New single tire on 2022 Prius AWD-e LE, rougher/bouncier ride at low speeds??

Could having one tire with slightly less tread wear on it than the other 3 (even if all 4 are quite new) make for a rougher,bouncier ride esp. at low speeds, and if so, will this get better in time? And/or could you have a rougher,bouncier ride simply, esp. at low speeds, during the break-in first 500 miles when you have a single new tire that had to be replaced due to blow-out with the other 3 being also quite new?

We've had our 2022 Prius AWD-e LE since late August 2021 and it has about 3,500 miles on it, as do 3 of the Ecopia tires it came with, but rear passenger side tire recently blew out when we apparently hit an e-cigarette littered in the road and its metal case made huge puncture in sidewall and actually went inside tire. Again that was rear passenger side tire and we got it replaced at dealer since couldn't be fixed, dealer said okay just to replace the one since so few miles on it even with AWD.

And we also separately had a slow flat show up in front driver side from nail soon after that we had patched at local tire shop. A lot going on!

But recently ride seems rougher and bouncier. However I honestly think I might have been noticing this a little last couple weeks before all that happened -- my wife has car at work most week days driving only 2.5 miles each way and I use mainly on weekend.

Now I have all 4 Ecopia EP422, 195/65r15 tires consistently at correct pressures, 36 in front and 35 in back as on door sticker. But still noticing rougher and bouncier at speeds of 20 and below on rough, potholed/cracked/poorly paved/patched streets -- which are most of streets where I live in south Brooklyn!

At really slow speeds often notice a kind of subtle boat-like role side to side, but I actually recall many months ago noticing this for first time a little, only when rolling forward at very low speed on crappy NYC streets caught in gridlock traffic, but thinking it was just an oddity of the car. At faster speeds all feels more normal -- but also when I'm driving faster the road surfaces are usually much better!

My wife thinks it feels fine all the time, so could be in my head, I was one driving during blowout and who discovered slow flat so maybe I'm neurotic now!

I was also rear-ended at low-ish speeds in this car when we only had it for a month, causing cosmetic damage and the need to replace some kind of safety bar thing (would have to look at docs for name) in rear, assessment and work done by shop affiliated with Geico our insurer.

Anyway I gather new tires have kind of a break-in period of 500 miles and with our low driving habits we're only at 250 miles now so I'm trying to decide whether to wait to 500 to consider taking the car to be checked out. Also not sure whether to go to dealer or other local mechanic. I'm also a little concerned if this is caused by differing tire tread if it will never go away.

Any body have any thoughts?

 

Thanks Jeff! Yes, my wife is likely right!

I am really curious if you can elaborate on this or point me to other info on it "The low PSI specified by Toyota contributes to side to side instability as LRR tires tend to have soft sidewalls."

Is there a more ideal PSI in your view than that on the door sticker (for this model 36 front, 35 back)?

I actually think we were running somewhere closer to 38 on all the tires before this happened, and maybe even a little higher earlier in the winter...and I did notice much less of this side-to-side boat-like roll...

When car was delivered by dealer tires were at 50, their max I believe, and I didn't notice this for like a month after taking it on a 1000 mile late summer road trip (!!)...

 

Thank you. Any thoughts generally on the importance of the front/rear PSI difference and the amount? For mine it is recommended on door sticker at 1 PSI, I have heard on here about other Priuses recommended at 2 PSI difference, then there are people on here who do all 4 the same.

