I have a 2021 Skoda Scala and have recently replaced three of the tyres due to them being perished and the tyre pressures have been set within the system. After driving for between 30 minutes and an hour the tyre pressure warning symbol appears on the dash for the tyre that wasn't replaced. This has happened on numerous occasions and each time I reset the the system and there is never anything wrong with the tyre. I have swapped the wheel over with the other rear wheel and the problem follows the wheel. An independent garage and a Skoda dealer has told me that the only probable way to solve the problem is to replace the tyre as the tread is 2mm lower than the other three. As I am not willing to spend £100 on a new tyre I am living with the problem at the moment. Can anyone suggest a solution to this problem?

Not normally a great idea to replace three tyres instead of four but as you ask, you could try checking all four tyre pressures with a reliable accurate tyre pressure gauge, if all four show the same pressure with the same reliable accurate pressure gauge then you could try slightly increasing or decreasing the pressures on all four tyres to see if that gives you what you want.

 

I would have the odd tyre at the front.

 

There's more to the tyres than just how much tread depth is on them, are all four tyres exactly the same make and model (making things up now, a Bridgehouse Pitstop tyre might come in varieties of chequered flag, black flag, yellow flag and even chequered, black and flag in S1, S2, S3 all with many difference between similar sounding names.  Obviously a totally different make and or model of tyre is more likely to have more or greater differences. in its design, build, construction and compounds.

 

HTH.

 

Thank you for your interest and information. The tyres are are thre same ie Nexen. The system works off the ABS which measures the revolutions of the wheels and as the older tyre has a tread depth 2mm less than the others, it will rotate marginally faster than the other tyres. As the system is very sensitive it picks up this difference and triggers the warning symbol. My argument to the technician at the service dept of the Skoda dealer is that the onboard computer should register the difference in speed of the wheel when reset. The technician suggested that there was no solution except replacing the tyre. I don't believe that the system can be so infallible.

Seems a bit strange to me, if you have reset the system it should know its normal for that wheel to be rotating faster and only measure each wheel relative to when it was reset

On my wife's 2015 Fabia it came with Nexen 'N blue HD', these were replaced with different tyres which were Nexen 'N blue HD plus' (neither were great tyres and replaced with entirely different makes and models).

 

VW must have change the detection system (a lot) since 2015 as on my wife's Fabia it was very slow to detect a tyre that went very flat (cause of the "distress purchase" of two new 'plus' tyres, only one was needed but tyres are important and very important components in the braking, steering and suspension systems).

 

Is the Scala standard two wheel drive or has it any all-wheel drive trickery?

 

As you have tried moving the wheel and tyre to the other side why not try moving it to the front.  Less hassle is first to check all the tyres with a reliable accurate pressure gauge as I suggested in my previous post and where ever the tyres are positioned they all what to be at even pressure at least across the axle.

 

Is it that the car does little mileage as we had no trouble with the Nexen (other than they weren't the best for our wants or needs) but we did have some Avons that badly cracked up, on the inside where it was very difficult to see, in about 3years and 23k-miles.

 

Edited 17 September, 20241 yr by nta16
spelling

Hello nta16,

I do about 7,000 miles a year in this car. Why do you think changing the wheel to the front will make a difference? It may be worth a go.

Thanks

20 hours ago, SWalsh said:

the tread is 2mm lower than the other three.

The different rotational speed of the wheel will make the ABS based TPMS think that that tyre is deflated.

 

Moving it to any other position on the car won't make any difference to that.

 

Seriously, you need to have tyres/wheels on each axle that are the same outside diameter, so you need to have replaced 2 tyres or 4 but not 3.

ETA: I was still typing whilst PetrolDave posted and we certainly agree on one thing, as with 2mm, I'd have to experiment but I'm sure it'd need a lot more than 2mm difference on a 2015 Fabia to set off its TPMS warning, unless someone can do the maths (plural) 

 

Well I'm not sure it will but you have already tried swapping sides at rear plus generally you want your best set of two tyres to the rear.

 

At 7k-miles per year on a 3 year old car I'm surprised the Nexen tyres had perished but your Nexen tyres may be a different model (not 'N blue HD' or 'N blue HD plus') and of different dates and times of manufacture which can make a big difference.

 

I going to assume (always dangerous) that you changed three tyres because of the MoT.

 

Even if all four tyres are the same make and model one, if I'm guessing right, has had 2mm of vehicle use and age more than the other three and that one presumably was made at a different time to the other three.  That is not to say the other three where manufactured at exactly the same time as each other but hopefully they have been stored correctly and the three have equal use to each other (unless you live somewhere with lots of roundabouts and you always stick to the same routes and/or always park your car outside in exactly the same place pointing in the same direction, perhaps one tyre spared the elements and the other three not.

 

As you're in the Tyres & Wheels' forum I am going to suggest you change the fourth tyre to match the other three before they get too much age and wear on them from new to balance out the braking, steering and handling the car via the tyres.  Despite all the electronics and VW computer programs in the driver's "aids" and "assistance" (I don't think all of them always are) the car's only contact with the road or surface is only (hopefully) four small patches of 'rubber' from the tyres.

Thank you for all your comments.