tyre wear

[emleymonkey]

Hi All

I have a 55 A4 3.0 tdi Sline avant and put new tyres on it last July. Some 225/40 18. After a free MOT at Audi it seems the fronts are down to 3mm after under 10k miles, the back is 5mm. The tyres are Vredstein. Does anybody have a similar experience or do i need them tracked? any guidance gratefuly received. ps i do not drive the car on the door handles more like a monk with current fuel prices, i just hoped them to last a bit longer.

[achille]

I can't say if your tracking or alignment need doing- I am no expert, but I am not surprised that they have worn that badly. I was rather hoping that having a quattro would mean 4 news tyres half as often; how wrong was I?!
I have conti sport 2 s and 12K seems to finish off a set of 4:-(

[James05]

Hello,

Just a thought - have you checked the tread depth yourself ? 3mm is the sort of level a garage may be able to push you to change the tyres.....

When you say under 10k miles, do you mean you've only done 4/5K miles or your are at 9k approaching 10k ?

Again I've no idea if your alignment / tracking needs doing but it is something to consider.
Have you checked your tyre pressures recently ?
Even if you drive gently, what are the road surfaces like that you regularly drive on, do you regularly carry heavy loads in the car...

Oh and welcome to the forum

[SammoVWT]

Sounds normal to me, you have a weighty engine at the front, giving you more traction (on the front two wheels). Perhaps as mentioned earlier, your front pressure is a bit low. Even on my old golf it recommends the front pressure is slightly higher than the back to compensate for the weight.

EDIT: Also tracking is useful if your tyre wear is uneven from edge to middle. If its uniform, your car is tracking fine.

[emleymonkey]

Hi achille/James05/SammoVWT

Thanks for all your repsonses I hope to answer them all. I have not checked the tyre depth but it is on paper from the audi dealership (audi offer a free MOT if you service the car with them and this comes with a 'free' car healthcheck) this also shows even wear across all 4 tyres just differing wear on front and back. Since fitted I have kept the fronts on the pressure recommended for a full vehicle even though 90% of the time it is only me communting 30 miles a day over country toads and motorway. This was recommended by the fitter who also ran a vehicle with a heavy engine at the front, after the last set experienced uneven wear on the front (the inside wore down to the cloth worringly without me noticing). Have just checked the car has done 300 miles under 10K on these to date. I also check pressure with a hand held device after using garage machine.

It seems the V6 oil burner is hungry on rubber - or as a mechanic said 'a quattro will chew tyres just for fun...'

[Mini Hog Dog]

Hi, you have just given a bit more info, you now say that the last set expererienced uneven wear down to the cloth on the inside, well IMHO that sounds like the tracking is out, the car may have been run along a curb or over a large pothole or something and the wheels may be out of line, and if the alinement has not been corrected then the set thats on now will go home well before their due lifetime, I dont have a large engine, but my 2.0TDI gets 40-50 k out of a set of 5 if I rotate, and yes I use Michelin coz they do give a bit more.

[passman]

I've got Kumho's fitted to the front of my 3.0 tdi quattro and they are down to 4-5mm after 13,000 miles