Tire Life

[Jason Riberdy]

I am trying to find out if what the salesmen said is accurate; He told me that Hybrid tires will last longer than standard tires. Is this true, how long do most people average?

[Waldo]

The tires that come on the Hybrid are the same ones that come on the regular Fusion.

[hybridbear]

I am trying to find out if what the salesmen said is accurate; He told me that Hybrid tires will last longer than standard tires. Is this true, how long do most people average?

Research the tire warranty and tread rating for the tires on your car and you'll get a good idea of how long they'll last.

[acdii]

This all depends on the tire itself. Some tires used exclusively on hybrids are high mileage tires. They are very low rolling resistance, but have Horrible wet traction(Prius). However the tires on the Fords, are the same regardless if its a Hybrid or not, so the saleman was blowing smoke up your back door.

[lolder]

I got 59K on the Michelins on a 2010 FFH. They would have gone to 65K but it was near time for the 10K rotation and oil change and I had a 3K trip coming up.

Edited April 14, 2014 by lolder

[hermans]

I had a 1999Taurus and put 72,000 miles on the first set of tires. The second set had 74,000 miles. Both sets still had 4/32s of tread and still passed State Inspection. Both sets were General AmeriGas. The tires were rotated at every oil change (5,000 miles) and the front end alignment was as it came from the factory. Too bad they don't make them anymore.

 

I changed the Michelins on my 2010 Fusion at 51,000 and put on General tires. They were a piece of crap and only lasted 25,000 miles.

 

Moral to the story.....it's a crap shoot.

Edited April 14, 2014 by hermans

[Kaleido]

I had a 1999Taurus and put 72,000 miles on the first set of tires. The second set had 74,000 miles. Both sets still had 4/32s of tread and still passed State Inspection. Both sets were General AmeriGas. The tires were rotated at every oil change (5,000 miles) and the front end alignment was as it came from the factory. Too bad they don't make them anymore.

 

I changed the Michelins on my 2010 Fusion at 51,000 and put on General tires. They were a piece of crap and only lasted 25,000 miles.

 

Moral to the story.....it's a crap shoot.

Wow! that was great! I had a 1989 Taurus and I averaged 27,000 miles per tire over 12 tires. I'm hoping to get 40,000 out of my Fusion

[kuzzi]

On my old Silverado, I would get about 10,000 to 15,000 miles on my Eagle LS2s before they were stolen. One day and a $500 deductible later I get fresh Eagle LS2s at ~$200 apiece (at the time), a washed and clean truck, sometimes refurbished brakes, and four new landscaping/cinder blocks.

[James Sentman]

well... if you drive them to get 47mpg on the hybrid then they will last longer than if you are burning out of every stoplight ;)

[Texasota]

On a conventional (non-hybrid) car the majority of the braking is acheived from the front brakes/tires. I have seen 70% frequently attributed to the front brakes/tires leaving 30% for the rear brakes/tires. That would seem to imply that tire wear due to braking will be significantly greater on the front tires as opposed to the rear tires. This obviously plays a significant factor in why regular tire rotation is important.

 

On a hybrid car it would seem that an even greater amount of braking is acheived from the front tires due to regenenerative braking. For hybrid drivers that consistently achieve 100% brake scores the rear tires are probably contributing very little or no braking action and the front tires are doing all the work.

 

This would seem to imply to me that you will have faster tire wear on the front tires for a hybrid than you would for a conventional car which suggests that regular tire rotations are even more important in order to acheive maximum tire life for a hybrid. I'm only speculating here but wondering if this makes sense?

[hybridbear]

On a conventional (non-hybrid) car the majority of the braking is acheived from the front brakes/tires. I have seen 70% frequently attributed to the front brakes/tires leaving 30% for the rear brakes/tires. That would seem to imply that tire wear due to braking will be significantly greater on the front tires as opposed to the rear tires. This obviously plays a significant factor in why regular tire rotation is important.

 

On a hybrid car it would seem that an even greater amount of braking is acheived from the front tires due to regenenerative braking. For hybrid drivers that consistently achieve 100% brake scores the rear tires are probably contributing very little or no braking action and the front tires are doing all the work.

 

This would seem to imply to me that you will have faster tire wear on the front tires for a hybrid than you would for a conventional car which suggests that regular tire rotations are even more important in order to acheive maximum tire life for a hybrid. I'm only speculating here but wondering if this makes sense?

I'm not educated in this area but your reasoning is logical. Time will tell if your hypothesis is proven correct by real world observations.

[corncobs]

To me that's not logical because the tire still has to deal with the same forces as in an conventional car while breaking. The only difference is that the energy stored in the car isn't "burned off" but instead used to spin the generator to charge the HVB.

 

If only the front brakes would be used the rear disks would always be rusted but yet they look very similar to any non-hybrid car.

 

AddOn: actually the wear should be less since regenerative breaking "forces" you to break more gentle to have the most regen causing less force on the tires.

Edited May 3, 2014 by corncobs

[GrySql]

My 18" Eagle LS2 tires look pretty darn good at 23k miles, I should have had the tire wear measured when it was on the lift when we rotated them last week.

 

One tire wear problem that has been overlooked in this discussion is that these are 'front wheel drive' cars and therefore use the front wheels for acceleration.

All front wheel drive cars are harder on front tires than rear wheel drive cars because of the frontal weight that causes cornering wear as well.

 

I wouldn't get too wound up worrying about braking causing excessive tire wear on hybrids for another reason - we drive different.

