Tire Pressure/Tread Wear

My '10 w/ 27000 on the odo, also with Ecopia, runs at 44/42. Tread wear is perfectly even. Placard pressure ensures premature edge wear. Max sidewall will improve every aspect except NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness).

In other words, tread life, handling, and mpg are all improved by adding air. If you drive conservatively and/or avoid rough roads, the downside of NVH is not pronounced.

 

A lot of people here run pressures in those ranges and generally don't have tire problems. A search of the forum will give you more answers than you will get in this thread. Radial tires are generally very tolerant of overfilling as far as center tread wear goes.

Cupping is usually from worn suspension parts, not tire pressure.

 

Any other dealerships nearby?

 

Pearl has Nokian WR tyres on. I've run 40/38 PSI for the last four + years. They are just about to be replaced as at a current 66,000 km they are within a few 32nds of the "wear bars". They are worn evenly, with no cupping or any other tire problem. They were rotated every 8000 km (free by the tire shop I bought them at). They DID only last about 60,000 km (warranted for 100,000) so I expect some money off the new tires (I took Pearl into their shop last month and they confirmed I would be getting an "adjustment").

As posted above cupping is caused by alignment issues and -low- pressure not high pressure.

But you have to expect some BS from dealers. It's their job!

 

50 all around & normal wear on my Tiger Paws.

 

I've been a proponent of higher pressure, and have been running 42/40. But I've also cupped two sets of tires in just 25,000 miles. Toyota bought me a second set, and now I'm about to buy a third set. So I guess I'm going back to normal pressure for my Prius, reluctantly. The bigger issue: why is this car different from others. Toyota is now calling this 'normal tire wear' and declining to do anything else for me.

 

If that's normal have them show you the same symptoms on their used cars or look on the cars of other customers sitting on the lot. I'll bet you are the only one with cupped tires but calling a problem "normal" is the cheap & lazy way out.

 

I ran my OEM Yokohama Avid tires at 40/38 for the full 32000 mile life of the tires. The treadwear was even on all four tires. No abnormal sign of treadwear at all.

 

Ecopias here, 32k miles, no wear problems. The only times any tires have been below 40 are (1) at delivery, a single tire was at 39, all others at 40; (2) one service, while traveling far from home, the shop let out my 'very excessive' pressure (high altitude and highway hot), and actually left the front tires underinflated (cold the next morning). I promptly refilled them.

The cars come off the boat at about 40 psi, and my dealership has absolutely no qualms about leaving them at that pressure.

 

Different car, different tires, but I have run my Insight-I's Bridgestone Potenza RE92's at 65psi for years (sidewall rating is 44psi, like my Prius' OEM Goodyears). No problems whatsoever, great mpg.

After 60,000miles, I finally replaced them. Not because they were worn out but because they were 5 years old and because I was concerned that Bridgestone might stop making them (they're apparently specially designed for the Insight-I to optimize mpg).

Surprisingly the tread depths were 4/32" at both inner and outer edges and 5/32" in the middle. Not what you would expect if additional pressure bulged the center of the tread.

 

yep, same with me, have ecopia 422's, 42/40, over 10K and NO problems, even wear.

 

Isn't it odd, there's a lot of instances like that, when you pay someone to do something for you, and then have to patch it up after. Kind of like cleaning up before the cleaners come over, LOL.

I believe it's common practice to ship the cars at max sidewall pressure, to avoid flat spots on the tires, either in transit, or during protracted times on dealer's lot. It's also just much easier at prep time to deal with an overinflated tire than underinflated.

To OP,

When we took delivery our tires were at recommended pressure, except for the temporary spare, which was down around 45 psi, instead of recommeded 60 psi. Basically, I don't think they looked at it.

With 15" diameter, 65 profile tires, I usually set them around 42/40 psi (front/rear), both with the snow tires I'm using on our current Prius, and with previous vehicles.

I'll vary that a little, depending on the tire: we had some higher load capacity Nokian WRG2's that rode quite harsh at 42/40. Stiffer side walls?

With our current Prius' stock 17" dia 45 profile's, I found the ride a bit too harsh with 42/40 psi, so set them around 38/36 psi, still higher than Toyota recommended 33/32 psi.

 

I still have the original Ecopias with 33,500 miles and run 42/40 with no wear problems at all.

 

Are you cupping the rears? If so it probably means you have negative camber! Time for a wheel alignment?[Rear] Hal

 

The burden of proof is on the plaintiff. You'll need to prove the "defect" caused the collision. The TPMS is an idiot. All it knows is to trip when 25% of the set pressure is lost. It can't even tell which tire lost the pressure.

 

I always run higher tire pressure than recommended by Toyota and have yet to see uneven tire wear in the 5 different tires I've used.

Here is a thread showing my tire wear on the OEM Integritys at 50psi.

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...24-integritys-over-35k-miles-50-psi-pics.html

 

What about a tire wear issue where the leading edge of the inner and outer tread is feathered up; when I run my hand over the tread starting from the front of the tire to the rear it feels rough or sharp. When I run my hand over the tread running from the rear to the front it is smooth. This is much worse on the rear tires. Middle treads feel smooth and visually the wear pattern looks fine. It may be that the front tires are smoothing out from being rotated a few thousand miles ago, not sure. The howling from these tires is absolutely awful! From about 25 MPH to 65 MPH it's quite an annoyance. I do remember that my Bridgestone Turanzas' were somewhat loud as well near the end of their life. These tires are Goodyear FuelMax. I was at Sears and one of the techs felt the tire and stated they would take a look (he definitely felt something was amiss, but stated they appeared to be wearing fine visually), but I didn't have time to put it on the rack. Pressures are 40/38. Rear camber two years ago was L -0.8, R -1.7 and toe was L 0.30, R 0.19 I don't appreciate any difference in either the left or right rear tire treads. Any ideas?