Rapid rear tyre wear

[LynneC]

Looking for some opinions, please

I bought an ‘07 VW Jetta in January this year - ex-demo, 12,000 miles on the clock. I replaced both front tyres almost immediately and they remain OK to date.

However: in April, I replaced both rear tyres due to wear. In June, roughly 5,000 miles later, both rear tyres had to be replaced again due to wear. Since then, the car has been used less heavily - but now, in October, another 5,000 miles later, guess what - both rear tyres have gone again.

So - upshot - the car has thrown two pairs of rear tyres within 10,000 miles or so. The twist is – the wear in all cases has been (near as dammit) even. There are no signs of over/underinflation or poor tracking/balancing/alignment. I took the car to a VW dealer today – they had a cursory look at the tyres and the feedback was “they look like I would expect a pair of tyres to look after 35-40,000 miles”. (Unfortunately the dealer is not very forthcoming & wants me to pay to have the alignment checked as a formality/‘tick in the box’ exercise, even though there are no signs that this is the problem – they won’t discuss doing anything else until this has been done – disappointing service level in the circumstances, in my view.)

So the question is – what problem could cause my car to throw rear tyres as quickly as this, if not the usual suspects mentioned above?

Thanks

Lynne

[MalcQV]

Hi Lynne and sorry to hear about your problems. I cannot think of anything other than the dealer has mentioned (alignment check). Unless you had two sets of faulty rear tyres which I doubt?

[wingers1982]

Hi Lynne and sorry to hear about your problems. I cannot think of anything other than the dealer has mentioned (alignment check). Unless you had two sets of faulty rear tyres which I doubt?

it cant be alignment it would be ether inner or outter edges that would be warn not evenly

[robhills]

Hi Lynne, That does seem to be astonishingly rapid tyre wear, especially when you consider the the car is being driven by it's front wheels. Do you do lots of late hard breaking? Even then, most of the wear would be on the front tyres. You don't say what sort of tyres were fitted. I have just stopped using a 7 year old 2 litre Beetle that I had from new. It's now done 110,000 miles and I only replaced the tyres twice. I always fitted the same Continental Sports II tyres sometimes moving fronts to backs to even out the wear. You should get at least 30,000 miles from tyres fitted to the back. Complain to the tyre manufacturer !!!

[robhills]

Just one further thought ... binding rear brakes would cause rapid rear tyre wear but also rapid rear brake pad or shoe wear.

[JohnWithAGolf]

If the car is mechanically sound then that is dreadful wear for a tyre, especially on the rear, the majority of VWs tend to be very 'kind' to their rear tyres and 40-50k is quite normal.

What make of tyres were fitted? Unfortunatley you won't be able to complain to the manufaturer without having the tyres to send back under complaint for them to asses. Any tyre dealer could have sent them back under your behalf.

[STEWY L]

lynne, this sounds dreadful, really dreadful,and i wish i could offer a better theory,but i'm baffled,other than the make of tyres fitted to the rear,as opposed to those on the front.
it's highly unlikely,but the front tyres were fitted when the rears were still ok,but "part worn".
the fronts would have more grip than the rears and the rears may have been sliding around corners slightly,accellerating the wear.
when the second set of rears were fitted were they branded tyres or "budget"?
if they weren't of the same quality of the fronts,then perhaps again they haven't had the same grip as the fronts,and they have worn again by slipping,or skipping side ways whilst cornering, not always noticable,i'm in no way suggesting you have been "broadsiding it".
i'm sorry but can't think of any other reason,other than shock absorbers,which should be ok at the low mileage you have.
regards,
stewy.