The New Tire Replacement Post

[sredlin]

Well the Costco out the door price of $450 for replacement Ecopia tires seemed like the best bang for the buck after much research, so I had them installed today. Hopefully the 91 load rating of these replacement Ecopia tires will make them a little more durable than the originals?

 

[BrockWI]

I see the Michelin Energy A/S come in 205 60 16 with a 91V rating. I know the size is up one from 55 to 60, but they look darn close. Would these fit on the leaf without issues?

 

[minispeed]

I see the Michelin Energy A/S come in 205 60 16 with a 91V rating. I know the size is up one from 55 to 60, but they look darn close. Would these fit on the leaf without issues?

My cousin ran that size in his winter tires (Nokian Hakka R2) and no problems. They are 25.7" which is very close to the stock 17s 25.5" and is a better overall size for the car than the 16s 24.9".

The leaf can take much larger tires. I'm going to run 215 55 17 for summer, 26.3". Others have run them already (search Juke wheels, that's the stock juke size) and someone even ran 235 55 17 on crown vic wheels.

 

[sub3marathonman]

OK, once again I'm hoping this isn't too out of date but I'm needing to replace the original Ecopias and had a bit of a dilemma.

I've gotten 42K miles out of the original set, which seems to be pretty good. Now, the front ones are shot, but the back ones still have 6/32" tread left.

I had been thinking of going with the Yokohama AVID Ascend H-rated tire, which currently has a rebate for the next two days, and has 12/32" tread depth. It is rated great for hydroplaning resistance, which is fairly important here in Florida, yet many of the reviews say it is terrible. The other interesting thing is the same tire with a T rating is supposed to be much worse in just about every category. I might have held out for the Continental tire if I knew a rebate was coming up. I'm fairly sure I'll do the 205/60/16 instead of the stock 205/55/16, just for the slight decrease in revolutions/mile.

The other choice is for the Ecopia, which also has a rebate for the next two days. The original ones have seemed to do fine, and maybe the new ones would be even better with a slightly higher UTQG 600 rating as opposed to the 480 rating of the originals.

But, I'm wondering if it would be OK to just at first put the new tires on only in the back, and try to get the last few thousand miles out of the original ones that have a bit of tread left. That would leave the car with two slightly different size tires though.

Also, is there any consensus about the Yokohama tire? What is interesting to me is that they claim it wears in such a way as to maintain grip, but other reviews say it is meaningless.

 

[Bob]

You were satisfied with Ecopias, so you won't go wrong with a new set of them.

You can stagger tires, but in extreme conditions, there is a small risk. For example, if you put the new ones in front and the new ones grip while the rears slip, you can fishtail. Your suggestion of new tires on the back is probably safer.

Yokohama Avid Ascends are also good tires, but they don't have the range of the Ecopias. If you want maximum range, go with the Ecopias. If you go with the Ascends, expect 10% less range.

If you want the best, and are willing to pay, Nissan is putting 17" Michelin Energy 215/50R17 on SL 2015 Leafs now. They should give you nearly as much range as Ecopias, with better handling and life, but at a price.

Bob

 

[DaveEV]

If I were in the market for tires right now, I would probably go for the new Ecopia EP422 Plus and hope that they are as efficient as the original EP422. The hit in range with just about any other non EP422 tire seems to be fairly significant. I'm still waiting for my current tires (Discount Tire Road Hugger GT Eco) to get close to where the Ecopias were, but they're still down 5-10% after 6k miles.

 

[EVDRIVER]

OK, once again I'm hoping this isn't too out of date but I'm needing to replace the original Ecopias and had a bit of a dilemma.

I've gotten 42K miles out of the original set, which seems to be pretty good. Now, the front ones are shot, but the back ones still have 6/32" tread left.

