[Guest]

Hi Folks,
The tires on my Prius were wearing unevenly and too quickly. Shot at 20K, pretty bad as I am not an aggressive driver. I drive about 75 miles a day combined city and highway. I dont like Firestone and any of the their subsidiaries. Remember the 500 recall? Now the Wilderness tires mess. Yikes!

So, I put Michelin X on. Here are some thoughts and a new thread. Please add your comments, its fine to disagree (and helpful).

The X tires ride very smooth and quite. They handle much better than the other brand that came with the car. The Michelins are noticeably more surefooted in the wet and snow. Mileage seems to be down just a small amount 1mpg, though this may be just from the changing weather in New England.

The Potenzas were rated for extra load. I hear different things about this. One is that the Prius is a heavy car. Another is that the extra load makes them stiffer and thus able to get less rolling resistance. I contacted Michelin and they said that the X tires will easily support the weight of the Prius.

Enjoy.

Larry

 

[Guest]

Wonder what pressure you are running in your X-Ones?

I am at 31,500 miles with the OEM Bridgestones and I can authoritatively state that the LOW factory recommended pressure IS the main cause of severe tire edge wear and short tire life!
Until recently, I have maintained ~40+ pounds in the tires and wear has been as expected for normal tire wear.
However, as they approach end-of-life, I have let them drop to about 35 pounds and, low and behold, the left-front is rapidly developing severe edge wear!
I am also noticing about 4 to 6 MPG drop: At 40+ pounds, I consistently managed 50+ MPG for the middle-end of my commute. The last month: about 46 MPG! Just for grins, I'm going to go back to 43/40 and see what happens. This should give me a good baseline when I switch to X-Ones.

bp

[%sig%]

 

[Guest]

If you switch to the Michelin X-Ones, be sure to go up a size (from 175/65R14 to 185/65R14). This gets you the proper load rating and an almost identical rolling diameter. I did some test runs at 60 MPH against the mileposts on I-287 and got close to perfect speedometer and odometer readings.

I'm running them at 35 front (max PSI of the tires) and 33 rear. I've gone over 2000 miles with no appreciable wear. Not even on the sides. Mileage seems to be about the same as last winter, but this winter has been warmer, so I might be taking a mileage hit. Handling seems about the same as the OEM Potenzas, (i.e. seems very sure footed), but I don't drive like BP (he keeps telling me not to Based on the 700 treadwear rating, I expect to get at least 80-100K miles from these tires.

[%sig%]

 

[Guest]

Why can't everyone else know this fact! I run my tires at 50 psi, the max, no abnormal wear visible (10k) and I cannot feel what other people would consider a harsh ride.

Robert Snyder said "'and I can authoritatively state that the LOW factory recommended pressure IS the main cause of severe tire edge wear and short tire life!"

 

[Guest]

Bill Powell,
I have the tires set to 32psi

Doug Warenback,
The roads where I live are really bad. Plenty of bent rims from holes too. I'm sure that 50psi is safe, do you think that Toyota recommends less psi to improve stopping (panic stop that is) distance? Your right about the ride. Its never really harsh. I had a Jeep with 33" Goodyear MTR's, that was harsh.

Happy driving.

Larry

 

[Guest]

Hi Doug,
It wasn't me making authoritative statements, I'm no authority. (Though it is my opinion that the statement was correct).

[%sig%]

 

[Guest]

thanks,
oops pasted wrong name in!


Bill Powell said "and I can authoritatively state that the LOW factory recommended pressure IS the main cause of severe tire edge wear and short tire life!"

 

[Guest]

Just some more grist. I had a blowout at 70 mph, 15,000 miles on tires. On closer examination, the tires are wearing out quickly, especially on the inside. Took it back to Toyota and they made a small adjustment to the alignment. Doubt if it will help. I will try more pressure now after registering here and reading the messages. I will probably replace them at 20K with Mich.

 

[Guest]

Bill: Way to go! Giving up some rubber for the general weal! That's the best info yet about these tires.

Burns
(who runs at 40PSI with TireMinders to be sure and has not seen any particular wear at 6K miles)

 

[Guest]

Our Prius has now done about 19k miles and, low-and behold, the front tyres, which have always been run slightly harder than specified by Toyota, are almost illegal (less than 1mm over here in UK) on their edges, both inside and outside, indicating that the tracking is okay. The centre of the tread has 'normal' wear and the rear tyres (tires) are near-new.

Our dealer says that he's never heard of this problem and it's unlikely that Toyota will replace f.o.c. What's the general experience in US?

Perhaps we could use it here, but we don't feel like paying anything. WE didn't recommend 35psi, rather than a 'correct' 40psi+

 

[Guest]

Let's see, 19K miles, front tyres bald, rear like new. Did your dealer forget to rotate your tires at the 7500 mile intervals? Or don't you get the free service in the UK?

