Tire recommendation

[stuxnet]

Hi all,

I have a 22 sv+ plus. This is my second car ever, and took it to the dealership for the rearview camera recall and because I popped a tire in the front the same day.

Anyways I read in here that some keep the preassure to 40psi, which I did for a few months my range per kilowatt went to around 4 m/kw from a 3.6, but my tech mentioned that the thread had worn out on one side of the tires from putting too much air.

I had to swap 2 tires for goodyear ones, plus some alignment and cabin filter swap. For a total cost of around 1K (800 being the tires)

So wanted to see if I could get some advice

Where do you get your tires from?
What brand is mostly recommended?
Any tips for overall maintenance of the car?
Better to go to a mechanic or dealership?

Info before im told to just google it, which im doing already just want to see if people have some other thoughts

Im a 24 woman and this is my second car ever, not an excuse, but my dad used to do my car maintenance and me being a dumb girl saw cars more as a guys thing so I never cared to pay attention or learn. After he passed I started looking into EVs because he wanted to have one so bad. As a way to cope I researched and came down to the bolt and leaf as the best options price/range wise. Im still learning more and more but Im not there yet and things like the tires happened where I overlooked and just put more air for the sake of getting more miles.

Sorry for the long read, and thanks for your help!!

 

[Chad E. Mo]

There are lots of opinions on the topic.

I'd start here: https://mynissanleaf.com/threads/tire-time-what’s-eveyone-using.35768/

 

[Drew21]

me being a dumb girl

I hope this is not your true opinion of yourself.

If you want to learn more about cars or DIY maintenance there has never been a better time to begin. Youtube has videos detailing any maintenance or repair you might want to try on your car. You can also find service manuals for many cars online or perhaps through your local library, or you can of course order/buy service manuals online.

Luckily, an EV like your Leaf has fewer maintenance requirements than a traditional gas-powered car. Your owner's manual has a maintenance schedule.

If you don't want to be a DIY person, I personally favor finding an independent mechanic over relying on the dealership. Granted, I've never had a car new enough to have a warranty, nor have I ever bought a car from a dealership, but I have heard and read far more stories about folks being overcharged at the dealership than at an independent mechanic.

This does require that you find a trustworthy mechanic (perhaps via advice/reviews from friends and neighbors), but if you do you'll come out ahead (= pay less) over time. Having said that, it looks like your Leaf is quite new, so it's probably okay to use the dealership for any warranty work.

If you want to start saving money on basic maintenance, there's no better place to start than the cabin air filter. You can find the filter for <$10 on Amazon and replace it yourself (via Youtube tutorial). Being 24 you have a major advantage over some of us as you're likely still flexible enough to get into the passenger floor area without needing a trip to the chiropractor afterwards.

Tires - I like Tirerack.com. There are other online vendors (e.g., Discounttire.com) that seem similar. I have also ordered tires through Walmart.com, had them delivered to my local store, and then mounted on my wheels there. There are many posts here about tire selection. I have no favorite but it does seem like many companies are coming out with EV-specific or LR (long-range) tires that seem to offer efficiency benefits for an EV.

I am getting old, and have always been cheap, but I don't know of any tires for a Leaf that cost $400 each. So, assuming I read your description correctly and you got two new tires from the dealership, I fear they overcharged you. See my comments about dealership service departments above.

Tire pressure - 40 psi is completely fine and won't wear the tires excessively. Even if it did, that wear wouldn't be focused on one side of the tire. What you had was an alignment issue, which it looks like the dealership corrected. In the future, check your tire pressure at least once per month and while you're doing it take a look at your tires for any odd wear. You can get both a tire pressure gauge plus a tire tread depth gauge for <$10, after which you will be in charge of monitoring the condition of your tires and you won't be surprised by excessive wear (requiring early tire replacement) in the future.

Good luck.