I had been thinking of going with the Yokohama AVID Ascend H-rated tire, which currently has a rebate for the next two days, and has 12/32" tread depth. It is rated great for hydroplaning resistance, which is fairly important here in Florida, yet many of the reviews say it is terrible. The other interesting thing is the same tire with a T rating is supposed to be much worse in just about every category. I might have held out for the Continental tire if I knew a rebate was coming up. I'm fairly sure I'll do the 205/60/16 instead of the stock 205/55/16, just for the slight decrease in revolutions/mile.

The other choice is for the Ecopia, which also has a rebate for the next two days. The original ones have seemed to do fine, and maybe the new ones would be even better with a slightly higher UTQG 600 rating as opposed to the 480 rating of the originals.

But, I'm wondering if it would be OK to just at first put the new tires on only in the back, and try to get the last few thousand miles out of the original ones that have a bit of tread left. That would leave the car with two slightly different size tires though.

Also, is there any consensus about the Yokohama tire? What is interesting to me is that they claim it wears in such a way as to maintain grip, but other reviews say it is meaningless.

Replace them all, I would never drive a LEAF without matched tire wear and diameter based on the scary stability control. Get the Ecopia tires.

 

[sub3marathonman]

As an update, I did decide to go with the Ecopia 422 Plus tires. There are two different Ecopia 422 Plus lines at Tire Rack, I picked the NEW line, which costs the same as the regular Plus line.

There is still one more day to get the rebate, so maybe somebody will want to get a set.

I somewhat hated to pass up the Yokohama AVID Ascend, which has 12/32" of tread vs. 10/32" for the Ecopia 422s, and had a UTQG rating of 740 vs. 640 so the Ascend tires might have lasted a fair bit longer. They could also be inflated to 51 psi, as opposed to 44 psi, but I have found in the Prius that things are a bit rough at that pressure, mostly from complaints from my wife.

Ultimately I decided, with the appreciated help from people here, that the consensus seems to be that the Ecopia is the lowest rolling resistance tire around. Now, if it was in terms of only money, I wouldn't have worried about it to this extent, as everything seems to even out long-term, but in terms of battery wear-and-tear and time recharging, even limited for the 2011 on L2 to 3.3kw, that I just couldn't give up the extra range of the lowest rolling resistance tire.

One thing I don't really understand is how there can be such an incredible range of experiences with the same tire, as one guy apparently got 50K on his LEAF, while somebody else only got 16K or 18K. I'm thinking a good part of my 42K was due to the fact that the car is usually driven slowly, really never over 52 mph, and much of the time at 30 mph or less.

 

[EVDRIVER]

As an update, I did decide to go with the Ecopia 422 Plus tires. There are two different Ecopia 422 Plus lines at Tire Rack, I picked the NEW line, which costs the same as the regular Plus line.



One thing I don't really understand is how there can be such an incredible range of experiences with the same tire, as one guy apparently got 50K on his LEAF, while somebody else only got 16K or 18K. I'm thinking a good part of my 42K was due to the fact that the car is usually driven slowly, really never over 52 mph, and much of the time at 30 mph or less.

Hills, braking style, not speed.

 

[dgpcolorado]

Hills, braking style, not speed.

As well as dirt/gravel roads and sharp hairpin curves.

 

[redLEAF]

I looked for the most recent post for discussions on replacement tires for our LEAF so will add a new wrinkle here as didn't return any search results for Bridgestone DriveGuard run flats (as well as my own experience once I get these on the car). Here in the Midwest (Chicagoland area) we have fairly poor roads, although now ALL of them seem to be under construction; lots of pot holes to try an avoid. I was all ready to switch my OEM 16's alloys for some quite nice looking 17's that were take offs from an earlier model Juke -- no real issues with the original Ecopia's other than they're completely worn out at 31K miles but that's pretty much expected. The newer Ecopia Plus seemed a good bet but my local tire and maintenance guy gave me some other ideas; both keeping the original aspect ratio for thicker sidewalls and thought I might want to try something that would solve the no-spare issue when the wife drives this car.

