2016 Touring Tire Reliability Master Thread for 17" OEM tires

Same tires here.

After 12 months and 37k miles tread wear is even and at 6/32".

I run at Toyota (door jam and owner's manual) recommended 33# front and 32# rear.

I rotated every 5k for first 20k and then decided not to bother.

 

A little off-topic, but for anyone: how are those plastic inserts on the 17" rims doing? Are they recessed, less vulnerable to curb-rash. Is it the alloy rim that contacts a curb first?

 

My plastic inserts are in perfect shape, but I did get about 5" of curb rash on the rim itself immediately adjacent to the outside edge of the plastic.

I have no idea how this happen -- it strikes me as virtually impossible to have scraped the rim without gouging the plastic too. The plastic is virtually flush with the rim.

A black sharpie came to the rescue. The sharpie also worked well on the impact wrench chips left as a rememberance of my tire rotations.

 

Thanks for the info. So your's came through unscathed, but the plastic does look to be flush with the rim. Maybe it can deflect inward a little easier, who knows. Just looking on Toyota Online Parts: the discounted price for one of those inserts is $24 and change.

I would spring for a gloss-black (or satin?) touch-up lacquer , gotta provide more protection than a sharpie.

 

I run 38 all around and I'm at 30k miles. It's a pretty comfortable ride and I get decent mpg. I may bump it up to 40 all around sometime to see how that feels.

 

Remember to keep us posted when you do!

 

Maybe in the spring. For now the scrape blends in with winter salt and road grime, after the Sharpie in wears off. Still can figure how the plastic insert didn't get roached.

 

Yikes! Another conspiracy theory.

 

I also have a bit of curb rash around the edge of the rim on both passenger side tires. I bought a small bottle of high gloss black enamel at a local hobby shop, but have yet to do the touch up - waiting for it stop raining...

 

Someone here was advocating 205/50R17. That size is actually closer to 198/65R15 in Outside Diamter, every so slightly bigger. Fills the wheel well a bit better, the appearance.

Only issue: they always seem to come in "Extra Load" rating, ride a little firm? The other issue: some places, Costco for example, will refuse to install anything but the spec'd tire sizes.

Trying to think of his user name: ftl, f8l, something like that. Or was it @ATHiker , I'm a little fuzzy. He was the tire guru a few years back

 

Not me Mendel, but tires have been on my mind this past week.

First, I got a bulge in the sidewall of one tire just before a long family trip. I ended up getting 4 new tires, even though they still had about 50% of their treadlife remaining. Probably caused by scraping my tire on the curb.

I kept two of the old tires to be ready for my next flat, but just noticed one had a nail in it (never lost pressure though). Oh well.

My challenge was that one of the new tires leaked air at a rate of about 3PSI a day. I took it back to the shop and they remounted it and sent me on my way this morning. I only half listened to the service writer babble about what they did.

When checking the air just now I noticed they applied seven self-adhesive 1/4 ounce wheel weights inside the rim, right by the valve stem. Seemed odd.

Anything unusual about my tale of woe?

 

When I worked at a tire store in my youth, if a tire needed a large amount of lead to balance it I would break it loose and spin it on the wheel 180 degrees. Because sometimes the imbalance in the the wheel and in the tire combine to make a problem. Most don't bother to do this and just apply the weights as directed by the machine. If you don't notice a "wobble" or "shake" it is probably OK.

 

We run them in the 34 range ...... played around with it a little bit on the Gen 3's --------- less on the 4's. We could get 60mpg on the 3's and its even easier on the 4's. The cars run too hard with anything over 34 IMO ..maybe you get used to it if you only drive the one car. It's also noticeable in the rain

The plastic inserts are designed to make an already ugly wheel even more so ... I wish Toyota would hire away a designer from Porsche. Or ... just flat out copy them. Boy, are the Toyota wheels ugly .... some of the Lexus are a bit better .. only because they copy.

I have owned many Toyota and Lexus vehicles -- but I wish they had better styling. one wonders how they can keep making these bland boring designs.

 

3rd gen 17" rims looked good, and 3rd gen 15" PIP rims. The rest of 'em, with the plastic dreck, not so much.