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New Tires Problems


grege
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2018 cmax and had a sidewall puncture in original michelins (~36,000 miles).  Opted for 4 new tires and went with Goodyear Assurance max life.  Horrible experience thus far.  Vibrations readily obvious and horrible at highway speeds.  Mileage after one day driving identical route to work yielded 10mpg drop already.  WTH? 

 

Might need to have all replaced under the 30 day "guarantee".  Don't know if it's a combination of bad tires and bad balancing or...???  Car was so smooth that I could do 80mph on original tires and not realize it; now, at 65mph and higher, it's unbearable.  Something is not right.  

 

Greg

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Car went back to dealer and they confirmed there was a problem with their balancing machine, so rebalanced all and huge improvement.  Problem now is, driving the same routes, mileage is much reduced (9-10mpg lower with same tire pressure) after switching from Michelin Energy to Goodyear Assurance Maxlife.  Will track mileage for two weeks and if mileage remains this bad, will seek another tire change. 

 

Anyone swap new tires due to performance problems???

 

Thanks,

Greg

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Glad to hear there was a root cause for the major issues. I use Tire Rack reviews for things like rolling resistance, but I find their latest on the MaxLife has no mention of rolling resistance. That's not good, even if the tire fairs quite well in the objective testing. 

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=265

 

Looking at the specs, I see an 11/32" tread depth. Michelin Energy Savers tread is 9.5/32". This matters because a thicker tread is harder to bend, so has greater rolling resistance. However, as a newer tire, I'd expect the MaxLife is a LRR design. This test includes the Energy Savers... in 2009. Very interesting variation in results....

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=121

 

Finally, give them time. This data's from the new Escape, but the pattern is consistent. Mileage data is noisy, even if you control for things like speed and temperature. 

image.png.00eae2af4ac15cafd5145c6b4b94a3c4.png

 

I will note that the car's rolling resistance is easy to measure. 

- find a paved surface that transitions from flat to hill

- find the location on that surface where the car will just barely stay put, not roll

- measure the angle of the surface. The Tangent of that angle is the rolling resistance.

 

The easy way is to measure the angle in radians, which is ~= tangent for small angles like this. Put a bubble level on a meter stick, hold it level with one end on the ground. Measure the distance from the ground in millimeters. That's the RR. You want less than 0.010, I got 0.007 for my C-Max. I need to measure the Escape before the OEM tires die. 

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On 8/20/2021 at 3:09 PM, fbov said:

Glad to hear there was a root cause for the major issues. I use Tire Rack reviews for things like rolling resistance, but I find their latest on the MaxLife has no mention of rolling resistance. That's not good, even if the tire fairs quite well in the objective testing. 

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=265

 

Looking at the specs, I see an 11/32" tread depth. Michelin Energy Savers tread is 9.5/32". This matters because a thicker tread is harder to bend, so has greater rolling resistance. However, as a newer tire, I'd expect the MaxLife is a LRR design. This test includes the Energy Savers... in 2009. Very interesting variation in results....

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=121

 

Finally, give them time. This data's from the new Escape, but the pattern is consistent. Mileage data is noisy, even if you control for things like speed and temperature. 

image.png.00eae2af4ac15cafd5145c6b4b94a3c4.png

 

I will note that the car's rolling resistance is easy to measure. 

- find a paved surface that transitions from flat to hill

- find the location on that surface where the car will just barely stay put, not roll

- measure the angle of the surface. The Tangent of that angle is the rolling resistance.

 

The easy way is to measure the angle in radians, which is ~= tangent for small angles like this. Put a bubble level on a meter stick, hold it level with one end on the ground. Measure the distance from the ground in millimeters. That's the RR. You want less than 0.010, I got 0.007 for my C-Max. I need to measure the Escape before the OEM tires die. 

 

Thanks for the response.  Not surprised about the greater tread depth for the "max life" given they claim an 85,000 mile warranty.  Tracking mileage daily, so...

day 1:  50 mpg

day 2:  51 mpg

day 3:  53 mpg

 

I do expect some tire "bedding"/wear will improve mileage, but doubt I'll reach Michelin energy numbers of 59-60 for my usual commute, but we'll see...

 

Greg

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