Sawtoothing tyres on Mkiii vrs

[sworrall]

I found out today my rear tyres and possibly the fronts have become sawtoothed.

Just checking if anyone else has been affected by this as I've not had it since my mkii l&k 3 cars ago

Looks like I'll need new rear tyres and the wheels aligned

It's a 63 Mkiii vrs estate diesel by the way on 22,000 miles

[OverTheHill]

Had sawtoothing on the rears of the Mk II vRS and the Mk III is too low mileage for me to comment. If there's still tread, then I'd swap front to back. I have not heard of the fronts getting it as the stresses of front wheel drive tend to wear the tread blocks evenly. Also, not sure if the rear can be adjusted? The Mk II didn't have adjustment IIRC.

[silver1011]

Jeez Skoda, you think they'd have learnt by now.

 

Sawtoothing was a real issue on the MkII and often denied by Skoda UK.

 

The blistering rear spoiler issue was also rife on the MkII.

 

Do they not think to themselves, lads let's makesure we button down these issues on the new one!

[Neily03]

No issues with mine now on 25k miles.

[V6Jules]

I've not got enough miles on my vrs but had it on my Passat and no amount of alignments or tyre swaps seemed to stop it doing it. Used to sound like a knackered wheel bearing at times

[James I]

Out of interest what tyres have you got that are saw toothing?

 

 Those who have not got saw toothing, what tyres have you got?

 

 

 My mate has a Scirocco, he has fitted Avon tyres to the rear and they saw toothed badly, switched them with the Michelins off the front and no more saw toothing, the Avon's have cleaned up since being on the front too.

[johnrowley]

Pardon my ignorance but what is sawtoothing ?

[sworrall]

No issues with mine now on 25k miles.

are you in the contis neily?

It may be a one off on mine but thought I'd check if anyone else had had it

I've not got enough miles on my vrs but had it on my Passat and no amount of alignments or tyre swaps seemed to stop it doing it. Used to sound like a knackered wheel bearing at times

it was the sound like a failed bearing that got me to check. However the tread blocks on the rear are sharp on one side and soft on the other which apparently is sawtoothing.

I got 35,000 out of the rears on my last vrs so it looks like an early change this time plus the alignments. The wheels haven't been knocked by me either

[James I]

Pardon my ignorance but what is sawtoothing ?

Have a look here, all is explained.

 

http://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-article/saw-tooth-tyre-wear

[sworrall]

Out of interest what tyres have you got that are saw toothing?

Those who have not got saw toothing, what tyres have you got?

My mate has a Scirocco, he has fitted Avon tyres to the rear and they saw toothed badly, switched them with the Michelins off the front and no more saw toothing, the Avon's have cleaned up since being on the front too.

Michelin f1 asymmetric on the front and the original contis on the back. Didn't really want to change them around but I may give it a try before replacing

[johnrowley]

Thanks james

[Neily03]

are you in the contis neily?

It may be a one off on mine but thought I'd check if anyone else had had it

I was for the first 20k without problems, now on Michelin PS3.

[RandomSkodaperson]

I think this is also happening to mine. I thought it sounded like a bearing too. My old Saab 9-5 Aero had the same problem. Some road surfaces sound much louder than others.

 

I am up to 22,000 miles, plenty of tread left on the rears (original conti tyres) and much louder at lower speeds.

[ChrisRs]

Michelin f1 asymmetric on the front and the original contis on the back. Didn't really want to change them around but I may give it a try before replacing

You mean Goodyear F1 Assymetric...Surely

[sworrall]

You mean Goodyear F1 Assymetric...Surely

oops. Late and tired! I've no idea now as they may be ps3's! I'll have to check in the morning but they are one or the other

[neiln]

Wtf is saw toothing?

 Just over 5.3k and I've noticed nothing so far. Xonti2.

Intrigued.

[meb90]

Wtf is saw toothing?

 Just over 5.3k and I've noticed nothing so far. Xonti2.

