1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Funky tire wear and cross rotation on Bridgestone Ecopia 422

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Technical Discussion' started by priusdonkey, Jun 23, 2014.

  1. priusdonkey

    priusdonkey Member

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2014
    211
    51
    0
    Location:
    Los Angeles, California
    Vehicle:
    2014 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    i am getting uneven wear on the Bridgeston E422 tires. I was told that with all season tires and a front wheel drive car is typically hard on the tires. The tires are wearing on the back side of the tread and forming a bit of a saw tooth with the leading edge being higher than the back side. I would think that it would increase wet traction, snow and ice traction - so i am not sure if this is by design from the tire manufacturers. After talking the three Toyota dealerships and taking it to three alignment shops, Just Tires for the FREE computerized alignment check - the summation of their opinions are thus.

    The wear is in the direction of the tire, some tires do this and some don't.

    the 35/32 psi on the door jamb is nonsense. running 42 psi is fine all four tires. Don't get fancy doing 42/40 just stick with one number. The ecopia is rated to 42psi.

    I personally run straight nitrogen in the tires. Less fluctuation and leakage over the weeks.

    rotating 3k - 4k miles is good to do if you are experiencing tire issues. it is a bit excessive, but is preferable, in lieu of a 5k mile tire rotation. Easier to catch misalignments and other idiosyncrasy if you are constantly dealing with the tires... lol

    the inside of the tire shows more wear than the outside and from my observation the rear showed more wear than the front. I believe that Toyota puts a fair amount of negative camber in the rear tires to aid in stability and understeer in accident situations?

    It is a good idea to have a print out of your alignment front and rear. This is the normal state. So in the off chance someone hits you and f_cks up your rear alignment or front alignment, the conversation will be very short when dealing with the opposing insurance company. Insurance companies are just a bunch of lying attorneys. It gives you ammunition that you wouldn't otherwise have. The rear axle is something like $3k if you need to adjust it. I don't believe there are any kits to tweak it back to spec. REMOVE and REPLACE.

    To compensate the irregular wear i intend to do the following - at each rotation criss-cross the ONLY the rears. Which now puts the left rear in the front right position. More importantly, it will flip the tire and the rotation of the direction of the tire. Since these tires are non-directional i feel that it is safe to do. I also called Costco (free tire rotation) and they said "no problem crossing". So i am hoping that this will round out the tires and increase my wear factor by a factor of 30%
     
  2. raviv

    raviv New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2014
    8
    0
    0
    Location:
    london, uk
    Vehicle:
    2013 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Advanced
    get the wheels aligned. I had that on my Plugin and once it was done. tires wear evenly.
    I use 42 PSI btw
     
  3. priusdonkey

    priusdonkey Member

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2014
    211
    51
    0
    Location:
    Los Angeles, California
    Vehicle:
    2014 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    everything is in spec on the alignment. did you do negative toe or something to compensate? i should probably call Bridgestone and talk to them about the issue?
     
  4. raviv

    raviv New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2014
    8
    0
    0
    Location:
    london, uk
    Vehicle:
    2013 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Advanced
    I will ask my dealer what they done and will let you know if they over aligned and will let you know.