Tyre wear advice needed please

[G.P]

Presuming all tyres have always been on the same corner, due to the camber settings on FWD cars the insides of the rears fitted with wider tyre fitments normally wear on the insides before the outside, so this is odd. Front wear as described indicates the car needs to go on geometry machine if 13K miles on front tyes bothers you (wish I could get that) but as the rears have worn on the outside then best you do have a 4 wheel alignment check. Both your front wheels are slightly toeing inwards, in both case are corning fast.

Either way good luck luck with finding any company to successfully get the set up correct and running straight if your fussy like me..

 

[hc25036]

Noticed recently that mine are the same (FR 150) on the front at 21000 miles. 3mm at the outside, 4mm central and 5mm on the inner. Had the tracking checked at least twice in that time due to hitting potholes, so tracking has been good throughout (the only correction needed was a fraction on the n/s/f).

 

[Peter W]

13K from your fronts? I need to change my fronts this week with less than 8K miles. My brother has just over 6K on his 184, and is keeping a close eye on his fronts as they're getting close to the limit. We both have the bridgestones...

 

[p.eco]

13K from your fronts? I need to change my fronts this week with less than 8K miles. My brother has just over 6K on his 184, and is keeping a close eye on his fronts as they're getting close to the limit. We both have the bridgestones...

I have 39000 km on the clock and still will get few months from the fronts. The backs are well over the mark they will last easily another year

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[Zaco95]

Presuming all tyres have always been on the same corner, due to the camber settings on FWD cars the insides of the rears fitted with wider tyre fitments normally wear on the insides before the outside, so this is odd. Front wear as described indicates the car needs to go on geometry machine if 13K miles on front tyes bothers you (wish I could get that) but as the rears have worn on the outside then best you do have a 4 wheel alignment check. Both your front wheels are slightly toeing inwards, in both case are corning fast.

Either way good luck luck with finding any company to successfully get the set up correct and running straight if your fussy like me..

See I am tempted to get an alignment check done but then I read hc25036's post (quoted below) and am thinking is there actuqally anything wrong?

Noticed recently that mine are the same (FR 150) on the front at 21000 miles. 3mm at the outside, 4mm central and 5mm on the inner. Had the tracking checked at least twice in that time due to hitting potholes, so tracking has been good throughout (the only correction needed was a fraction on the n/s/f).

So when you had the tracking checked at the time were they aware of this tyre wear and did they have any explanation for it?
Are you still seeing this wear pattern?

 

[hc25036]

Zaco - I had the tracking done after hitting a major pothole at speed (in the dark!) at about 10k miles and they didn't notice anything then (the tracking was just a fraction out). Had the tracking done again about 5k miles later (can't remember why) and all was ok.

The uneven wear isn't really noticeable unless you look closely. I've only spotted it as the tyres are close to needing replacing and I've been using a tyre gauge on them.

It's such an odd pattern of wear that I can't think of a reason. I have the 18 inch rims and keep an eye on pressures. My local tyre shop siad the pressures were low in their eyes (29 psi front, 26 rear), but they are the recommended pressures and I did double-check with SEAT customer services. Handling goes to pot if I use higher pressures.

Bit of a mystery really. I'll be swapping the fronts to Conti 5s or Dunlop sports very soon. The rears still have 4.5mm on them.

 

[Zaco95]

Zaco - I had the tracking done after hitting a major pothole at speed (in the dark!) at about 10k miles and they didn't notice anything then (the tracking was just a fraction out). Had the tracking done again about 5k miles later (can't remember why) and all was ok.

The uneven wear isn't really noticeable unless you look closely. I've only spotted it as the tyres are close to needing replacing and I've been using a tyre gauge on them.

It's such an odd pattern of wear that I can't think of a reason. I have the 18 inch rims and keep an eye on pressures. My local tyre shop siad the pressures were low in their eyes (29 psi front, 26 rear), but they are the recommended pressures and I did double-check with SEAT customer services. Handling goes to pot if I use higher pressures.

