Epic Taycan Tire Tale

[Jonathan S.]

Jogged two miles back to the diesel yard to retrieve my A6ar since they were closing for the weekend soon. Drove the A6ar back down the road to find my Taycan all set. Drove my Taycan half-an-hour back to my place in Twin Mtn, leaving my A6ar at VIP Tires.

Weather had cooled down nicely with no chance of further rain.

Road my gravel bike for almost seven miles on the secondary highways that had made me a bit nervous beforehand but turned out to have good shoulders. Then an absolutely wonderful twenty-one miles on the Presidential Rail Trail:

Tossed my gravel bike into the A6ar (front wheel still on, wuhooo!), drove half-an-hour back to my place in Twin Mtn, then rearranged the cargo covers on both cars (motorized retractable version on A6ar, ooh!) and sorted out all the spare setups between the two cars and storage areas in the garage:

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[Jonathan S.]

I definitely could have driven back to my family in Amherst MA that night on Friday, but … I definitely didn’t need to.

And the weather forecast for the summit of Mt Washington on Saturday definitely called for another PR attempt for the roundtrip hike. I was anything but fresh, although I thought some new trail runners this year with better traction would help for the looser steeper descents. (Despite my downhill skiing, I’m not a good descender on foot.)

Sure enough, I clocked in at 2:41:20, which although absurdly slow compared to the fastest times in the annual trail running race for the roundtrip division, still beat my prior PR by seven minutes, so my streak since wrapping up my testimony on Wednesday afternoon was continuing!

Celebrated with a Taycan photo op at the hiker parking lot then drove back to Amherst MA for tennis with my daughter and her teammate with temps in the 80s F after wind chills in the 30s F on Mt Washington:

 

[Jonathan S.]

And thus concludes … actually, not quite concluded yet!

You might notice that all this has been in the first-person singular, but I had two German stations wagons in northern NH. And my primary residence is in Western Mass.

So which German station wagon to drive back on Saturday June 21 (after all this first started on June 6)?

That was an easy decision, since we were leaving for a family roadtrip the following day, Sunday June 22, with an itinerary of Amherst MA > Washington DC > Charleston SC > Savannah GA > Williamsburg VA > Milton DE > Amherst MA.

Even aside from public charging uncertainty, the A6ar offers so much more space for both people and … stuff, including the OEM Vredestein collapsible spare (neatly stowed beneath the cargo floor), a full-size aftermarket spare, and my wife’s plug-in fridge.

Everything amazingly went according to plan, except for Milton DE, which was going to be just one night at a friend’s beach house, but last week his father died (age 89, in failing health for many months, so almost more of a relief).

So instead we drove straight through last night, Saturday July 5, but with a drop-off for me at my friend’s primary residence in New Rochelle NY so that I could stay there overnight (while my wife and our daughter continued driving north) to join him in sitting shiva today on Sunday July 6.

Right now I’m on a train from New Rochelle NY to Springfield MA, where my wife will pick me up.

I’m hoping to drive almost nowhere the next few days, in any vehicle, then on Monday July 14 I’m flying out on another ski trip, and I always take my A6ar (instead of the Taycan) to stay parked at BDL while I’m away.

I’ll probably be reunited again with my Taycan on July 20 when we swing by Twin Mtn after a trip to Burlington VT to visit my wife’s brother (aka the CFO of the company that built and operates the only NEVI station in the four-state region of VT, NH, MA, CT, i.e., the station where the cell service isn’t strong enough to use the Red E app, where the Red E RFID card is not available to the public, and where the cc readers don’t work reliably).

Final pics to follow then!

And until then, the Taycan is charged to 85%, disconnected from the charger, locked, inside a locked garage, which is detached, just in case the Taycan decides to spontaneously combust (right?).

 

[moto_geek]

Wow quite the story. I didn"t even know a taycan spare existed. I bring the tire repair plugs to shove in and seems to work well to get to a tire repair shop. Even driving on a fully deflated tire 100 feet can cause the inside side wall to get damaged past repair. So if you rapid loss of error, fine the next safe spot. But I will consider this spare as an option for long road trips in middle no where.