 

[benjwhite9]

Hi all,

I have a 22 sv+ plus. This is my second car ever, and took it to the dealership for the rearview camera recall and because I popped a tire in the front the same day.

Anyways I read in here that some keep the preassure to 40psi, which I did for a few months my range per kilowatt went to around 4 m/kw from a 3.6, but my tech mentioned that the thread had worn out on one side of the tires from putting too much air.

I had to swap 2 tires for goodyear ones, plus some alignment and cabin filter swap. For a total cost of around 1K (800 being the tires)

So wanted to see if I could get some advice

Where do you get your tires from?
What brand is mostly recommended?
Any tips for overall maintenance of the car?
Better to go to a mechanic or dealership?

Info before im told to just google it, which im doing already just want to see if people have some other thoughts

Im a 24 woman and this is my second car ever, not an excuse, but my dad used to do my car maintenance and me being a dumb girl saw cars more as a guys thing so I never cared to pay attention or learn. After he passed I started looking into EVs because he wanted to have one so bad. As a way to cope I researched and came down to the bolt and leaf as the best options price/range wise. Im still learning more and more but Im not there yet and things like the tires happened where I overlooked and just put more air for the sake of getting more miles.

Sorry for the long read, and thanks for your help!!

So, inflating your tires to a higher pressure does cause extra tread wear, but not as much as your mechanic implied. I've been doing it for years (40 psi or more), and I always get at least 30,000 miles out of my tires.

 

[fjord]

I do 40 psi in the non-snow season and the standard 36 psi during snow season. The additional traction is necessary.

 

[Lataxe]

The small advisory sticker on the inside of the door gives recommended tyre pressures for a Leaf Tekna e+ 2023 as 36 psi. The 60 kwh Tekna e+ is considerably heavier than the various similar 40 kwh Leaf models. Could someone who has a similar (2023 or thereabouts) 40 kwh Leaf model say what the recommended tyre pressures are on the door sticker of their Leaf? Is it less than 36 psi?

I can see that a heavier car would need a higher tyre pressure in the same tyres. But the various recommendations in the forum to pump up to 40 psi would seem to risk less traction and maybe more wear, even if the miles/kwh figure improves ..... ? But if Nissan have been derelict in stating the same tyre pressures for both the lighter weight and heavier weight Leafs ...... .

It would be good to have this matter clarified, if anyone's willing to do so.

 

[henrydehoja]

After he passed I started looking into EVs because he wanted to have one so bad. As a way to cope I researched and came down to the bolt and leaf as the best options price/range wise. Im still learning more and more but Im not there yet

Welcome to the forum!
My condolences for your loss.

Keep up with the learning, research, and read your car's manual. You can download a free copy here:
https://www.nissanusa.com/content/d...s/leaf/2022/2022-nissan-leaf-owner-manual.pdf

 

[benjwhite9]

The small advisory sticker on the inside of the door gives recommended tyre pressures for a Leaf Tekna e+ 2023 as 36 psi. The 60 kwh Tekna e+ is considerably heavier than the various similar 40 kwh Leaf models. Could someone who has a similar (2023 or thereabouts) 40 kwh Leaf model say what the recommended tyre pressures are on the door sticker of their Leaf? Is it less than 36 psi?

2019 Leaf S with 40 kWh pack, and the door sticker says 36 psi front and rear.
Now, before we conclude that the Nissan people are just pulling these numbers out of their arse, let me mention that the payload weight limit (passengers plus cargo, also on the door sticker) is 390kg / 860 lbs. What's the weight limit for the 60 kWh pack?

 

[fjord]

2019 Leaf S with 40 kWh pack, and the door sticker says 36 psi front and rear.
Now, before we conclude that the Nissan people are just pulling these numbers out of their arse, let me mention that the payload weight limit (passengers plus cargo, also on the door sticker) is 390kg / 860 lbs. What's the weight limit for the 60 kWh pack?

The same on my 2024 SV+ with the 62 kWh battery.

