Taycan Problem - potential catastrophic tire failure

[TaycanRob]

Took it in for an alignment today at a Porsche certified shop and think I have an answer to my tire wear issue.

Alignment was checked in Normal Mode. It was in spec, but definitely trending towards a negative camber which would increase inner tire wear. The tech said there is no way to adjust the camber on the Taycan.

Also checked the alignment in Lowered Mode. Camber was out of spec in the negative direction. (see the pictures)

Since most of my driving is in Eco Lowered Mode, this definitely explains the interior tire wear.

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[Murph7355]

Looks like the fronts... It was the rears on mine that went... Though just looked at the fronts and they're definitely wearing more on the inner shoulders too.

I wonder if the suspension would be better set up in lowered mode.

 

[mystermykee]

The tech said there is no way to adjust the camber on the Taycan.

There is, just not the way it is done on most cars. Requires removal of the front bumper.

 

[d00d]

I've driven the first 30K miles highway and secondary roads in Range mode, the air suspension uses the Low(est) level.
Because of this issue I've started to use Normal mode on the secondary roads, which uses Medium level at low speed, and Lower level above a certain speed.
Both Range and Normal uses second gear most of the time unless maximum torque is demanded;
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...aycan-range-normal-sport-and-sport-plus.9881/

 

[wmras]

I have joined the inner sidewall wear club.

Mounted four Goodyear EAGLE F1 ASYMMETRIC 5 Max Performance Summer tires on our 2020 Taycan Turbo S in SEP 2022 in preparation for a private group one day event at Laguna Secca in Monterey, CA. Ran hard and stopped hard - hard enough to activate the ABS for about 100 yards just before the Corkscrew on one run. Inspected the tires afterwards (but not on a lift) and did not see any exceptional wear.

During regular service at our Porsche dealer in early 2024, the service record suggested new tires and cited 6 mm of tread. Did not consider that an urgent need and dealer never cited sidewall wear. Several months later our right front tire had a rapid leak (slow blow out) and we barely made it to a tire shop. The inner sidewall was cleanly worn to the cords with air leaking through a 1 mm hole. All four tires were worn to the inner sidewall cords - all had acceptable tread everywhere. The was no delamination. Total mileage was one all-day track day and 7,000 miles.

I now have my sight set on a lift system for our garage that will make it easy for me to inspect all tire surfaces.

In addition, there is a clear advantage of the new Porsche Active Ride system for tire wear. It keeps the car level when accelerating, stopping, or cornering - the tire tread spends more time on the ground, not in the air. And the sidewalls stay more in the air, not on the ground! I is especially useful for such a heavy car.

The tires that wore smoothly to the cords without delamination:
EAGLE F1 ASYMMETRIC 5 Max Performance Summer

Front: 265/35R21
NF0 Porsche
Electric Vehicle Tuned
Load Range: XL
Serv. Desc: 101Y
UTQG: 300 AA A

Rear: 305/30R21
NF0 Porsche
Electric Vehicle Tuned
Load Range: XL
Serv. Desc: 104Y
UTQG: 300 AA A

I replaced the Goodyear Eagles with the Pirelli P ZERO NF0 ELECT Summer tires that were shipped on the Taycan Turbo S from the factory. We love how quiet and smooth they are. They were balanced by Les Schwab at my request (balance, unclamp, rotate wheel 90 degrees, re-clamp, balance again). They did a perfect job.

 

[Genau]

During regular service at our Porsche dealer in early 2024, the service record suggested new tires and cited 6 mm of tread. Did not consider that an urgent need and dealer never cited sidewall wear. Several months later our right front tire had a rapid leak (slow blow out) and we barely made it to a tire shop. The inner sidewall was cleanly worn to the cords with air leaking through a 1 mm hole. All four tires were worn to the inner sidewall cords - all had acceptable tread everywhere. The was no delamination. Total mileage was one all-day track day and 7,000 miles.

Out of curiosity, did your dealership perform alignment checks in a driving mode/height setting other than the one in which you did the hardest driving? I have a hypothesis that a cause, or contributing factor, to rapid inner edge tire wear on Taycans is due to the dealership alignment checks being performed in normal mode (which I never use).