 

After seeing your comments last weekend I tried increasing tire pressure from 36/35 to about 39/38. At first I thought it might have actually made the ride less rough (counterintuitively) and improved the side to swaying at of the car front end at low speeds, esp. I think around 10-15mph (but need to test that more). But later on I changed my mind -- and car developed a rattling/creaking/knocking noise on the back passenger wheel area where tire was replaced 3 weeks earlier. At first I just heard it a couple times, then not at at all the next day, but on 3rd day -- at which point I had reduced tire pressure back to 36/35 -- was hearing frequently due to driving over bumps and sometimes when slowing down or turning. I took to dealer and they checked out and said that one of the wheel locks (which came with new car) were loose and noise went away when they tightened it. They also said something about a rock in the wheel well (?). I thought getting that dealt with might lead to an overall improvement, and I did briefly mention thinking the car had a rougher ride since new tire (though really it pre-dates that) but didn't push it, was just wanting the noise dealt with...anyway I still feel like the ride is rougher/bouncier than in the past but like I've said the streets are so bad in south Brooklyn, like the surface of the moon in my immediate neighborhood in spots, and there's maybe more bounce after hitting some bumps and this exaggerated swaying or bouncing side to side in front end when going over certain surfaces at lower speeds. It's not so much the bounciness visibly terrible surfaces that concerns me as when I can feel but not see the bump.

I looked and felt around a bit underneath at shocks for anything obvious.

I guess I'm going to wait until that new tire on the back passenger side is at 500 or more miles and see how it's feeling, then maybe talk to either dealer or another mechanic. We don't drive that many miles, many days my wife just goes to work and back which is 5 miles and actually a pretty quick drive, but being in NYC even a quite long drive in terms of time might only be 15-20 miles due to traffic.

 

Yes, thanks, I'm eventually going to do both of those and maybe sooner than later and thanks for reaffirming. The allignment may be okay because I had to get that rattle fixed at the dealer and when you drive in there's some kind of plate you go over that scans to check for allignment issues and mine was I gather fine but I don't know how accurate that is. As to this "tire position could move off rim if there's so much lube on the tire before it dry and stick to rim" -- would that be addressed by getting a balancing then?

 

You might be right although there was a time I wasn't bothered by the ride so...not entirely sure...could be at least part in my head too!

Thanks for the tire recommendations!

I wish a hybrid VW would become available in the USA, I have had good experience with the ride in contemporary VWs, and on top of that I have a totally separate irrational affinity for VWs because of my hippie parents driving old VW bus and van and Rabbit (and I drove too for a little while!. But right now Prius is my fave hybrid out there, and besides this little issue I love my Prius, and don't want to have anything but a hybrid. I'd go electric except I live in big apt. building in NYC and have no where to charge at home and charging stations are really very very few and not great options round here.

 

Thanks!

 

The tires would probably do the job if necessary, though I think I should play with the psi, get tires balanced, wheels aligned, and maybe suspension looked at.

I don't have really high standards for a smooth ride, the main cars I have ever driven a lot were a 2000 Honda Civic, a 1991 Plymouth Colt hatchback, and an old school VW van. But I am finding new 2022 Prius AWD-E LE notably rough right now, and I think it got worse after 8 months. Roads/streets really bad in Brooklyn, NY area where I live could be big part of problem but not sure how much they damaged something (well except for the nail causing the slow flat in one tire and the metal e-cigarette case causing the major sidewall blowout in another) vs. just show up the issues in car and/or tire design.

 

Any thoughts on whether there is much chance it is suspension, not tires/wheels, allignment/balance, etc.? Or is that virtually impossible at only 3,700 miles? Car was rear-ended at low speeds when only 1 month old but suspension supposedly fine and didn't notice problems until at least 7 months afterwards.

Honestly I had become suddenly dissatisified with ride just days or a week or so before I had the blow out due to the e-cigarette case and then became aware of the slow flat due to the nail soon after, though both might have worsened situation or be connected in some other way, esp. the slow flat that may have been there a little while. I don't know which of these things is more likely to get damaged from bad roads -- suspension or tires/wheels, but the roads here are terrible.

Also not sure whether to go to a hyper-local tire shop/mechanic I had fix my slow flat before or the nearest dealership with which I have had mixed though mostly positive enough experiences. Thoughts? Car is under warranty but does that cover suspension much? I know it doesn't cover tires or wheels really.

