Facelift Scary Tyre Wear

Carefree69 said:
Result.

However, unless they find something wrong with the tyres you still might end up back at square one. Tyres just don’t wear like that because the actual tyres are faulty, that wear pattern has something to do with the set up of your car.

Hey I’m no expert and I’m just basing it on common sense.
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The OP's car is an A3 E/tron and is front wheel drive and the wear he states is normal for front and rear tyres. The real issue is tyre separation down to the steel belts and that is not normal. He was correct in informing Pirelli of the situation as that could lead to a recall of that tyre, if they find a manufacturing defect. If, that is not the case they will at least inform the OP to what was the issue on this tyre.
 
Yes he was indeed correct to inform Pirelli, no one is questioning that. And that kind of wear is not normal for any tyre. and if it is then I’m amazed I don’t see blow outs on the roads every day.

OP, good luck.
 
Thanks will keep this thread updated still have not heard back from Audi UK , unfortunately the thing that it has really raised is an understanding of how Audi UK and an Audi dealership behave in relationship to each other and the effects that has on customer service, that Audi UK does not care about how its franchises behave and they don't care how they behave to customers as there are no consequences from Audi UK. If I had been aware of this attitude before I bought the car i would not of made the purchase !

It really worries me now of what will happen if I have a major warranty claim ! Will I come across the same attitudes . Just a little bit of internet digging shows rafts of problems with customer service and this attitude of we have your money we can behave as we wish as there are no consequences from the brand in recent years .
 
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Audi UK is just importers of the car and not the manufacturers.
They tend to not give a sh1t when it suits them.
Warranty claims is no different. They will give the interpretation that suits them not how you and I would read the documents.
Unfortunately they are all like that, most cars on the roads are made by foreign companies and the uk head office is just an intermediary to home head office.
 
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Apart from a fiesta when I first started driving I had 5 SAABs all which had their foibles but were well supported and in the end by an amazing independent. Guess I have just been spoiled by someone who cared about my business, would take it to my SAAB guy in a Sec. if I could, and would of bought a Hybrid SAAB in a heartbeat......
 
I had this exact same issue and it turned out to be the tow on the front wheels had been set wrong. It was years ago on a Volvo but the tow was supposed to be something like 4 degrees but the garage had set it to -4 degrees. I got about 500 miles on the tires before one went bang. Needless to say I got another garage to verify this, claim my money back and never use the original garage ever again!
 
Just to add that the toe setting is the angle between the wheels - it's the sum of left and right which matters. If they didn't have the steering exactly straight ahead when they measured it, one will be slightly -ve and the other +ve, but that just cancels out when they get added for the overall total toe setting.

So it's not correct to think that your worst tyre was spot on, but the other one wasn't quite the correct toe setting. Inside edge wear, and particularly on the right hand tyre, is the classic symptom of toe out. The wheels are pointing slightly out from each other, but UK roads slope down to the left. So you're steering a little bit right. That means that the right hand wheel is pointing out a bit more than the left hand one as you drive along. If you imagine your hands pointing out a bit and then slide them along a table, it's the inside edge of your hands that'll rub more. Angle them a little bit right, and it's the inside edge of your right hand that's worst.

(As an aside, toe in wears the outside edges, and particularly the left hand one in the UK, for the same reason).

Your photo of the measurements screen doesn't look very toe out though, so that's odd.... I guess they might not have measured correctly (I've had that before). Or could there have been a lot of toe out for much of the tyres' life, but adjusted/corrected before you bought it?

Not saying it's not something else, but edge wear like that can be tracking set toe out in my experience.
 
I had a very similar issue although my tyres wore evenly. My car came with P-zeros and as they lasted 23k I decided to change them like for like.

However, the second set only lasted 6k. Now the car was not driven any differently to how it was for the first 23k, wheel alignment and tyre pressures were all perfect.

The tyre dealer agreed to send them back to Pirelli but I am yet to here anything back, this was around 5 months ago so I am not expecting to hear back.

In short, no one has been able to advise why they wore so quickly. I replaced them with Hancooks and so far they seem to be performing as you would expect.
 
Took the car for a 4 wheel alignment, the guy at STS said it was fractional out and there was nothing that would cause the wear that I experienced !

Bit of an update Audi UK phoned back yesterday to say the dealer I bought from did not want to help me and therefore there was nothing they could do. He said Audi UK had never offered goodwill to their customers it only came from the dealer, I was shocked at hearing this, the guy I spoke to on the phone raised his voice at me quite a few times and was very unprofessional. I asked about the issues with the original dealer and again he said that Audi UK has no method of penalising or dealing with issues with their franchises ! I was a bizarre conversation, in the end I requested all the recordings in relation to the matter and said I would be raising it at a higher level as I still believe there is potentially a Saftey issue that they are ignoring .... I said numerous times all they had to do to make me a happy customer was to have the tracking done and the suspension looked at .....