Intrigued.

Post #9 has the answer

[Richf]

Wheels in Motion reckon this can be fixed or at least minimised but a proper geometry set up , the dealers have neither the expertise nor equipment to do it properly and the manufacturers figures aren't always the best starting point

 

I had my Mk2 Fabia set up correctly from new (Not set properly from the factory!) and I'll be getting the Octy done when it arrives, this drove me mad with my mk2 , especially with passengers telling me the wheel bearings were shot !

 

http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/

[sniperpenguin]

Have a look here, all is explained.

 

http://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-article/saw-tooth-tyre-wear

Thanks for that 

[Greg R]

Wheels in Motion reckon this can be fixed or at least minimised but a proper geometry set up , the dealers have neither the expertise nor equipment to do it properly and the manufacturers figures aren't always the best starting point

I had my Mk2 Fabia set up correctly from new (Not set properly from the factory!) and I'll be getting the Octy done when it arrives, this drove me mad with my mk2 , especially with passengers telling me the wheel bearings were shot !

http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/

I had my wife's leon set up on a Hunter 4_wheel alignment rig at 4 months old simply because the car was very jittery from the factory. Some of the geometry was way out and the car now feels much better. It drives as i expected it should. Seeing the improvement, also had my Passat done... Which was only slight out so only a marginal improvement there.

It's well worth getting them checked in any event. The place I use will only charge if they have to make adjustments.

[jefalad]

As explained in the Oponeo link, sawtooth wear is a "normal" feature of wear on tyres with block pattern treads due to the flexibility of the tread rubber. However it is a slowly developing feature and does not tend to occur on tyres which are subjected to higher wear effects due to, for example, driving and cornering forces. Hence it is most often found on the rear tyres of front wheel drive cars used mainly for motorway driving. Wheel geometry can increase the sawtooth effect by concentrating this wear phenomenon on one side of the tyre but is not the cause of it. The geometry settings specified by car manufacturers are not necessarily chosen to get the best tyre wear, stability and handling are more important to them than tyre life.

As the cause is tread flexing, new tyres suffer more than worn tyres. If tyres with 4mm of tread remaining have no sawtooth wear, it will probably not occur before they are worn out wherever they are fitted. Tyre rotation is the solution and clearly this is more important early in the tyre's life. Sometimes just one rotation at 8-10,000 miles is enough to avoid significant sawtooth wear during the whole life of a tyre.

[sworrall]

Moving on from this I ended up getting two Eagle F1's from camskill to match the others which Im getting fitted soon.

 

Im a bit nervous now about getting a 4 wheel hunter alignment as Ive heard horror stories on the audi forum about getting this done which then sends the ACC calibration askew from the steering and you then have to pay for an expensive alignment.

 

So, question is has anyone with ACC or lane assist had a four wheel alignment done and was it all ok?

 

 

[Johnnie41]

I have this worn wheel bearing type noise from the rear of my VRS TSI Octavia III and have had it since new in Sept 2014. Car has now done 6000 miles and had hoped the noise would go as components bedded in, but it hasn't and it is spoiling my enjoyment of the car. Raised it with the dealer that supplied the car and took their service manager out. He said it was down to the tyres, which are Conti Sport 2s. Did not offer any solution other than change the tyres once worn out ! 

Wrote to Skoda UK and they suggested getting a second opinion, which I did last week. The service technician could hear the noise and agreed with me that it is not tyre related. Just to prove this he put some different wheels on the car and noise was still apparent. I am taking the car back tomorrow for further investigation. If it is a geometry issue as suggested in above posts, then I will be better off taking the car to a geometry specialist. Does anyone know of a good one in the Midlands ?

Also, how much adjustment can be made to the Octavia's rear suspension ?

[Diango]

If you have saw-toothed tires that just means you aren't wearing them down fast enough. Why are you even posting here! Go burn some rubber!

[themanwithnoaim]

Drive it like you just stole it, sorted.