Bridgestone EP422 tires swapped for Michelin Primacy MXV4s.

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
So that means they handle and brake poorly compared to both. If your primary concern is very long tire life, than they are likely fine. The MXV4 is a LRR tire, by the way...

Stanton said:
TomT said:
This is why: UTQG: 820 A B
Very hard rubber with very mediocre traction...
So that means what with respect to what? The stock tires on the Leaf or the Michelins? Also, wouldn't you want a LRR tire over a NON-LRR tire (when available)?
 
So unless I'm mis-understanding, the Defenders will wear better than the MXVs which will wear better than the Ecopia's (at this point I would believe that just about ANYTHING will wear better than the Ecopia's :lol: ). In other words, the Michelin Defenders aren't a bad choice?
 
Yes, if all one cares about is tire wear...

Stanton said:
So unless I'm mis-understanding, the Defenders will wear better than the MXVs which will wear better than the Ecopia's (at this point I would believe that just about ANYTHING will wear better than the Ecopia's :lol: ). In other words, the Michelin Defenders aren't a bad choice?
 
Stanton said:
So unless I'm mis-understanding, the Defenders will wear better than the MXVs which will wear better than the Ecopia's (at this point I would believe that just about ANYTHING will wear better than the Ecopia's :lol: ). In other words, the Michelin Defenders aren't a bad choice?

All tires strike a compromise between treadwear, traction, handling, and other variables... So it really depends on what you're looking for and what you're willing to accept. The Defender's ratings seem perfectly reasonable for a passenger tire if you're looking for maximum tread life; not every vehicle is or needs to be a sports car. Some people are just fine with Taxi, or Limo. :p I just bought a set of new Ecopias for my wife's Subaru. She was most interested in fuel efficiency. The tires other attributes aren't necessarily optimal but they're just fine for what her car is going to be used for. Again, it's all about what attributes are most important to YOU.

To be fair, the UTQG ratings say nothing about handling. They define "traction" as a function of straight-line wet braking.

For more details, check out tests and customer reviews and compare different tires, for example at tirerack.com.
 
One other thing to consider is that improved braking and handling performance might save your life or prevent an accident when you least expect it.
You might not ever drive like an autocrosser but that enhanced capability definitely falls under the heading of active safety.

Nubo said:
All tires strike a compromise between treadwear, traction, handling, and other variables... So it really depends on what you're looking for and what you're willing to accept. The Defender's ratings seem perfectly reasonable for a passenger tire if you're looking for maximum tread life; not every vehicle is or needs to be a sports car.
 
TomT said:
Yes, if all one cares about is tire wear...

Stanton said:
So unless I'm mis-understanding, the Defenders will wear better than the MXVs which will wear better than the Ecopia's (at this point I would believe that just about ANYTHING will wear better than the Ecopia's :lol: ). In other words, the Michelin Defenders aren't a bad choice?

All I know is I can't--make that won't--buy new tires every 20k miles, so I guess these will get serious consideration. Besides, I don't expect my Leaf to drive like a sports car ;)
 
TomT said:
One other thing to consider is that improved braking and handling performance might save your life or prevent an accident when you least expect it.
You might not ever drive like an autocrosser but that enhanced capability definitely falls under the heading of active safety.

True, but it's all a matter of degree. One could go the extremes of sticky tires that last 5000 miles. Where the point of diminishing returns lies, is somewhat subjective and a tire's ultimate safety is comprised of a host of variables.
 
I swapped my tires for MXV4s on Nov 27 and saw ~8% drop in efficiency. 3000 miles later I am still waiting for my efficiency to recover. However, handling is notably improved. Definitely have more fun with the MXV4s (perhaps part of that 8%... :))
 
TickTock said:
I swapped my tires for MXV4s on Nov 27 and saw ~8% drop in efficiency. 3000 miles later I am still waiting for my efficiency to recover. However, handling is notably improved. Definitely have more fun with the MXV4s (perhaps part of that 8%... :))

Conversely, we replaced the tires on my wife's Subaru Forester, from Michelin Pilot Sport A/S to the Ecopia 422. Her mileage is up over 20%. Admittedly, the Michelin's tread was very aggressive but the Ecopias LRR is for real. We'll see about treadwear. Her top priority was LRR, and I like to keep the talent happy. :p
 
I put Michelin MXV4s on a couple weeks ago, after my Ecopias wore out at 22k miles. Efficiency definitely dropped immediately, even though I pumped the air pressure to 40. If I really baby the car, I can still get an average of 4.2 mi/kWh on the dash, but if I drive it like I drove it before the tire change, I'm getting 3.7 to 3.8, so a 7% or 8% efficiency loss here while the tires are new.