 

[Jonathan S.]

^ I carry a plug kit in each car, although so far all my recent punctures have been relatively slow leaks of a few pounds per hour, so I've been able to just inflate the tire back up to drive home. The Vredestein collapsible spare takes up significantly less space than even the most minimal donut. However, those spares are OEM-only. So you have to figure out which car has an OEM space that might work, then track down a wreck on eBay. (For my i4, IIRC an older A4 Allroad matched.) Here's the list of what might all the possible sizes: https://tirebird.com/tires/vredestein/space-master/ ... although for the Taycan, the Cayenne spare definitely fits.

 

[Zcd1]

Epic, indeed - I’m exhausted just reading it!

Also always cool when “forum friends” meet in real life and become actual friends…

 

[Jonathan S.]

And the tale is now complete!

But not without some final complications of course ...

The original Taycan Retrieval Plan was to get a ride with my wife’s sister (whose brother is the CFO of the failed NEVI station in VT, the only NEVI station across VT, NH, MA, and CT) on this past Friday afternoon, since she was driving up with two friends for the famed Presidential Traverse hike.

But, a friend staying at my place Monday through Friday was driving down from there Friday on his way to a family reunion in southern NY, stopping along the way to meet me at my primary residence in Western Mass, so we’d be ships passing in the night.

Then the new plan became visiting my wife’s brother in northern VT that weekend (and complaining to him about his failed NEVI station), and on the way back (sort of…) my wife and daughter would drop me off in NH, where I’d spend a couple nights, then drive back triumphant in my Taycan.

Unfortunately, that weekend visit was cancelled for entirely unrelated reasons.

But my wife suggested that her sister drive back the Taycan on Sunday afternoon, since she was carpooling up there with her two friends. And what a surprise, she agreed!

Although then I realized, since my friend was driving to visit me on Friday mid-day, just in case anything were to go wrong with my sister-in-law’s plans on Sunday afternoon, maybe my friend could drive the Taycan while his wife and son drove in the rental. And what a surprised, he agreed – people are just helpful about driving a Taycan, who would have thought?

Oh, and then the update went just fine, unlike an update for our i4, which got stuck at 49% something, then gave up entirely, with no way to receive the update now other than at the dealer. (The equivalent i4 forum has at least a couple people with the same problem, and they are similarly displeased.)

 

[Jonathan S.]

Not again!

Enjoyed some fun skiing along the Mt W Cog railway ski trail Wednesday afternoon, with more snow in the forecast:

Awoke to more snow on the ground, more snow in the air, more snow on the radar map ...
... and a Taycan warning message of tire pressure 25 pounds below spec:

Fortunately I now have full-size spares up there, both front and rear.
(In addition to the Vredestein collapsible spare in the car.)

Time to crack those nuts!

Unfortunately, they were quite tight, and I'd never really thought about how the collapsible/foldable tire iron that fits so nicely under the Taycan cargo floor is absurdly vulnerable to breakage:

I'm not even sure how I acquired that thing -- might have just be left at my house, or perhaps found at my childhood home when clearing things out.

However, I realized that I could attach the part I needed at the end that was still good:

Still wouldn't budge.
One of the carpenters doing some work at my house volunteered to crack them -- rather clever technique of just using his body weight to step on it.
Why didn't I ever think of that?
Unfortunately, that just broke the other side of the collapsible / foldable tire iron.
Fortunately, it worked just fine on that otherwise inadequately sized torque wrench, yay.

After jacking up the car and removing the nuts, wheel was stuck.
That's happened before, and I know the trick for it.
First though I had to pump the tire up, and ... hmm, air was going in fine, and some quick calcs in my head suggested I could drive the 15 min to Mt W each way, and drive home almost 3 hrs.
But upon trying that, I realized that the puncture (machine screw) must have been at the bottom of the tire, and now when rotating, just from the sound of it the pressure loss was too rapid.
Although that freed up the stuck wheel, yay.

My Modern Spare scissor jack did become stuck, but fortunately just as it was low enough to remove from the car.
I've used it quite a few times, but still disappointing.
Modern Spare is simply sending me a free replacement -- I suppose that's their approach to QA/QC?