But gonna do something soon because after 9 weeks we've got nearly 500 miles on that 4th new tire (at 10 months we only have total of 3,700 miles on it period and mostly recently the car is driven only 5 miles daily round trip to work and back by my wife, but this summer we will likely put a lot more miles on it) and my wife still doesn't notice anything but says "I have been told I am noticeably insensate" where as I think it rides worse and worse, really horribly, not just you feel every bump but bumps I don't see cause weird shudders and vibrations (or it's not from bumps) and esp. there's a side to side jitter in the front frequently. I suspect she has gotten used to it by driving daily as it worsened where as I often drive usually for a week or more at a time so changes feel more dramatic to me.

I notice it mostly when just accelerating or coasting, pretty much at any speed now, but sometimes also badly and disconcertingly vibrating when braking (though not always any problem when braking, or when driving if on very good road of which there are almost none where I live in south Brooklyn, New York!). My wife is not needing car most of this week so I am going to do something about this in next few days finally I think.

Gotta say, not having the best experience with first and probably only new car I will ever own!

 

They seemed fine for first 3500 miles or so, very weird...but thank you, that may be what we end up doing.

 

Correction: this should say SIX weeks not nine.

 

That's interesting, thank you. I guess to check that I would have to take off those stupid wheel covers. Then how do you tell if wheel is off center slightly? Also how do I know if lug nuts are equally tightened, basically I have to loosen them myself and start over and count the turns? Or is there a tool you recommend?

 

I took the car to a local smallish family-owned (but bigger than others around here) tire shop and mechanics (very local, like 200-300 feet from my apt., this part of Brooklyn has some seriously unusual zoning with all manner of auto related businesses cheek by jowel with rowhouse, apt. buildings, grocery and other stores, etc.) and went out on ride with technician who felt the overal driving experience of the car including roughness of ride, vibration, and side to side sway in car was not notable and did not point to problem. I was told by shop manager to come back if problem got worse. His father who started business and works front desk had thought maybe road force balancing but shop manager didn't agree. Shop was really slammed that day (and is all walk-up, no appointments).

The funny thing was I had driven all around just before testing out car and really feeling weird vibrations but mostly set off by road surface, but when I was passenger with technician driving I felt a lot less -- this might be position in car but also I think could be related to tires warming up? I do not know.

Also as soon as we pulled out there was suddenly a noise you could hear with windows open like nail in tire on passenger side. Which had not been happening half an hour earlier driving with windows open. We came back and he had me pull back and forth and look at tires and decided it was a big stone in front passenger tire. But it was still happening when I left (so not sure about shop competence) so I pulled into a quiet parking lot and removed a few small stones and then found some kind of weird piece of plastic, shaped like a pen but much thicker than a pen, broken off at end and stuck in tire tread very firmly but sticking out and splintering apart and making sound. I wonder how long it was in there, if it was in tread causing issues for a while.

This tire shop is same place that patched the flat in the front driver side tire in mid-April, and have had issues since then with rougher ride though I think it started 1-2 weeks before that actually, not after the repair.

I removed that and all stones I could from tires without taking them off. I also increased tire pressure to 38/37 instead of 36/35. I feel like other handling issues I was experiencing occasionally went away for couple of days and ride was a little smoother maybe -- and I'm realizing the roads are just so dang bad, like the patched asphalt version of cobblestones almost, but this morning was feeling weird again increasingly, like little shudders in car after going over either visible or invisible cracks in road in areas not as bad. And just any surface not really smooth feels jarring to me. I sometimes feel like is centered in front driver tire but I do not know if that's just because I sit over that when driving obviously! I should find situations to ride in car too I guess, in different seats even. I do not know, I'm less worried this is anything that could have catastrophic failure but still kinda annoyed and unsure what to do. I wish it was easy to know if this was suspension or tires or something else.

I have really never had an experience like this with a car before. Loving the 50+ mpg though, and most other things with 2022 Prius.