Taycan Problem - potential catastrophic tire failure

[Kief]

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.

I just adjusted my CT 4S today to 38/40 partial load on my 21” Conti A/S cold…still have no idea how to reset tpms in PCM to store adjusted pressures

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[MrJones02]

I watched a video yesterday on youtube, where they were taking a look at a taycan on a lift ... when talking about the suspension the guy indicates to the porsche guy, there is no way to adjust camber? Porsche guy claims the system is "so sophisticated" it doesnt need adjustments, and that the air spring would adjust itself.
By looking at the tyres in this thread, it doesnt seem to work so well

 

[Boss Hogg]

2025 manual now acknowledges excessive tyre wear in range and sport plus modes

 

[Murph7355]

2025 manual now acknowledges excessive tyre wear in range and sport plus modes

Saves money on engineering I guess.

By MY30 they might be saying "and you should look to replace your tyres after only 1in of the inside of your tyres are worn. Please check for canvas every 5k miles."

Have they also changed the software so it doesn't automatically drop the car at speed?

 

[Tooney]

Almost a year after OP first posted about tire wear problem, and reported it to NHTSA, Porsche has resolved the problem by changing the owners manual.
Edit: no change for 2022 manual in MyPorsche app so tire wear problem limited to MY2025s.....

@daveo4EV This is similar Porsche response to PMC+ overheating. "Operate it at 50% capacity"

 

[Vim Schrotnock]

The crazy thing about this kind of tire 'failure' is that conventional inspection methods don't work. The inner tread line doesn't indicate any excessive wear, which would occur if the camber were out of spec. The tires in the photo were inspected at Porsche before they were installed, and they failed a few thousand miles later. Definitely, the inner cord was almost exposed when the tires were installed, but the tread depth across the tire was normal.

 

[Fish Fingers]

Did we ever get a definitive answer about what exactly is causing this tyre wear?

The thread is quite old now, with lots of posts for different Taycan models / wheel size / tyres etc......but was there ever a conclusion reached on the cause?

 

[Murph7355]

Not that I'm aware of.

I'm avoiding Sport/Sport Plus for this set of tyres, BUT but they're also a different make. So it won’t be conclusive.

Porsche are very poor in dealing with this IMO. They should have a massive body of data....

 

[simpsy100]

Just had to have both my rear tyres replaced on my 2020 4S; nail on OSR and down to cords on shoulder on NSR. Wear across the treads was as expected. Ive owned the car for 11mths. No unusual pressure warnings. When the car was in for brake pipe recall in October the tyres were within spec but getting towards 4mm. They did note that all tyres were Goodyear 5’s, except NSR which was a Goodyear 3, so recommended a pair of years.

i chose not to have tyres done at this point and expected to need them now around MOT time. I’ve done 2-3k miles since October. Car has now been aligned in Normal and Sport+ height and only slight adjustment to toe was needed.

We have put this wear down to catching the inner edge on something like a pothole. I have a vague memory of telling the wife I was annoyed one day for clipping my wheel, I believe it was a rear inner edge but can’t recall now exactly what and when. But seeing this thread maybe it was not that ?

i mostly drive in normal mode but car is then often lowered from driving 60+ from that setting.

 

[Murph7355]

Unless you're driving constantly on a pothole, I doubt that's the cause.

Too many of us have had the exact same way, in different countries, specs of car etc.

The other thing I forgot to note is tyre pressures.

Am watching mine carefully at the moment, and keeping the rears above 40psi.

 

[Ipercool]

I too am trying to avoid the range and sport plus modes, but after 15,000 km the fronts are as in the photo.
Porsche keeps telling me that the GTS and Turbo S are "just like that".
This seems like a rather evasive explanation to me.

 

[mystermykee]

I too am trying to avoid the range and sport plus modes, but after 15,000 km the fronts are as in the photo.
Porsche keeps telling me that the GTS and Turbo S are "just like that".
This seems like a rather evasive explanation to me.

Do you drive in Sport mode more so than Normal?

 

[simpsy100]

Going in for recalls is kind of a blessing really as most new owners would not be going in until after 2yrs. Most people don’t walk around checking treads regularly, certainly not inners. I only got mine used in Feb last year and have done 10k. Tyres were new when I got it. If it wasn’t for first MOT being due I might never of known until something bad happened! Doesn’t bare thinking about. Interesting my fronts are fine even though its a 4S.

 

[Fish Fingers]

Going in for recalls is kind of a blessing really as most new owners would not be going in until after 2yrs. Most people don’t walk around checking treads regularly, certainly not inners. I only got mine used in Feb last year and have done 10k. Tyres were new when I got it. If it wasn’t for first MOT being due I might never of known until something bad happened! Doesn’t bare thinking about. Interesting my fronts are fine even though its a 4S.

That was the same with mine.....
I measured the treads with a tyre gauge and they were looking fine.

Then i took it in for it's 1st service and was shown the state of the inner shoulder!

I was given a not safe to drive advisory.

Very fortunate the service was due.

 

[DWJames]

Count me in to the club! I've had both fronts fail on me in the past couple of months with weird inner shoulder punctures, so I was even keeping an eye on the tyres generally, but there's just no way to see the very inner edge on the rears without it being up a lift or crawling under the thing. Both rears were holding pressure fine and appeared evenly worn and with plenty of life left, yet both have completely failed at the inner shoulder which was only apparent when it went in for service. This car is 99% used in Normal mode and 95% of its life cruising on the motorway.
We have lots of experience with performance cars and with wheel and suspension setups where I work and still this is a surprise. On an alignment rig, the toe and camber appear fairly normal when the car's stationary, though we note 1 degree of negative camber at regular ride height and 2 degrees negative at the lowest setting. I see a lot of people suggesting this is solely wear due to negative camber, but in our experience Toe Out is always a factor.
My personal suspicion is that due to the weight of the car and the compliance of the bushes, the dynamic alignment is quite different to the static one and either when accelerating hard or simply when cruising at speed, we're getting an increase in Toe Out combined with the negative camber which the relatively low and stiff sidewalls of the tyre aren't able to compensate for.

It seems to be a performance EV and low profile issue which isn't isolated to the Taycan.
Tesla model S (especially Plaid) has exactly the same wear issue with its 21" wheels and tyres it seems. Many of those are solving the issue by either swapping to the 19" wheels and tyres or spacing out their suspension top arms to reduce the negative camber with adjustable arms or products like this https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thr...on-2021-model-s-lr-plaid-w-evpe-shims.324812/

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