Tyre Wear

[sja]

Driving over xmas and a terible scraping noise appears to come from front offside wheel. Took wheel off and imagine my surprise to find about an inch of tread missing from the inside of the tyre , all the way round the circumfrence. Its right down to the mesh that forms the tyre casing.

The rest of the tyre has 5mm + all the way across..


So whats the cause? Tracking? Loath to stick a new one in case it happens again.

Whan I bough car the rears were really worn on inside, causing a lot of road noise. and the dealer replaced them.. The fronts seemed ok at the time (approx six months ago)

[NikB]

Can I ask has the car been lowered at all, only thats exactly what happened the first time I ever lowered a car in my youth and didn't bother having the suspension geometry adjusted,
If not it would be well worth getting the suspension geometry checked / 4 wheel alignment done, for the sake of £30 - £50 it would save a set of tyres.

[sja]

It's a sline so yes lowered but no more than when left dealer..

[Guest 2]

Had the same problem on my old Mondeo, turned out it was a tracking/alignment problem.

Chris

[sja]

I thinkit must be tracking , I'll get it checked over weekend. Drives fine, steering vague, but I thought that was a trait not a fault!

[dandam]

Definitely tracking I'd say - only thing is that you have to wonder why it is so far out to cause that kind of wear - accident, hefty kerb clout - might be worth getting it up on a ramp and getting someone to check it over properly.

[Guest 2]

Definitely tracking I'd say - only thing is that you have to wonder why it is so far out to cause that kind of wear

As I said before, a simple laser alignment solved all my tyre problems on my old Mondeo. The front two tyres always wore on the outside down to the metal cord and the rear offside always wore on the inside.

I knew it was a major problem when I was replacing 3 tyres every 2 months!

Get your tracking done OP, it may make a great difference.

Chris

[hwilcox]

I have exactly the same problem as sja. I run a 55 plate 2.7 TDI A6 Avant S-line (2WD), the tyres have worn well - over 25,000 miles (yes, I don't thrash it) on the last set of 245/40R18 Kumhos. The fronts were wearing slighly more than the rears so I thought I'd swap front to rear to even up wear and have 4 replaced together in the future. To my horror I found the fronts had worn very badly on the inside edges - 90% of the tread was even, it was just the inside edges which were completely bald. It's difficult to spot the wear unless you remove the wheels.
Did sja resolve the problem? Any other advice much appreciated. Should I have the 4-wheel alignment checked or is the problem due to the geometry of the lowered S-line set up?

[sja]

I stuck sone part worns on to see what the wear was like.. They were fine for 6k miles, no uneven wear at all. Sold the car now.. Have read elsewhere it caused by toe in ?