50,000 miles in and with a second "fatal" flat tire I was faced with needing to replace the OEM Dunlops. After some research, but somewhat on impulse, I found that my local tire dealer is carrying Nokians and went for a set of the I3s.

From what I could find, I thought the I3s were considered a LRR tire, but that information was hard to find and the ratings not necessarily consistent. I know the full silica tires would provide even less resistance, but was scared off by what seemed very low milage life.

While I'm only a tank in, I've just had my worse FE week since the initial break-in last winter and having minor heart palpatations at the possible loss of my hard won 50 MPG.

That said, I believe I've read that tires have an initial break-in period and as I think about it the car feels a lot like it did when I first started driving it. When I first started driving the HCI, I remember regularly coming up short when trying to coast into stops and even commented on the board that I thought the car had a lot of resistance when rolling. Since then, it had been a coasting monster, feeling like I could roll forever on the slightest downhill grade.

Okay, that's the long-winded way of asking if anyone else is using the I3s and what they have found for a change in FE once the tire has had some time on the road. Thanks in advance for any feedback -- the heart palpatations did ease some once I found out about the 30 day satisfaction guarantee.

PS, Driving home in a driving rain with heavy puddling today, I have to say that the handling was far superior to the OEMs.

 

first thing is to check the tire pressure and run it up but within the max pressure rating on the sidewall.

While I dont have Nokians I have others and was concerned about my MPGs as you are. Once I upped the pressure a little, the mpgs came right back

best of luck to ya.

 

Did you fill up at your normal station? It's possible that you filled up with E10 without noticing. Just a possibility. Check tire pressure and test on more tanks to find out what is really going on.

 

Shaun,

Had the same thoughts when replaced oem dunlops with mich mxv4 s8s. Better ride, traction and 5 mpg lower FE right off the bat. Certainly could not coast as far in them.

Had alignment done at dealer - and most measures were out of spec.... Also pressed up to ~50psi (max sidewall). Now within 1-2mpg of dunlops, with better ride, traction.

 

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I had the tires at 40 PSI but have gone up to 45 (90% of the maximum inflation). I will check on the alignment at the next maintenance minder service. I hesitate to have the alignment done outside of the dealers, although I have had other 4 wheel alignments done where I purchased the tires with good results. I try to be careful to look for the ethanol when at the gas station, but that could be a factor also.

I'm going outside now to do the MSantos pipe insulation fix on the front grill and will also have the block heater installed at my next service. Maybe that will make up for any tire related FE loss (instead of getting me to the next MPG plateau).

Still curious if anyone else is running on the I3s?

 

Okay, about 1,000 miles in and the freaking out is subsiding. I'm back up to about 48 mpg, about the same as last winter, during a week with a lot of wind and wet. Boosting the tire pressure to 90% of max (47 psi) and the MSantos pipe insulation in the grill has really helped.

On the performance side, what a difference. We have had several heavy rains this past week and the difference in handling is significant. As many of us are approaching tire change time, you may want to think about the I3s to your list of options.

 

which one helped - or both - did you do them at the same time?

glad you are nont stressing now - wait for the heat in the spring...

 

I increased the tire pressure first and raising it from the 42 or so I had been using with the Dunlops to 47 for the I3s got about half back. With the insulation in this week I've been back to my normal winter range.

As I think about it, FE was probably a little better than I would have expected given several days of rain, which normally is a big FE killer.

The tires themselves are also breaking in so that probably also has helped. If I can afford it, I'm thinking of getting a set of the Nokian full silica tires for the summer (their highest LRR) to see what that does.

 

Shaun, have you been able to find any info regarding the LRR ratings of Nokian's tires? I was wondering how you know that particular tire is their highest LRR.
I'm kind of curious where their various tires fall on the LRR scale, and there's little info available.

 

I had a lot of trouble finding information on LRR ratings for tires. One thing I did find was in a VW TDI forum where someone email Nokian and the answer back was that the full silicas where the best from an LRR perspective but had a much shorter road life. A link to that thread is here:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=140094