Front tyre wear - WT*?!

[clip]

Just had a look at my tyres and the fronts are almost at the wear indicators, at only 15000k's!!! (you be quiet Sharkie, I'm sure it's not my driving )

The sides, both inside and outside are fine and as I would expect with only 15000k's, but the centres are worn out! The rear tyres are showing slightly more wear on the inside compared to outside, but nothing like the fronts.

I run them at 270kpa, and have checked on different guages etc. I was told to run them at 270-280, so they're not over inflated. Can't see how it could be wheel alignment because the sides are fine. I also run the fronts and rears at the same pressures. So what gives? It looks like classic over inflation, but they're not over inflated, and the rears haven't worn running the same pressure.

Anyone checked out their front tyres lately?

[team_v]

What sort of tyres do you have?

I am getting 20-25k out of my set of Kumho KU31's and they cop a beating.

[Njay]

I got 15k on my ku31 on the front

[Diesel_vert]

Just had a look at my tyres and the fronts are almost at the wear indicators, at only 15000k's!!! (you be quiet Sharkie, I'm sure it's not my driving )

The sides, both inside and outside are fine and as I would expect with only 15000k's, but the centres are worn out! The rear tyres are showing slightly more wear on the inside compared to outside, but nothing like the fronts.

I run them at 270kpa, and have checked on different guages etc. I was told to run them at 270-280, so they're not over inflated. Can't see how it could be wheel alignment because the sides are fine. I also run the fronts and rears at the same pressures. So what gives? It looks like classic over inflation, but they're not over inflated, and the rears haven't worn running the same pressure.

Anyone checked out their front tyres lately?

Unlike bias or cross-ply tyres, radial tyres tend not to wear in the centre solely from overinflation, unless the pressure is far in excess of the recommended values.

For radial tyres on the driven wheels, pronounced centre wear is mainly due to centrifugal forces which cause the middle of the tread to expand. It is a common phenomenon on wider tyres.

Reducing the inflation pressure won't solve this issue - so don't. Rather, frequent tyre rotations are a more effective method in countering this sort of wear.

You can view this effect here (as simulated by Michelin):
MICHELIN® Pilot® Super Sport Tire Innovation: Ceinture Twaron® - YouTube

[clip]

thanks for the link and understand the science, but I'm running standard wheels, OEM tyres and its a bloody diesel and I live in the speed radar state of Australia! The dealer normaly does rotate them at 15000k's, but they are too worn to do that!

How come everyone else is getting 30000+ k's out of their Conti's, and I'm getting 15000?

[dopey]

Here's my Continental ContiSportContact3's after 16,500km / 12 months. I don't exactly baby them, I think they're doing quite well considering. I've always run them at the higher end of the recommended inflation values.

Excuse the crappy phone pics;

Front:


Rear:


I'd suggest perhaps you need to look at your wheel alignment and perhaps consider rotating your tyres every 6 months.

[clip]

Here's my Continental ContiSportContact3's after 16,500km / 12 months. I don't exactly baby them, I think they're doing quite well considering. I've always run them at the higher end of the recommended inflation values.

I'd suggest perhaps you need to look at your wheel alignment and perhaps consider rotating your tyres every 6 months.

Thanks Dopey, yours are much better than mine. I just don't understand it though. I've only had it for a bit over 8 months, it just seems really exessive wear. Not sure if wheel alignment would help as it's just really the centre tread that has worn so much. It's basically down to wear marks, unlike yours. The rest of the tread look literally almost new. On the Tig, I got at least 40000k's out them, and it had heaps more power and torque, was a manual and I drove it with much more enthusiasm than I do the Passat!

One thing I do know, if I can't find an acceptable reason, I won't be replacing them with conti's again.

[team_v]

Can you get the date of manufacture off the tyre, maybe they were an older set.

[Lance B]

My Conti's got 28,000kms out of them before I got news tyres, but they till had about 10-15,000 left on them. I wasn't happy with them that's why I got new tyres, not because they were worn.

[FSI 220]

Do continental have a retail outfit/dealer/presence?

I would turn up and politely ask how come they look like this? please explain this wear patern to me so I can discuss with VW... they may give an independent view of whether the problem is the car...

Could it be the tyre was not cured propely? or the rubber is softer along the centre bad batch? blah blah

[clip]

Do continental have a retail outfit/dealer/presence?

I would turn up and politely ask how come they look like this? please explain this wear patern to me so I can discuss with VW... they may give an independent view of whether the problem is the car...

Could it be the tyre was not cured propely? or the rubber is softer along the centre bad batch? blah blah

Good idea. there's a conti dealer just up the road from me. I'll call in on Saturday and see what they have to say.

[Buzy_Robot]

Hmmmm .... I've done close to 11,000ks in my B7 Passat and I'll be interested to see what the dealer says when I take it in for its first service later this month. I'm no tyre expert, but I could swear there's some noticeable wear on the Contis. Maybe that's normal? Anyway, I came across the following article regarding the new CC and some of the comments allude to this issue of tyre wear:

Drive - Volkswagen CC review

[brad]

MAybe yo got a bad batch? It's been known to happen among various brands. I'd recomend you contact the tech dept of Continental direct as it's unlikely the dealer will be able to help you without getting them involved.

Your pressure isn't excessive though I'd be inclined to run a couple of PSI less.

I'd also be inclined to rotate the tyres every 7500-10,000km but in reality this might only have stretched your mileage out to 30,000km for all 4.

I had Contis on the Octavia & they went beyond 40,000km. They do have very soft sidewalls though.

[entice]

After finding out the replacement cost of the tyres on my R, I took it in for a wheel alignment with only 2000kms on the clock. My suspicions were confirmed, toe was way out on the front.

So I started looking at the Passat wagon (contiSp3) and it seemed to have a lot of wear on teh front left shoulder.. for only 3000km's on the clock. so took that in too.

Front had a bit of toe, but the rear had one toeing in and teh other toeing out. which meant the car was rear-steering. so required front input to correct, and hence left front outer wear.
Was also recommended that i run them at 38PSI - I thought I had them set to the placard (280kpa?) but they advised that they were down to 32psi. was also advised to recheck every month (pressure) and also to check alignment in 500km (complimentary) and then rotate at 10,000km's. the r needs a rotation every 5000km's and recommended alignment more frequently (19").

not sure this helps you, but may help someone else....

[clip]

Spoke to the tyre guy today and he said that's normal for the conti's. He asked me why had hadn't rotated them in 15000k's. I said I never thought to check the tread when checking air pressures, and because it had just gone in for it's first service at 15000k's (other than the 1000k checkup). He said they need to be done every 5000k's, and wheel alignment at least every 10000. He reckon's now I've put them on the back, I'll get a few more thousand k's out of them. Oh, and he suggested I try taking off from the lights a bit slower too.

So what to get next?