2012 Nissan Murano - bought new. Currently has 36,438 miles. Dealer says I need to replace all tires. Can this be right? If so, what brand?
Could easily be right. Don’t take the dealer’s word for it, check it for yourself simply by looking at the tread. If you see the wear bars even with the tread, it is time for new tires.
Like this.
What kind? If you like the tire on the car, buy another set of those. Or check out Consumer Reports or Tirerack.com for recommendations. But remember, your safety is riding on those 4 rubber lumps so don’t cheap out. But you do NOT have to buy tires from the dealer. Take it to several places for quotes. Costco, Sam’s Club and tire stores. Get the total out-the-door price so you can compare prices.
Edit: Oh and if you live in a hot climate, 6 year old tires can be ready for replacement due to dry-rot or just rubber hardening with heat and age. look for little cracks in the sidewall of the tire or if you’ve been spinning a tire away from stops in the rain.
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Sounds quite plausible. Tires make a big difference and any tire choice involves compromises. Where I live snow and ice traction are a factor; for someone else maybe resistance to hydroplaning on wet roads is more important. I also like quiet tires and don’t care a whole lot about ultimate cornering traction.
I like to peruse the tirerack.com site and Consumer Reports, especially their November issues, for actual test and customer survey data.
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It is not uncommon for OE tires (the tires that come on a new vehicle from the factory) to be good for fuel economy, but not so good for wear and/or traction - especially Japanese vehicles. That’s because there is a technological triangle involving wear, rolling resistance and traction - AND - the vehicle manufacturer typically specs low rolling resistance for their tires and the vehicle manufacturer is willing to accept tires with low traction and/or low wear characteristics. After all, the vehicle manufacturer doesn’t provide a warranty for the tires (with a few exceptions) and the tire manufacturer only provides a material and workmanship warranty (no wear warranty!) for these tires.
The Japanese vehicle manufacturers seem to be particular bad in this regard because they do all their testing in Japan and the road surfaces they test on are quite different than what is seen in the US. (Not that other manufacturers never have this kind of problem - they do!)
The standard for OE tires seems to be just beyond the 3 years/36,000 mile warranty provided by the vehicle manufacturer for the rest of the car (plenty of exceptions here!). So the vehicle in question seems right at the minimum.
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+1 to everything that CapriRacer stated!
Nowadays, if you can manage to get more than 30k-36k miles from a set of OEM tires on a Japanese-branded vehicle, you are very, very lucky. My friend’s Rav-4 came with Bridgestones that were badly (but evenly) worn by 30k miles, and I had a similar experience with my Accord.
But, if the OP thinks that is bad, then he should be very glad that he wasn’t buying cars back in the '60s, when most cars were “undershod” with tires that were just too small for their weight. My father’s '66 Ford Galaxie 500 came from the factory with BF Goodrich Silvertown tires that were evenly, but very badly, worn by 16k miles!
The Pirelli P Zero’s that came stock on my 2016 Mustang lasted all of 11k miles. Apparently that’s par for the course, with them
On the other hand, the Yokohama Geolander’s that came on my Forester, at 32k still have 80% of the tread left (8/32 our of 10/32). That’s 90k miles till they reach 4/32, when I would replace them.
But driving habits factor into these numbers, as we all know…
All new Japanese vehicles I’ve been buying wore their tires by around 35-40K miles, so I support @VDCdriver and @CapriRacer here.
On my Altima, I was quite happy replacing OEM Michelins with Bridgestone “ECOPIA EP422+” - my MPG stayed around the same as with stock Michelins, but they are much more grippy, have less noise and after 40K miles their weare is still under 50% of the original thread. These are “resistance optimized” ones, but not to the extreme as OEM Michelins, so I would probably buy them again as they seem to be a good balance.
When I installed BFGoodrich on our Subaru Outback (which were grip/noise-optimized) I’ve immediately noticed 3-4 MPG economy drop, but these tires were very nice on grip and comfort, they wore slower than OEM, but still were out by around 50K miles
I think it is a little early for the tires to be worn out, but I can’t see them from here. Maybe if you posted a picture of the tread of one of them, I could give you a better answer.
