Every year I get excessive wear on the front outer shoulder of the front tyres noticeably more so on the passenger (nearside) tyre. Rear tyres are wearing to a lesser extent as expected and much more evenly but also more on the passenger side  by a couple mm.

Nearside (passenger) front

Nearside (passenger front)

 

Offside (drivers ) side.

The fronts are similar to what I had last year after 12000 miles on this 4x4 estate and also  previous 110Tdi estate the previous year to that. When new tyres are put on I have got either one of 2 local garages to do a standard wheel alignment as nothing better is available locally.

Driving is 95% on poor single track roads which are  granite chippings pressed into molten tar ( as are most of the A roads also round here).

Shocks seem in good condition on this car (standard with 90k miles) but the previous Tdi was a bit worn out.

I replaced every bush and balljoints, droplinks etc on the front of this car last year prior to new tyres and wheel alignment.

 

I am about to change either to a new complete set of my usual All Season Bridgestone Weather Control A001 or change to Winter WR D3 for a change (to see if there is an improvement in  excessive tyre wall movement of the Bridgestone and also their noise).

I would like to get on top of this so I have questions.

Is the camber, surface and 'twistynes' of these roads likely to put excessive wear on the outer front edge and is this going to be more on the passenger side tyre?

If I travelled to get a proper 4 wheel alignment what are the advantages on this car as I understand there is no rear adjustment other than perhaps moving the whole offset of the rear?

If this is beneficial can you recommend anywhere in Wales or nearest thereafter?

 

I have all the uprated bushes for the rear of the car an suppose it makes sense to do these first before 4 wheel alignment.

Thanks

M

 

 

They are proper winter boots aren't they??

If you've been running them for any more than a few months this year I suspect they are just scrubbing out on roundabouts etc (passenger side?)

If they are proper full on winter tyres they will wear worse on warmer roads and yes they do have more flex in the sidewalls (like rainsports etc) on my 530d the rainsports scrubbed out in the outer edge pass side sooooooo quickly but other rubber has been fine

Edit : just seen again what sort of roads your driving on! Probably not RABs but even so quicker or more frequent RH bends could do it

if the road camber is enough to need frequent pressure to the right to keep from slowly creeping into the ditch, yeah, it  but id expect to see it to a similar extent on the inside drivers side tyre.

 

4 wheel alignment might not have fine tuned a slightly off camber on that corner? which could pull the rear a touch with it.

not beyond the realms that both tyre places have out of calibration alignment set ups - same guy might be servicing both places if kinda remote...

Edited 2 December, 201411 yr by mac11irl

I had these on all year as were the previous set. Very good in the wet/flooded and mud covered back roads. Only a few times this year did they feel like the roads were too hot for them. I may go round a roundabout maybe 2 times a week but lots of 90 degree plus direction changes on very winding roads. In fact come to think of it very little straight/ sweeping bends on the roads at all. Direction change every 100 yards.

Previous normal tyres were Toyo Proxes on the Tdi and as I remember they felt a  soft compound and wore quickly in similar fashion.

as I have a spare set of alloys I  may try a dedicated winter tyre probably the Nokian WR D3 although generally milder here than most parts of the country and swap over to Summer etc next year. Seems the norm here whatever season is mostly wet so that is the bias of tyre looking for.

M

 

Not overly confident the garages put much effort into making sure this is right. Good guys but just the sorts of places used to fixing broken parts rather than improving handling etc. If I go to the effort of seeking decent alignment further afield I need to know what to ask for. I will check some past threads I remember being on here.

M

Edited 2 December, 201411 yr by MarkyD

My Dad's quattros used to chew through the outer edges. Negative camber is biased to the rear as this is safest for road cars giving more cornering grip to the rear makes it less likely to swap ends on you, the fronts therefore will be more susceptible to scrubbing that outside edge as they roll through turns. I sympathise with you and the surfaces/roads you drive as its the same for me, they can be good fun but they give tyres a pretty hard time. My outer edges have the hardest time, although not as excessively as yours. I'd say its a combination of standard set camber, the nature of the roads and the heat generated through the tread behaviour, over the course of hundreds of miles this compounds into what appears to be excessive wear.

Oh and yes, this probably will be more on passenger side because of our prevailing camber on British roads, again its a subtle weight shift but over months it will exceed wear elsewhere. The higher neg camber on the rear will help compensate so you'll suffer less there.

The first pic looks like the tyre has been over inflated (more wear to the middle) and possibly under inflated (wear to the outside edge). If the outer edge of the driver's side is more worn than the rest of the tyre then it might suggest your wheels have toe in. How often are you checking your tyre pressures?

 

It's normal for the front left tyre to wear a bit more due to roundabouts but if the tyre is correctly inflated there shouldn't be much difference over the whole width of the tyre.

The first pic looks like the tyre has been over inflated (more wear to the middle) and possibly under inflated (wear to the outside edge). If the outer edge of the driver's side is more worn than the rest of the tyre then it might suggest your wheels have toe in. How often are you checking your tyre pressures?

 

It's normal for the front left tyre to wear a bit more due to roundabouts but if the tyre is correctly inflated there shouldn't be much difference over the whole width of the tyre.

 

I can see better now, was on my phone when I looked before, the first pic does look more 'scrubbed' than simply 'worn', so it could be an alignment/toe issue, this could be compounded by other factors all mentioned above.  There does seem to be some excessive wear down the centre as well, which is due to over inflation.  On the fronts I would always expect outer edges to wear slightly quicker because of weight transfer, road camber and tyre roll, but not as noticeable as that.

My first thought was "roundabouts", but reading between the lines maybe not because there aren't many where you live?

 

I have the same issue with granite chips (rolled into tar) as a road surface, but don't get noticable uneven wear, and that makes me think you need a proper geometry, particularly if you drive a 4x4.

Have been running front pressure 30 and rear 32 with just me and light load. If anything maybe a bit low. Petrol cap recommends 32 front 33 rear with 3 passengers.

Have to get the rear bushes installed and go get it sorted.

Just been looking through threads here and on TT forum. Avia at Bridgend gets recommendations. Not too far 77 miles away.

Thanks everyone.