Gen 4 in the twisties

You have my tires. Don't you love them????????????? I love mine.

• Size: P215/45R17

• Toyota

• LRR: Ecopia

• Sidewall Style: Blackwall

• Serv. Desc: 87V Load Index 87= 1201lbs (545kg) per tire
  Speed Rating “V”= 149mph (240kph)' class="help tooltip">

• UTQG: 600 A A

Link to those tires BTW/

Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus (H- or V-Speed Rated)

The Ecopia EP422 Plus featuring H- or V-speed rated sizes is one of Bridgestone's ecologically oriented Grand Touring All-Season tires developed for the drivers of coupes, sedans, minivans and small crossover vehicles looking for more tire life per gallon by delivering longer wear and better handling. Designed to enhance vehicle fuel economy by reducing tire rolling resistance along with the vehicle's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, Ecopia EP422 Plus tires deliver year-round, all-season traction, even in light snow.

The Ecopia EP422 Plus uses an enhanced all-season tread compound featuring Bridgestone's unique NanoPro-Tech (Nanostructure-Oriented Properties Control Technology) to reduce rolling resistance and energy loss while maintaining dry, wet and wintertime traction. This compound is molded into a symmetric tread design that combines notched shoulders and intermediate ribs with independent center blocks for dry road tracking and traction. Four circumferential grooves are designed to help water flow from under the footprint to resist hydroplaning and enhance wet traction while notches and sipes increase the edges that bite into light snow. The tire's sidewalls feature Bridgestone's Fuel Saver compound to further increase efficiency.

The tire's internal structure includes twin steel belts reinforced by spirally wrapped nylon on top of a polyester casing to blend ride comfort and durability.

 

BTW/ anyone that is ditching their terrible, nasty, noisy, low quality, non premium 2016 tires for a Touring please let me know as I could use two back ups. Maybe even four in the shed.
I will give them a good home so you don't worry about them being taken care of properly.

Your loss my gain. Those of you that hate them throw them my way.

Was planning on buying one or two but maybe this will work better.

I agree you need to ditch them.

 

Your sarcasm is duly noted.

The tire you linked to isn't even close to top-ranked in the very same Tire Rack rankings at the site you linked. The Ecopias are, by definition, "mediocre" tires:

Consumer Survey Results By Category

So, you are welcome to them. Clearly, there are (many) better tires available at that price - in fact four of the six higher-ranked tires are cheaper than the Ecopias, and the two top-ranked tires are only a couple bucks more per tire! On top of that, the Ecopias they sell aren't the OEM tire (different part number) - from what others have posted on PriusChat, the OEM Ecopias have a lower tread wear rating than the ones offered by Tire Rack!

Yeah, it sure looks like you can do better - a lot better - than the OEM rubber, and not have to spend a huge 'premium' to do so.

 

Send them my way. BTW I looked at some Pirelli's at SAMS Club for the Dodge and was impressed on the quality of the tire. Not sure if it was the same tire in the chart but I have never owned a set and have no experience with them. Also I did not see any LRR ratings for any of the tires. Where can we find those? Or is it hidden in another rating?

Also the tire I linked is your tire unless they have more than one tire for the Touring.

 

In their search below, just check the "Low Rolling resistance" checkbox on the left side of the page :

Using Cookies

(Apologies, I don't know why the forum edit tool is chaning the text to say "Using Cookies" when I paste in the URL...)

It returns eighteen tire models that are LRR and fit the 4 Touring, specifically. LRR is also indicated on the spec page for each tire.

The newest Pirellis do look like good rubber, seems they've improved from years past.

BTW, you don't actually have 'my' tires; I have a non-Touring 4 with ATP and PCP, and first thing I did (at the dealership, before I even drove it off the lot!) was to fit 17" rims with much more substantial tires than stock: Pics of your Gen4 right now! | PriusChat

Of course, I thoroughly test-drove both Touring and non-Touring 4's, so I know what the stock tires feel like on both models. That's a big part of why I immediately upgraded the tires (and rims).

