S3 Tyre Wear

[Motormouth]

Hi everyone, had my S3 for about 10 months now and have come on here quite often since I bought it for advice but never registered for some stupid reason - until now I have finally done it.

I wondered if anyone had experienced the same problem I am having with my car or if they know what the problem could be so any help would be much appreciated.

When I bought the car it had recently had 4 new Goodyear F1's which I thought were noisy, I also noticed what sounded like a wheel bearing noise from the nsr, the car has only done 62000 so I decided the bearings should be fine.

This noise has got worse and varies depending on the road surface so I am sure it is the tyre on the nsr. I am changing the rear anti-roll bar tomorrow so was just looking under the back at the job and noticed the tyre on the nsr has worn strange, it is out of shape on the inside edge instead of being round it still looks round from a distance but on closer inspection it is more like a fifty pence piece only with more flats.

I don't know what could have caused this, any ideas??? Nothing looks bent and the car is very straight never been painted, it is my first 4WD car so started to wonder about the rear diff - then I got worried and started thinking about haldex controllers and pound signs etc.

As all 4 tyres are now knackered, won't get F1's again as they have worn very fast, I want to try and solve what is causing the tyre to wear before I buy 4 new tyres.

Any help/comments would be much appreciated.

 

[S3Steve]

I wouldnt rule out the wheel bearing mate, i had to replace one on mine at 39k, so that could be at fault.

As for the odd tyre wear, on a previous car i had what sounds like similar wear, when i took the wheel off it had a tiny crack in it. I had obviously damaged the wheel in a pot hole and not noticed. So it will be worth checking that wheel to make sure its still true mate.

 

[Motormouth]

Thanks for that quick reply mate, I was hoping it would be the wheel the only reason I doubt it is because I would have thought the wheels wouldn't balance up perfect??? but mainly as I had the wheels refurbed and although one of the wheels (I don't know which they just told me when I collected them) had a chunk missing from the outer face and had to be filled with weld they said they balanced ok and were fine.

I obviously questioned them about it as I noticed the wheel was filled or something before I took them, they had it welded as aparantely you can't use filler when they go in the oven (powder coating) and now it is impossible to tell which it was just looking at them.

The wheels are original 18", do you know any way I could check the wheel visually myself?

The noise must be the tyre as on some roads there is no noise then others it is really loud and the tyre really is bad now.

Can you think of any way in which the tyre could wear like that because of the 4WD, I have done quite a lot of work on old VW's with the S3 engine but don't really no a lot about the quattro system and how it works. I never get any faults showing on the dash so pressume everything is fine.

Thanks again for your help, nice car by the way those wheels really suit it, if I can sort this problem I plan to get some of those next summer.

 

[jcs356]

I agree with Steve about the bearings - mine went at 60k (ish).

Has your car been lowered? Even 20mm lower will cause the inner edges of the rear tyres to wear unless adjustable tie bars have been fitted to adjust the wheels in.

 

[Motormouth]

Not sure if its been lowered or not, it sits quite nice I think but the springs are just black like the standard ones so I would guess not. Also the rest of the car is standard and the osr tyre seems to have worn pretty even.

I had the car tracked about 3 months ago as the inside of the front tyres was scrubbing off, the readings for the rear looked a bit odd to me and as it can't be adjusted (standard) I wondered if it was right, does anyone have the alignment readings for their standard S3 that I could compare?

 

[S3Steve]

They could be two seperate faults mate, the noise and the tyre wear. The tyre cant of been wearing funny when you had them refurbed? If not then any wheel damage could well of occured after refurb. Also if the wheel bearing has gone it could be causing the tyre to wear odd. The only way you will be able to check the wheel other than putting it on a balancing machine would be to measure its diameter every 50mm or so around the circumference and check that it is the same.

 

[Motormouth]

Has everyone had a problem with the forum yesterday or was it my computer???

Don't know if the tyre on that particular wheel was wearing funny post refurb as the tyres were still relatively new. I was hoping it would just be the wheel that was damaged but the more I think about it that is unlikely as the previous owner had 4 new tyres as one got damaged on a pot hole 2 were worn out and the other was out of shape (on the nsr same as now).

Whatever is causing the problem has been there a while, could a wheel bearing cause a tyre to wear strange or is there no problem and its down to the make of tyre, a lot of people seem to comment on the F1's being noisy, but are they noisy like a wheel bearing noisy and only from one corner of the car.

Maybe there are 2 faults the bearing has gone and the out of shape tyre isn't making the noise and normally I wouldn't have noticed the tyre if I wasn't looking for a fault.

I am starting to think it might be a good idea to change all the suspension bushes at the rear and also the bearings, does anyone know roughly how much the new genuine bushes/bearings are - trailing arm and track control arm bushes?

Has anyone done the rear bearings themselves is it difficult, I suppose the trailing arm needs to be removed?

 

[voorhees]

sites been down.
my tyre wear is uneven but I put it down to tempermental S3 as I've done a search on here and most have it

 

[leecs3]

I had Goodyears on my S3 and they refused to wear out. Could be driving style as it usually takes me awhile to get tyres warm on the track indicating i'm gentle on tyres.

 

[simch]

rear camber is important. i would check your shocks too. Get a mate to follow you when you drive and ask him to watch for your rear wheels bouncing up and down as you drive, if so, shocks are knacked and will cause your wear.

 

[Motormouth]

Don't think it will be down to my driving I had F1's on a lupo GTi and they were brilliant, no wear problems, but on the S3 all 4 have lasted the same time (not very long) and been noisy, I thought the backs would have lasted slightly longer. The osr is ok, probably a bit of life left in that but the other 3 are knackered, for some reason the nsr has worn much faster and out of shape.

A tyre fitter said to check the shockers but surely it would have been picked up on its last mot?

Does anyone have the readings for when they had a standard S3 tracked up?