Tire Failure

hard to say the cause, certainly not maintenance. not sure if you can always detect a road hazard.
if it were me, i would install a set of michelins or similar quality. but if you don't want to spend the money, you may want to replace both tires on the axle.
any road hazard warranty on the oems?

 

Are you thinking the original tires are some sort of special order, kind of like printer that sell with a set of cartridges with only half the ink? That may be, but I think it's a long shot. Manufacturers likely buy the same tires you buy, albeit in large quantities. And they look for a "decent" tire, one that won't garner too many complaints, and will have decent rolling resistance.

That's one insanely messed up tire btw. What is it?

 

That would be unusual.

Have you carefully inspected the tire and tread for a source or origin point of the disassembly? Or a puncture causing rapid deflation faster than the TPMS could flash an alert?

For my flats, including a couple large items that caused rapid deflation, I never saw anything ahead on the road. All the items were discovered during tread inspection.

 

Don't buy Toyo, they are expensive and very noisy

 

if you want mpg's. choose carefully. go to tire rack for tests and reviews. if you don't care, just buy any old tire.

 

Difficult question. I'd be very surprised if it was a faulty TOYO - they're all very robust these days. I'd suspect if you inspected the "wreck" you might find some damage or other.

I'd often wondered whether non-ECO tyres would be a better driving experience - thinking grip, braking, quietness et al. I think it was @soldierguy who replaced tyres with non-ECO, though my memory could be failing me on whom. Whoever it was said they used something like 3% extra fuel - which, in the scheme of things, is insignificant.

With 25,000miles, I'd be replacing a pair of tyres - they need not be the same brand as the remaining 2, but ensure the best tyres are on the back wheels.

 

Check the paperwork that came with your car. The tire manufacturer covers warranty work on tires not the car manufacturer. I don't like mixing brands of tires if it can be helped. Did you have a spare?
The tire repair kit that comes in the trunk wouldn't do you much good. I would guess Toyota put the best low rolling resistance tire they could find on the car when they made it. It will be interesting to hear what mpg people get as they remove the original tires. My first Prius was downhill all the way.

 

That depends on the definition of "best". I suspect Toyota's definition is "lowest cost"
The Japanese Bridgestone Ecopia 422 Plus tires on my Prius are definitely inferior to the Mexican & US made ones. The max psi & warranty are much less, The tread patterns are different too.

 

you can't do better than the oem's for mpg's, but everything else, definitely.
some have reported severe loss of mpg's with non Lrr tires, so you have to be careful, unless they have a no quibble exchange policy.

 

My 16 had toyos, three days old a stone stuck into the middle of the tread, flat....
They have no steel belts, get some Michelin defenders, all season, two steel belts, 90,000 mile tires,
My 17 has Bridgestone, they made it all summer, have ok traction, planning on defenders when the winter wheels come off.

 

Did mpg decrease with the defenders?

 

Strange, I was thinking the opposite, albeit purely from the appearance of the tread pattern. One North American iteration of the Ecopia EP422 Plus has oddly widely spaced tread rows, caused consternation with a few consumers. @ETP likes the Made In Japan EP422 if I'm not mistaken, so much so that he's coined the acronym MIJ lol.

 

Mine did.

I'm not so sure about that. Though better MPG will very likely cost extra money.

 

I find people are very picky about their tire choices, it's your money, buy what you want.

I have no loyalty to a tire brand but I have observed that Michelin tires seem to take less weight to balance the wheel.

I can't prove this to be true or false just something I observed.

The last couple of years I have bought at least one set every year mostly replacing old tires on cars I don't drive much.

 

i don't recall anyone claiming better mpg's, might have missed something though. my energy savers produced no noticeable difference either way.

 

That's unusual - I thought almost all radial tyres have steel belts in the tread region (apart from some high-performance tyres)?

 

I replaced the stock Toyos with the Yokohama Avid Ascend at 45,000 miles...the Toyos were getting a little thin. I lost about 3 mpg with the switch, but the ride, handling, and noise levels are noticeably better. Really glad I made the switch. Plus, I'm at 92,300 miles (in that ballpark) right now, and the Yokohamas are holding up very well. They have a 75,000 mile treadwear warranty, and I think I'll make it well beyond that before they need replacement. And as an added bonus, since I got them from my dealer, the dealer has a 75,000 mile replacement warranty. Get a nail? They replace, free of charge. I've had to replace 2 tires that way so far, and that has more than made up for the slightly higher cost of getting them from the dealer.

So yes...the driving experience is improved with different tires, at a small penalty in fuel economy.

 

Interesting. The brochure for my Gen3 Prius very clearly specifies steel-belted radial tires. I'm wondering when and why that was changed?