For about the same price I'll be trying the Bridgestone DriveGuards using the OEM 16" alloy rims -- these are the latest 'run-flat' tech that will allow you to get 50 miles to have them serviced if you get a puncture; I know, I know; run flats of old were simply terrible, 'hard' tires with very stiff sidewalls that had a bad reputation but these at least (from a few reviews on tire rack) seemed to have improved quite a bit. They give you a full 30 days to try them out and will swap out for others if you're not satisfied so we'll see how these do.

I'll report back once I get these mounted this coming Monday -- I do expect a bit of a mileage hit initially, but expect that to even out a bit over time. We've had lots of rain as of late and no more slipping and sliding around corners with the worn out tires will be a welcome change. I've been averaging about 5.2 to 5.6 miles/kWh during fairly cool temps (no A/C use) so we'll see how that compares with these new run-flats.

 

[DaveEV]

Anecdotal since it's a different car and tire size, but I just put on the new Ecopia EP422 Plus tires onto my Prius. So far after 1,000 miles no significant different in fuel economy from the previous GoodYear FuelMax tires, which also weren't much different than the OEM Prius GoodYear tires.

They're nothing special in the handling or road feel department, but at least they seem to be pretty efficient for someone looking for an efficient tire for the LEAF.

 

[redLEAF]

I looked for the most recent post for discussions on replacement tires for our LEAF so will add a new wrinkle here as didn't return any search results for Bridgestone DriveGuard run flats (as well as my own experience once I get these on the car).

I'll report back once I get these mounted this coming Monday -- I do expect a bit of a mileage hit initially, but expect that to even out a bit over time. We've had lots of rain as of late and no more slipping and sliding around corners with the worn out tires will be a welcome change. I've been averaging about 5.2 to 5.6 miles/kWh during fairly cool temps (no A/C use) so we'll see how that compares with these new run-flats.

To keep the info updated on this, alternate tire (DriveGuard run-flats) for those of us in pot hole prone areas; picked up the car late yesterday, noticed a slight drop in miles/kWh already but a significant improvement in ride, seems to deaden out most road imperfections, corners much better and 'wow', what a difference over RR tracks (I have two different crossings on my work commute). Of course some of this can be attributed to simply swapping out worn out tires for new but we'll see ... did look up the specs and these run 5 more lbs per tire than the OEM Ecopias so more 'unsprung' weight penalty; interesting that the new Ecopia plus lose a pound. I've also decided to keep the 17" Juke rims and extra set of TPMS sensors for now (the 'old' ones on the OEM rims are still OK) as if we ever get to an area with better roads may still use these or perhaps as my son said, use them for summer, we'll see. We almost never run in to a running out of range issues so a few percent decrease in range won't hurt versus a bit of piece of mind avoiding a tow or otherwise being inconvenienced in dealing with flats, etc. They give me 30 days to 'try' them out as well so a few weeks in I'll post another update ---

 

[EVDRIVER]

5 lbs a tire is huge on the LEAF, even a few pounds can be felt in the 0-60 time, my guess is you are loosing significant performance there. I would surprised of less than a 10% range drop. Run flats are a compromise tire and a good set of normal tires would be more efficient, ride and handle better than them. You are better lugging a spare tire IMO

 

[redLEAF]

5 lbs a tire is huge on the LEAF, even a few pounds can be felt in the 0-60 time, my guess is you are loosing significant performance there. I would surprised of less than a 10% range drop. Run flats are a compromise tire and a good set of normal tires would be more efficient, ride and handle better than them. You are better lugging a spare tire IMO

At least initially, did not feel 'sluggish' in acceleration compared to the almost bald tires; some could simply be that I detected some wheel spin on the old tires; these just have a lot more grip. Like I said earlier, I've got 30 days on these to try them out -- will closely monitor my mile/kWh and if drops too much will swap these out

 

[Reddy]

I just had new Ecopia EP422 tires put on my 2011 Leaf (28,000 mi). Wow, I didn't realize how "bad" the original tires had become. I'll give it a few more miles, but the new tires are very soft and the car sways much more than before (e.g., drives like a 1970's station wagon with loose steering). I think they've tighten up a bit in the past 100 miles, or perhaps it was the 110+F temperature on the replacement day. Firestone had a special, so I just went with the same tires. At least I know the miles per charge won't decrease significantly. Oh, yes, I pumped them up to 42 psi, so no difference in pressure from the old.