Discovered that at first the Taycan will display pressure for three tires and nothing for the fourth (as on the i4), but then gives up on all of them and displays an error message if just one lacks a sensor.

Skiing got better and better through the day, then got off snow on Mt W at 3:01 to get onto a tennis court in Western Mass with my daughter at 7:42, with shower, eating, unrepacking, in between.
(Will find out tomorrow morning if tire can be plugged, but it's the center of the tread, so I'm hopeful!)

 

[Jonathan S.]

And the Epic Taycan Tire Tale continues!
Along with great irony, since I haven't had any problems with premature wear on the inner shoulders. I drive maybe 1/4 of the time in Lowered, but Low is maybe only 1/8. I keep my tires inflated to 37 front, 39 rear, 20" CC2 (4CT).
But it's just been Bad Luck.

So ...

December 19, Friday, driving about 30mph in the early evening, coming back from my daughter's indoor tennis, totally dark, no streetlight, but steady stream of cars in both directions, BOOM!
Describing that as a pothole impact would not do it justice. More like I'd driven into a construction site hole.
Both right tires immediately deflated totally.
Fortunately a commercial parking lot was almost immediately on the right.
(Organic produce market that has been closed for a couple decades, but still maintained -- confusing!)

Over the span of about five minutes, five of us were there with blown out right tires.
But I have a Vredestein collapsible spare in my car!
Except that I won the award for *two* blown tires.
And the full-size spares are up in NH, not at home in MA.
My wife rescued us, and I left the car there to be towed to Firestone the next day, for free, courtesy of the Tire Rack service that came with my recent purchase of two new front tires (normal wear).

Ordered a new front right tire for free from Tire Rack, and ordered a slightly used rear tire (to match the more worn left rear tire) from United Tires.
Between shipping, the holiday, and travel plans, I didn't pick up the car until Friday evening Dec 26.
Saturday we took the A6ar to a tennis tournament in Stamford CT.
Sunday morning we drove the Taycan to play tennis locally.
Upon starting to drive home, immediately received a low pressure warning: right rear was at 27 lb! Ugh, was the used tire from United Tires defective?

Drove home, and before pumping up that right rear tire, decided to check all the pressures with my favorite gauge.
Right front was spot-on at 37 lb.
Removed the gauge, and, huh, valve was leaking air?
Tried pushing it further in, on the idea that it might popped back out and seal, but no, it was like some unseen force was holding the value open.
Pumped the right rear back up, and by that time the right was severely deflated.
Pumped the right front back up, and during the ~ten min drive to Firestone, lost about six pounds.

Firestone has replaced the right front valve, and given that I've never had any problems before with tire installation from them since 2019, I'll chalk that up to a defective valve.

But here's the punchline: the right rear slow leak was from a nail puncture (now fixed, whew), which I had to have picked up within the first 4.4 miles of driving that newly mounted tire!

 

[moto_geek]

These cars are heavy.. Potholes all the time in Colorado. Can't avoid them in the night. It's a constant game we play in the car.. "stay right here in the bridge" or go left here then right here on the exit ramp.. LOL. Our biggest expense with our Taycan now is easily bent wheels and tires in regards to pothole causing a sidewall bubble or blown and also have had to have 3 wheels straighten out now that got bent. We submitted a claim to our Colorado Dept of Transportation with all the evidence and receipts and even provide the local news coverage of how it took out hundreds of cars. We got denied. They claim no one else reported the pothole which we know is BS because the pothole was prior filled poorly and then a wet storm shortly after flipped out all the asphalt laid in the hole so given up on the government reimbursement process as well. If you live in a city with riddled potholes, just do what we do, have an extra set of wheels and tires or we are now seriously considering the EMacan or ECayenne now with non sport wheels/tires.

 

[Jonathan S.]

^ Yipes, sorry to hear about the bent wheels! My 20" is that design that looks really optical but actually is almost entirely solid, with large black sections that trick the eye into thinking it's an open design. If my wife's i4 M50 had gone into that massive hole, with those open 19" wheels and skinny spokes, they might have been destroyed entirely.

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