Then even more bizarrely I get another phone call today from Audi UK from someone following up a new case I had opened by email .... apparently when I sent them the pictures of the tyres quoting the original case in the subject like I was asked they never connected them to my original case and opened a new one that he was answering ! He listened to me apologised and arranged for my car to be booked into a service centre in MK to have an investigation done without asking for any money upfront and actually look into the issue ...... So after about 2 hrs of arguments on the phone and and 2hrs wasted at the dealers they have agreed to what I wanted to have done, really crazy experience hopefully I don't have the same problems again when I take the car in again !
 
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So took the car too Audi in MK today WOW what a difference in level of service . I was there for about 4hrs but I did know they didn’t have a car avalible to me . I was spoken to politely my concerns listened too and then had a sensible conversation about the best course of action all under warranty and with no charge !
They inspected the cars suspension and could not see anything obvious and then did the tracking on the car which they found to be slightly out.... They unfortunately didn’t find anything that would lead too the wear that I saw . On the test drive afterwards with the Master Technician he did comment on some suspension noise that I had noticed and we arranged for a more thorough inspection in a couple of weeks. Reassuringly the car is safe to drive at the moment.

The only idea that they came up with is that the tracking had been out a lot before I bought the car it was corrected before I took delivery and then it took abit longer for it to become a problem or there is still some underlying issue ....

Just crazy there is such a disparity in level of service and what is covered under warranty! Looks like Audi in Bedford were just trying it on with me !

No word from Pirelli yet....

Will keep this updated
 
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jrumball said:
Pirelli are interested in them enough that they have asked that I return them to them !
Click to expand...

I’ve just done some heavy searching to come across your thread again, I’ve posted a bit of a detailed thread in the RS3 section on this issue with the FL A3.

Yours interests me most, because it shows that it’s not just the tyre fitted to the RS3 that is affected!

I’d greatly appreciate some of your photos in my thread and I hope that my guidance can assist you in escalating this issue.

https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/pirelli-tyre-defects-response.382143/
 
I received this update from Pirelli. They seem to offer the same explication as your letter nothing wrong with the tyres but something to do with the chassis setup or suspension wear. It does look like there is an issue here with quite a few different vehicles and tyres ....

IMG 1439 copy 2
 
audi upgrades
Regarding Bedford Audi, they are part of the Vindis group and the service from each location seems to vary hugely. Huntingdon Audi have seemed good so far, others have been impressed with their service too, so lets see if that carries on with the investigation into my misfire issue. Cambridge audi (the original Vindis from years ago) were absolutely awful when I used them in the past. Others have said the same. I don't understand how the same company / group can have such varying customer service.
Perhaps this is slightly cynical, but maybe its a push towards getting people to lease from new rather than buy second hand approved.
 
Damo S said:
Regarding Bedford Audi, they are part of the Vindis group and the service from each location seems to vary hugely. Huntingdon Audi have seemed good so far, others have been impressed with their service too, so lets see if that carries on with the investigation into my misfire issue. Cambridge audi (the original Vindis from years ago) were absolutely awful when I used them in the past. Others have said the same. I don't understand how the same company / group can have such varying customer service.
Perhaps this is slightly cynical, but maybe its a push towards getting people to lease from new rather than buy second hand approved.
Click to expand...

I find it very hard to offer them any leeway when I have now taken my car to Audi in Milton Keynes and have been treated how I would of expected to be treated in a professional manner with concern for my issues and research into my problems, they found a TPI for all of the issues I had and therefor everything was carried out under warranty promptly with no attempt to charge me ! Unlike Audi in Bedford who were just rude condisending and attempted to get money out of me for warranty work !

I have no doubt that some dealers see PCP and finance as the only way they can make any money now .... I have now had experiences with 4 different Audi garages and Milton Kyenes is the only one that has not lied to me . More importantly Audi UK seem to have no interest in being told this !

But I have said this all before above.....
 
Interesting.

I had an identical situation with Pirelli cinturato tyres a few years ago. This was on an A4 quattro that was perhaps 1 1/2 years old and had maybe 18k miles on it. The car was used mostly for motorway driving and wasn't driven hard at all (new baby).

Ended up getting a flat LHS front tyre overnight due to the air leaking out of the gap that had formed where you could clearly see the banding. We were not that bothered as it was a company car and we didn't have to pay for the tyres. Both fronts were in terrible condition so they got changed.

But it happened again, exact same issue about a year later, after which the geometry of the car was checked and found to be perfect. Possibility that the front tyres had been run slightly - perhaps a couple of psi - below perfect inflation, but basically the tyre split along the shoulder where the banding was clearly visible, again.

To this day i believe it was a manufacturing / design issue with the inside edge of these cinturato tyres.

