Recommended replacement tire

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I don't pay much attention to tires, I just know that at almost 65,000 miles on my 2013 sv the stock tires are due for replacement. I take it to the dealer every year for it's yearly checkup and every year they say the tires are still good so it's not like I am abusing the car and running on bald tires. However, after reading this thread I was surprised to see my tires are the Michelin Energy Saver a/s tires and not the Ecobee's. After reading the posts here I think I may want to change to the Ecobee Plus tires, but 65,000 miles seems pretty good so I wonder if the Ecobee's will hold up as well as the Energy Saver's have.
 
Running Purecontacts. Taken a hit on the range but the winter traction is much better. Very happy with them.
 
In my opinion, the Ecopia Plus is a much better tire than the OEM Michelin Energy Saver--better range and much better wet braking traction. I ran one set of Continental tires that performed well at first, but wet braking traction dropped as mileage accumulated. They also dropped the range by about 15% so I switched to Ecopias and am happy with them. The OEM Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires were the worst radial tires I have owned--bald at less than 30,000 miles and severe sidewall cracking in less than 2 years in my climate. My 2011 came with 16-inch OEM Ecopias that were OK, but not as good as the Ecopia Plus.
 
GerryAZ said:
In my opinion, the Ecopia Plus is a much better tire than the OEM Michelin Energy Saver--better range and much better wet braking traction. I ran one set of Continental tires that performed well at first, but wet braking traction dropped as mileage accumulated. They also dropped the range by about 15% so I switched to Ecopias and am happy with them. The OEM Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires were the worst radial tires I have owned--bald at less than 30,000 miles and severe sidewall cracking in less than 2 years in my climate. My 2011 came with 16-inch OEM Ecopias that were OK, but not as good as the Ecopia Plus.

How do the Ecopia pluses do on snow and ice?
 
I have put 60K miles on my car with the original Ecopia tires. I got 40K out of the first set, and the 2nd set are still at 7mm.

Remember that this is just a commuting car.

I suggest staying with stock because you know them, and they are cheap. Any other tire may be a mistake, or lower your range significantly..
 
For what it's worth our stock Ecopia's (not plus versions) ran 14,100 before they were to the wear bar on all 4 tires with rotations at about 4k. I switched to Michelin Energy Savers that ran 33,800. I also swapped our VW Jetta to Ecopia Plus 422 and have 20,000 on them now and look about half way done so I went back to Ecopia Plus for the Leaf last summer and after 11,000 miles I am almost to the wear bars again. I have checked several times and they do say Plus and 422 on them and look identical to the ones on our VW, but they obviously are not.

So this really has done it for me for Bridgestone, marking a tire as a Plus 422 but it is not, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, I am done with Bridgestones for good. I should add I rotate them every 3-4k and we also had Blizzacks snows that lasted 23,500 miles and now Michelin x-ice snows that now have over 10k and look FAR better than the Ecopia's.

Maybe it is just me and my bad luck.
 
BrockWI said:
For what it's worth our stock Ecopia's (not plus versions) ran 14,100 before they were to the wear bar on all 4 tires with rotations at about 4k. I switched to Michelin Energy Savers that ran 33,800. I also swapped our VW Jetta to Ecopia Plus 422 and have 20,000 on them now and look about half way done so I went back to Ecopia Plus for the Leaf last summer and after 11,000 miles I am almost to the wear bars again. I have checked several times and they do say Plus and 422 on them and look identical to the ones on our VW, but they obviously are not.

So this really has done it for me for Bridgestone, marking a tire as a Plus 422 but it is not, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, I am done with Bridgestones for good. I should add I rotate them every 3-4k and we also had Blizzacks snows that lasted 23,500 miles and now Michelin x-ice snows that now have over 10k and look FAR better than the Ecopia's.

Maybe it is just me and my bad luck.

What PSI do you run?
 
I usually run just under sidewall max and check them every two weeks or so. For the snows I run about 5 under max unless there is a significant snow then run 10-15 under sidewall max, but not below whats listed on the car.
 