 

[redLEAF]

I just had new Ecopia EP422 tires put on my 2011 Leaf (28,000 mi). Wow, I didn't realize how "bad" the original tires had become. I'll give it a few more miles, but the new tires are very soft and the car sways much more than before (e.g., drives like a 1970's station wagon with loose steering). I think they've tighten up a bit in the past 100 miles, or perhaps it was the 110+F temperature on the replacement day. Firestone had a special, so I just went with the same tires. At least I know the miles per charge won't decrease significantly. Oh, yes, I pumped them up to 42 psi, so no difference in pressure from the old.

The 'special' was probably due to them being the plain EP422's and not the EP422 'plus' (simple check on the tire itself and you'll be able to tell for yourself; tirerack still shows the originals on 'sale' for 16" at $104/each). Theses DriveGuards have much stiffer sidewalls and our temps have been quite mild (mid '70's) as of late. I did notice that they were only filled to 35 PSI so I bumped that up to 40 on the fronts and 41 on the rears

 

[redLEAF]

5 lbs a tire is huge on the LEAF, even a few pounds can be felt in the 0-60 time, my guess is you are loosing significant performance there. I would surprised of less than a 10% range drop. Run flats are a compromise tire and a good set of normal tires would be more efficient, ride and handle better than them. You are better lugging a spare tire IMO

At least initially, did not feel 'sluggish' in acceleration compared to the almost bald tires; some could simply be that I detected some wheel spin on the old tires; these just have a lot more grip. Like I said earlier, I've got 30 days on these to try them out -- will closely monitor my mile/kWh and if drops too much will swap these out

First update -- the first day (w/o adjusting the tire pressure that was set at 35 PSI), same route, similar temps and speeds, etc. the miles/kWh dropped from 5.2 to 4.4 so > 15% drop. The following days, weather was much hotter (ran the A/C, very high heat index, close to 100 F) but also raised PSI to 40 front, 41 rear, may raise this a bit more but need to check what they go up to in this hot weather and miles/kWh increased a bit to 4.5 so not great but running the A/C so we'll see. I've run about 160 miles on the new tires now but have heard need to wait to about 500? Again, just looking at the GOM as we 100% charge on the weekends, range shows 98 in ECO mode where it would normally show 102 to 105 on the old tires at 100% charge; if this is all it ends up being 'overall'; that's not bad considering the better ride, etc. This coming month my 'fixed' cents/kWh electricity rate drops a bit (from 7.93 to 6.97) so perhaps this will 'eat up' the additional electricity I'll potentially be using; biggest concern would be during our coldest months when my 'normal' miles/kWh drops to the high 3 or low 4 miles/kWh; an extra 15% loss would put the available range pretty low but can already see if its only a 4 to < 7% drop I can live with that.

 

[RonDawg]

Well the Costco out the door price of $450 for replacement Ecopia tires seemed like the best bang for the buck after much research, so I had them installed today.

BTW Costco is again having one of their $70/off set of 4 sales for Bridgestone (earlier this year it was for Michelin) I picked up a new set of Ecopia EP422 "Plus" for $509 installed including sales tax, mount/balance/road hazard, and state disposal fees.

I haven't put a lot of miles on them yet so I don't know if they are the same/worse/better than the OEM tires.

 

[DaveEV]

When I got the EP422 Plus for my Prius just before 4th of July, Discount Tire had a $100 rebate. Total was $461 before rebate out the door - $361 after rebate was a steal. The Prius tire size is a bit cheaper than the LEAF, though - $13 cheaper/tire. Right now Discount Tire has the same $70 rebate as Costco, so I would just go with whatever installer you like better.

FWIW the EP422 Plus after 1000 miles on my Prius hasn't changed much. Fuel economy is still basically the same as the GoodYear FuelMax tires I had on before.