iMiEV tyre wear status

Post by **acmotor** » Mon, 31 Aug 2015, 05:15

There are continental ecocontact 3s listed on eBay....

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Continental- ... 27f9273673

These are the ones that I have put 50,000km on so far.

Post by **g4qber** » Thu, 10 Sep 2015, 14:38

changed tyres yesterday at 71380kms to Conti Eco contact
$131 per tyre
bob jane T mart Joondalup
$44 wheel alignment using 20% off voucher on Long Life Tyre Plan

they suggested I get nitrogen

Fred uses nitrogen on his Volvo and his wife's car
topups are free
they have a Nitrogen extracting machine in house
$7.50 per tyre to change to Nitrogen.

acmotor do you do you own wheel alignment?

Previous Kumhos were done on
7 Feb 2014 40159 kms
9 Sep 2015 71380

didn't realise I do so many kms.

Post by **Peter C in Canberra** » Thu, 10 Sep 2015, 14:57

I fill my tyres with 80% nitrogen, which comes for free!

Post by **rhills** » Thu, 10 Sep 2015, 17:26

I get a carefully blended, premium gas mix for my tyres, 80% nitrogen, 19% oxygen and some soothing trace gases which all help the tyres run so much smoother. Only $5 extra per topup, a bargain!

Seriously, what benefits are touted for pure Nitrogen as a tyre gas compared with just air?

Post by **g4qber** » Thu, 10 Sep 2015, 20:21

http://www.bobjane.com.au/services/nitrogen-inflation/

Tyres run Cooler hence longer life

Post by **Peter C in Canberra** » Thu, 10 Sep 2015, 20:40

"Tyres run Cooler hence longer life"

Only from the supposed effect of keeping the pressure right. I can't see how a slightly different gas mixture (still 80 or 100% N2 either way) would make any difference to the running temperature if the pressure is correct.

"Not only can nitrogen assist in maintaining the correct tyre pressure for longer..."

Slightly plausible but only for the reason below. I am sceptical about any difference of diffusion through the tyre. O2 is barely different from N2 so far as its behaviour as a gas is concerned. Some have told me their original iMiEV tyres would lose pressure quickly with air but not with N2. That seems highly implausible. I have had mine filled with 1st class Canberra air and only checked infrequently and had no problem with loss of pressure.

"the large reduction of other gases and water vapour found in your tyres result in a more consistent pressure at higher operating temperatures."

An effect of water vapour on tyre pressure is slightly plausible. Pressure would vary as water condenses or evaporates with temperature and the effect would be more than just dry air being a bit warmer or cooler. Just using dry air would do the job as well as nitrogen. As for other trace gases, they would stay gases and pressure would not change with temperature for them any more or less than for the N2 and O2 that make up the other 99%.

"Nitrogen also assists with the elimination of oxygen and water vapour from the tyre which can cause both corrosion of the rim and oxidation of the tyre casing."

Maybe, but the outside of the tyre and the rim are exposed to water and oxygen anyway. Removing them just from inside seems unlikely to help much. And how big a problem is oxidation anyway? Don't you just wear out the running surface of the tyre long before oxidation has been a problem?

However, perhaps that is another advantage of EVs - ability to operate without oxygen! As some else on this forum pointed out. EVs have been used on three times as many planetary bodies as petrol vehicles.

Post by **Evadman** » Thu, 15 Nov 2018, 05:14

dgj4710 wrote: ↑Sat, 21 Sep 2013, 03:06 Fitting wider tyres to the front of the iMiEV while leaving the rears at the original width will make the car more likely to oversteer in turns when the throttle is lifted, particularly if you're using the B setting with aggressive regen.

Can confirm, even at stock sizes. It was snowing, in a low radius left hand turn at about 30 mph in max regen braking setting. I let off the gas going into the turn, no brake. The car nearly instantly swapped ends. I have spun out lots of cars and love drifing, so I know quite well what it feels like. I have never ever seen a car swap ends as fast as the MIEV did. It was completely uncontrollable; the stability control didn't even try (It is quite loud in the cabin when it turns on). I would estimate I was backwards within a tenth to maybe a max of two tenths of a second. I was able to keep the car in the lane backwards, but there was no way a human could have kept the car from swapping ends if they didn't know it was about to happen.

Now, I am much more careful when driving it in the snow, and I don't use regen braking. After testing in a parking lot, it was too difficult to modulate the gas pedal to keep the car from going around by itself (the last 1/4" of gas pedal range actually modulates the regen force when in max regen)

Sorry for posting to an old topic

Post by **zzcoopej** » Thu, 15 Nov 2018, 10:19

Evadman wrote: ↑Thu, 15 Nov 2018, 05:14 I let off the gas going into the turn, no brake. The car nearly instantly swapped ends. I have spun out lots of cars and love drifing, so I know quite well what it feels like. I have never ever seen a car swap ends as fast as the MIEV did. It was completely uncontrollable; the stability control didn't even try (It is quite loud in the cabin when it turns on). I would estimate I was backwards within a tenth to maybe a max of two tenths of a second. I was able to keep the car in the lane backwards

The exact same thing happened to me when going straight through a roundabout in the rain, with the iMiEV full of people too. Very embarrassing however as you say, happened way too fast to counter.
Like you, I could luckily bring the iMiEV to a stop before hitting something. I think maybe regen bypasses the ABS and/or traction detection as the brake pedal and accelerator are not being pressed?

Post by **g4qber** » Mon, 09 Sep 2019, 09:27

changed tyres to Achilles as there were no Continentals in stock.
Bob Jane T-Mart Joondalup. They had to get the rears in from a different company.

EBD doesn't like the new tyres.
This is good cos it teaches one how to drive sensibly.

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