Need to replace tires at only 17,000 miles !!!! HELP!

tires

Would recommend consideration of Toyo tires. Have had very good luck with them after replacing Michelins (sp) on my various Hondas.

 

Yes, I still run the tires at 44/42.

Running at max is no big deal, especially with well built tires like that. Strangely enough, I got data from someone strongly against hybrids that going beyond that is possible (though stupid). By doing that and driving nothing but long cruises on the highway, he was able to inflate his non-hybrid data to make Prius look bad. Only, he wouldn't tell the naive that he was doing that.

Sorry, I can't help you with the trade-in decision. But by the time others are ready for regular replacement or those buying a 2006 Prius, I'll have enough data gathered to make the choice a no-brainer.

As for crosswinds, I have virtually no little data to draw a proper conclusion. The seasons haven't been right to be exposed to enough really windy days where I'm actually cruising on the highway at that time. I kind of lack a frame-of-reference too. The only other vehicle I ever drive is a full-size conversion van. Obviously, Prius totally blows that away.

 

i find it hard to believe that any car on the road today cannot be "4 wheel aligned"

and John, sorry i guess the 4 wheel alignment was done on your other car. i just noticed that is was under the classic maintenance page.

with computer alignment systems it isnt necessary to hook up the back wheels. ive seen my brother do this a million times. (he had problems for nearly a year finding a reliable alignment guy for his shop (he was the manager of Les Schwabs in Bremerton, WA) so he was the alignment guy most of the times during that period.

 

ok im guess my explanation is vague. in a 4 wheel alignment, it is not necessary to have all wheels be adjustable.

 

as i understand it and as someone has mentioned in this thread, on nearly every car, the rear wheels are not adjustable.

 

I finally ended up with same tires and size that John is using. I tried the 195H60X15 Hydroedge for about 1400 miles (30 day agreement with Evans Tire) and decided to put the stock size back on. Now that I've driven both this is what I think the trade off is with them. The 195H60X15 was more stable and solved some of my wandering problems. Cross-winds had less effect. Most of my mileage with the larger size was on the freeway as I drove to Vegas and back. I averaged 49.6 mpg (after correction for slightly smaller diameter) while my overall for 8500 miles is 48.6 mpg and rising. I'm used to seeing 50-55 mpg on the freeway at 65 mph depending on wind, temp, etc. I felt the larger size tire didn't allow me to build the displayed mpg on those downhill sections or around town like the std tires did. So the trade off at least with the larger size is somewhat increased stability for some mpg (maybe 4-5???).

Oh and I don't know about John, but the hydroedge tires seem a bit stiffer than the stock tires so at 42/40, which is what I'm running now, I've developed at least one more rattle I didn't have. And the sqeaky center part of dash sqeaks more too. The rattle is the small panel on the drivers side below that small window on the dashboard. I just stuck a few small pieces of felt in just to see if that was it and it did silence it. The squeak is somewhere inside the dash below the speaker grill and seems temperature dependent too.

But I think the hydroedge tires are a pretty darn good replacement for the stock tires.

Fred

 

I brought my '04 Prius in for its 15,000 mile inspection and the dealer said all 4 tires needed replacement.

Lucky for me the dealer came right out and offered to replace them free of charge before I even started to complain. I think Toyota realizes the original tires are fairly poor.

Replacement tires are Michelin Harmony's.

 

Did they say why you needed new tires? Is it due to the car not being properly aliened? I currently have 15,084 on my 04 Prius and have had the tires rotated every 3,000 to 4,000 miles without a hitch.

Ben

 

well i guess i will have to let ya know in about a year or so, but at nearly 6000 miles, my tires still look practically new.

i did do a rotation at 5000 miles since the front tires will wear quicker.

 

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They just noted that all the tires had been worn down. I had to agree, the tread was way down on all the tires and they had been wearing more or less evenly. I did have rotations done at 5,000 and 10,000 miles.

 

At just over 15,000 miles still have about 6mm of tread all the way around on '04 OEM Goodyear Integras.

 

6mm @ 15,000 is normal. i have 9 mm @ 5,000

i do my own rotations and then take my vehicles in for rebalance and rotate every 15,000 miles.