A6 Allroad stripping top inside edges of front tyres

[mhobson]

Hello,

2006 Audi A6 Allroad 3.0 tdi.

Yesterday while running on the suspension lowest setting there was a noise from a front tyre and I found a strip of rubber dangling from the tyre. I cut it off and went home. In the garage I found that the inside edges of both front tyres had worn away to the steel reinforcing. It would seem that the tyres must have been rubbing on the top joint where the suspension arms connect. The wheels have been on the car for 11 years so the offset must be OK and the tyres are 245/45/18 which are as specified. I have had no warnings from the car electronics about a suspension issue. I have had a strut fail before but that was just on one side and when it collapsed the car could not be driven, but I was able to drive home without issue yesterday when I put the car in Allroad mode. I am mystified as to what has caused the problem. The suspension arms were changed two years ago and last year I had laser 4wd tracking done on the car. I am retired and do very low mileage. Can anyone advise me if this is a known issue? Thanks in advance, Michael

[swalker]

I would say wheel alignment, i have seen with the computerized one (any monkey can do it) it is more easy to get wrong, guessing this is to do with the hangers and lack of training / care.
If something was to catch with enough force to cut to the wire, i think it would just slice the tyre wide open.

[C6Allroad]

If it's been rubbing can you see the contact place on the top joint ? When the suspension arms were changed did they recalibrate the level sensors?

[mhobson]

I don't think that is it, the alignment was done by a reputable tyre fitting garage using laser alignment only last September and before yesterday the treads were wearing perfectly flat and were undamaged.

[mhobson]

This sounds very possible. As far as I know the level sensors have never been recalibrated and I did not even know that was an option. All the damage occurred yesterday, I could see where it had been rubbing on the aluminium casting and it looked recent, if it had happened over time I would have expected it to look brightly polished I looked closely at the tyres only a few days ago and there was no damage. Normally the suspension is set either on Allroad or Comfort, I just thought I would try Dynamic, the lowest position, yesterday for no particular reason so if the level sensors had been badly set the car may have thought it was higher than it was and could have caused exactly the damage I have found. Thank you for your very valuable input.

[C6Allroad]

This sounds very possible. As far as I know the level sensors have never been recalibrated and I did not even know that was an option. All the damage occurred yesterday, I could see where it had been rubbing on the aluminium casting and it looked recent, if it had happened over time I would have expected it to look brightly polished I looked closely at the tyres only a few days ago and there was no damage. Normally the suspension is set either on Allroad or Comfort, I just thought I would try Dynamic, the lowest position, yesterday for no particular reason so if the level sensors had been badly set the car may have thought it was higher than it was and could have caused exactly the damage I have found. Thank you for your very valuable input.

Dynamic drops the front so that sound entirely plausible. You can recalibrate the suspension height sensors with VCDS and a tape measure and there are plenty of Youtube videos showing how this is done - mainly though for people who want to override the stock settings and lower the car but the procedure is the same for resetting it to stock.

[mhobson]

Hello again, Problems. Took the car to someone with a computer. Followed the Youtube instructions on how to change the settings to the letter five times but with the same result. When the adaptation was opened the starting values on all five channels was zero. The new values were inserted, saved and when READ was clicked the figures were there. The figure for channel five of 1 was entered and saved. Each time the adaptation page was entered the values had returned to zero, not only that but now I cannot change the ride height, it is stuck on two bars and the yellow suspension warning light is illuminated all the time.

[mhobson]

Hello again, Problems. Took the car to someone with a computer. Followed the Youtube instructions on how to change the settings to the letter five times but with the same result. When the adaptation was opened the starting values on all five channels was zero. The new values were inserted, saved and when READ was clicked the figures were there. The figure for channel five of 1 was entered and saved. Each time the adaptation page was entered the values had returned to zero, not only that but now I cannot change the ride height, it is stuck on two bars and the yellow suspension warning light is illuminated all the time.

Sorted now, instead of waiting 90 seconds for the system to show the data it took much longer, and we didn't wait long enough. In the end we waited for more than four minutes and the figures registered and we were able to enter the uprated measurements, now it seems to be working again, however I am not sure I want to try the Dynamic setting again.