[aardvark]

Hi,
I know there have been a couple of posts on general tyre wear and rear rumble but my rear tyres have worn bald as a coot on the inside 2 inches and still have 5.5mm on the rest of the tyre.
My dealer is trying to tell me this is normal and common on Eos, Golf and new Passats with large wheels???
The car is a 2.0 Tsi and has done 16,000 miles. The front tyres though on their last legs are at least evenly worn. They are on 18in Chicagos.
If I have to buy 4 new tyres every 15000 miles it is going to be horribly expensive, I used to get 45,000 out of my rears on my old TT.

Has anyone else had similar probs??

 

[nail-z-gull]

I am still on my original Dunlops at the rear and have 5mm of tread all round. I've done 20k miles!!!

 

[cb391]

The inner 2 inches should not wear out whether front or rear. Something is wrong with alignment. you aren't driving around with an 800 lb gorilla in your trunk are you? may sound dumb but the kind of wear you describe happens when the camber is way off. Independent rear suspension does that when there is a lot of weight over the rear of the car. Tell your dealer he is wrong. This wear is not normal. By the way, the original tires on my Eos look great after 24,000 miles.

 

[bugger]

cb391 is correct. you shouldnt have that kind of wear on any tires at all. you should get it checked out asap.

 

[neh321]

Quite right. My fronts only last about 13K miles and the rears rather longer but they all wear evenly.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Hi,
My dealer is trying to tell me this is normal and common on Eos, Golf and new Passats with large wheels???

I've previously posted this was mentioned to me when I replaced all 4 tyres at 20k miles. It was at a good local tyre place rather than a VW dealer. His girlfriend had a golf that was the same and he put it down to Sport Suspension (which mine has) as he'd come across it on numerous occasions in his work too.

He had checked the alignment and everything was ok.

 

[neh321]

I've previously posted this was mentioned to me when I replaced all 4 tyres at 20k miles. It was at a good local tyre place rather than a VW dealer. His girlfriend had a golf that was the same and he put it down to Sport Suspension (which mine has) as he'd come across it on numerous occasions in his work too.

He had checked the alignment and everything was ok.

Mine has the Sport suspension too and it hasn't happened to me.

 

[cb391]

Same here. Service facilities love easy answers like "it's normal" or "all cars do that" because they don't want to be bothered or they don't know how to solve the problem. The only weird tire wear you should see on a VW or any front wheel drive is the front tires wearing out first unless you do regular tire rotations. VW recommends it every 10,000 miles as part of the regular service procedure.

 

[silvershadow]

Same here. Service facilities love easy answers like "it's normal" or "all cars do that" because they don't want to be bothered or they don't know how to solve the problem. The only weird tire wear you should see on a VW or any front wheel drive is the front tires wearing out first unless you do regular tire rotations. VW recommends it every 10,000 miles as part of the regular service procedure.

My service mechanics used to be the most difficult people to train in customer relations - they just could not resist saying "they all do that" whenever a customer bought a faulty product in for attention. It was true that the only products they saw after purchase by a customer were ones that had a problem. The hardest part was trying to get them to accept that they were seeing less than 2% of the products that had been sold and the other 98% were working as intended.

How did I solve this problem - I sent the service mechanics on week-long field trips with my sales representatives to visit our dealers and made sure they also visited end-users to see installations that did not have problems. After 3 or 4 trips of this kind together with my regularly spending time in the workshop afterwards working alongside the mechanics to allow them to see how I handled customers bringing in products with problems, the incidence of "they all do that" virtually disappeared. The experience of seeing the boss get his hands dirty, handling abuse and, most importantly, communicating with them as equals created long-term benefits through improving teamwork and commitment to the company.

