Miles on OEM tires before replacement?

Off topic, but what do you guys recommend for a set of tires comparable to oem and low cost? I'm happy with the oem's and don't need the extra bells and whistles such as perfomance/mpg enhancement claims.

 

Even if a good set of LRR's would save you money?

 

Well it would have to save more money than it costs to pay extra for it if you know what I mean. I have the Bridgestone ecopia's as oem and I thought they were already LRR? Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

If you shop at Costco or Samsclub, you should be able to find comparable LRR tires that are better than OEM's for around $400-$450 installed. That's about as cheap as you will find. Even exact OEM replacement may be same or higher priced. I would stick with Bridgestone or Michelin, in that order for cost.

 

I rotated the tires yesterday at local dealer as part of 20,000 miles service. I checked the service document and the tire pressure has been set to TIRE PSI___35/33__ . Is this too low for getting good mileage?

 

Yea, was at Costco yesterday and they had the Bridgestone Ecopia 422, with an expected treadlife of approx 60k-65k miles. They were $360 installed after a coupon. I was thinking damn that sounds like a good deal, but I'm far from replacing my OEM Ecopia EP20's as I just bought my Prius 2 days ago, lol. I'm expecting at least 35-40k out of em but hoping to go longer.

I noticed that the EP 422's are all season, which is unneccessary here in L.A., anyone know the benefits of staying in summer tires vs. all season?

 

I believe most drivers here are doing 44/42. It sounds like quite a big difference.

 

Is 44/42 a good psi for 17" Toyo Proxes to max mpg and max tire life mileage? I currently am at 40/39. Should I be higher? (pressure wise that is!!)

 

I'm not sure. Check out tire threads in the Fuel Efficiency section. There's other members like F8L who are pretty knowledgeable with tire settings.

Sometimes you have to play with it to see how it compliments your driving and environment. Obviously the higher your PSI, the less rolling resistance = mpg increase/harsher ride. But if its too high or too low, unnecessary wear will occur. Consult your tire's max psi rating as well as your manual recommended setting.

 

Look at side wall of tire and check Max. psi and do not exceed that. Then run 2 psi less on rear tires. Adjust as you would like, to get softer ride drop a few pounds of psi.

 

7/32 left on my Bridgestone EP-20's at 27K miles (measured with a tread depth tool).

 

Bit of a head shaker why Michelin's lowest Rolling Resistance tire isn't available in one of the Prius stock sizes. Considering Prius owners tend to care about mileage, LOL.

Oh well, there's always Ecopia EP422, in either 215/45R17 or 205/50R17.

 

I'm in L.A. also but I prefer all season tires for those few rain days we have, the freeways get real slick because of all the rubber build up and the first hours after a rain starts, it's bumper cars on the 405.

 

Ha, I totally know what you mean. I'm on the other side of the 405.

 

and I am in Stevenson Ranch up north in the Santa Clarita valley

 

There are no summer tires worth running from a MPG standpoint so stick with the all-season tires I have listed in my tire thread.

The EP20 is a decent tire. By the time you need new ones there will likely be something really good available. If not there is always the Michelin Energy Saver A/S.

 

rayray pretty much covered it. I'll only add that the Proxes A20 is a fairly weak tire and prone to blowouts so I wouldn't bother trying to run max pressure. Somewhere around 38-42psi is probably fine and a good compromise between comfort, safety and mpg. With 17s I never really seemed to notice big gains in mpg with really high pressure. This is especially true if you regularly travel rough roads.

 

I'll very likely change tires just due to them getting "old". I've heard if you've had tires on for 5 years that's more-or-less the limit, they'll be cracking seriously by that point.

We're putting on 12~15K kilometers per year, and this is on two sets of tires: for about 5 months it's michelin X-Ice. So, maybe 8000 km's yearly on the OEM's, times 5 years equals 40,000. Plus, the car was sitting on the dealer's lot for a fair time.