Frankly, I've been trying so hard to get a feel for the range with the new tires that I haven't pressed them in the corners to get a feel for whether the handling has improved or not.

One thing that I have noticed, though, is that there is a lot more tire wander on the freeway with the new tires, something that I never saw with the Ecopias. The car acts like it is in a strong crosswind on the freeway, when there's not much wind at all. I plan to do some more freeway driving on different pavement surfaces to get a better idea of what is happening, and I'll probably play with the tire pressures. With the tire pressures at 40, does anyone have any suggestions about this kind of freeway behavior, and is anyone else seeing this with the MXV4s?
 
Ingineer said:
Boomer, might want to consider an alignment check.

-Phil

Thanks, Phil, I should probably do that, though I paid Big O Tires to do just that when they put on the Michelins. At least they offer free alignment checks, but if they got it wrong the first time, re-doing it on the same equipment probably won't do much good, huh? I should at least take it back and tell them what I'm experiencing.
 
lemketron said:
EVDRIVER said:
Any verdict on the new Michelin Energy VS the Primacy? Also, is it worth the expense (if I don't NEED a second set of rims) to upgrade to 17" (Juke or other) wheels? Or can one get the MXM times in a 16" size that works for the Leaf? Costco shows a 91-H 16" MXM, but not the V-rated one sounds like it available in the 17" size...

Has anyone considered going smaller - 15" instead of 16 or 17? Probably would be lighter, maybe less expensive. How would handling and braking be affected with smaller wheels?
 
Boomer23 said:
Thanks, Phil, I should probably do that, though I paid Big O Tires to do just that when they put on the Michelins. At least they offer free alignment checks, but if they got it wrong the first time, re-doing it on the same equipment probably won't do much good, huh? I should at least take it back and tell them what I'm experiencing.

FWIW, when I put my Defenders on a couple of weeks ago, NTB told me that only Nissan had the calibration data for the Leaf, so it wouldn't do any good for them to check. Now, you can say they were "full of it", but I've bought other tires from this location AND had alignment checks done (for other cars), so I tend to believe them. Don't know why the Leaf is different, but you may want to have Nissan check the alignment (because it sure sounds like you have an issue).

BTW, I'm definitely getting better m/kWh (after a few hundred miles) on my Defenders than you are on the MXV's; still not as good as the Ecopia's but within 10% (and they handle much better).
 
I've put about 500 to 600 miles on my Michelin Defenders and so far the efficiency is still down about 8 to 10%, but appears to be improving a little at a time. Steering is abit heavier than the Ecopias, but the handling is very good in the corners. BTW the Defenders are also a LLR tire. I noticed that the 2013 SL model now has 17-inch Michelin Energy tires while the s and SV still have Ecopias. The Energy is the newest LLR from Michelin. I'll bet the price on those 17 inchers is pretty steep.
 
Bassman said:
I've put about 500 to 600 miles on my Michelin Defenders and so far the efficiency is still down about 8 to 10%, but appears to be improving a little at a time. Steering is abit heavier than the Ecopias, but the handling is very good in the corners. BTW the Defenders are also a LLR tire. I noticed that the 2013 SL model now has 17-inch Michelin Energy tires while the s and SV still have Ecopias. The Energy is the newest LLR from Michelin. I'll bet the price on those 17 inchers is pretty steep.

Based on what I paid for the Defenders, I bet you're right :!:
 
Bullshit on the "Only Nissan Has it".

From the Service manual:

pic


-Phil
 
Ingineer said:
Bullshit on the "Only Nissan Has it".

From the Service manual:
Thanks Phil - those appear to be the specs for the front wheels - do you have the specs for the rear wheels, too?
 
Ingineer said:
Bullshit on the "Only Nissan Has it".

From the Service manual:

pic


-Phil

The readouts that I got from Big O Tire fit well with the recommended settings on this chart.

Anyhoo, I think that I figured out why our LEAF was riding like it was on beachballs on the freeway. It turns out that it WAS riding on beachballs. I had the tire pressures up to 42.5 lbs!! The pressure gauge on the gas station air pump that I used to (attempt to) increase the pressures to 40 lbs was way off. I checked the pressures today with a decent tire pressure gauge and they were all at 42.5. I lowered them to 38lbs and the freeway ride was much more secure and predictable.

Now, what will happen to my already sucky energy efficiency is fairly predictable. Hopefully it won't get much worse, but it certainly won't get any better. :(
 
Back
Top