Michelin tire mileage???

After 52,000 miles, the Michelin tires that came on my '02 Jetta TDI still look like new. I have maintained the correct tire pressure summer and winter and rotated every 10,000 miles. How much mileage can I expect? Does anyone have a guess?

'02 Jetta TDI white, black leather, 5-spd, lux.

Pretty amazing you have that many miles. You must drive easy and mostly highway. Most get between 25-40K max out of them. Also they get harder as they age, so th wear rates slow down. Be careful with this as a 3 year old tire can be very hard and not have the best wet/snow traction.

[ QUOTE ]
Gil_Hughes said: After 52,000 miles, the Michelin tires that came on my '02 Jetta TDI still look like new. I have maintained the correct tire pressure summer and winter and rotated every 10,000 miles. How much mileage can I expect? Does anyone have a guess?

'02 Jetta TDI white, black leather, 5-spd, lux.

[/ QUOTE ]

__. I can't guess because I'm behind you. I just rotated mine at about 33K. Also, so little wear I'd believe it if someone said that they were new. BTW, I'm still on the OEM set of tires.

GIL HUGES--- what PSI do you run???

I have just about 60000 on the NB.Rotate them every 10000.I run 44 psi in them.99% of my driving is on the highway.

You're lucky. I am not having good luck with mine. The first 10K miles were at factory specs. After that I bumped them up to 40. I just hit 20K, and I will be lucky if these make it to 25K.

[ QUOTE ]
Gil_Hughes said:
After 52,000 miles, the Michelin tires that came on my '02 Jetta TDI still look like new. I have maintained the correct tire pressure summer and winter and rotated every 10,000 miles. How much mileage can I expect? Does anyone have a guess?

'02 Jetta TDI white, black leather, 5-spd, lux.

[/ QUOTE ]
Welcome Gil,
You can do a projection based on the following:
Example:
Must know the OE tread depth. 11/32nds (I’m not sure on the Mich)
Measure your current tread depth. 6/32nds
Subtract current tread depth from OE tread depth: 11/32-6/32=5/32nds.
Divide the used 32nds by the miles on the tire. 52000/5=10400 miles per 32nd.
Your miles per 32nd in the above example is 10,400.
Tires are worn out at 2/32nds so that gives you 9 “usable” 32nds.
Your max mileage would be 9x10400=93600.
I pull mine at 4/32nds and in reality most people do for a number of reasons (hydroplaning, shoulder wear, uneven wear etc.)
Practically speaking in the above example I would multiply 10400x7/32nd to get a more realistic removal mileage number. 72,800 miles.
If you don’t have one you can buy a tread depth gauge at most auto parts stores.

Good Luck! /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[ QUOTE ]
lschultz said:
I have just about 60000 on the NB.Rotate them every 10000.I run 44 psi in them.99% of my driving is on the highway.

[/ QUOTE ]

__. How much wear do you think is on your tires so far, Larry?

(PS I run about 37 Psi - I get good mileage but more than that seems to "tramline" on the rutted roads that we have down here.)

[ QUOTE ]
jasonTDI said:
Also they get harder as they age, so the wear rates slow down. Be careful with this as a 3 year old tire can be very hard and not have the best wet/snow traction.


[/ QUOTE ]
I’m not sure about that, I have done field studies on passenger and truck tires for a long time and rate of wear in general does not change significantly, in fact some tires have compounds that change (base cap) as the tires wear to help them wear evenly and maintain wet traction. This could actually cause some tires to wear more rapidly as a result. You are right that traction can become an issue as tires wear. It’s not that the “hardness” changes, it’s just the lack of tread.

I am at 64,800 miles. About 60% highway driven. The question is the weight in the car and the tire pressure. Both are a factor to the life of the tire. When I am adding all the tools for a TB on a road trip, I add a few more pounds to the tires. The thing is you want all of the tire to touch the road not to cup in or cup out. And your wheels are balance and aligned.

I could make it last 100,000 if I never had load in the car and just me and nothing else with proper pressure. But then if that is the case, I should be driving a smaller car. But I don't.

Not sure about the Michelins for these cars - our new one came equipped with them.
But, I've had trucks with Michelins and they lasted 60,000km based on extremely rough usage (mine site, gravel roads, EXTREMELY fast highway driving, etc). Other brands did not make it past 20k, so I was very happy with the results.
FYI: I just had to get rod of my badyears off my F150 - 40k and basically toast. Got some Nokians and they come with 100k warranty!!

When I had my 98 Beetle, I had close to 50k when I traded it and the Michelins looked brand new. I suspect that I could have gone to 100k with no problem.

I got over 50,000 miles on my Michelin LTX truck tires on my Powerstroke Ford!
Have sworn off Michelin(because of where they are made). Looking for good alternatives.

Get the Nokian truck tires. 100K mileage warranty. We are running them on a Jeep Cherokee and have had great luck with them. And the U.S. supplier is in TN to boot.

I've got a beef with Michelin Tires ... and its not the French thing. I was pleased when our Jetta TDI came with Michelin SXE 195/65/15 as my experience with Michelin tires had been positive. Unfortunately with this original set (factory tires) the car was loosing traction by 35,000 miles. I didn't replace with Michelins but opted for Dunlop. Wet traction returned. Handling and noise is fine.

