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Replacing OEM Nexen Tires after only 7500 miles for Poor Winter Performance!

11K views 24 replies 17 participants last post by  centerpunch 
#1 ·
So I'm not sure if anyone else has run into this issue. We have 18" wheels on our 2019 PacHy Limited, and while it is somewhat admirable in the snow once you get going, it's atrocious when faced with a hill and starting from a stop. We've now had two inconsequential snowfalls, one that was 1-3" of slushy snow and one that was 4-6" which we didn't do a lot of driving around on.

For the first snow, I was out of town but wife said she was sliding a lot out of the roads which have minimal hills. She could not get up our driveway which is, to be fair, quite steep. The next snow we got about 2" in a short amount of time, I was at my parents house and reversed out onto the street, and from a standstill going up a hill the wheels just spun, there was no amount of rocking or turning or spinning wheels or burning rubber smell that would get me up that relatively unremarkable hill. The exits out of my parents house to the main arteries included a somewhat steep hill and more rolling hills as the second, I took the second option and was terrified that I'd be one of those stranded motorist stuck on a hill.

I had to first shovel my parents street, then instead of reversing out of the driveway I had the car facing forward so I could get some momentum. I was able to get enough traction to get up the hill, then we got to the first main road I had just enough momentum to get me over the first rolling hill, then with speed I was able to manage from there without any additional slip/slidding traction issues. I was also not faced with going up a hill from a standstill.

My other vehicle is an outback, it has had absolutely zero issues getting up our driveway or anything else, the PacHy can't even get the rear wheels off the street before it's spinning the front wheels. So the outback is probably a gold standard, but my ford fusion seemed to perform better as well, that was a car with FWD and tires that had 60k miles on them. Obviously from a dead stop, the PacHy has 5000lbs to overcome but this just seems extreme.

We're going up to the UP of Michigan for two weeks, and after some debate we're replacing the tires. With 3 little kids in tow it just seems like too much of a risk. So my question to the community is:
1) Am I crazy, has anyone else had a similar experience, is it possible I got garbage tires?
2) Is there any recourse, I'm guessing not but I am pretty pissed that Chrysler stopped supplying Michelin OEM tires on what is supposed to be a family safe minivan, certainly doesn't feel that way in the snow! I would've gladly paid the $200 difference for 4 tires to get a better performing all season
3) Has anyone ever sold used tires, at 7500mi it just feels like a waste getting rid of them, but just wasn't worth taking the chance on our trip.

Car has been great, I know I read on these forums various horror stories that gave me pause, and obviously I'm reporting a relatively minor one here, but overall we've been extremely happy with everything else (other than the engine turning on in the cold, booo!!)

Appreciate any feedback!
 
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#4 ·
If you're going to become a temporary Yooper, there are really no OEM tires that would meet that challenge. Your Outback has all wheel drive, much better for snow.

If you're going to keep the Pachy for a while, buy some inexpensive wheels and four winter tires.
 
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#6 ·
The Yokogama 17" tires are not much better. I can spin them easily on a wet road. Going uphill is a challenge, partially because the heavy battery sits in the middle and doesn't contribute to loading the front wheels.
If you are in the snow belt, a dedicated set of cheap rims with winter tires would be the best long term solution.
 
#8 ·
I also found the Nexen tires to be wanting. They are very noisy and certainly not good in the snow. I put Michelin snow tires on a separate set of rims. They go on the car November to March, Discount Tires will put them on and off for free. I had a set of rims from a 2015 Dodge Caravan that fit the Pacifica, so I used those. The Michelins got me through a 16" snowfall.
 
#9 ·
I have been using the OEM Nexens on my 2018 PacHy, about 20,000+ miles so far. We don't get much snow here, mostly rain. I have found that I have to go easy on the "gas" pedal when starting from a stop, especially on the painted crosswalks when they are wet. The torque is high enough to spin the wheels when the roads are wet and slippery. I guess I need to be less lead footed in those conditions anyway, but the tires might be part of the problem, possibly. I can live with them until they wear out, I will keep rotating them and try to get another year out of them.
 
#10 · (Edited)
So I'm not sure if anyone else has run into this issue. We have 18" wheels on our 2019 PacHy Limited, and while it is somewhat admirable in the snow once you get going, it's atrocious when faced with a hill and starting from a stop. We've now had two inconsequential snowfalls, one that was 1-3" of slushy snow and one that was 4-6" which we didn't do a lot of driving around on.

For the first snow, I was out of town but wife said she was sliding a lot out of the roads which have minimal hills. She could not get up our driveway which is, to be fair, quite steep. The next snow we got about 2" in a short amount of time, I was at my parents house and reversed out onto the street, and from a standstill going up a hill the wheels just spun, there was no amount of rocking or turning or spinning wheels or burning rubber smell that would get me up that relatively unremarkable hill. The exits out of my parents house to the main arteries included a somewhat steep hill and more rolling hills as the second, I took the second option and was terrified that I'd be one of those stranded motorist stuck on a hill.

I had to first shovel my parents street, then instead of reversing out of the driveway I had the car facing forward so I could get some momentum. I was able to get enough traction to get up the hill, then we got to the first main road I had just enough momentum to get me over the first rolling hill, then with speed I was able to manage from there without any additional slip/slidding traction issues. I was also not faced with going up a hill from a standstill.

My other vehicle is an outback, it has had absolutely zero issues getting up our driveway or anything else, the PacHy can't even get the rear wheels off the street before it's spinning the front wheels. So the outback is probably a gold standard, but my ford fusion seemed to perform better as well, that was a car with FWD and tires that had 60k miles on them. Obviously from a dead stop, the PacHy has 5000lbs to overcome but this just seems extreme.