I should point out that the OEM tire is not the same tire as sold at Tire Rack/Discount tire/etc. True "OEM" tires for the Prius are only sold by the Toyota dealers - they have a different part number than the ones at Tire Rack - and even the ones they sell at the dealership may not be the same P/N as the exact ones fitted to new-off-the-boat Prii ! That said, it does look in this case like Tire Rack may offer a "true" OEM replacement, as they have the same Ecopia listed twice except one says "Original Equipment" in a yellow banner, and has a lower tread wear rating)

Read what Earl says about this (I disagree with him on other things but on OEM tire wear, we agree):

Earl Stewart On Cars: Why New Car Tires Wear Out So Fast

So the Ecopias available at Tire rack are likely better than the OEM tires, and yet - still only mediocre, at best.

Go take a look - what are the tread wear ratings as printed on the sidewall of the tires on your 4 Touring?

 

Mind you, "LRR" is a rather poor rating - one model's high rolling resistance could be better than another's low rolling resistance.

Something like the European tire labels would make sense here: ETRMA - Tyre Labelling

 

Completely agree! LRR here, means "designed to have Low Rolling Resistance", but there is no scale of resistance/efficiency gained. So, no direct-comparison by numbers is possible.

 

With all this talk about going round bends, I'm so tempted to take my Gen 4 over to Germany and take it for a few laps on the Nurburgring to see how it really performs. Alas, my insurance policy forbids me from taking the Gen 4 on that particular track.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Thanks for posting the link to the tire chart. What do you guys think of Pirelli tires? Anybody have them?

I'm not too concerned about gas mileage. I don't necessarily need a LRR tire. My main priority would be wet & dry handling/traction, ride, stopping distance, and noise reduction.

 

The OEM version has a wear rating of 600, and the tire rack version has a wear rating of 640.

While the reason could be that Toyota was fine tuning for a better quality of ride at the dealership, I suspect that is equally likely that the difference is the country of origin (listed on the Tire Rack website): Japan on the OEM version, and Mexico on the other.

 

Hey, Scuderia... Do you use the tire pressure recommendation on the door jam or the one on the tire?

 

Dentist: "You seem to have some new, unusual wear on youth teeth."

Me: "Yeah, that's because ETP told me to inflate my tires to 41 PSI !!"

 

There's a reason Toyota's 86 uses Prius tires...

 

mm, neither, actually, but I'm running a not-stock sized tire. So you will want to start at the pressures on your door jam sticker.

I normally run 34 psi front, 32 psi rear, for me alone and with a single passenger. I'd probably go up a couple psi on both ends, when fully loaded (driver+ 3 passengers + luggage).

I use a 12V air pump I got from Amazon, it's super handy. I also use a Michelin Digital tire gauge, it's excellent - and one of the few I can find anywhere, that read out in 1/10th psi (0.1) increments - most only go to 1/2 psi (0.5) difference, but I found I could feel a difference of 0.2 psi...so I use this:

It's the best, most accurate tire pressure gauge I've ever used. It even beeps when it has a stable pressure reading! I totally recommend it - it is admittedly a little bulky and heavy, but is solid, really well-made, and worth it.

Assuming you are running stock tire sizes, I'd recommend:

Start first thing in the morning (cold tire pressure), preferably before driving any distance at all. Measure and set all four tires to the standard tire pressures as marked on the door jam. It's best if you have your own air pump, so you can set these before driving (and thus warming up the tires).

Once these are set to standard pressure, then take a test drive. Take a route you know, where you can try at least few curves at a reasonable speed, and pay attention to the feel, cornering response, etc. Maybe make some notes of what you feel to keep track...

Then assuming you want to tweak the handling, only change the pressure on one end to begin with. Bump the pressure up by 2 psi, then test drive. Note! If you want to get this really right, you do this iteration only once each morning - meaning, set the stock pressures this morning and test, then tomorrow, you would do you first adjustment from stock, and test. The next morning, do your next adjustment and test...rinse and repeat daily, until you find your sleep number, er, best pressure numbers. I know, it takes much longer this way, but then you will know what the true pressures are that you're starting with before adjusting, and later it will be consistent and repeatable when you have done all this and are just routinely setting tire pressures (at least once every month!)