More relevant to the problem in hand, another possible cause for the abnormal tyre wear may be worn/damaged wheel bearings/housings, suspension mounting bushes/brackets due to road debris or shock loadings from pot-holes/kerbs/speed humps etc. This damage may not show up when the vehicle is tested for alignment when stationary as the alignment only changes when these components come under load once the vehicle is moving. Sometimes, this can be picked up by following the car in another vehicle and closely observing the rear wheels for signs of "wobbling" or other unusual movement. Diagnosing a problem of this type can be time-consuming which is not understood by the owner who may form the opinion that the mechanic is incompetent for not being able to fix the problem immediately. Gremins do not play by our rules......

 

[neh321]

Same here. Service facilities love easy answers like "it's normal" or "all cars do that" because they don't want to be bothered or they don't know how to solve the problem.

You're right there.
I once had an Austin Allegro (yes, really!) and the Dealer's stock answer for absolutely any problem was that "it's a normal Allegro fault, sir"!!!

And then they wonder why BL ended up in such deep poo...

 

[aardvark]

Thanks all for the replies.
I just got the 4 wheel alignment checked by the dealer - nothing wrong!
They are still saying it's normal and I was lucky to get 15000 miles.
(No, cb391 I don't have a gorilla and its usually only me in the car with about 50lb in the boot. Good point though)
I am meeting with their after sales manager next week so will see what happens.
Something must be wrong somewhere, I don't believe that it was designed to wear tyres unevenlyand there shouldn't be any wear in the joints bushes etc at 16000 miles unless there is a problem with the set up.
It looks like it has only had 20% of the tyre on the road most of the time and that can't be safe.

 

[cb391]

If it would be of any help I can send you photos of how my tires look after 24,000 miles and pictures of how the tires look on the car for alignment ideas.

 

[KrisUK]

Mine are knackered too

I've just picked up my card from it's 1st service at 14k miles to be told that my rear tyres are completely worn out on the inside edges but with 5/6mm left across the rest of the surface. The dealer put it down to potholes and speed bumps but that is rubbish, I never had this problem with my Golf GT Tdi. They have booked me in for full wheel alignment but I'm writing to the Service Manager as I'm very annoyed that I am going to have to change rear tyres and think this is a fault from new. I also have the 18in Chicago wheels and wonder if this is the cause somehow?
I asssume the 18in wheels are heavier than the 17in so I wonder if VW should have adjusted the rear alignment and perhaps didn't. Anyone got any thoughts on this ?

 

[silvershadow]

The most recent magazine from our NSW motoring organisation contained the following advertisement. Given the obsession of some car manufacturers for allowing their accountants to dictate the specifications of their products solely on posssible cost reductions; I am surprised this reduction in tread thickness to reduce the cost of the OEM tyres has taken so long to surface. After all, a $10 saving per car for a production run of 100,000 cars adds $1,000,000 to the bottom line.

Given the low mileages being reported by some members for their OEM tyres, is it possible VW have been sold a delivery or two of low-cost reduced tread depth tyres without their knowledge by a tyre manufacturer needing to increase their sales?

I would be extremely disappointed if VW were to knowingly do this to their customers.

 

[Z-man]

Thanks all for the replies.
I just got the 4 wheel alignment checked by the dealer - nothing wrong!

Did they supply you with the measurements they found when they put your car on the alignment machine? They should be able to supply you with those numbers.

I do not believe that your alignment is correct - it may be within spec per the dealership, but any alignment that shows such signs of wear is NOT within proper spec.

As mentioned above, this type of wear typically occurs with there is too much negative camber. It can also happen with there is too much toe out. Another possibility is too little tire pressure. Also: if you are using wheels with a different offset, that can cause unusual tire wear. (But the Chicagos are designed for the Eos - so the offset should be stock)

Based on what I've learned, your camber settings should be somewhere between 0 and -1 degrees. Your toe should be at zero: no toe-in or toe-out. I am not a tire tech, but have learned a bit or two about alignment settings from playing with my Porsche on the racetrack. For reference - I run -2.5 degrees of camber at all four corners, stock caster, and a little bit of toe-out up front to help with turn in. These settings are NOT recommended for street!