 

[Lataxe]

2019 Leaf S with 40 kWh pack, and the door sticker says 36 psi front and rear.
Now, before we conclude that the Nissan people are just pulling these numbers out of their arse, let me mention that the payload weight limit (passengers plus cargo, also on the door sticker) is 390kg / 860 lbs. What's the weight limit for the 60 kWh pack?

Hi Ben. Thanks for your reply.

The Nissan website describing Leafs of various kinds gives the payload weight limit as 450 Kg.

If this is so but your 40 kwh Leaf also states 36psi as the recommended tyre pressure with a max payload of 390 kg, then surely 36 psi for a 62 kwh Leaf can't be right; 40 psi seems more sensible ..... ?

Are we talking about the same tyres, though? Mine are:

Dunlop Enasave EC300 215/50R17 91V

 

[Drew21]

Tire pressure is a balance between ride quality, load capacity, and traction. The number on the sticker comes from the car manufacturer and is an attempt to balance these characteristics, but it doesn't mean that number is the ideal for every driver, every road, or every trip.

For example, if you carry heavy loads you probably want a higher pressure. If you're driving off-road or in snow (i.e., low traction situations), you might want a lower pressure.

The tire manufacturer has their own recommendation as noted by the Max PSI you'll find on the tire sidewall. So, a Max PSI of 50 means that 50 PSI is safe for the tire. The driver can then choose the specific pressure at or below 50 PSI that best meets their needs regarding ride quality, load capacity, traction, etc.

Many of us are old enough to remember the Ford Explorer roll-over fiasco when Ford blamed (I think) Firestone for manufacturing defects and Firestone blamed Ford for recommending a tire pressure that was too low for their tires given the weight of the Explorer, resulting in dangerous handling characteristics. My (again, fuzzy) memory is that the blame was eventually placed on Ford and the door sticker recommendations where increased.

For the Leaf, I doubt that the difference between 36 and 40 or 42 PSI will produce any increase in tire wear. In fact, the opposite may be true as many have observed decreased tire wear with the higher pressure, most likely because the Leaf is pretty heavy and therefore hard on tires at lower pressures. I have certainly never seen any abnormal tire wear after decades of running tire pressures a bit above the sticker value on a variety of cars. I suppose traction might be very slightly reduced, as decreasing rolling resistance is one objective of airing tires up a bit higher than the sticker value. I run dedicated winter tires during the season when I'm concerned with traction so this isn't something I'm terribly worried about.

 

[frontrangeleaf]

Another thing to consider: load ratings are set for a standard pressure for a given tire type. Meaning that for a "standard load" tire, the load ratings are calculated for 35 psi and the tire volume given its size, essentially. Larger volume standard load tires have higher load ratings, according to published categories. Cold tire pressure maximum for these tires will always be higher than 35 psi, but adding more air to one of these does NOT increase its load rating. The load rating for a given size tire maxes out at the standard pressure for that tire, meaning in this example, 35psi in the US for 'P-metric' tires.

XL or extra load tires are designed for a max load at 41psi. Here again, the load rating does not rise if you run at max cold pressure which will be higher. You will find that low profile tires for a given car, if you choose to run them, will transition from SL to XL ratings at some point as you consider different sizes, as you are reducing the volume of the tire by running larger wheels and making the sidewalls shorter for handling purposes. The increase in rim width isn't enough to keep the volume the same. Higher pressures also help when hitting potholes on a low profile tire.

You can read all about this at tire rack, if you're curious. https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-garage/what-is-maximum-load-for-a-tire

Personally, I'm not comfortable running my gear at its limit, so I swapped out the standard load Michelin tires, max cold pressure of 44 psi, for XL rated Continentals with a max cold pressure of 51 when the Michelins wore out. Because I like to run the Leaf at about 42psi, and that's too close for comfort to the older tire's max cold limit. On a hot day, we could end up over pressure - pressure goes up about 1psi for every 10 degree increase in ambient temperature. We see 30 degree swings from the low to the daily high temp here quite often. The Conti's also handle WAY better, and I care about that. Traded some range for a large increase in handling. Again, YMMV. This is just a personal preference thing.

