Excessive Front Tyre Wear

[Liquidshokk]

I have a company car, which has Pirelli P Zeros on and I'm gobsmacked at how quickly they wear down. The last set of front tyres lasted around 7/8 months, admittedly as Kwik fit had fitted the wrong ones and so I had run flats on the front and two different non run flats on the back, however I had all four replaced with non runflats about 6 or 7 weeks ago and I'm concerned that the front ones are wearing down quickly already!

 

Could there be something else going on to cause the front tyres to wear down so quickly? I think I may start getting it in the ear from the company if my tyres aren't even lasting a year....

 

I checked the tyre pressures yesterday and they were 0.2 bars out at most. I do have a case of leadfoot now and again but even still having a car with a large engine shouldn't mean you get through them so quickly, should it?

[Turkish]

might be the tracking mate, i went through 2 rear driver side tyres in about 6 months and it was because the tracking was all over the shop, get them to check it when you take it in.

[Liquidshokk]

The company paid 25 quid to have the tracking checked by kwik fit last year when they fitted the first lot of replacements but I had to go back a day later as it was juddering down the motorway. This time round there is no juddering. When they replaced the tyres they noticed that the back drivers side tyre had abnormal wear in places so they put the car on the wheel allignment machine and found no probs (I assume they checked the front too) so it was booked in for the day to check the suspension, bushes etc but found no problems (again I presume they checked the front too...) so guess its safe to assume its not tracking/allignment?

 

Ive always thought the car feels like the tyres are under inflated even when at correct pressures as if too much weight is being put on them but I think that may just be the heavy steering in the octavia and thin profile tyres

[Turkish]

I used to get a juddering in one of my old cars, it happened when i had been on the motorway and then slowed down suddenly like you do when you come off at a slip road, cant remember what caused it, was nothing serious though.

 

I dunno in that case then, it's a bit wierd. My car (Golf TDI) feels like the tyres are under inflated even when they are not as well, also get a lot of road noise, Peter Coopers looked at it when i got it serviced a few weeks ago and said no problems. It's booked in to have new break pads fitted soon, my mate reckons it might be because the break pads are old and fluid low so might be that break pads are sticking on beacuse of this.

[Saint Keith]

i used to have p zeros on my old cayenne. got through 9 sets in 3 years, 33,000 miles.

 

i had the tracking, geometry, diff settings all checked and they couldnt ever find anything wrong, does seem to be a problem with anything that needs those tyres

was delighted when i finally got rid of it

[Liquidshokk]

i used to have p zeros on my old cayenne. got through 9 sets in 3 years, 33,000 miles.

 

i had the tracking, geometry, diff settings all checked and they couldnt ever find anything wrong, does seem to be a problem with anything that needs those tyres

was delighted when i finally got rid of it

 

Interesting. Just had a word with my colleague whos got an identical car but he has bridgestone tyres on there and since getting the car at the end of 2009 has only replaced the front tyres ones. Im on my third set.

[Liquidshokk]

I used to get a juddering in one of my old cars, it happened when i had been on the motorway and then slowed down suddenly like you do when you come off at a slip road, cant remember what caused it, was nothing serious though.

 

I dunno in that case then, it's a bit wierd. My car (Golf TDI) feels like the tyres are under inflated even when they are not as well, also get a lot of road noise, Peter Coopers looked at it when i got it serviced a few weeks ago and said no problems. It's booked in to have new break pads fitted soon, my mate reckons it might be because the break pads are old and fluid low so might be that break pads are sticking on beacuse of this.

Interesting too. My breaks certainly arent as responsive as they used to be but had a sevice this year and didnt get any advisory notes re the breaks.

[stu0x]

The problem is the tyres. P Zeros are pants, notorious for how quick they wear.

[Saint Keith]

Interesting. Just had a word with my colleague whos got an identical car but he has bridgestone tyres on there and since getting the car at the end of 2009 has only replaced the front tyres ones. Im on my third set.

 

was only the back ones on mine, fronts were only replaced once

[dune]

I've just swiched to Bridgestone ER300. I used to use Goodrichs but they wore down too quicly for my liking. Hopefully these Bridgestones are better.

[Trader]

They're using Pirelli tyres in F1 this year.