[%sig%]

 

[Guest]

No 'rotation' schedule here in UK and service intervals at 10k or 12months, whichever the sooner.

Visited our Toyota dealer today where we measured a new Bridgestone and found the centre groove to be almost 8mm, but the outside 'crosswise' ones only about 4mm. My wear is even, but the whole tyre just isn't lasting like the Michelins do. We'll replace these fronts at 20k with new Bridgestones, run those at 40+psi and trust they last longer next time... Then a complete set of new Michelins - at a lower pressure.

Apparently, these tyres, with their short life, are fitted to the Toyota Yaris which has just come overall top of the UK's JD Power survey, so customers generally aren't too worried over here.

 

[Guest]

Hard to tell exactly, but I just noticed that Lux's left front tire seems to have outside edge wear. I'm at about 6700 miles. Not severe yet, but I'll be sure they rotate them and do an alignment. I'm a bit short of the service mileage interval, but I am at 6 months, so I should have it done soon anyway.

I maintain 40 PSI on all 4, BTW.

[%sig%]

 

[Guest]

I imagine this has been noted before, but I had severe outside wear on the left front... it was the alignment. I remember hitting a nasty pothole in the winter and hearing a clunk. tHe wear started after that.

It's probably a good idea to have the dealer check the alignment more than otherwise, if so much depends on the balance of the tires.

Mike

 

[Guest]

Richard said:
"are almost illegal (less than 1mm over here in UK) on their edges, both inside and outside, indicating that the tracking is okay. The centre of the tread has 'normal' wear and the rear tyres (tires) are near-new."

Two items - I certainly would think that if the front tires were run at above the 35 PSI recommended, the wear would suggest "underinflation". Anyway if the inflation was as mentioned, then the alignment is surely incorrect. Also - how often were they rotated?

Good luck..

Steve D.
'02 super white 13,700 miles - Normal wear so far - 2 rotations so far.

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[mrhapiguy]

Replace front tires only?

I have the same problem with my front tires. Totally shot at only 14k miles. The threads are actually showing through on the side, but the tread depth in the center is still good. So much for the recommended tire pressure, sure wish I had read this board sooner.

So, here is my dilemma. I want to replace the front OEMs with the Michelin X-ones. But my back tires are perfect. Anyone think it's a bad idea to have the Michelins in front and the OEMs in back? And should I increase to the 185's still?

 

[RSnyder]

That's strange. Did you never rotate your tires? I would have expected the back tires to be one rotation away from worn out like the fronts. Definitely get the 185/65R14 size if you get the Michelins on the front only. That will keep them the same diameter as the 175/65R14 Potenzas on the back. If you get different diameters, the computers will think the front or back wheels are slipping and may invoke torque limiting, making it hard to drive.

I don't know for sure if the combination you propose is safe, by the same token, I don't know of any reason why it wouldn't be. My experience is that the Potenzas have better wet pavement grip, so you should probably keep them in back rather than rotating. Have you asked your tire dealer? (I know, they may be biased since they have a monetary stake in the result.)

 

[mrhapiguy]

My service schedule is screwy since I got my Prius with about 6K miles already on it (dealer demo car). They supposedly serviced the car before I took ownership, so I wasn't due back for service until around now. I'm guessing they did not rotate the tires at 6K, and I was negligent in monitoring them until now. I also wasn't aware of the psi and wear issues.

I went and bought a complete set of Michelins as I didn't want to risk it. But, I got X-Radials (185/65) from BJs wholesale. They sold me on them, saying they are the same as the X-Ones, just not premium branded. So, I looked up the specs on Michelin.com afterwards and lo-and-behold they are a little different. Did I totally screw myself here? The car seems fine. Much better actually than with the old OEMs, but a little bit stiff...

 

[RSnyder]

Ok, that makes sense. You got about as much front wheel time without rotation as I did with rotation since my tires went to 30K before being in the shape yours were in.

Anyway, since you didn't quite get the same X-One tire, but it's the same brand, you probably have the same size, but you might want to compare the speedometer against freeway mileposts. Set the cruise control at 60 MPH and see if you're going a mile a minute against the mileposts. Go several miles and drive the highway both directions to eliminate badly placed mileposts and to eliminate the differences due to curves in the road.

Also, verify that your tires have a load rating of 1100 lbs. or more.

That stiffness you feel is the approx. 3 MPG hit you take going from low rolling resistance to normal tires.

Good luck, hopefully you'll have many miles free of tire trouble now.

 

[MSanders]

I have 63,000K in my 2001. My first set of tires were wearing thin at about 25K, but Toyota couldn't get me new ones for three months (this was last fall). New tires now have about 27K on them. With rotation I have one on rear that had been rotated from front that's showing edge wear. Otherwise, other three look good so far. Maybe Bridgestone did something different? Haven't tried higher pressures than the 35/33, but will now.

Has Toyota certified the Michelin X-1?