Rear tyre wear

[markirel]

Finally got my rear tyre wear sorted . I dropped in on my dealer late last Friday just on the off-chance that they would be able to take a quick look to see if there was any component damage or worn parts that would be causing the camber to be out.

It was a good diagnosis in the sense that nothing was damaged or had failed but they did confirm that both rear tyres were shot (see pic) and that there was visible camber difference left to right.

My dealer didn't have the equipment to adjust the camber (or tracking!I) but was able to point me in the direction of a tyre outfit that they use. £310 later, a full rear setup and 2x Michelin Primacy HP's (chosen because they have an excellent low noise rating) and its all good now. I'll be back to have the camber checked periodically so that I don't get to similar tyre wear problems.

Creep in camber settings is apparently par for the course on cars that have fully adjustable rear suspension (still quite rare) and can be due to kerbs, speed bumps, pot holes...

 

[Tell]

I've been told that mine are deformed at the back as well but as an MOT note not as a failure.... [will give you added noise but nothing to worry about was the quote] dah think this is something that garages / MOT people are looking out for now as a little money earner. On that one my fronts are now Goodyear, I would have liked as yours Michelin Primacy HP's, so I can't now say 23,000 miles on the first set.... claimed less than 2mm.... funny that is since the new ones look like less than 2mm on the edges as well.

 

[CrispDust]

Could someone point me in the direction of further information on the rear wheel alignment issues? Thanks.

 

[Tell]

This to my knowledge is the second thread on the issue. The other one has got some pics off a badly warn wheels. We're looking from the summer on as I recall.

The story goes that Altea may be prone to alignment issues or something at the back end, but since there are only two threads on this in three years it takes a while to develop . I suspect that it's not a big issue unless early Altea owners were more careful in how they abused their cars having paid the going price for them which was higher then than now.

 

[CrispDust]

According to Elsawin, the camber is adjustable on the rear via an eccentric bolt on the suspension. There is a similar bolt that adjusts the toein.. The adjustment is limted however.
Having looked at the suspension I was amazed how flimsy it is, stamped plates here, squashed thin tubes there etc - hardly surprsing the adjsutment goes out easily.
Front camber adjsutable by tweaking subframe!!!

 

[FR+TDI]

Hi, I've got a 55 plate Altea TDI Sport with 17" wheels, it’s a company car & I do about 28k miles a year. Car is great but tyre wear & noise especially is absolutely dreadful! I have had the car laser aligned twice (at my local Mazda garage!) with proper Seat factory settings given by my (excellent) Seat dealer who unfortunately does not have a proper 4 wheel laser tracking/caster/camber alignment machine. Regardless of tyre make, after 15k the back tyres begin to howl, now at over 20k, it sounds like I need two new rear wheel bearings; the noise has now got to the point of being unbearable. I have spoken to my Seat dealer and he said that even though the car has been set up on a proper machine to the proper settings, when customers complain about noise & wear, using their basic equipment, they are adjusting the camber to "less than half what Seat recommend" (IE, between zero camber and the recommended setting) and it seems to cure the problem. I'm going to get the wheels swapped front to back & have the camber adjusted hopefully next week. It will be a few months before the noise comes back, I'll let you know how it goes.