Tyre wear on front (inside edge)

[AdamDB]

Hi,

I've got a persistent problem with tyre wear on the front wheels of my 58 plate Superb. I fitted some Avon Ice Touring a while back and after about 9 months got a pressure warning light on the dash... Close inspection of the tyres showed excessive wear in the inside edge of both fronts (almost down to the steel threading). I replaced them, had the suspension and tracking checked (both fine) and waited. On Saturday the left hand one did the same to the point where it nearly shredded and started deflating. (see attached pics). So what I'm trying to find out is if there's known issue with this sort of tyre wear on the Superb and what i can do to fix it. If I can at least give my garage something to look at specifically they may be able to identify the problem. Eating a pair of tyres every 9 months is getting annoying. ( Size are 225/40/R18).

thanks

[KenONeill]

I'm pretty certain that you must be running too much front camber, or wrong toe angle to get that.

[Caspian]

I have never had a wear problem like that with my CR170 DSG.

You can sometimes find that toe in is all wrong on a brand new car, let alone one that is a few years old. Depending which way it is out it will cause edge wear on the inside or outside of a tyre. Low tyre pressures will cause wear on both outside edges. In both cases there is usually evidence of feathering on the tread as the tyre is being scuffed across the line of travel.

I was looking at your pictures for some time. Whilst I agree that wrong camber or wrong toe in are the most usual causes of wear on tyre edges, along with low tyre pressures, The wear doesn't look as I would expect it to for that. I'm no expert, but I would have expected the wear band to be wider and encompass the entire outer tread bar, not just the outer edge of it and to show more feathering on the edge.

It may well be camber, toe in, or low tyre pressures, but as it is a quite sharp angled and narrow band of wear on the insides of the front tyres, one thing I would check is that the tyres are not rubbing against the bodywork on full lock.

[Pesmog]

As Caspian says that does not look like conventional wear at all, the angles are too sharp on the worn patch and the patch is way too narrow. Something strange is going on there.

[AdamDB]

yes, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's a bit baffled. The garage couldn't find anything obvious either. I've put a budget tyre on now anyways in place of the Avon Ice Touring I had. I'll now just wait until the other Avon starts to 'go'... based on last time this should be in about 6 weeks. So odd because at the moment the tyre looks fine from what i can see in terms of wear. I will also ensure the tyre pressures are correct. If anyone has any comments on that I'd welcome it too.

thanks all.

[andyvee]

I have never had a wear problem like that with my CR170 DSG.

You can sometimes find that toe in is all wrong on a brand new car, let alone one that is a few years old. Depending which way it is out it will cause edge wear on the inside or outside of a tyre. Low tyre pressures will cause wear on both outside edges. In both cases there is usually evidence of feathering on the tread as the tyre is being scuffed across the line of travel.

I was looking at your pictures for some time. Whilst I agree that wrong camber or wrong toe in are the most usual causes of wear on tyre edges, along with low tyre pressures, The wear doesn't look as I would expect it to for that. I'm no expert, but I would have expected the wear band to be wider and encompass the entire outer tread bar, not just the outer edge of it and to show more feathering on the edge.

It may well be camber, toe in, or low tyre pressures, but as it is a quite sharp angled and narrow band of wear on the insides of the front tyres, one thing I would check is that the tyres are not rubbing against the bodywork on full lock.

+1

That looks like something is rubbing on the tyre

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[Dr Zoidberg]

Agreed. If it was alignment you'd expect the wear to run to the edge whereas your photos look more like a groove worn into the tread.

[Matt Pez]

I had the same issue on my last set on the front, they were still 2-3 mm all across on tread but the inside edge on the off-side front had worn down to expose steel braiding and the tyre was losing pressure. I had done 32k on them over about 15 months so was not too upset but was surprised the side was worn without rubbing off the tread near the edge of the tyre!

[bryanp]

Silly question but do you drive around many roundabouts daily, I had the same with my old Superb, I too had the front end checked which found nothing and all they could think was it was due to the heavy front end and roundabout driving especially with more decent tyres as they are a bit softer.

[AdamDB]

Umm,

at least I'm not the only one with this issue then. Good to know.I will now run with these budget tyres on the front for a while and see how they fair. As the Avon's were winter tyres perhaps the design didn't lend itself to my style of driving and this car (mainly high speed motorway driving)... at least till i can trade it in for an Audi.. yes I'm going to defect back. My A6 was a much nicer car and I miss it. Paintwork, noise, handling, stereo etc. are just not as good on the Skoda I'm afraid. Still it's been an experience..

[JamKart]

Just a thought but do you have a lot of speed bumps that you straddle on a regular basis?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/caradvice/honestjohn/6280745/Honest-John-Speed-cushions-shred-car-tyres-inner-walls.html

[rally_chris]

Same problem here on my 2009 4x4 tdi, conti contact sport 3s worn smooth on the inside edge of both front tyres after around 12k. I had the tracking checked and it was said to be within spec so the next plan is to get a full alignment check done.