The Leaf can be quite a sporty, fun car to drive if you upgrade the tires just a bit.

We are now running 225/50R17 all-seasons, Conti PureContact LS on separate, slightly wider wheels; our snows are 205/55R17 for better traction in the slick, on the stock wheels. I think it also looks a lot better, FWIW, with the wider tires. It's possible that the Conti's will also wear better because they have a larger footprint by area, but it's too soon to tell.

 

[Lataxe]

Thank you Drew and Front for your useful replies.

The first thing of importance I note is that the Dunlop tyres supplied fitted to my Leaf state that 40 psi is the pressure never to be exceeded. In light of Front's post mentioning the sidewall max psi reasons, it would therefore seem unwise to increase pressure from the Nissan-recommended door sticker value of 36 psi. Perhaps even that is a bit high?

*************
I'm ignorant of the science and experience of car tyres although I've come to know quite a lot about bicycle tyres, having probably ridden more miles on the latter than driven on the former, over 65 years. With bicycle tyres the three main factors are: grip; rolling resistance; wind-drag. In practice many experiments, tests and other investigations seeking hard data about bicycle tyres have shown that rolling resistance is mostly improved by subtle sidewalls that easily distort and reform without losing energy to distortion-generated heat. Grip is mostly affected by compound but also by the contact patch shape and the tyre pressure (lower than the traditional being better).

But I suspect that there can be little crossover from the dynamics and performance factors of bicycle tyres to car tyres, as the forces involved and the functions required with car tyres seem very different to those for bikes.

***********

One lesson from all the investigations of bicycle tyres was that the "feelings" of the riders generally fail to provide any objective or true information about the tyre's actual performance with various factors. For example, the bike tyre mythology from professional bike racing claimed for decades that narrow tyres at very high pressures were "the fastest". Actual investigations, however, provided data that showed lower pressures in wider tyres were much faster for the same rider, bicycle and route. Now they all ride much wider tyres at lower pressures.

So …. it would be no bad thing if more objective data could be got from more controlled experiments concerning car tyre performances (grip, wear, rolling resistance, comfort, cornering and so forth) than from anecdotal opinions. Perhaps there is such data? Is anyone aware of any good sources somewhere in the interwebbery?

 

[frontrangeleaf]

Tire rack performs tests offering both objective data and subjective impressions, both of which can be useful in my opinion.

As I am also an avid cyclist, I am familiar with the evolution in thinking on bike tires that you describe.

As to car tires, I would point out that the contact patch changes shape with tire pressure, something that can be seen in the wear pattern on the tread. Running pressure too low for load results in a wear pattern that show extra wear on the shoulders of the tread, and less in the center. Too high, and you see the opposite effect. Neither is optimal for traction.

 

[WisJim]

I've run my tires close to the maximum allowable pressure indicated on the tire sidewall--such as 45psi in tires with a maximum 50psi on the sidewall. I've been doing this since the 1970s with various Volkswagens, Geo Metros, and other vehicles, including a VW Golf converted to electric using lead acid batteries, which was replaced by our first Leaf around 2014. I've never noticed tire wear that I could attribute to too high of pressure. I have noticed a slight increase in mileage with higher pressure in the same tires, but that little bit is so hard to measure that I can't give a number for it.

 

[duncan-s]

When my original Michelins wore out, I had them replaced with a set of Yokohama Avid Ascend LX. Those are a higher tread life variant on the more popular Avid Ascend GT model, which suggested tradeoffs that made sense to me. They might be slightly less quiet and less efficient than the stock tires, but I can't say I've noticed either of those. They handle well and seem to be wearing well. I bought them at a local tire/brake shop (Car-X).

