New Tires?

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Anonymous

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Hello,

Has anyone purchased new tires for their Leaf yet? Reason being we are at 13k miles and dealer and friend said they will be done by 17k-20k. I looked up the info and apparently they were correct, average of these are around 20,000 on some sites. Anyone have a recommendation for long lasting? I'm in sometimes snow sometimes ice country here in Central PA. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks a bunch, ;)
 
I have a set of Blizzaks for the winter. They work incredibly well in the snow.

Many people here like Michelin tires as replacements.
Michelin MXV4 thread

Since I have winter tires, I'm considering replacing my ecopias with some performance (not all-season) tires. I haven't decided on anything yet.
 
there is plenty of information on this topic here.
try the search function. then buy the michelins.
which michelins?
use the search.
 
centralpaleaf said:
Hello,

Has anyone purchased new tires for their Leaf yet? Reason being we are at 13k miles and dealer and friend said they will be done by 17k-20k. I looked up the info and apparently they were correct, average of these are around 20,000 on some sites. Anyone have a recommendation for long lasting? I'm in sometimes snow sometimes ice country here in Central PA. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks a bunch, ;)

I haven't used any of these tires but based on survey results I'd suggest one of 3 strategies.

1. efficiency as the first priority, just get Michelin Energy Saver A/S in one of the two sizes listed below and use them year round only changing air pressure and rotating as needed.

Michelin Energy Saver A/S
P205/60R16 91V SL Green X 480 A A 51 psi max 21 lbs. 25.7" 810 US
215/50R17 90V SL Green X 480 A A 44 psi max 22 lbs. 25.5" 815 CA

2. One set of tires with traction as the priority, they won't give as many miles per charge as the energy savers but they have better winter traction.

Continental PureContact with Ecoplus
205/60R16 92H SL EcoPlus 700 A A 51 psi max 21 lbs. 25.7" 808 MX
215/50R17 95V XL EcoPlus 700 A A 51 psi max 22 lbs. 25.5" 815 MX


3. Two sets of tires with efficiency as the priority in the summer and traction as the priority in the winter. Grab the Energy Savers as in scenario 1 for your spring/summer/fall tires and get a second set of tires for the winter.

If you are willing to buy a 2nd set of rims for the winter tires they don't need to be the same size as the summer tires and you can save money buying the smaller rims / smaller tires vs buying the 17" rims. Conversely if you want to use this as an excuse to buy 17" rims you can buy some with the new summer tires in the 17" and put the winter tires on the old 16" rims. You will get better range per charge on the 16" rims.

as to the winter choice you can go LRR with the Michelin X-Ice Xi3 at 205/60R16 for LRR or just go with the snow tires of your choice at that size.

If you are wondering why I list 205/60R16 instead of 205/55R16 see http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=12606&start=20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
dhanson865 said:
1. efficiency as the first priority, just get Michelin Energy Saver A/S in one of the two sizes listed below and use them year round only changing air pressure and rotating as needed.

In some places, you may be required by law to use snow tires during the Winter.
 
thankyouOB said:
there is plenty of information on this topic here.
try the search function.
If using the search function is easy, use it to find a relevant thread and link to it in your answer.
If you won't use the search function, then why expect someone else to do so?
In some places, you may be required by law to use snow tires during the Winter.
PA doesn't require them. There are usually only a handful of days per year when they're useful.
 
I cannot thank everyone enough for their suggestions on this post, I really appreciate it and will purchase based on your recommendations for sure.

Though I cannot help but comment on the person named 'thankyouOB' - I am not sure you are aware - but when searching even for just 'tires' in these forums I received little to no information that I needed - the results of the query were 7 results of mostly people's taglines about what tires they stocked on the car.

I then reverted to Google to search within the forums with the same lackluster results (this is recommended by many forum sites, as their algorithms are many times inferior to processing of single site searches). - You should try it sometime.

I just wanted to explain in a thoughtful manner that yes, I did look before I posted.
Leaf owners are generally nicer than that.

As you can see I felt that I would receive a better response than to add to an existing already dead thread.

Receiving these suggestions were vital for me today as I was at a dealer and the quick responses led me to the correct action. Thank you again to everyone except for thankyouOB.
 
garsh said:
Many people here like Michelin tires as replacements.
Michelin MXV4 thread
We went with these tires from Costco. The Ecopias made it just past 28,000 miles. Mileage seems to have dropped about 0.3 miles/kWh during the first 1000 miles, but the ride is good and (for us) handling and feel is improved.

It may also be worth noting that Costco did not have the Bridgestone Ecopias or Michelin MXV4 tires in stock when I first asked, but they usually have a set of the Michelins. We lost two Ecopias to sidewall damage, and in both instances neither the Nissan dealer or local tire stores had a replacement in stock. If availability is important to you, ask if the tire is normally stocked. Better still, ask first and put your best Ecopia on a spare wheel and keep it in the garage "just in case".
 
Remember that, everything else being equal, mileage is always worse on new tires than on older ones... A tire is most efficient just before it completely wears out.

HighDesertDriver said:
Mileage seems to have dropped about 0.3 miles/kWh during the first 1000 miles, but the ride is good and (for us) handling and feel is improved.
 
Don't worry about thankyouob I think he was much more constructive before the steal your battery program was announced and right now he is just stuck in frustrated / hot under the collar mode.

While his tone might not have been welcoming I truly do think he wants to be helpful to other leaf owners.