Here’s the scenario: I arrive at the dealership for a service appointment, driving in sport mode as always (lowered suspension), park, meet with the service advisor, and go to the customer lounge. A technician then drives my car into the service bay in the default driving mode (normal). The entrance to the service bay has a drive-over alignment system that produces an automated report. The service tech aligns my Taycan in normal mode according to the measurements taken when my Taycan was driven over the measurement system in normal mode. I then drive off in sport mode and proceed to inadvertently thrash the inner edges of my tires because the ride height is lower than how the alignment was set. In your case, you track your Taycan in a lowered driving mode much different than how it was aligned.

My way around this scenario is to request that all alignment measurements be taken in lowered/sport mode. My current tires are doing better than previous sets, perhaps due to this method.

 

[Murph7355]

I think that makes a lot of sense.

Indeed the wear is so bad on that inner edge that I wonder what would happen if the alignment were done in sports plus mode. And how would the car handle?

I may get mine looked at now and done that way.

 

[Kief]

I gotta say, this Thread has me very concerned as I recently took delivery of my 2024 CT 4S and have exclusively been driving around in Low mode. However, I also have 2023 RS etron GT (adjustable air suspension also set to the lowest setting) but I haven’t read anything on the forums regarding similar concerns regarding premature inner wear, assuming this is in fact suspension related

Would you guys recommend not driving exclusively at the low setting, or are these reports rare?

 

[Genau]

Would you guys recommend not driving exclusively at the low setting, or are these reports rare?

I think the most important thing is to have the car aligned in the same ride-height setting that you normally drive in.

 

[Kief]

I know there are other Threads here regarding tire psi, but in reference to this concern, what pressures are you running to mitigate inside wear, max/full load pressures?

 

[Murph7355]

....
Would you guys recommend not driving exclusively at the low setting, or are these reports rare?

Tyres wear, and on fast heavy cars they can wear quickly.....

Don't let it spoil your enjoyment of the car. Use it as you want to use it.

There are some growing reports on here, but not a huge number when you consider how many cars are out there.

I tend to drive my cars "spiritedly" on small country roads. They're hard on cars.

Am going to see if I can figure out what's happening with mine and see if doing things differently might change wear patterns without worse compromise elsewhere.

We'll see.

 

[Scandinavian]

I gotta say, this Thread has me very concerned as I recently took delivery of my 2024 CT 4S and have exclusively been driving around in Low mode. However, I also have 2023 RS etron GT (adjustable air suspension also set to the lowest setting) but I haven’t read anything on the forums regarding similar concerns regarding premature inner wear, assuming this is in fact suspension related

Would you guys recommend not driving exclusively at the low setting, or are these reports rare?

I would not worry at all about tyre life in normal use. I normally drive my car in Normal mode but it lowers itself slightly when driving at speed. I seldom use Sport plus as my co pilot does not like the harder ride. And Range mode does not deliver any benefit in range either.

I have the 21 inch Mission E wheels and managed to get about 35000 km out of the OEM GoodYear Eagle Fi Assymetric 3 set. I only changed the fronts at that stage due to hitting a pothole and damaging the sidewall with a bulge. There was still some 3 to 4 mm thread depth left. And all tyres, front and rear were evenly worn.

My Taycan was mainly used for long distance driving on fast motorways, so not too much small dwindling roads. On the large French motorway network speeds were mainly 130 kph (80mph) + some vat, while on the German autobahn speeds for long periods could be around 180 kph (110 mph).

I have been positively surprised and impressed by the tyre life on such a heavy car and at those speeds! I have though always run the tyres according to load values plus about 0.1 to 0.2 bar pressure. No alignment issues discovered so far, touch wood.

 

[wmras]

Out of curiosity, did your dealership perform alignment checks in a driving mode/height setting other than the one in which you did the hardest driving? I have a hypothesis that a cause, or contributing factor, to rapid inner edge tire wear on Taycans is due to the dealership alignment checks being performed in normal mode (which I never use).

