread remaining ( approx 4.5mm all round) so when I had a puncture last week I asked my tyre shop to take a look and they told me that based on my current wear and mileage I would be lucky to make 12000 miles. I am a steady driver so not very impressed! I asked what the likely cost of replacing will be and was quoted 144pounds front and 157 rear.

 

[I33t]

It really isn't that complicated.

If you don't WANT to rotate them side to side and have the wheels "point" the opposite direction than that is your choice, but that doesn't mean it CANT be done, it certainly CAN be done and it will extend the life of your tires. But by all means, just be lazy and not do it if you don't want to, at least the tires are cheap.

Rotating side to side will give minimal benefit or perhaps none.

The benefit of rotation is to even out the wear of the tyres. That works when a rear tyre moves to the front, it then gets different wear. When we move a left rear to the right rear, it will get the exact same forces to the inside and outside of the tread. The outside edge of the tread is still on the outside. The only real fix would be to remove the tyres from the wheels and swap them on the wheels so that the inside tread would then be on the outside. Even that only works for tyres that do not have an 'inside' and an 'outside' tread design.

 

[imolazhp]

Rotating side to side will give minimal benefit or perhaps none.

The benefit of rotation is to even out the wear of the tyres. That works when a rear tyre moves to the front, it then gets different wear. When we move a left rear to the right rear, it will get the exact same forces to the inside and outside of the tread. The outside edge of the tread is still on the outside. The only real fix would be to remove the tyres from the wheels and swap them on the wheels so that the inside tread would then be on the outside. Even that only works for tyres that do not have an 'inside' and an 'outside' tread design.

Well which is it? Minimal or none? Is that like being minimally pregnant or not pregnant? I gather by your response that your just shooting form the hip.

Again, I'm at 10,300 miles I've rotated twice now (5,000 miles and 10,000 miles) the car is lowered with spacers, I drive it like its stolen and its been to one auto-x event. I don't have a tread depth gauge handy but the rears look be about half worn, if that, the fronts look to be about a quarter worn, if that. So I expect at least 20k out of the rears, estimating 40k out of the fronts. They are cheap but it only takes me 30 minutes to rotate them myself, if I can get extra miles from 30 minutes of work every 6 months I'm going to.

EDIT: Further, your assumption is that forces are applied equally to each rear wheel and tire. This was not the case with my e46, it would wear out the passenger rear first if I would let it. But my pilot super sports were not directional either, and I was able to rotate them side to side also. Perhaps the i3 is too new to tell, but I would bet that the rear tires do not wear equally either.

 

[I33t]

EDIT: Further, your assumption is that forces are applied equally to each rear wheel and tire. This was not the case with my e46, it would wear out the passenger rear first if I would let it. But my pilot super sports were not directional either, and I was able to rotate them side to side also. Perhaps the i3 is too new to tell, but I would bet that the rear tires do not wear equally either.

I have had several cars with front/rear different tyre sizes. The wear profile is across the tires and it depends on the wheel geometry more than anything else. Two of my cars have had more inner tyre wear due to geometry and the rest have had outer wear due to hard cornering behaviour and of course geometry. Moving a tyre from one side to the other has minimal change to wear compared to any other factor, but by all means you should see a few miles/km extra if you are very lucky and drive on suitably poor roads. If you only make one direction turns (like right hand turns), then sure, there would be a benefit

Basically, changing wheels side to side on the same axle has less benefit than effort. Diagonally across the vehicle can have great benefits if it suits.

 

[imolazhp]

I have had several cars with front/rear different tyre sizes. The wear profile is across the tires and it depends on the wheel geometry more than anything else. Two of my cars have had more inner tyre wear due to geometry and the rest have had outer wear due to hard cornering behaviour and of course geometry. Moving a tyre from one side to the other has minimal change to wear compared to any other factor, but by all means you should see a few miles/km extra if you are very lucky and drive on suitably poor roads. If you only make one direction turns (like right hand turns), then sure, there would be a benefit

Basically, changing wheels side to side on the same axle has less benefit than effort. Diagonally across the vehicle can have great benefits if it suits.

I think you miss understood my response, by "forces" I meant the forces applied by the drivetrain (motor). In my e46 that did not have LSD the passenger rear would wear out more quickly than the drivers rear. You may or may not be familiar with the term "one tire fire" referring to those that try to do burn outs without LSD, only one tire spins. All of that said and explained I am willing to bet that with the electric motor bring off-centered in the back of the i3 that one rear tire or the other has more force applied to it by the motor. I didn't go around doing burnouts in my e46, but without LSD one side wearing more quickly than the other is common on all RWD cars that are driven spiritedly. Perhaps that is why there are a set of whoop whoop rear 20" i3 tires on eBay showing 4-5 32nds tread depth on one and 5-6 tread depth on the other. As I said, the i3 might be too new for this to be common knowledge yet, and indeed perhaps the difference in forces are minimal, but I'm going to keep rotating mine and suggesting that others rotate theirs.

 

[I33t]

As I said, the i3 might be too new for this to be common knowledge yet, and indeed perhaps the difference in forces are minimal, but I'm going to keep rotating mine and suggesting that others rotate theirs.