[Pesmog]

Let me speculate based upon something I noticed this morning when examining my Superb. I ran my hand around the inside of the front wheel on both sides. On mine there is a very small gap between the inside top of the tyre and the bottom of the lower spring mount on the front strut and it overhangs the tyre at this very position. Its a chunky bit of metal as it is designed to take load. The gap is only about 20mm between the mount and the tyre. AdamDB is running a tyre that has an overall 6mm taller overall diameter than mine, so that gap may be smaller still. It would only take a wheel with a slightly different offset or a tyre that expands a bit a high speed, or gets heavily deflected during cornering for the tyre to touch the spring base at this very spot. AdamDB, have a feel around the top of the wheel where your damage was and you will maybe see the same as I did. It may not be what caused it, but the front strut spring base does run over the tyre very closely at the same place where the damage is on your tyres.

[cheshire]

I've suddenly noticed I have wear on the inside of both my front tyres on my skoda super 12 reg, which wear replaced only a couple of months ago, the tread has gone and started to show the white brading underneath, looks like there may be a problem with some of them?

[Roots Supercharger]

For the last 40 odd years I have used a Trakrite G4008 wheel alignment tool on all my cars to check toe in/out. Best to use it when the tyres are new and with correct pressure, an assistant would also be helpful to line the car up straight with the tool. You will need a flat, grit free surface for it to work correctly, I use the local supermarket car park early on a Sunday morning.

To check the camber angle, I use a plumb line with the car on a very flat surface (garage floor) falling down over the centre of the road wheel, I then stick the plumb line string  to the wheel arch with blue tack, I then measure the distance from the string to the top and bottom of the wheel rim with a ruler.

[Sparkly]

Have you run these winter tyres for the last 9 months through summer?

 

It's not necessarily the cause but in summer temps (anything over 10 degrees C) winter tyres are very very soft.  So anything that has been happening will have been exaggerated by this.

 

It's not clear from your post if this is the case so this isn't finger pointing, but I do find it funny that there are a good few people about that will harp on about the virtues of a good winter tyre when the temperature drops but then run them through summer outside of their appropriate temperature range with reduced grip and stopping potential.

 

Edit: just clocked the original post was made sometime ago.

[Danny 57]

I've suddenly noticed I have wear on the inside of both my front tyres on my skoda super 12 reg, which wear replaced only a couple of months ago, the tread has gone and started to show the white brading underneath, looks like there may be a problem with some of them?

Had the same problem and found the tracking was way out, which now plains why I had been wondering slightly on the motorway (thought it was because I was getting old). Car having just driven 400 miles to Scotland drove in a true line. Could not remember hitting anything other than normal pot holes certainly not anything major ish.

Just goes to show what can happen though.

[ric04vrs]

I've suddenly noticed I have wear on the inside of both my front tyres on my skoda super 12 reg, which wear replaced only a couple of months ago, the tread has gone and started to show the white brading underneath, looks like there may be a problem with some of them?

What tyres did you fit ? Some are rubbish and wear so quickly on the inner edges it's unreal,

Also could have a very bad tracking issue there, plus you need to get those tyres changed as a matter of urgency as they are now illegal and dangerous

Sent from Richies iPad

[peterposh]

Make sure you go to a decent garage with laser alignment, lots of garages claim to be able to do alignment and tracking, most can't. Well no better than you can do yourself with a piece of wood

Edited 19 September, 2014 by peterposh

[skodapeter]

Thank you to all posters on this subject. I have exactly the same problem on my superb with winter tyres on the original wheels (I have another set of narrower wheels for summer tyres). Original wheels are 225 45 17. I must say my first reaction when I saw the wear (after I'd recovered from the shock!) was that it was due to the tyre rubbing on something, as from experience, wear due to wrong alignment was usually spread over more distance across the tyre, and usually on the outside of the tyre.

Strangely I did not have such wear on the original tyres supplied with the car. This, I suppose, could indicate the rubbing on something theory if the suspension has settled a bit over the 5 years and 65k miles on mostly A roads not M.

Anyway, I am most greatful to the posters giving me things to investigate and would appreciate info from anyone who has discovered the cure for the problem and if it did turn out to be rubbing.

[williamshatnerspants]

Mine did the same. See this thread here....

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/382120-front-tyre-wear-cr170-lk/

 

(my posts start about 1/2 way down the first page).

[pdrisc]

I noticed that my front near side has generated some uneven wear with the inside edge being scrubbed over the last few months. The car is a 58 140 tdi.  The tracking was reset by Kwikfit in Cardiff and when I saw this I took the car back for them to recheck it again. They checked all the wheels and they were all spot on. The wear on the other front wheel is even across the tyre. Both tyres were put on in Dec 14 so I  have done about 18-19k miles.

 

I think when I get this tyre changed I will swap the front wheels over and see whether its the wheel or the car causing the problems.