Tyre wear

[Esox Mark]

Hi there everyone - any ideas on this?

Had my S3 in for it's maiden service last week - 11,500 miles covered from new - Audi tecnichian tells me I have just 3mm tread left on fronts, 4mm on rear. I'm quite suprised by this so check myself - well, he was right, but the tyre wear is limited only to the outside three inches of each tyre. I asked the service dept what is causing the tyres to wear only on the outside and they tell me it's 'normal' for this to happen with the S3. Sounds like ****** to me - what are your thoughts? I hadn't budgeted (or expected) to have to replace my tyres every 11,000 miles!

Thanks - Mark

 

[330_2_S3]

Yeah this is normal mate, espeacially if you corner hard....

11,000 miles seems normal to me i think? remember you are running a quattro system too....

In saying the above, I have almost done 10k since i bought the car and have replace them back set already...front have a another couple off mm left...

 

[maninthestreet]

Surely the tracking is out if only the outside edges are worn excessively?

 

[V6Pete]

Strange, my fronts had excessive tyre wear on the inside....

 

[Esox Mark]

I must admit - I am a little puzzled. I've had several Audi quatro and VW (4 motion) equiped cars over the years and this is the first time I've seen uneven tyre wear like that. The chap at Audi was quite inistent that it was 'normal' for the S3. Oh, I do give it the beans now and again - so fair comment on cornering taking its toll. Mind you, I had a mk5 golf GTI as a second car and got 23,000 out of the tyres on that! I did swap the fronts/rears over at 16k - but 11.5k... like I said, I didn't budget for that! Think I'll be very careful what tyre I replace with - some wear quicker than others ...

 

[s3ollie]

have you had your alignment checked? if its wearing the outside edge it suggests that you have got too much toe in (IMHO). my old s3 used to wear the inside edges... that was down to lots of neg camber, I wanted it like that and it didnt half corner well

 

[V6Pete]

have you had your alignment checked? if its wearing the outside edge it suggests that you have got too much toe in (IMHO). my old s3 used to wear the inside edges... that was down to lots of neg camber, I wanted it like that and it didnt half corner well

My understanding is that the inside tends to wear a lot quicker on the Mk5 Golf platform generally, and this is exacerbated when the car is lowered.

Excessive wear on the outside does indeed suggest an alignment issue. I'd take it to somewhere with proper Hunter 4 wheel alignment gear and get it all checked.

 

[Esox Mark]

Thanks Chaps - I'll get the allignment checked ASAP. Much apprecaited feedback.

Cheers,

Mark