HELP!! front wheel noise when driving

[hogs]

hello everyone
recently i have noticed my '10 Golf TSi with sport pack 17" wheels and BS Potenza050 rubber has more and more intrusive “hump hump hump” noise when driving at 40km/hr either accelerating or decelerating. I have taken the car to be road tested and the dealership mechanics told me it’s due to scalloping of the tyres and not related to wheel joint therefore nothing can be done. i wonder if this would be due to other more serious causes?
I would appreciate anyone who had a similar problem pls share your experience as the noise is getting really uncomfortable.

cheers

[ope126]

How many Km's on the tyres?
I wish I had a dollar for every time a dealer / mechanic referred to scalloping of the tyres being a cause of noises...
Keep us up to date on the outcome!

[brad]

If it is scalloping / saw-toothing then it should be coming from the rear unless the tyres have been recently rotated. You should also be able to see/feel it with your hand.

You could try swapping them front-rear to see if the noise moves.

Sometimes if the pattern isn't too severe it can be worn off by swapping the wheels side-side & reversing the direction of rotation. You can accelerate the process by doing a few burnouts

Also try higher or lower tyre pressures.

How often are you x-rotating your tyres?

[vdubmotorworx]

tyre tread scalloping is very common, I see at least 2 a day...Its very hard to explain to a customer that there tyres with 5mm still remaining are ruined.... usually you can feel or see the inner tread wearing uneven.....Its happened to my own car! can be on the front or rear wheels...Its really annoying and I can NEVER remember this issue in the UK at all! doesn't seem to make a difference what brand of tyres or car they are fitted too but seems to be the heavier cars like golf upwards no mater what engine.... less common on polos etc. we are told its caused by...TYRE PRESSURES TOO LOW/HIGH, SHOCKER REBOUND, EXCESSIVE CORNERING SPEED, EXCESSIVE ACCELERATION/ DE-ACCELERATION.....I just cant see why I don't remember this from the UK....Will need to ring the old lads there and see if they are having the same issues..When I fitted new tyres I bought none rotational tyres. so as above by Brad instead of just doing a rotate and balance front to back they can also be changed side to side so that the wheel/tyre can run the other way on the ground to wear the tread even again..its a shame most tyres are rotational now (can only be run one way)so legally this can not be done to help most people..so hopefully when putting the tyres on in reverse every 10k or so they should wear even.....VDUB...

[vRS Carl]

tyre tread scalloping is very common, I see at least 2 a day...Its very hard to explain to a customer that there tyres with 5mm still remaining are ruined.... usually you can feel or see the inner tread wearing uneven.....Its happened to my own car! can be on the front or rear wheels...Its really annoying and I can NEVER remember this issue in the UK at all! doesn't seem to make a difference what brand of tyres or car they are fitted too but seems to be the heavier cars like golf upwards no mater what engine.... less common on polos etc. we are told its caused by...TYRE PRESSURES TOO LOW/HIGH, SHOCKER REBOUND, EXCESSIVE CORNERING SPEED, EXCESSIVE ACCELERATION/ DE-ACCELERATION.....I just cant see why I don't remember this from the UK....Will need to ring the old lads there and see if they are having the same issues..When I fitted new tyres I bought none rotational tyres. so as above by Brad instead of just doing a rotate and balance front to back they can also be changed side to side so that the wheel/tyre can run the other way on the ground to wear the tread even again..its a shame most tyres are rotational now (can only be run one way)so legally this can not be done to help most people..so hopefully when putting the tyres on in reverse every 10k or so they should wear even.....VDUB...

I'm from the UK and i know of this Sawtoothing/Scalloping of the Tyres but it is only associated with the rear and not front tyres. It seemed to be more prominent with bridgestone and dunlop rubber. I know of loads of people with Octavia's and Golf's which have had this happen in the UK.

It was only associated though with the MK5 Golf and Mk2 pre-facelift Octavia. I did loads trying to sort it on my MY07 vRS including replacing wheels, ARB's Supsension bushes etc. In the end the only thing that cured with was to use Goodyear or Michelin Tyres AND have a full 4 wheel alignment done by a professional race team.

If this is happening on the front then i would say something is out of line. However it wouldn't be a hump hump hump noise. It would be more a progressive drone that gets higher in tone the faster you go. Think of a fan blade, as it gets faster the tone pitch changes.

If it's knocking then it could possibly be a wheel bearing or a bent track arm rod (i've had this in the past too when a bus pushed my car into a curb and bent the arm).

Can you take it to another dealer or a VAG specialist/Tuning firm to see if they can diagnose something else?

Carl

[vdubmotorworx]

Just have a look at your tyres yourself, make sure you can see the inside edges on the front and rear, usually you can see the scalloping visually if they are really bad but sometimes in the early stages you might need to run your hand over the tread... you will feel and see if its worn.....VDUB...

[brad]

It's all in the wheel alignment. You need to find a good operator who knows that you can adjust the un-adjustable.

The OP just say VIC but if he's in MEL then Ralf at Tru Trac would be a good place to start.