 

They seem to wear out shockingly quickly too.

[hamster]

I need my eyes testing; I thought the thread was about Gazza!

 

Excesses from Tyne & weir

[dune]

I need my eyes testing; I thought the thread was about Gazza!

 

I notice Israel have launched some air strikes.

[swannymere]

The problem is the tyres. P Zeros are pants, notorious for how quick they wear.

 

The P Zero range is designed for grip and stability and not really for long life, there are also different compound P Zero's available which if you've got a soft set would explain the wear. Having said that P Zero's generally come on sportier cars with harder suspension components and you really shouldn't expect to get more than 15000 out of a set if your driving rapidly.

[Liquidshokk]

The P Zero range is designed for grip and stability and not really for long life, there are also different compound P Zero's available which if you've got a soft set would explain the wear. Having said that P Zero's generally come on sportier cars with harder suspension components and you really shouldn't expect to get more than 15000 out of a set if your driving rapidly.

 

Thanks, not sure exactly what P Zeros they are but they are on an Octavia VRS 200BHP with very hard suspension and it does shift (albeit the traction control kicks in far too easy when accelerating so tend to have to take it easy pulling away)

 

Needless to say we will try different tyres next time. Any advice on suitable longer lasting tyres??

Edited 30 March, 2011 by Liquidshokk

[swannymere]

Try this thread from a Skoda forum.

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/194799-tyres-yet-again-facelift-vrs/

[Chin Strain]

I've got Bridgestone Potenza RE050s on mine....rear are fine, but front need doing now at 18k. I'd expect more from them, but not sure whether it's the low profile of the tyres (245/40x18) or just that they're a bit crap. Maybe the car's just hard on front tyres.

Edited 1 April, 2011 by Chin Strain
it should say 18

[swannymere]

I've got Bridgestone Potenza RE050s on mine....rear are fine, but front need doing now at 18k. I'd expect more from them, but not sure whether it's the low profile of the tyres (245/40x18) or just that they're a bit crap. Maybe the car's just hard on front tyres.

 

If you drive a 'performance' car should you expect more than 12k miles from a tyre?

[Chin Strain]

It's not a 'performance' car. It's an A5 Sportback 2.0 TDi S Line

[swannymere]

It's not a 'performance' car. It's an A5 Sportback 2.0 TDi S Line

 

So it has 'sporting' pretentions with the S-line suspension? However i think 18k is pretty good.

[Chin Strain]

So it has 'sporting' pretentions with the S-line suspension? However i think 18k is pretty good.

 

lol...yes! I'm not 100% sure what factors impact tyre wear other than hard acceleration, hard braking, heavy cornering etc. These yres have worn a lot heavier than my previous A6 SE which had bog standard 17" wheels. I assume the harder suspension and lower profile tyres will affect the wear.

[Handyman]

The company paid 25 quid to have the tracking checked by kwik fit last year when they fitted the first lot of replacements but I had to go back a day later as it was juddering down the motorway. This time round there is no juddering. When they replaced the tyres they noticed that the back drivers side tyre had abnormal wear in places so they put the car on the wheel allignment machine and found no probs (I assume they checked the front too) so it was booked in for the day to check the suspension, bushes etc but found no problems (again I presume they checked the front too...) so guess its safe to assume its not tracking/allignment?

 

Ive always thought the car feels like the tyres are under inflated even when at correct pressures as if too much weight is being put on them but I think that may just be the heavy steering in the octavia and thin profile tyres

 

"Juddering" at speed is usually wheel balance. "Tracking"is usually (in my experience) just wheel alignment, but there are other things to consider with tyre wear. Castor,camber,KPI, toe in and toe out on turns and as been mentioned under and over inflation. The first three are, on modern cars, are fairly well fixed but some adjustment on some cars is catered for by shims and other methods of adjustment.This is not usually required except when there has been movement due to a blow on the suspension/steering severe enough to distort the setting.

 

Toe in and toe out on turns is decided by the angle of the steering arms on the hubs and the afore mentioned"blow"on a wheel could be enough to bend the arm on one side putting the alignment out, resulting in tyre "scrub" when turning and leading to excessive wear, even though the straight ahead alignment is or has been corrected.