As for my positive experience: My AWD Chrysler T&C Minivan came with Michelin MX-4 tires. I drove them 110,000 miles and only replaced because one tire blew out. (side wall cut when I bumped a curb) I never rotated that I can recall. Second set were Michelin X radials and went 75,000 (moved front to back once) and just replaced with 3rd set of Michelin X Radials (94s M+S 215/60/16) last month. ($105/tire)

I have found that the Michelin X Radial tires for the minivans seem to have it all. Great ride, handling acceptable for a minivan, super traction on dry, wet and snow ... an superb wear. Mileage for my van has remained constant at 20.5 mpg for 190,000 miles. I wonder if they (or why they don't) use this rubber compound in tires to fit the TDIs?

Never heard of them. Where are they made? Are they as smooth and as quiet as the LTXs?

[ QUOTE ]
deerleg said:
[ QUOTE ]
Gil_Hughes said:
After 52,000 miles, the Michelin tires that came on my '02 Jetta TDI still look like new. I have maintained the correct tire pressure summer and winter and rotated every 10,000 miles. How much mileage can I expect? Does anyone have a guess?

'02 Jetta TDI white, black leather, 5-spd, lux.

[/ QUOTE ]
Welcome Gil,
You can do a projection based on the following:
Example:
Must know the OE tread depth. 11/32nds (I’m not sure on the Mich)
Measure your current tread depth. 6/32nds
Subtract current tread depth from OE tread depth: 11/32-6/32=5/32nds.
Divide the used 32nds by the miles on the tire. 52000/5=10400 miles per 32nd.
Your miles per 32nd in the above example is 10,400.
Tires are worn out at 2/32nds so that gives you 9 “usable” 32nds.
Your max mileage would be 9x10400=93600.
I pull mine at 4/32nds and in reality most people do for a number of reasons (hydroplaning, shoulder wear, uneven wear etc.)
Practically speaking in the above example I would multiply 10400x7/32nd to get a more realistic removal mileage number. 72,800 miles.
If you don’t have one you can buy a tread depth gauge at most auto parts stores.

Good Luck! /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Deerleg has got the drill down. All you really need is to measure the remaining tread with a caliper or tire tread measuring tool. I have also heard and confirmed by a few sources that the UTOG rating is usually ONLY consistent in an OEM LINE and not across lines. Hence a Michelin 400 utog rating may or may not be comparible to say a Bridgestone 400 utog rating.

So on my stock Goodyear LS's, 10k tire rotation intervals and Criss cross 5 tire method with between 35-38 psi front and 33-35 psi rear; I am wearing slightly less than 1/32 each 10.3k miles. So given 11/32 start and 2/32 legally bald, I have 9/32 remaining . This converts to 10.3k x 9/32= 92.7k for a 400 utog. BUT, I have a 360 UTOG so 10% x 92.7k=83.4k projected.

i have 80,000 on my stock michelins right now. they're starting to get worn on the edges, and i'm gonna replace them next week. they could probably still go about another 5k, but the snow is coming and i want new rubber! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

jxp, I have a set of Michelins mounted on AVUS wheels that came off my Jetta. The stuff has 1000 miles on it. New Michelins are right around $107 each plus shipping. Mine are for sale for $100 each and are already mounted on a perfect set of wheels, balanced and are very much ready to go!

I'll buy 'em from you. where in MA are you, i'll go pick it up.

anyone know if the stock tires have any sort of road hazzard coverage from michelin? we've got really crap roads in NM.

on the subject of michelins coming from france, i'm boycotting diesel because of where it is made (iraq) and who stands to profit from it (the robbers from the USA). go biodiesel!

[ QUOTE ]
kyote321 said:
on the subject of michelins coming from france, i'm boycotting diesel because of where it is made (iraq) and who stands to profit from it ...

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/grin.gif


kyote, I don't know about the road hazard business. The best place to check would be the supplemental info that came with your new car. There certainly will be some kind of product warranty.

[ QUOTE ]
ruking said:

So on my stock Goodyear LS's, 10k tire rotation intervals and Criss cross 5 tire method with between 35-38 psi front and 33-35 psi rear; I am wearing slightly less than 1/32 each 10.3k miles. So given 11/32 start and 2/32 legally bald, I have 9/32 remaining . This converts to 10.3k x 9/32= 92.7k for a 400 utog. BUT, I have a 360 UTOG so 10% x 92.7k=83.4k projected.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think its "UTQG" - uniform tire quality grading which gives you some idea how a tire will wear compared to one with another rating under identical controlled test conditions. The ratings do very from one manufacture to another. If you know how many miles per 32nd you are averaging I would simply multiply times usable 32nds. In some regards the rating is irrelevant as it relates to "real world" driving. As noted in many of the above posts removal mileage and wear are all over the board. The driver, the application, inflation, and load all impact tire wear. If I drive my car hard,don't rotate tires or pay attention to psi I will be lucky to get 20K. On the other hand if I am very carful and rotate and maintain optimum psi I could tripel or more my milage. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[ QUOTE ]
dieseldorf said:
jxp, I have a set of Michelins mounted on AVUS wheels that came off my Jetta. The stuff has 1000 miles on it. New Michelins are right around $107 each plus shipping. Mine are for sale for $100 each and are already mounted on a perfect set of wheels, balanced and are very much ready to go!



[/ QUOTE ]

May I ask you the reason why you're replacing them?

Too much fuel economy????? /images/graemlins/confused.gif