I've never had it on my pre-FL Octavia but the alignment was really good on that from day-1.

Good quality tyres a must (OP has that).

Regular X-rotation (every 7500km - 10,000km max)

And despite me doing all I can, I have noisy fronts at the moment (only rotated them 6 weeks ago). It's only mildly intrusive on some road surfaces so I'll put up with it until the tyres are trashed in ~10,000km/4 months

[wai]

Yes, it is blamed on scalloping of the tyres. On my new Caddy Maxi Live it showed up with less than 5,000 km on the clock.

As for it being a warrantable item, no luck. It is considered a consumable and I would have to take it up with Dunlop. Dunlop say it is an issue with the vehicle so I should take it up with VW. Don't you love it when they play this way???

If it happens after they are rotated, then they will blame it on not being rotated soon enough. If you say you rotated them yourself, they will say it was because you did rotate them too early!! Oh, and when I told them of the noise, they refused to rotate the tyres!

The best thing you can do is to make sure the tyre pressures do not fall too low. This is particularly so if you have low profile tyres. For example, my Caddy Maxi Life was delivered with tyre pressures of 32 psi, and that is what I was told they should be. The placard says that for more than one person and a little luggage, it should be 42 psi. When I have it at 42 psi, the noise is lessened, and the wear is pretty even. I am about to have the 30,000 km service in just over a week.

After a really long journey (like Melbourne to Sydney), the next morning, there is a definite darker band on both outside edges of the tread on all 4 tyres, and this at 42 psi.

[Richo64]

I had the same problem... seems to be particularly an issue with BS Potenza RE050... mine started at about 30k... replaced the tyres at 45k. Same problem of noise & vibration at 40km/hr,less of an issue athigher speeds. The problem is saw-toothing, worse with uni directional tyres. Unfortunately will only be solved by replacing the tyres, and I would suggest avoiding unidirectionl tyres at all costs to try to prevent this from occurring again.

[wai]

...I would suggest avoiding unidirectional tyres at all costs to try to prevent this from occurring again.

Yes. Definitely avoid asymmetric tyres. What happens with asymmetric tyres is that you get differences in rolling friction from one side to the other. Low tyre pressures will allow the contact patch twist. This is the same as having excessive toe in or toe out (depending on which side has greater rolling friction). It only takes a very small angle to cause this.

Directional tyres should not be as much of an issue. In many ways, tread patterns have been handed over to industrial artists to see who can come up with the best artistic pattern. In many instances it is secondary that these tyres actually have to roll on the road.

[vRS Carl]

Sorry, don't agree with that from my own experience.

I ran Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta and Goodyear Eagle Assym 2's on both my vRS' (including the one I had Sawtoothing on) and neither suffered with the problem on those tyres.

It was only on the factory fitted Dunlops and another friend had the same on RE05's

The problem for me was completely eradicated after switching tyres and the 4 wheel alignment. I got Sawtoothing after 11k miles (ish) on the Dunlops. I sold the car when it had 72k miles (in 3yrs) and through the Vreds, GY F2 & Mich PS3 I never had the problem return.

[Martin]

has more and more intrusive “hump hump hump” noise when driving at 40km/hr either accelerating or decelerating. I have taken the car to be road tested and the dealership mechanics told me it’s due to scalloping of the tyres and not related to wheel joint therefore nothing can be done. i wonder if this would be due to other more serious causes?

Have you hit a rock or curb in the last 6 months???
If the wheel alignment is knocked out you can wreck the tyres
Then at the next service, they rotate your tyres, ensuring you wreck all 4 tyres

[brad]

I had the same problem... seems to be particularly an issue with BS Potenza RE050... mine started at about 30k... replaced the tyres at 45k. Same problem of noise & vibration at 40km/hr,less of an issue athigher speeds. The problem is saw-toothing, worse with uni directional tyres. Unfortunately will only be solved by replacing the tyres, and I would suggest avoiding unidirectionl tyres at all costs to try to prevent this from occurring again.

Do you mean RE050 (directional) or RE050A (assymetric)?

If by uni-directional you mean non-directional (assymetric & conventional tread patterns) then I'd disagree.

I avoid directional patterns like the plague & prefer assymetric for their ability to be x-rotated.

[Richo64]

Sorry... I meant single directional... ie...rotate in one direction. I was referring to REO50's, not the RE050A. I aggree that I would stick to tyres that can be cross rotated. Currently using Michelin PS3 which so far have been quite good. Much better than the Bridgestone RE050's.

[hogs]

thanks for everyone's input! appreciate all ur comments

finally decided to change all 4 tyres after one got punctured and very happy to report the noise is completely gone! (Hooray)
changed to Continental Contimax MC5 which is more of a touring kind of tyre and hopefully the scalloping wont recur. i suppose they are asymmetrical, any suggestion how i would rotate them when i reach 10,000km?

also talked to the tyre centre manager and was told the scalloping is usually due to faulty shock absorbers esp in the front-wheel-drive cars and it's becoming more common as manufacturers dont design their cars properly?? what do u guys think of this?

cheers