Bit of a mystery really. I'll be swapping the fronts to Conti 5s or Dunlop sports very soon. The rears still have 4.5mm on them.

So seems like it could just generally be the car wearing the tyres like this, think I will just see how I get on with my new tyres and see how they wear over the next few thousand miles.

Do you still have your tyres at those pressures? I have set mine to 41 psi on front and 38 psi on the rears as per Seat recommendation.

 

[hc25036]

I have the 5 door FR 1.4 150psi manual on 18 inch rims. The recommended pressures are 26 rear and 26 front unless I have missed something...

 

[andycupra]

1 - check the correct inflation. it sounds very high to me, even if a diesel. make sure you read the correct settings, there is usually two settings, one is for if you fill the car up with people and luggage.


2- get a 4 wheel alignment completed.



In my opinion its very likely the tyres have been rotated, (and seem to be the originals as anyone buying those tyres would be mad) this may explain why the rear appear to have the same issue, as this would be unusual and in a way more worrying.

regards checking if car goes straight, - you need to be aware that roads typically are not level, they have a left to right brow to aid water drainage so a car will typically go to the left slightly when in the left hand lane.
you need to get a safe clear straight section of road and travel down the middle to do this check.

having said this, if the wheel are toeing in or out equally, as would maybe be the case here then this check is not great.
potential causes: alignment, incorrect pressures, wishbone bush wear, incorrect springs fitted... (but as car is fairly new i would hope its not bushes/springs),

running such high pressures im sure cant help, the tyres will form against the road less under cornering with the outside taking more load..

 

[KXL]

I take it that all of your who are experiencing this Bridgestone tyre 'quirk' on the 2.0TDI all run 225/45/40 17/18in? On mine @ 10k still had 5mm fronts / 7mm rears 80% city driving on 205/55 16s.

Either that, combination of low profile / Sports DCC and FR suspension does this to the tyres?

 

[hc25036]

Yep, original Bridgestones 225/40/R18, but on the 1.4 petrol 150ps

 

[Zaco95]

1 - check the correct inflation. it sounds very high to me, even if a diesel. make sure you read the correct settings, there is usually two settings, one is for if you fill the car up with people and luggage.


2- get a 4 wheel alignment completed.



In my opinion its very likely the tyres have been rotated, (and seem to be the originals as anyone buying those tyres would be mad) this may explain why the rear appear to have the same issue, as this would be unusual and in a way more worrying.

regards checking if car goes straight, - you need to be aware that roads typically are not level, they have a left to right brow to aid water drainage so a car will typically go to the left slightly when in the left hand lane.
you need to get a safe clear straight section of road and travel down the middle to do this check.

having said this, if the wheel are toeing in or out equally, as would maybe be the case here then this check is not great.
potential causes: alignment, incorrect pressures, wishbone bush wear, incorrect springs fitted... (but as car is fairly new i would hope its not bushes/springs),

running such high pressures im sure cant help, the tyres will form against the road less under cornering with the outside taking more load..

Yeah the pressure I have set is what it says on the inside of the fuel cap so maybe I might reduce it a bit.
I will have to get in touch with Seat regarding a 4 wheel alignment and see how much it will set me back, do you have a rough idea on a price of what it should be?

I take it that all of your who are experiencing this Bridgestone tyre 'quirk' on the 2.0TDI all run 225/45/40 17/18in? On mine @ 10k still had 5mm fronts / 7mm rears 80% city driving on 205/55 16s.

Either that, combination of low profile / Sports DCC and FR suspension does this to the tyres?

Yes well I have Bridgestone Potenza S001 on 18" rims on 184 TDI

 

[nicknameless]

Get a proper laser alignment done. Don't bother with letting go of the steering wheel tests (lol) as that will tell you absolutely nothing. Tyres may have been swapped front to back and it could simply be a front toe issue.

 

[andycupra]

personally, i would not go to seat for 4 wheel alignment. find somewhere that is local, cheaper and does it often so they know what they are doing. a good suggestion is actually to go to a garage that doesnt do it and ask their recommendation.

Bear in mind, 4 wheel alignment doesnt mean they align each of the 4 wheels, what it means is they align the front wheels straight, using rears as reference. the rears are not adjustable on most FWD cars.
If you just get fronts aligned, they will align to one another, usually by adjusting one side till its aligned with the other, but not necessarily with the rears. this is often when you see cars 'crabbing'.


please do make sure you check the pressures again, the filler cap often gives TWO pressures, one for normal and one for when you are running a car full of people and luggage.

 

[r200ti]

+1, fwd's are very basic and dont have the adjustment to warrant an expensive alignment check.
If your interested in ALL your geometry settings fine, but its not going to benefit you much.

Let us know what settings it has tho - that wear is odd. It actually looks like positive camber wear to me but that needs some scrub to wear that heavily which you dont get in normal use. (camber is also usually fixed)
Normally it is toe that causes wear (toe-in in this case) But it looks to evenly spread for toe to me.
Unless its toe-in combined with a bit to much positive?

 

[ZK_FR150]

When I bought my FR150 tdi from the dealer it had 17 inch pirelli p7's with about 5/6 mm all around.

A few months later driving home on the motorway from work one day and the low tyre warning came on so pulled off at the next junction and checked the tyres, both fronts were near enough shredded on the outside and still had about 2/3mm on the inside and middle.

Thank my lucky stars that they slowly punctured and didn't just blow out on the motorway that day.

Anyways changed all 4 tyres and got a proper alignment done, the before results were all in the red not surprisingly, since I've had it done and some better tyres the wear seems to be consistent across the whole tyre.

 

[nicknameless]

Disagree. Boggo alignment checks do measure against the rear and therefore align to the same. Exactly what you don't want. What if the rear axle is out? Doesn't matter that the rear has no adjustment. Proper equipment and checks don't cost a fortune. My regular place charges approx £40 for check and £15 for adjustments.

 

[Zaco95]

Cheers guys for all your input on getting an alignment check done but I think I might just leave it for several thousand miles and see how my front new tyres wear as I did a quick Google on "bridgestone uneven tyre wear" and it seems to be a common thing, so now that I have Dunlop's I will see how I get on with these, also considering I have had no issues with handling of the car.

In regards to tyre pressure's those of you who are on the 225/40 R18 92Y tyres what pressures do you use that are good on economy (as I do 20,000 a year mostly Dual carriage way) but good for grip as well?

I will take a photo of the pressure list on my fuel cap door in a while and upload it.

 

[JMAC]

13k miles shouldn't be able to do that to the front (and rear) tyres assuming they were rotated round as someone mentioned above, unless you have a Cupra...or a re-mapped 184

I'm guessing you don't feel any harsh vibration/noise when driving etc?

My 184 is actually a 232 and I've had much more than 13K out of a set of Eagle F1 GSD's on the front......

 

[ukoldschool]

personally, i would not go to seat for 4 wheel alignment. find somewhere that is local, cheaper and does it often so they know what they are doing. a good suggestion is actually to go to a garage that doesnt do it and ask their recommendation.

Bear in mind, 4 wheel alignment doesnt mean they align each of the 4 wheels, what it means is they align the front wheels straight, using rears as reference. the rears are not adjustable on most FWD cars.
If you just get fronts aligned, they will align to one another, usually by adjusting one side till its aligned with the other, but not necessarily with the rears. this is often when you see cars 'crabbing'.


please do make sure you check the pressures again, the filler cap often gives TWO pressures, one for normal and one for when you are running a car full of people and luggage.

The Rears on a Mk2 were adjustable, does anyone know if they are the same on the Mark 3?