Edited to add: I think I understand the "dumb girl" thing. It's not so much about how you see yourself, more about how you were brought up with regard to this stuff. Also maybe how you expect to be treated by mechanics and dealers. Right? So, welcome, maybe you can soak up some of our experience along with some of our groupthink and foolishness. It's all good.

 

[GentleGiant]

I've run my tires close to the maximum allowable pressure indicated on the tire sidewall--such as 45psi in tires with a maximum 50psi on the sidewall. I've been doing this since the 1970s with various Volkswagens, Geo Metros, and other vehicles, including a VW Golf converted to electric using lead acid batteries, which was replaced by our first Leaf around 2014. I've never noticed tire wear that I could attribute to too high of pressure. I have noticed a slight increase in mileage with higher pressure in the same tires, but that little bit is so hard to measure that I can't give a number for it.

I always run my tyres at, or close to the highest psi the manufacturer suggests, as it gives sharper handling in corners, and less wear to the outer edges (actually, almost perfectly even wear across the full width); however when my tyres HAVE been repeatedly, vastly over pressured by an idiot Father in law - they did wear more in the centre of the tread pattern.

It will come down to the width of the tyre though, narrow tyres on older car designs wont bulge as much, so there will be minimal wear from excess pressure, but post 2000 cars especially, tend to have much wider tyres, and they do bulge in the centre if over pressured, leading to premature wear to the centre of the tread.

 

[frontrangeleaf]

The real issue is "pressure too high for load." It's the air in the tire that carries the load. Too much and you deform the tire and it wears in the middle faster than on the edges. It effectively rounds off the tread cross-section, which can cause the vehicle to wander. I've experienced this on my camper, after I upgraded to higher load capacity tires and then filled them beyond what was actually called for to carry that trailer. Same principles apply to cars.

So it's all about the wear pattern over time. Accelerated wear in the center implies pressures too high for load. Accelerated but even wear on the shoulders - both shoulders consistent - implies pressures too low for load. All else being equal, of course, because there are other factors at play - cornering aggressively, wheel alignment, suspension component wear, etc. And yes, there's a range of pressures in the middle that offer even wear.

In my experience, the recommended pressures on the vehicle placard (inside driver's door, in the US), is closer to the minimum and reflect other considerations such as ride comfort. YMMV. Mine sure does. I routinely run about 10% higher than the manufacturer's recommendation on all of my cars with good results. That translates to a few pounds, nothing huge. The Leaf gets a few more, more like 20% above, as we have good experience that way.

As I recall, we had reports here, some years ago, of folks running the recommended pressures on a Leaf and seeing the kind of low pressure tire wear that I describe above. Fixed by adding about 5 psi if memory serves.

Finally, I use a tire tread gauge so that I'm not guessing. When I say I have even wear, I'm measuring that pretty accurately.

 

[Toby]

The elephant in the room is accuracy of pressure gauges. Most are sold with +/- 2 psi error tolerance. That means that setting to manufacturer's spec could leave you at 2 psi below spec.

To make things worse, the gaskets inside gauges can dry and allow air to escape giving a low reading. I once found a gauge that was off by about 11 psi !

 

[LeftieBiker]

"Tire pressure - 40 psi is completely fine and won't wear the tires excessively. Even if it did, that wear wouldn't be focused on one side of the tire. What you had was an alignment issue, which it looks like the dealership corrected. In the future, check your tire pressure at least once per month and while you're doing it take a look at your tires for any odd wear. You can get both a tire pressure gauge plus a tire tread depth gauge for <$10, after which you will be in charge of monitoring the condition of your tires and you won't be surprised by excessive wear (requiring early tire replacement) in the future. "

This. The Tech was probably blaming wear from misalignment that they missed (or caused) on the tire pressure. He could also have been inventing the issue, hoping to sell you new tires. As for sidewall maximums, I tell people to go with 90% of the maximum printed on the tire. Mine is usually 44psi, so I go with 40psi.