Hey guys, just got my MY on Saturday. Noticed an alert today.. checked my tire. There was a nail in it. Sigh. Luckily it’s sitting in my parent’s driveway. Question: I have Farmers ins. Now, I assume I call Farmer’s road side and would they tow it to a Tesla service center or a tire replacement place (I.e. Costco?). Also, I bought a used MY, would this be covered since I get a warranty for my used purchase? Trying to figure out the best way to navigate this. I think they are Tesla tires (have the red marking on them). TIA!

Got flat tire fixed at service center recently. Heard a pop when driving home on generally good road and next day saw the flat tire. The appointments on the Tesla app are all 4-7 days away. There is a service center 1.5 miles away. I called and decide to walk in. I slowly drove the car there. They told me they can not repair but have to replace it since I drove on the flat. They also paid close attention to the rim. The rim was OK since I only drove it for less than 2 miles. The tire was replaced in 2-3 hours and the cost is around $450 including tax, which I think is acceptable considering it is in their service center. They told be they can not find anything obviously wrong with the tire except some black particles inside it.

Lesson learned: I should have used their roadside assistance, which may save the cost of a tire if it turns out to be reuseable. And to prevent possible rim damage.

I did find it strange that the tire popped without reason. The car is around 7month and 3.2kmiles only. The pressure was a little low before, around ~38psi, but within reason.

Just thought I'd share some lessons learned when replacing the tires on my Y.

Because there is so little maintenance on the Tesla, often the tire wear doesn't get pointed out by professionals, so it's similar to needing to remember to replace your home AC air filters. Make sure to check your tires for wear at least once every 5,000 miles, particularly once you're over the initial 20,000 miles. The method that seems easiest for people that have access to the a US penny, is to put it upside down, and check the depth exceeds the hairline: https://www.trafficschool.com/images/course-cmn/penny-test.jpg. Also check for any other issues, such as uneven wear, or chunks missing, or take it into a tire/mechanic shop for them to check.

I did my best to investigate which tires to get for my tesla - the most important inputs seemed to be:

region where you drive (does it snow or does the road turn to ice)

price point of the tires

how loud are the tires

how much "rolling resistance" do the tires have - which has a direct impact on maximum range of the car

availability of the tires (apparently the most desirable sizes are often on back order)

make sure to match the rim size to your existing rims (19, 20, 21).

It's possible to go with tires that are wider than the factory installed tires (which surprised me). Outside of the higher price-point for the slightly wider tires, there seems to be little reason not to go this route - I'll discuss why below.

If the tires have foam in them (according to what I've read that doesn't help much with noise; however should you catch a nail, many tires shops will refuse to fix tires with foam in them, and lose foam may cause balance or noise issues - most of the time these are tires that say they're specifically designed for Electric Vehicles).

warranty of the tire

reputation of the tire (and tire company)

warranty impact on the car from the company (if leased for example - I had mixed results on research on whether Tesla would void any warranty or penalize leaser returns if you don't have a tire installed that's approved by them).

My personal down-select:

I wasn't concerned about price-point as much, because the difference between all options was around $1,000 from the cheapest to the highest. The last previous tires lasted about 4 years with the amount of driving we do (around 37,000 miles), so the $1,000 over 4 years was going to be negligible as compared to potential safety and experience difference between cheapest and most expensive tires. That being said I am a sucker for a good deal, and wouldn't just buy "most expensive"; I also lucked out that my tires needed to be replaced right around the holiday sales in the US (Black Friday).

Noise: I did want to make sure to get some of the quieter tires because of personal preferences, so I prioritized this up.

Seasonal: We live in Southern California, in a location that's a perpetual summer. It does rain rarely, which creates challenges since the oil that has been gathering mixes with the rain and becomes slick, and also the vast majority of drivers are not experienced in driving in the rain. There may also be occasions where we drive to the mountains where there is snow. So I didn't want a purely summer tire or a winter tire, and wanted an all-season tire.

Foam: I definitely didn't want an "EV" specific tire, which usually means that there is foam glued down inside the tire. I've previously had a bad experience where the tire places would not fix a nail in the car, because they didn't want to mess with the foam. Research indicated that noise gains are minimal and potential for lose foam is there (causing tire imbalance/noise issues).

After some initial research I had down-selected to two: Vredestein Quatrac Pro and Michelin Pilot Season All-Season 4 (AS/4). Vredenstein on paper had worse performance than AS/4 (in terms of rolling resistance specifically), but a much better price point. However the consensus I saw online was that they were a great placement option. Alas when I checked in my area all Vredenstein tires were on back-order, with no ETA for when they'd be available. So I decided go with AS/4.

I initially tried to order the AS/4 in the same size that came with my Tesla's 20 inch induction rims (255/40R20 XL) from Costco, on BF. They had the best price on the tire to start with and added a $100 added discount for a bonus. The total price out-the-door, was going to be around $1400. The Costco rep said they didn't have any in the store, and would call me as soon as they came in. Unfortunately/(or maybe fortunately), a few days after the Black Friday sale ended, they called me back to tell me that these were on back order for a few weeks across all Costcos. I didn't want to wait, so that's when I realized you can get wider tires. I checked around, and my local "Discount Tire" shop had the wider tires in stock (265/40R20 XL), and their system showed that they would have no issue installing them. I went back to Costco and had them update my order to the new width, then went to Discount Tire, and had them match the price. The price out-the-door was going to be $1800+tax.

I loved the idea of the wider tires, because our family has tendency to curb the tires, and wider tires may offer some additional protection, also the anecdotal appeal of having more rubber on the road and hence better control appealed to me as well, as the price difference was somewhat minor compared to the overall ownership of the tire.

Because of our propensity to curb the tires, I let the sales guy at Discount Tire talk me into their no-questions-asked tire warranty for 4 years (for around $40 per tire), so the total price with tax was around $2050, with the peace of mind of the warranty (hopefully never have to use it).

Overall the driving/control and noise feels much better on the new tires (night and day). Though I did wait until the old tires were pretty worn down, so my comparative experience may not be reliable. I have no idea on the range yet as all of our trips have been short, and my understanding is that there is always an initial fall on the range until the tires get at least a few thousand miles on them. I'll know about the range once we take the car on our next long trip (we make the same trip once every 4 months or so to visit family, about 150 miles driving distance, which usually drains about 210 miles on actual Tesla range). Visually the tires look great as well, and do not look to wide for the rim - if anything they look better than the factory tires in terms of fit. I'll include pictures later today.

TLDR: I went with Michelin Pilot Season All-Season 4 (AS/4) 265/40R20 XL on my 20" rims - and pretty happy with them.

Hit a curve and damaged right passenger side tire (sidewall). Damage isn't too deep so it's drivable but ultimately leaning towards to replacing a tire.

Model Y dual motor long range and drove about 13k miles.

Went to Costco tire center and they told me new tire has 9 second thread depth? (Not familiar with the term. But pretty sure they were referring to depth and how worn the tires are) whereas the current one is running at about 6.5-7 second depth. So I need to either 1) sign a waiver or 2) change all 4 tires since it's all wheel drive.

Did a quick reddit search and some people only change one tire or two tires. Would that be possible in my case too? Not super familiar with cars and tires in general so anything would be appreciated.

Is it better to buy and replace tires from Tesla Model 3 or local Costco or Tire stores can replace them with full efficiency? I’m worried about any impact on driving if not replaced from Tesla service center. But the costs of tires are $$$ at Tesla. What’s the most recommended tires for Tesla?