Lothsahn said:
GerryAZ said:
In my opinion, the Ecopia Plus is a much better tire than the OEM Michelin Energy Saver--better range and much better wet braking traction. I ran one set of Continental tires that performed well at first, but wet braking traction dropped as mileage accumulated. They also dropped the range by about 15% so I switched to Ecopias and am happy with them. The OEM Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires were the worst radial tires I have owned--bald at less than 30,000 miles and severe sidewall cracking in less than 2 years in my climate. My 2011 came with 16-inch OEM Ecopias that were OK, but not as good as the Ecopia Plus.

How do the Ecopia pluses do on snow and ice?

I have no experience with the Ecopias in snow and ice because it did not snow enough in Phoenix this past winter to make the roads slick. I did choose to go with 215/55R17 instead of standard size of 215/50R17 because I wanted slightly larger diameter and also because standard size was not in stock. I like the looks because they fill the fender openings better, but I would not recommend the larger size if you may need to use tire chains.
 
I just replaced my original Ecopia tires that came with my 2015 LEAF S at 21,600 miles. One of the tires was bald on the outside edge (not just the edge...about 4-5" worth!) despite regular rotation (6k miles) and careful pressure monitoring. The others exhibited various levels of wear and "dry rot," as pointed out by the tire shop.

I bought a set of Ecopia 422 Plus tires. After much back and forth with the folks at Tires Plus, they agreed to inflate the tires to 40psi. They had brought them out at 36psi (37 is the Bridgestone recommended inflation level.)

I use LeafSpy Pro to monitor the pressure on a daily basis. I fear the tire that had dangerously severe wear was a victim of under-inflation. I try to keep my tires at 40psi but sometimes go up to 42. I get significantly better range when the tires are over inflated to 40psi.

I also paid for a re-alignment that cost $90 and will be good for a year of re-adjustment if something goes wrong. No reason to invest $550 in a new set of tires without the best alignment. (Mine was definitely in need of a little tweaking according to the alignment check.)

Bridgestone has $70 off a set of four Ecopia 422 Plus tires good through the end of July.

My Nissan dealer warned my tires were becoming worn at last year's service and battery check. They blamed the high torque of the electric motor for the excessive wear. I don't believe that. I believe the original Ecopia tires that came with my LEAF were CRAP!

We'll see how the new "Plus" version works.
 
Gearscout: You and Leftiebiker are right about the OEM tires being poor. I, too, purchased Ecopia Plus (at around 23k miles???, still plenty of tread left, but one was trashed in an accident), currently have 32k on the car, and the the Ecopia Plus replacements seem to be a much better tire, when properly inflated to 40-42psi.

I would add that the dealership is correct about the torque of the motor. It's easy to scrub/peel out without any drama sitting behind the wheel. I think the casual driver/owner isn't even aware of the wear going on! (I walk regularly on a road with several consecutive stop signs...amazing how MOST drivers use full throttle/full braking from stop sign to stop sign...ugh!!!)
 
I also concur with everyone that the OEM tires are terrible. At 14,000 miles, my front tires already need replacing. Yes, I should have rotated the tires, but in any other car I've waited until 15,000 miles for a tire rotation.

On a slightly unrelated note, the bad OEM tires don't seem to affect my stopping distance. I've never had a car that could stop on a dime like the 2018 Leaf can. I've already avoided one accident thanks to this.
 
I too noticed the ability to peel out, despite the "weak" motor in the 2011 Leaf. This ability ceased when I installed Continental ProContact tires. I'm very happy with them, and I've put about 5k miles on them so far. Too soon to tell how fast they will wear.

I'm pretty sure I did lose a little range with them compared to the previous tires, but I'd trade it for the superior traction any day.
 
Just replaced the set of Ecopia plus tires we've had on since March 2016 after getting about 40K miles out of them.

Considered all the good suggestions made and ultimately went with the Vredestein Quatrac 5 XL tires, purchased from Tire Rack.

So far have been liking them, but will know more once we have a chance to use them in bad weather.

Have seen the typical loss of about 0.3 Mile/kWh in efficiency after swapping out the old Ecopias, but am hoping the numbers will improve some once they break in.
 
OakLeaf said:
Have seen the typical loss of about 0.3 Mile/kWh in efficiency after swapping out the old Ecopias, but am hoping the numbers will improve some once they break in.

That's not bad at all! Both sets of new tires I've put on seem to have recovered about that much after a few thousand miles of wear-in time.

If they have better wet grip than the Ecopias, that would be a win-win.
 
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