This is one of the reasons i have never bought Pirelli again, in fact I go to the extent of checking any new cars are not delivered with them.

We went to Dunlops afterwards and had another 25k worth of happy motoring without incident and have moved on to Continentals and michellins now, again with no issue.
 
jrumball said:
So I went yesterday to get some new tyres fitted for the winter I got Michelin CrossClimate + for my winter wheels. I have run specific winter tyres in the past but wanted to try something more suited to the British weather.


What I found when the wheels were removed was something quite disturbing the front drivers wheel was through to the steels on the inner edge and the passenger was wearing thin on the inner edge ! Got lucky was probably not to far away from a blowout.....

They are pirelli cinturato p7 Blue

View attachment 168401

View attachment 168400

Tracking was checked drivers side was fine castor was out a smidge but camber and toe were pretty much bang on. The passenger side was slightly out on the toe but otherwise fine ! So the worst worn wheel had near perfect alignment.

View attachment 168399
Has anyone seen this kind of wear before is it a suspension issue etc.

I have had the car for about 6 months and have covered about 7k the tyres look to be the originals from the date code so have done 23k the rears still have at least 4-5mm on them .... The fronts are near the limit but not on it. I have never seen wear like this before on another car i have owned . All that they seem to of worn well. I used to have a front wheel drive SAAB that ate front tyres used to barley get 10K from Sport Contacts, stuck like glue to the road though =)

Regularly check pressure and haven't seen any problems.

Have the car booked into Audi Bedford for it to be checked over tomorrow, see what happens .......
Click to expand...
jrumball said:
So I went yesterday to get some new tyres fitted for the winter I got Michelin CrossClimate + for my winter wheels. I have run specific winter tyres in the past but wanted to try something more suited to the British weather.


What I found when the wheels were removed was something quite disturbing the front drivers wheel was through to the steels on the inner edge and the passenger was wearing thin on the inner edge ! Got lucky was probably not to far away from a blowout.....

They are pirelli cinturato p7 Blue

View attachment 168401

View attachment 168400

Tracking was checked drivers side was fine castor was out a smidge but camber and toe were pretty much bang on. The passenger side was slightly out on the toe but otherwise fine ! So the worst worn wheel had near perfect alignment.

View attachment 168399
Has anyone seen this kind of wear before is it a suspension issue etc.

I have had the car for about 6 months and have covered about 7k the tyres look to be the originals from the date code so have done 23k the rears still have at least 4-5mm on them .... The fronts are near the limit but not on it. I have never seen wear like this before on another car i have owned . All that they seem to of worn well. I used to have a front wheel drive SAAB that ate front tyres used to barley get 10K from Sport Contacts, stuck like glue to the road though =)

Regularly check pressure and haven't seen any problems.

Have the car booked into Audi Bedford for it to be checked over tomorrow, see what happens .......
Click to expand...
 
How did this episode finish? I have the same problem on an RS3 at 10m. Not approached Audi yet although booked in for an alignment check next week.
 
jrumball said:
So I went yesterday to get some new tyres fitted for the winter I got Michelin CrossClimate + for my winter wheels. I have run specific winter tyres in the past but wanted to try something more suited to the British weather.


What I found when the wheels were removed was something quite disturbing the front drivers wheel was through to the steels on the inner edge and the passenger was wearing thin on the inner edge ! Got lucky was probably not to far away from a blowout.....

They are pirelli cinturato p7 Blue

View attachment 168401

View attachment 168400

Tracking was checked drivers side was fine castor was out a smidge but camber and toe were pretty much bang on. The passenger side was slightly out on the toe but otherwise fine ! So the worst worn wheel had near perfect alignment.

View attachment 168399
Has anyone seen this kind of wear before is it a suspension issue etc.

I have had the car for about 6 months and have covered about 7k the tyres look to be the originals from the date code so have done 23k the rears still have at least 4-5mm on them .... The fronts are near the limit but not on it. I have never seen wear like this before on another car i have owned . All that they seem to of worn well. I used to have a front wheel drive SAAB that ate front tyres used to barley get 10K from Sport Contacts, stuck like glue to the road though =)

Regularly check pressure and haven't seen any problems.

Have the car booked into Audi Bedford for it to be checked over tomorrow, see what happens .......
Click to expand...

Not good at all. I know a few people with RS3's have been having the same issue. Must be an Audi thing, as to how the car is originally set-up. So while everything could be spot on to Audi's settings, it's the settings themselves that's the issue.

I have to say though, my 2015 S3 always showed even tyre wear. So must effect some cars.
 
Taken the rear wheels off my 2017 S3 with the option 19s which has done 16K and mine are wearing more on the inside edge than the outside, as you say it is a smooth progression across the width but at least 1mm more on the inside edge
 
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