Once we start trying to get better mpg's we become better drivers and are very gentle with the car.

If anything, a good FFH hybrid driver ought to get better tire mileage than a standard car simply because we are treating the car better.

I have never tried a stoplight hole-shot with this FFH, whereas my Mustang GT was made for that kinda stuff, but that is a rear wheel drive car.

 

Properly rotated and inflated, while using the correct hybrid driving practices, a FFH's tires ought to last a good long while.

Edited May 3, 2014 by GrySql

[Texasota]

Don't disagree with anything in the above interesting responses. I did not mean to imply that you are going to get more pronounced tire wear with a hybrid. Given a conventional FF and a FFH that are roughly equal weights and driven in the same gentle manner I would suspect nearly equivalent tire wear for both cars over the life of the tires.

 

The speculation I was making is that during one tire rotation cycle (5000 - 6000 miles) for the FFH there is likely to be less tire wear on the rear tires and more tire wear on the front tires (due to generative braking) as compared to the tire wear on the conventional FF which would be a little more (not a lot) equally distributed between the front and rear tires.

 

If that is true, then it would seem that you would want to be more conscientious about following the recommended tire rotation schedule for the FFH. This all may be silly and not measurable. These thoughts just occured to me as I was reading this thread on tire wear.

 

On a side note, I went for a 90 mile test drive in a 2014 FFH SE yesterday. It was a fascinating experience and having followed this forum for over a year made for a more informed and interesting test drive.

[GrySql]

 

The speculation I was making is that during one tire rotation cycle (5000 - 6000 miles) for the FFH there is likely to be less tire wear on the rear tires and more tire wear on the front tires (due to generative braking) as compared to the tire wear on the conventional FF which would be a little more (not a lot) equally distributed between the front and rear tires.

 

If that is true, then it would seem that you would want to be more conscientious about following the recommended tire rotation schedule for the FFH. This all may be silly and not measurable.

 

On a side note, I went for a 90 mile test drive in a 2014 FFH SE yesterday. It was a fascinating experience and having followed this forum for over a year made for a more informed and interesting test drive.

As far as I can determine the weight distribution for the ICE Fusion and the Hybrid Fusion are nearly the same @ roughly 59 front/41 rear, nose heavy and typical of front wheel drive cars.

With that in mind, a Fusion 2.0 EcoBoost with it's speed orientation and handling would seem to be the harder tire user.

As for the difference between regular braking and Regen braking remember that the ICE Fusion always uses only the hydraulic brakes on every stop, I think Regen is a softer stopping method.

I agree that finding a useful measurement would be very difficult between car models.

 

A careful/economical style driver with vehicle longevity in mind should have the edge in making all forms of wear parts last longer, in any type car.

 

Congrats on the test drive, hope you liked it. With all the info you've soaked up you probably could have given the Salesperson a lesson on hybrids.

[acdii]

Sharp cornering will wear the tires faster than anything else other than burnouts. Normal braking will have the same wear as normal acceleration, its the scrubbing that happens in driving in other than a straight line. When you turn, all 4 tires turn at different speeds, and they scrub as they turn, moving forward and sideways at the same time.

 

Tire wear from braking will be immeasurable due to all the other variables. Unless of course you always lock them up, then you will have flat spots.

[Waldo]

I agree with acdii, the tire wear from braking is such a small percentage of the overall tire wear, that it's not going to make any difference. The extra wear from the weight of the batteries is going to cause more rear tire wear than the regen braking does to the front.

[corncobs]

Sharp cornering will wear the tires .

...and because the Fusion handles corners so well it makes the most fun and probably shows on my front tires. ;)

[ptjones]

A factor in longevity of tires is the percentage of HWY vs City driving you do. The higher percentage of highway, the longer your tires will last. I currently have 80% hwy with 54k mi. on the tires and they will easily make it to 60K and maybe 70k mi. There maybe a correlation between mpg's average and tire wear too. :)

 

Paul

[acdii]

A factor in longevity of tires is the percentage of HWY vs City driving you do. The higher percentage of highway, the longer your tires will last. I currently have 80% hwy with 54k mi. on the tires and they will easily make it to 60K and maybe 70k mi. There maybe a correlation between mpg's average and tire wear too. :)

 

Paul

A lot more turns in City driving vs. straight line driving on highways. This leads to more tire wear. Good example too.

[Jamone]

I have 29k on the stock 18" Goodyear Eagle LS-2 tires. I've driven the car easy, but they really should be replace soon, they are down to the wear strips. Pretty sad life IMHO, I got 45k on a set of super grippy Mitchilens on a Mini Cooper S, and I drove that like I stole it.

[acdii]

Mine thump, at least I hope its the tires thumping and not a bearing. In any case they are going to be replaced soon with only 22700 on them.

[GrySql]

I have 29k on the stock 18" Goodyear Eagle LS-2 tires. I've driven the car easy, but they really should be replace soon, they are down to the wear strips. Pretty sad life IMHO, I got 45k on a set of super grippy Mitchilens on a Mini Cooper S, and I drove that like I stole it.

What PSI do you keep in your tires?

[Jamone]

What PSI do you keep in your tires?

39-40 psi

[GrySql]

It doesn't make much sense why these 18" LS2's are not lasting, the factory must have changed the compound or something.

Mine now have 28k miles and they look like they have another 20k in them, and my build date was 11/21/12.

I have 42psi in mine.

Edited June 8, 2014 by GrySql