I would suggest you take your car to a non-dealer wheel shop and have them check your alignment. They should be able to tell based on your tire wear what's off, and their alignment machine will show all.

Good luck,
-Z-man.

 

[KrisUK]

Result from Dealer?

I complained to my dealer about the uneven tyre wear and told them I was very annoyed to have to change all 4 tyres after 14k miles and suggested a VW fault. They have agreed to complete the alignment and give me one rear tyre for free. The remaining three I can buy at cost. Car goes in Monday 16th, I'll let you know the outcome of the alignment.
VW Eos 08 TDi Sport Black Pearl, 18in Chicagos

 

[KrisUK]

Not a happy bunny

After the car being in all day at Blade Gloucester I collected it with the new Pirelli P Zeros fitted (not my preferred choice but hay ho they paid for one!) I asked for details of the rear wheel alignment but I don't think the service receptionist knew what he was talking about so gave a lot of garbage. I examined the alignment output when I got home and the correction movement has been minimal with a camber movement of 0d.05' (left) and nothing on the right, and a total toe movement from 0d.02' to 0d.06'. Both of which is nothing like what I was expecting.
In addition they managed to scratch two of my Chicago alloy wheels when fitting the new tyres! and forgot to re-set the tyre pressure sensor which came on whilst driving home down the M5. Panic set in as I thought I'd lost pressure in the new tyres. As you can imagine a suitable letter of complaint has been sent to the Service Manager. He claims to be investigating.
EOS 2008 TDi Sport DSG, Black Pearl, Chicago alloys

 

[woody1]

I have been having problems with excessive tyre wear on the inside edge of the rear tyres of my Eos for four years. This was noticeable in the first year but the VW dealership put it down to high speed cornering and refused to do anything about it. I am in my early 60's and a careful driver. Excessive weight in the boot has been given as a possible cause by members but this does not apply in my case.
I recently had another 4 wheel alignment check carried out independently, and the set-up is exactly as the VW specification.
The rear tyres currently have 4mm across the treads, but the inside 2" of tyre is completely smooth and I have this morning purchased new tyres - yet again.
Reading other member comments, the suggestion was to have the alignment test but no one has so far suggested any corrections to the alignment, if the test results are as the WV spec. Has anyone any suggestions for adjusting the standard alignment to correct this problem?

 

[silvershadow]

I have been having problems with excessive tyre wear on the inside edge of the rear tyres of my Eos for four years. This was noticeable in the first year but the VW dealership put it down to high speed cornering and refused to do anything about it. I am in my early 60's and a careful driver. Excessive weight in the boot has been given as a possible cause by members but this does not apply in my case.
I recently had another 4 wheel alignment check carried out independently, and the set-up is exactly as the VW specification.
The rear tyres currently have 4mm across the treads, but the inside 2" of tyre is completely smooth and I have this morning purchased new tyres - yet again.
Reading other member comments, the suggestion was to have the alignment test but no one has so far suggested any corrections to the alignment, if the test results are as the WV spec. Has anyone any suggestions for adjusting the standard alignment to correct this problem?

You ned to take the car with worn tyres to an independent suspension specialist to allow them to assess the real reasons for the tyre wear. They can then make the appropriate adjustments. Do not rely on the dealer or a discount tyre supplier to have the necessary expertise to fix this problem.

Sounds like excessive negative camber is the reason especially if you are a sedate driver and the suspension settings are intended for a more aggressive driver.

The following link will give you an explanation in plain language of the cause of your problem:

http://www.modified.com/tech/0507_sccp_making_it_stick_part_2/index.html

Hope this helps.

 

[evolvingpowercat]

My Eos wore the inside of my original equipment rear tires bare down to the steel treads before I realized it was happening, in only 15,000 miles. I had rotated tires myself at 7,500 miles and did not notice apparently the wear area was such a small strip near the edge of the inside of the tire. This was aggregated by the super soft tread original equipment tires that VW used. I replaced with good Kuhio tires and had VW re-align all 4 wheels and no issues since.