So anyway, I usually work in 2 psi increments when dialing in the pressure, as it makes enough difference to pretty easily notice. The general rule of thumb is, the higher the pressure, the less grip the tire will have. So, if you need more front end grip (the car is under-steering or 'plowing' through the turns), then you raise the rear tire pressure, so the front end then has relatively more grip than the front.

Conversely, if the rear end feels 'loose' (like it wants to come around on you and swap ends, when cornered hard), then you would raise the front tire pressure so that the rear then has relatively more grip.

Note! When you raise the tire pressure, in general you are reducing the maximum amount of grip the tire can produce! Be careful to not just keep on raising the pressures, as you would not only be gradually reducing the total grip available, but could even exceed the tire's maximum design pressure - a true safety hazard. You will also risk causing uneven tire wear - pressure too high, and the tire wears the tread out in the center of the tread, and run too low a pressure and you'll wear the outer edges of the tread prematurely (and possibly overheat the tire, another safety hazard). So another rule of thumb - do not run lower pressures than are on the door jam sticker (for your size tire).

After you've done this a few times, it goes fairly quickly, and you will notice the sweet spot - the car still grips well, the car turns in sharply without the (car's) rear end feeling nervous, and the car will track on the freeway well. In my case, I found the car can be twitchy and 'busy' on the freeway without running the fronts a couple psi higher than the rear, as well as the cornering being more stable and balanced front-to-rear than with the same pressures front and rear.

Stop doing the pressure adjust-trials one you are happy with the handling. In the process of these iterations, you'll probably go one 2-psi bump up in pressure too far and find the handling is now getting worse, so you will need to do to one more trial, backing off from the last adjustment, to get your happy pressures. Then, write it down in several places so you don't forget!

OK, a little mild rant here: I occasionally see people recommending high tire pressures (>45 psi for 15" tires) on this site, to improve gas mileage. While it may well improve their mileage, they are taking a risk, as they are both reducing their total grip available (not a good thing in a emergency braking or turning situation) and causing much faster wear on the center tread of the tires - again, this reduces grip, and is particularly reduced in wet conditions. So for the same reason I do not recommend '(low-)budget' tires, I'd avoid running high pressures as well. After all, it only takes is one rear-ender or slide into a curb, to undo every penny saved with high pressures, and then some...!

Hopefully this unintentional wall-of-text will be of benefit.

 

I agree the handling is solid for a non-performance car. Turn-in is sharp, body roll and understeer are minimal, and it can be pushed much farther than other Prii. However my biggest concern is high speed cornering, which to me can feel dangerously unstable. The twitchiness is unignorable. Driving the Prius on curves at 70+ mph gives a white-knuckle feeling, whereas even a base model Golf or 15 year old WRX would feel like cutting through butter on the high speed curves.

 

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Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus (H- or V-Speed Rated)

 

Thanks for the info. I'm not quite that technical, but very good information. My Prius (with the stock 15's) seems to handle a little better just by bumping up the PSI only 3 or 4 lbs over the standard pressure. It doesn't "plow" into the corners as much. Rides a little better.

Can you give us the name of the air pump you have? Does it plug into the car? I am so tired of fighting with those air hoses at the gas stations. Thanks!

 

Check again. Tire Rack sells two versions of the Ecopia EP422.

One version is shown with a yellow banner identifying it as OEM. That version has a treadwear rating of 600 (like the ones on my car) and its country of origin is listed as Japan.

The other version has a treadwear rating of 640 and its country of origin is listed as Mexico.

The Tire Rack website allow you to check boxes to do a comparison of both versions side by side. Here is a screen shot:

 

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Misread your post I guess as it looked like you said the 640 version was at TR and not the 600 version.

Must have combined thoughts as one person said you could not get the OEMs at TR.