We're going up to the UP of Michigan for two weeks, and after some debate we're replacing the tires. With 3 little kids in tow it just seems like too much of a risk. So my question to the community is:
1) Am I crazy, has anyone else had a similar experience, is it possible I got garbage tires?
2) Is there any recourse, I'm guessing not but I am pretty pissed that Chrysler stopped supplying Michelin OEM tires on what is supposed to be a family safe minivan, certainly doesn't feel that way in the snow! I would've gladly paid the $200 difference for 4 tires to get a better performing all season
3) Has anyone ever sold used tires, at 7500mi it just feels like a waste getting rid of them, but just wasn't worth taking the chance on our trip.

Car has been great, I know I read on these forums various horror stories that gave me pause, and obviously I'm reporting a relatively minor one here, but overall we've been extremely happy with everything else (other than the engine turning on in the cold, booo!!)

Appreciate any feedback!
You are not alone. The tires that came with our car were the worst OEM tires that I have even seen. Even the slightest bit of snow/slush made the car undriveable. I understand the tires are meant for low rolling resistance to improve MPG but when over half the country receives at least some snow during the year you would think that they would put tires on that provided at least minimal traction. There are plenty of comments on this and other forums about how awful the tires are. I had do replace mine with less than 1000 miles on them.
 
#11 ·
Yeah problem is not so much the tire as the electric vehicles ability to overrun the tire on slick conditions . Even my blizzard are no match for electric acceleration . Ultimately, it’s drivers input that will allow for better transition of acceleration. Can’t wait for AWD pacifica hybrid , much easier acceleration than just the 2 front wheels . The ability to push van wheels from back and pull van from front will indeed make inclement weather driving way easier ..
 
#13 ·
It's the tires. Even the Michelins were iffy in some weather. They were ok (faint praise) in the snow and on dry, but if the roads were just wet I may as well have been driving on greased moose turds. Replaced them with GoodYear Assurance WeatherReady tires at 33k miles. The Michelins were shot. A world of difference with no noticible loss in efficiency. I don't do burnouts trying to get into traffic anymore. I run them at 39psi.

They were purchased and installed for less than $700 at Sams. link
 
#15 ·
I'd prefer if they just let you pick tires, one set will just be a crappy compromise for most people. I'm willing to sacrifice 100% snow performance for warm-weather wet+dry performance, because there is 0% chance of my vehicle seeing snow. Deliveries to Alaska probably have different requirements...
 
#19 ·
The 20" Nexens on my gas Limited are not horrible in the snow, but they certainly could be better. These are different than the 18" Nexens on the hybrid, which are low rolling resistance tires.
 
#20 ·
Was going to start a new thread but decided to add to this one. We bought our 2021 Pachy Limited in May. It came with 18" Nexen N Priz RH7A tires. To date we have driven over 11,000 miles. Tires seemed OK to me, handle well, low amount of noise, but I only drive it on road trips, and to date, pretty much only on dry roads. Pretty much any new tire is going to give those results.

I had the first opportunity to drive the van on packed snow in Northern Wisconsin over Thanksgiving. The main roads were all cleared, but back in this forested section we were driving the roads were snow packed. The roads had been sanded. Pickup trucks and SUV were going by at 40+ mph. I drove in low gear and drove extremely cautiously, getting up to 25 mph at most. I didn't have any feeling of confidence driving this van with the Nexen tires on snow.

We saw a deer, and I stopped the van on the road, an uphill incline of maybe 7-10 degrees. When I started the van again, I could not move forward. Tires spun, even in low gear, with zero forward movement. I had to put the van in reverse and back down the hill, and when I got to the bottom of the hill (may 60 feet or so) then I put it back in drive, got a little momentum, and barely made it up the hill.

I'm normally one to drive stock tires to their end-of-life, which is typically around 40K miles, even for 60K rated tires. But after my experience, and reading several poor reviews online of these RH7A tires, I'm having these Nexens replaced with Michelin CrossClimate 2 tires. The CC2 have excellent reviews for an all-season tire. It's just not worth the risk to run these Nexen tires in the winter in the Midwest where we see some snow.
 
#21 ·
Living in Texas, we don’t get much snow (except last year, apparently). Over the last year though, I’ve run up 25k miles and they don’t wear the best. Small chunks of rubber are missing and they just look like junk. Really just poor quality rubber. My dad had OEM Nexens on his Ram and the tread actually separated! I agree with swapping early. I would too, especially if I lived up north.
 
#23 ·
It has only snowed once here in Ohio, but the oem Michelin Premiers on my awd Pacifica were not impressive. I just took them off at 5k miles and also replaced them with Michelin Cross Climate 2- great tires I have on a couple other cars.

235’s were out of stock so I went with 245/60-18, a tiny bit bigger.

I’m going to put the stock tires in the basement and will probably put them back on in 6 or 7 years when we sell the car.
 
#24 ·
It has only snowed once here in Ohio, but the oem Michelin Premiers on my awd Pacifica were not impressive. I just took them off at 5k miles and also replaced them with Michelin Cross Climate 2- great tires I have on a couple other cars.

235’s were out of stock so I went with 245/60-18, a tiny bit bigger.

I’m going to put the stock tires in the basement and will probably put them back on in 6 or 7 years when we sell the car.
I would love to see a picture of the 245's on your van. I have thought about doing the same thing. Did you check for speedo error? Just curious. How is the steering? Road noise?
 
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