Tyre Wear - How many miles on a set?

[Cadja]

[QUOTE=Olio;940283]That's what I meant. 4mm left for

[nevbadger99]

I do run with a slightly higher than recommended pressure (always have done, on every car), generally using a value close to laden recommended psi for each axle.

Why just out of interest? I was always told that overinflated tyres meant they wore out in the middle faster than normal as you are effectively reducing the contact patch.

[Olio]

They're not so overinflated that they're round like innertubes!

Just a bit more PSI because I prefer the ride, I noticed better economy on my previous cars, and regularly have passengers and / or some stuff in the boot...

I never had to change tyres because they were more worn in the middle than on the side. I hope they can last 20k, but of there's really only 4mm left, I could change them before next winter sets. Winter is a bad time to have "just above legal" tyres.

[istate75]

It does seem odd.. the last FWD Audi I had (an A4 1.9 Tdi) used to do 20K or maybe 25K on the front and 60k on the rears - and I did a LOT of motorway miles in that car in the first 2 years (40k a year).

Having said that your C7 is doing better than your C6 did based on average wear (and this might be a stretch so bear with me ).
You've averaged 38k on all four tyres on the C7 - at 3mm wear.
You averaged only 32.5k on the C6 to 2 - 2.5mm wear.

My question to you is "did the wheels get rotated (front to rear) at some point - maybe by the dealer during a service?"
That would explain it.

I'm not sure if the wheels have been rotated. If Audi did it then they didn't tell me. The car has been in twice for servicing since new. Reports were:

at 19k mile service
Front tyres - 5mm
Rear Tyres - 6mm
Brake pads - Front 30% worn, Rear 10% worn

at 38k mile service
Front tyres - 3mm
Rear tyres - 3mm
Brake pads - Front 50% worn, Rear 30% worn

The car is FWD Multi 2.0D running 255/40 x 19 tyres on S line suspension.

The brake pads are wearing quicker than my previous manual C6, but I expected that with the lower engine braking of an automatic. Isn't the C7 slightly lighter than the C6 because they used some aluminium in construction?

[Whippy53]

I think if you've got 38k out of a set you've done damn well.

[ukgroucho]

Interesting, so in 19k miles (since last service) either
- The rears wore MUCH faster than the fronts bringing them down 3mm vs 2mm for the fronts.. unlikely (very unlikely) unless you have binding rear brakes - easy to check, just go for a short drive and try to primarily use engine braking. Stop and see if rear disks are warm / hot (esp compared to fronts).
- or the tyres were rotated at first service, which would fit nicely. Rears would have worn 2mm (from 8mm to 6mm) in first 19k, fronts 3mm (8mm to 5mm). Second 19k after rotation they also wore 2mm rear / 3mm front - both ending at 3mm.

[nevbadger99]

They're not so overinflated that they're round like innertubes!

[Bloater]

I know I drive my car hard, and have numerous roundabouts in Milton Keynes, but I destroyed my fronts in 8000 miles-ish. There was no quibble from the maintenance plan I have with the car. It isn't the car either, as a Passat I had previously did about 7k on the fronts and my A4 wasn't much better.

If only I did loads of motorway miles instead of roundabouts, fortunately I don't pay

[Audrius]

Do you do tire rotation offen? I couldn't find info about distance for tires for rotation in audi manual only the rotation directions.

So I do rotation like Lexus car manual recomends: every 10.000km for front wheel drive and every 5.000km for all wheel drive.

I do this, and so far, my summer 20" (Oem goodyear)tires with something around 30.000km looks half way. It wears evenly with higher tire pressure rate (as recomended by the book), though my winter 18" tires definetaly don't like to be inflated mich, because they start to wear out in the middle more then outside parts of tread. Have driven winter tires for almost 30.000km and they are around 6,5mm (michelin latitude alpin2).

[ukgroucho]

I rotate once a year ... as part of the swap from summer to winter tyres, so maybe every 8000 -10000 KM