As to the Michelin Primacy MXV4 it doesn't have the Green X designation in the size that is optimal for the Leaf speedometer accuracy correction and even when it does it gets less miles to the charge. Still better than the stock 16" tires but I'd run the Energy Saver A/S over the MXV4 any time I could in a car that can have range concerns.

GL and enjoy your car, I'm sure you have less to worry about in PA than those of us down south do when it comes to battery temps.
 
no problem to find this, if you look through it there is discussion of replacements.
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4370&hilit=ecrapias&start=80" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Berlino said:
In some places, you may be required by law to use snow tires during the Winter.

An all season tire, with the "M + S" stamped on the sidewall fits the definition of a "snow tire" in California and many other states.
 
Every tire site I've checked is just parroting MY12 LEAF tire information for MY13.

First Red Flag on sites' tire selection menus: You select 2013 Nissan LEAF and they ask you to choose between SV and SL for trim.
Then, when you click on SL they tell you the OEM tires are sized P205/55R16.

No one on this forum is likely to be misled, but some poor guy will end up receiving tires in the mail that don't fit his rims.
I ended up going to Michelin's site. Since they supply the P215/50R17 Energy Savers for the MY13 SL, surely they should be up to speed on the car's equipment, right? No, they also provide the outdated information. I wrote them and received an amusing response:


Our record indicates that this came with original equipment tire size of P205/55R16 89H.

Please be advised that all of the vehicle information with corresponding original equipment tire size that is listed on our website was provided by the vehicle manufacturer. We recommend you to check your vehicle placard to ensure the original equipment tire size of your vehicle.

Please be also advised that we have tried contacting you on September 18, 2013. However, the phone number your provided 418-555-5555, seems invalid as we are not able to get through.


Since every site is dispensing wrong information, I do concede that Nissan is the likely culprit in not properly informing 3rd parties of the correct MY13 specs.
I did call the LEAF help line to ask them to give vendors the correct information.
 
Berlino said:
Every tire site I've checked is just parroting MY12 LEAF tire information for MY13.

First Red Flag on sites' tire selection menus: You select 2013 Nissan LEAF and they ask you to choose between SV and SL for trim.
Then, when you click on SL they tell you the OEM tires are sized P205/55R16.

No one on this forum is likely to be misled, but some poor guy will end up receiving tires in the mail that don't fit his rims.
I ended up going to Michelin's site. Since they supply the P215/50R17 Energy Savers for the MY13 SL, surely they should be up to speed on the car's equipment, right? No, they also provide the outdated information. I wrote them and received an amusing response:

......

Since every site is dispensing wrong information, I do concede that Nissan is the likely culprit in not properly informing 3rd parties of the correct MY13 specs. I did call the LEAF help line to ask them to give vendors the correct information.

Are those Canadian sites you are talking about? I just checked TireRack.com and it is showing the correct size (215/50-17) for the 2013 Leaf SL. They even have data for 2014 Nissans (though the Leaf is not on that drop down list yet).
 
centralpaleaf said:
when searching even for just 'tires' in these forums I received little to no information that I needed - the results of the query were 7 results of mostly people's taglines about what tires they stocked on the car.
For future searches, try to come up with something less generic than 'tires'. Since you apparently have a 2012, I assume it came with Ecopias. A search for Ecopia turns up lots of relevant discussion, including this thread which was started more than two years ago but is still active: Ecopia EP422 tires suck

centralpaleaf said:
I then reverted to Google to search within the forums with the same lackluster results (this is recommended by many forum sites, as their algorithms are many times inferior to processing of single site searches)
Yes, I almost always use Google to search this board. But if you are logged in I think you should be able to see a box at the top of the forum search page that says "Google™ Custom Search". Very simple and convenient!

Ray
 
RonDawg said:
Are those Canadian sites you are talking about? I just checked TireRack.com and it is showing the correct size (215/50-17) for the 2013 Leaf SL.

Props to TireRack.com. Looks like a good place to shop!


The sites were all Canadian, but many were multinationals that have the same error on their US-facing sites. For example, costco.ca and costco.com seem to access the same tire database.
 
Berlino said:
RonDawg said:
Are those Canadian sites you are talking about? I just checked TireRack.com and it is showing the correct size (215/50-17) for the 2013 Leaf SL.

Props to TireRack.com. Looks like a good place to shop!

It is. I've ordered tires from them before. Tire Rack is well known here in the US, but they are a primarily mail-order business. They will let you pick up directly at one of their distribution centers in Indiana, Nevada, Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, and Georgia. They also ship to Canada as well, and if you know someone who lives just south of the border, TR will ship to them as long as your credit card company will allow it. Of course if you do that, any customs duties and shipping across the border will then become your responsibility.

The part that can be a let down is your local installer, and while they do have a list of recommended ones, they are still independent businesses and have no affiliation with TR besides accepting drop shipments from them for the customer.

When I posted a poor review about one of their recommended installers (who couldn't get the balancing right) TR wrote a letter of apology and sent me a free electronic tire gauge as consolation.
 
I'm looking for good used snow tires. How do Goodyear UltraGrips (which we've used on other cars), General Altimax Arctic (likewise) and (Michelin?) Winterforce tires perform on the Leaf? I'm also seeing Pirelli winter tires, but no model name...
 
I have the chance to buy a set of four "new" Pirelli "Carving Edge" snows for $120. The reviews imply that they are good for everything except maybe ice. I'd prefer ice-friendly tires like UltraGrips or Blizzaks, but I'm limited to what I can afford. Anyone have experience wit these tires? Will running a lower pressure when ice is a risk be good enough?
 
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