The i3 is nothing like a front engined rwd car without a limited slip diff.

One reason I can think of for rotating the rear tyres would be if you have the Rex and there is significant weight differences left to right. I'd be interested to see the measured weight on each rear wheel for BEV and REX. If there is a significant weight difference between left and right, then we just might have a valid reason to rotate.

 

[imolazhp]

I'm really getting tired of arguing this. Rotating tires extends the life of the tires. It is possible to rotate the tires on the i3, although not as much as a traditional tire rotation would, it will still extend the life of the tires on the i3.

You can tell me it's minimal until your blue in the face and I'm still going to do it. Several people are complaining about bald tires at 12-15 thousand miles and mine are only half worn at 10 thousand miles. So if you want to be lazy and not rotate side to side, that's perfectly ok, at least the tires are cheap.

 

[I33t]

If you're getting tired of arguing, perhaps you could swap to discussing.

Tires rotated on the same axle aren't going to make much wear difference. I'm more than happy for anyone to do that, but it isn't going to deliver significant improvement in tire life.

Tire wear is a function of alignment, road surface and driving style. Anyone who gets bald tires at 12-15k miles isn't going to get significantly more miles on their i3 by maniac rotations. It just doesn't work that way. Wear is wear. If the wear is uneven, like between the steering and the drive wheels, then there are significant advantages. Taking a rear drive wheel and putting it on the other drive side isn't going to change much.

 

[ap0803]

Is it possible that all the tire wear problems tie back to the TSB regarding the bolts in motor mount? If the rear suspension gets loose it would play havoc on tire wear, front a little, rear definitly!

 

[Gif]

Tires rotated on the same axle aren't going to make much wear difference. I'm more than happy for anyone to do that, but it isn't going to deliver significant improvement in tire life.

At the risk of getting drawn into this "discussion" :lol: in the UK, there are loads of roundabouts and as a result, the predominant bias in cornering is always in a clockwise direction. This results in a noticeable tendency for the outside shoulder of the left front tyre and the inside shoulder of the right front tyre to wear quicker.

Swapping side to side therefore does have a benefit.

The whole argument about back to front swaps is a bit superfluous in my opinion as ultimately the sum total of the wear on all four tyres will be the same whether you swap them or not. Wear you save on moving a rear tyre to the front is cancelled out by the increased wear rate of the front tyre now on the rear and wearing faster.

The benefit of swapping could be that if done correctly, they all need replacing at the same time so only one trip to the tyre bay with maybe a bit of extra discount.

 

[Gif]

And here's a simple example of the maths - excuse the simple assumptions about tyre wear rates for front and rear but be assured, it makes no difference how many miles each tyre does relative to the other or how many times you change them or how far you drive in total, the maths always results in exactly the same overall wear.

The only thing that varies is whether you end up replacing two tyres at a time, twice as more times as all four which could have its disadvantages at some point. Note to self, I must get a life! :lol:

 

[steffi3]

i3rex from 08/ 2014. 35'000km = 22'000 miles. Winter tires 19", 155 completely used after the 3rd winter. Summer tires rear (19",175) not far away from the end perhaps another 1000 km. Front tires (19" 155) will last again some time. The winter tires are switched from front to rear every time. According my feeling the winter tires are quite soft lasting shorter than summer tires approx. 15'000 km. Both are Bridgestone.
Comparing to this my daughters Polo TSI drove 35'000 km on Michelin winter tires still 4 mm profile which is enough for this summer.

 

[I33t]

Gif,

Understand about the many roundabouts may have an effect on normal tire wear.

Your chart for swapping front to rear only works on a BEV. Can't do it on a REX!

 

[alohart]

Your chart for swapping front to rear only works on a BEV. Can't do it on a REX!

And can do it only on BEV's with the 19" pizza wheels because BEV's any other wheels have staggered wheels/tires just like all REx's.

 

[I33t]

Correct. Our Aussie i3 BEVs come with staggered wheels.

 

[psquare]

Had my REx rear tyres swapped after 32,000 miles. Front still going strong at 34k miles now. They probably have another 5k miles in them.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Similar to tires on any car...your distance will vary depending on how you maintain them and how you drive along with the type of roads you traverse. Some road surfaces are much more abrasive than others. Lots of stop and go verses highway miles will make a difference as can the surface temperatures. The i3 is well suited for stop and go, and that's one of the worst things on tire wear. Deeper tread squirms more and raises the rolling resistance, so that's a factor, too. Those that use theirs for longer commutes probably get significantly better life out of the tread than those that use it almost exclusively in stop and go.

 

[EVMan]

Any idea if the tires are Nitrogen filled , when we get a new i3 ? :idea:

 

[alohart]

Any idea if the tires are Nitrogen filled , when we get a new i3 ? :idea:

Yeah, 78% nitrogen. Any more would be a waste of money for no noticeable benefit.

 

[theothertom]

Any idea if the tires are Nitrogen filled , when we get a new i3 ? :idea:

Yeah, 78% nitrogen. Any more would be a waste of money for no noticeable benefit.

:lol: :lol: :lol: