OEM tires lasted 26k miles

[eklabbers]

I had a flat yesterday. Tuesday evening I drove the car into the garage. Went to work by public transport on Wed, and on Thursday morning I roll out of my garage onto the gravel driveway and once I hit the road at the bottom of the hill, found out my front left tire was flat! Luckily my fiance was with me, and he put the spare on for me. I have no clue how to do that. BTW, the jack that comes with the Prius is a piece of ***.

Anyway, I drop him off at work, hit the closest Toyota dealer. Unfortunately not a tire center, so I go to Les Schwab. Have always had very good customer service there. The guy that looks at the tire seems very knowledgeable about the Prius. He tells me the tire is done and the other ones will be worn out pretty soon. So he advises me to buy 4 new tires. He tells me the OEM tires aren't very good and that they are very small compared to the size and weight of the Prius, so 26k is about all they can handle. I think he's probably right. So I bought new Eclipse all-season tires with siping for just over $400. And I got free beef! Ha, ya gotta love free beef month at Les Schwab .

I couldn't find any posts here about other people's experiences with their OEM tires. Was curious to know how much mileage you normally get out of them. I was just surprised to hear that it was normal for them to be worn out at 26k miles.

[oxnardprof]

For what it is worth, I have just passed 37,000 miles, and the tires are still OK, just verging on needing replacement due to wear.

I do mostly freeway driving, and keep the pressure about 38 to 40 psi.

Originally posted by eklabbers@Feb 10 2006, 08:02 PM
I had a flat yesterday. Tuesday evening I drove the car into the garage. Went to work by public transport on Wed, and on Thursday morning I roll out of my garage onto the gravel driveway and once I hit the road at the bottom of the hill, found out my front left tire was flat! Luckily my fiance was with me, and he put the spare on for me. I have no clue how to do that. BTW, the jack that comes with the Prius is a piece of ***.

Anyway, I drop him off at work, hit the closest Toyota dealer. Unfortunately not a tire center, so I go to Les Schwab. Have always had very good customer service there. The guy that looks at the tire seems very knowledgeable about the Prius. He tells me the tire is done and the other ones will be worn out pretty soon. So he advises me to buy 4 new tires. He tells me the OEM tires aren't very good and that they are very small compared to the size and weight of the Prius, so 26k is about all they can handle. I think he's probably right. So I bought new Eclipse all-season tires with siping for just over $400. And I got free beef! Ha, ya gotta love free beef month at Les Schwab .

I couldn't find any posts here about other people's experiences with their OEM tires. Was curious to know how much mileage you normally get out of them. I was just surprised to hear that it was normal for them to be worn out at 26k miles.

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[artie]

i have 46,000 on my OEM tires, still ok, hope to make it to 50K, then Falcons.

[longjohn931]

You got ripped. Your OEM tires should last an easy 50k unless you don't keep the proper tire pressure or you never rotated your tires. Even if you never rotated, the rear tires should have been like new, the front does all the work.
The prius is not that heavy for these tires, it weighs between a Corolla and Camry.
Sounds like that tire dealer saw you coming.
Sorry.

[Ray Moore]

Mine lasted 42,000 miles with one rotation and 42/40 psi from vehicle pickup until now. They would have still passed a state inspection but they failed mine.

The rain grooves disappear at about 25,000 miles so if I lived in a rainy climate I would have replaced them sooner. The tire dealer may not have been completely wrong, considering that factor.

[galaxee]

Originally posted by eklabbers@Feb 10 2006, 08:02 PM
He tells me the OEM tires aren't very good and that they are very small compared to the size and weight of the Prius, so 26k is about all they can handle. I think he's probably right. So I bought new Eclipse all-season tires with siping for just over $400.

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but i bet the guy went and replaced the oem tires with tires of the same size... too small, my a**.

unless he sold you new wheels too...

sounds like a ripoff. it makes me so mad that they bs women into buying all this stuff simply because we're not male. argh! maybe the flat was repairable then, and dude just wanted commission...

but, the oem tires are definitely not of the highest quality available, i'll give him that.

[TucsonPrius]

I ended up replacing mine at 34K of mainly city driving, as the wear bars were almost showing. It is possible that I could have got another 3-4K miles out of them, but....

And just so you know, I did rotate every 5K (did it myself, so there's no doubt), and kept them properly inflated (checked every weekend). The Integritys just seem to wear pretty fast.

Thanks,
Shawn

[Ron Dupuy]

Don't diss Les. Mine (40,38) were worn to bars at 20,000- Rough roads and 3000 foot daily climb.

The larger size does not apply to wheel size as implied, but to footprint. A larger footprint means more resistence and therefore less mileage, but better control. The siping will also give you better control, but also less mileage due to greater traction. I know because I siped mine and lost 5 mpg.

[Liam]

I replaced mine at 52,000. The wear bars were just starting to show evenly on all four tires. I probably should have replaced them about 2k earlier. I travel mostly on paved back roads about 45 mph. Gas mileage was great when the tires were smooth, but now I have tread again which is much safer.

[Tideland Prius]

US$400 for a set of new tyres?!?

We got a set of Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus in 215/60R16 size and it cost nearly Cdn$900 for the set of 4