One thing that can cause premature wear and failure is chronic low tire pressure. Tires lose about 1 psi per month. My recommendation is to check tire pressure quarterly and fill to about 3 psi above the recommended tire pressure on the placard located on the drivers side door post. This usually results in the longest tire life.
The other big cause is alignment, but only have the alignment redone IF the tires have an unusual tire wear pattern not caused by underinflation, i.e the treads wear mostly on the inside edge OR the outside edge of the tire. Both edges with excessive wear are the result of underinflation.
IMHO (and limited experience), new cars tend to “settle down” in elastic elements like bushings, resulting in need of alignment to be done sometime within first 2-3 years of their life, at the least. It was more or less evident on my set of cars I was buying new.
Since my local shop has been regularly sending “lifetime alignment for $100” coupon in the mail, I would usually buy one around car age of 1-1.5 year or such, then return back to them annually.
In my small sample size, I was comparing how much difference in angles I’m getting, year by year, and I do not see any need for alignment past 3-4 years actually: it comes in green zones and they do nothing, just tell “you are all good this time”, but initially, before car “settled down”, they would regularly do some relatively small adjustments.
Based on this, and OP’s car mileage, I would recommend alignment done in the same time as tires are to be changed, just to be on safe side.
Just my 2 cents…
Another cause of the suspension settling and necessitating the need for an alignment check is the transportation of the new cars from the factory to the dealers. Whether it be thousands of miles being jostled by ocean swells on a freighter or thousands of miles of bouncing on a transport truck or rail car; they all take a beating.
I always wait to see if an odd wear pattern emerges. If not, then I do NOT allow anyone to check my alignment. Some vehicles have needed an alignment, others have not. If you saw how they were aligned at the factory, you would be very reticent to allow anyone to check the alignment without a very good reason.
I hear you, @keith
I had an experience at one shop where I had to bring car back to them to redo alignment repeatedly, before it would go straight again… but I had no choice but to do alignment as I replaced struts and I knew angles would be all off… never returned to that shop ever since.
I don’t know why people think that they need a front end alignment when they replace their struts. The only angle affected is the camber and only of the struts have an adjustable camber, not all do. Even those who do, the camber is super simple to adjust.
36 k on new car tires , definitely possible. The manufacturer has no incentive to install long-wear tires on their new cars, so they often don’t. If you are buying new tires, folks here seem to like the Michelin Defender. Suggest before deciding what to do, take your Nissan to any tire store and they’ll be happy to take a look at the existing tread and give you a second opinion, or at least how urgent the need for new tires is.
The OEM tires on my '14 Murano needed to be replaced at about 22k and the next set only lasted to 50k. I’m on my 3rd set of tires and no one has been able to explain why. (They weren’t cheap tires, either.)
Have you moved recently? Some locales (like the southeast) use crushed granite in the blacktop and can be very abrasive on tires. Are tire warranties being honored?
I have not, but I do live in Texas, so heat is definitely a factor (from what I was told).
No, no warranty is being honored. I had the full extended warranty and only got service at the dealership but noticed my paperwork doesn’t list the rotations they said they were doing every oil change.
Long story short, I ran out of time and energy trying to fight the dealership (I’m a single mom working full time with a 90 minute commute).
I bought the 3rd set of tires on Monday and the tire place assured me they would honor the warranty if it happens again.
That said, do you think it’s worth continuing to fight for?
Likely reasons for the need to replace tires faster than you think should be necessary
- The make/model of the tire isn’t designed for high mileage tread life. Especially true for the tires that come on new cars, and the manufacturer has no incentive to install high mileage tires. Try Michelin Defender next time.
- Wheel alignment is incorrect. Have it checked, all four wheels. Especially toe.
- High speed freeway driving, especially in a hot climate.
- Rapid starts, stops, and cornering. Anytime the tires are squealing or skidding, much faster tread-wear.
- Unusually rough road conditions.
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