My way around this scenario is to request that all alignment measurements be taken in lowered/sport mode. My current tires are doing better than previous sets, perhaps due to this method.

Do not have the alignment results handy but suspect it was checked at Porsche in NORMAL mode (REGULAR height - speed dependent). Since REGULAR height changes with speed, it is likely to be LOW at highway speeds. This suggests the suspension design should align well at multiple heights, or at least one hopes so.

The INDIVIDUAL mode in our 2020 Taycan TS is set for SPORT with the LOW setting, and INDIVIDUAL mode is always used on the street. My time at Laguna Secca was in SPORT PLUS (also LOW setting). I use SPORT PLUS on Porsche Club drives.

Not sure how difficult it is to align the Taycan in the LOW setting. Alignment in the lowest setting is a pain in our 2015 Macan Turbo, so much so that instead of Porsche, a Porsche expert independent shop aligns it in the lowest setting - the only mode I drive it.

The next alignment on the Taycan (soon) will be at the LOW setting - if aligned in LOW, camber would decrease in REGULAR setting, a possible increase in tire life.

 

[bsclywilly]

Do not have the alignment results handy but suspect it was checked at Porsche in NORMAL mode (REGULAR height - speed dependent). Since REGULAR height changes with speed, it is likely to be LOW at highway speeds. This suggests the suspension design should align well at multiple heights, or at least one hopes so.

The INDIVIDUAL mode in our 2020 Taycan TS is set for SPORT with the LOW setting, and INDIVIDUAL mode is always used on the street. My time at Laguna Secca was in SPORT PLUS (also LOW setting). I use SPORT PLUS on Porsche Club drives.

Not sure how difficult it is to align the Taycan in the LOW setting. Alignment in the lowest setting is a pain in our 2015 Macan Turbo, so much so that instead of Porsche, a Porsche expert independent shop aligns it in the lowest setting - the only mode I drive it.

The next alignment on the Taycan (soon) will be at the LOW setting - if aligned in LOW, camber would decrease in REGULAR setting, a possible increase in tire life.

Having the alignment done in low, you’ll find that only the rear camber will be adjustable (and you’ll want to max out that adjustment, least amount of negative camber). There is no independent front camber adjustment on our cars so it is what it is at the varying ride heights. Our cars gain about 0.5 degrees of negative camber going from normal to low ride height based on my measurements.

The rear camber adjustment can be maxed out and if I recall I was able to get back another 0.6degrees. The fronts would need to have some aftermarket adjustable control arms to correct the excessive negative camber (for anything other than driving on the track).

To get the most out of my tires, I flip them inside-outside every 10-12k miles and am able to get 25k miles (Conti A/S) while I drive daily in lowered height. I also run 42psi/40psi (f/r) to try to even out the tire wear but the insides still see the most wear, especially the fronts.

Note, my experience is over 45k miles and two sets of daily driven tires (pirelli summers and conti all seasons) and one set of track tires. Going on my 3rd set of Contis soon. I’ve designed suspension systems and developed and tested tires professionally in commercial and motorsports applications.

 

[wmras]

I know there are other Threads here regarding tire psi, but in reference to this concern, what pressures are you running to mitigate inside wear, max/full load pressures?

I run 40 psi in all four tires with my navigator (wife), our most used trip configuration, and slightly heavier than the Porsche "partial load" (driver only) configuration.

Porsche tire psi specifications for PARTIAL to FULL load:
2020 Taycan Turbo S with summer tires on 21" wheels:
Front: 39 to 42 psi
Rear: 37 to 45 psi

40 psi is about 3/8ths towards full load, close to the right weight for one passenger + driver + plus some luggage (a case of wine or groceries). The rear tire pressure starts below 40 psi with only the driver and both front and rear tire pressures cross almost exactly at 40 psi. I use FULL load (F42, R45 - door jamb pressures) with four people.

At Laguna Secca, with one passenger, I ran 40 psi on all four wheels for the first half of the day. On the recommendation of an expert, I lowered the tire pressure (hot) 5% on all four wheels. The expert's concern was too little outside sidewall rollover. Not sure that made a significant impact on the inside sidewall wear, but it did seem to improve traction.

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